Texas A&M 38, Texas 30

Nov. 23, 2007

COLLEGE STATION, Texas --The Texas A&M football team finished the regular season with a 38-30 victory over No. 11-ranked Texas on Friday at Kyle Field.

The Aggies (7-5, 4-4 Big 12) have consecutive victories over Texas for the first time since 1991-94 under Franchione's predecessor, R.C. Slocum.

Stephen McGee threw for a career-high 362 yards with three touchdowns and scored on a hard-driving run. Kick-holder T.J. Sanders got his only career TD when he capped A&M's 95-yard drive with a 5-yard TD run on a fake field goal and the defense forced three turnovers (two fumbles, interception) by Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.

Texas (9-3, 5-3), which after its first 0-2 conference start since 1956 had won five straight games, still has an outside shot of making it to the Big 12 championship game if 10th-ranked Oklahoma loses to Oklahoma State on Saturday.

NOTES...

• Senior Earvin Taylor celebrated his final game at Kyle Field by matching his career high with seven catches for a career high 113 yards. It was Taylor's second 100-yard receiving game (103 vs. Oklahoma, 2004).
• Sophomore Mike Goodson's six catches surpassed his career high (5 vs. Miami and Missouri, 2007) and his 82 yards and two touchdowns were career-bests. Goodson produced 154 all-purpose yards (previous best was 142 vs. Oklahoma, 2006).
• Junior Stephen McGee's 362 passing yards on 25-of-36 passing were a career high. His only other 300-yard passing game was 318 vs. Louisiana Tech in 2006.
• McGee's 209 first half passing yards were easily a career halftime best for him. His previous first-half high was 187 yards (on 16-of-23 passing) against Louisiana-Lafayette on September 9, 2006 at Kyle Field. Ironically, McGee finished today's first half 16-of-23 in the air as well.
• Today's game marked the first time that McGee has thrown more than one interception in a game.
• With 48 first-half receiving yards, junior Martellus Bennett broke Richard Osborne's school record for career receiving yards by an Aggie tight end. Bennett now has an even 1,200 yards on 101 career catches which passes the 1,181 yards by Osborne from 1972-75. Bennett's 101 career catches are just four behind the end tight school record of 105 set by Rod Bernstine from 1983-86. Bennett is the seventh Aggie in school history to surpass the 100-catch plateau.
• The five-yard rushing touchdown by holder/backup quarterback T.J. Sanders on the fake field goal was the first of Sanders' career.
• Senior linebacker Mark Dodge wore "Thomas" on the back of his jersey to honor two relatives on his mother's side who passed away recently. Thomas is Dodge's mother's maiden name. Dodge missed the Missouri game while attending his maternal grandmother's funeral, and his aunt passed away last week.
• Game captains were seniors Red Bryant and Cody Wallace, who were also voted this season's Permanent Team Captains by their teammates.
• Junior Nick LaMantia (Mission, Texas) was the Aggies' 12th Man for the 14th straight game and the 23rd time during his career, which matched the school record for career 12th Man starts originally set by John Ray from 2003-05.
• Jorvorskie Lane's 22-yard catch that kept the first drive of the game was a season-long
• The Aggies' 17-3 halftime lead was the Aggies' biggest lead over the Longhorns since 1997 when A&M held a 21-6 lead in the third quarter and went on to a 27-16 victory and the Big 12 South crown.
• Junior Pierre Brown's four catches for 51 yards equaled or surpassed career highs (previous bests were four catches for 49 yards vs. Nebraska, 2007)
• The Aggies wore their new adidas gray pants for the first time this season. It is the first time A&M has won gray pants since approximately 1986
• Senior Chris Harrington's third-quarter fumble recovery was the fifth of his career.
• Senior Marquis "K" Carpenter's third-quarter interception was his fourth of the year and the eighth of his career.
• Sophomore E.J. Shankle's 48-yard kickoff return was a career long and just the second kickoff return of his career.
• Quan Cosby's 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was the first kickoff return touchdown given up by the Aggies since 1990 when Texas Tech's Rodney Blackshear returned a 92-yarder for a score at Kyle Field.

Post-Game Quotes

STATEMENT FROM DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "Kim & I have arrived at the decision to step down as head football coach out of respect and love for our players, for this University and its football program.

I've always said that coaches exist for only one reason-the players. We have an outstanding group of young men on this team and especially great people. We want them to know that we love them, feel blessed for our time together, and will miss them.

We appreciate the opportunity we have had at this great institution to work with this administration, the people throughout this department and campus, and the former students. We have made many lasting friendships.

We also need to say a special appreciation to a loyal, tireless and dedicated group of assistant coaches and their families, who have given so much to this program. This includes our support staff and every individual who has been a part of this team.

We have enjoyed 35 years in coaching, and we will consider our time in Aggieland to be a rewarding part. We wish the best to everyone here.

Thanks and Gig' Em!"

STATEMENT FROM TEXAS A&M DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS BILL BYRNE: "I want to express my respect and gratitude to Coach Franchione for his courage in making this decision, and putting the interests of his players and this institution ahead of his own interests. Coach Franchione is a fine man, and a fine coach, and I consider him a friend. We wish him well and will do anything we can to assist him going forward.

One thing I would like to say at this juncture concerning the private email incident. We now have reviewed all of the information available, and have taken what we think are appropriate actions on behalf of this institution. With regards to Coach Franchione, we are now convinced that he did not intentionally, knowingly, or directly participate in actions that were inappropriate or in violation of rules or policies. We do believe that Coach Franchione was guilty of inadequate supervision and oversight.

We wish Coach Franchione the very best moving forward, and we are grateful for all of his hard work and effort while he was here at Texas A&M."

Texas Post-Game Quotes

TEXAS HEAD COACH MACK BROWN: "I want to congratulate Texas A&M. I thought they did a great job. I have tremendous respect for the school and the corps and all that they stand for. I thought both teams played really hard. It was a physical game. It was a really good football game but our team didn't play consistently well and that comes back to me. We dropped passes, we didn't protect well all the time, we didn't tackle well, we gave up too many big plays and we had some mistakes in the kicking game. I love the heart of our kids. They continued to fight, they came back and gave us a chance to win at the end but I've got to do a better job. Congratulations to Dennis and their staff and their team. Again, I thought it was a great atmosphere and a great football game. I'm proud of our kids for fighting back. I thought we tried hard but didn't play well."

TEXAS QUARTERBACK COLT MCCOY: "Offensively, I don't think we were as consistent as we should have been. At the end of the game, we put our offense together but it wasn't enough. We were inconsistent up front. In the second half we got a little more consistent and it put us back the game. They gave us a lot of trouble in the first half. This week in practice we worked a lot on staying in the pocket. They bullrushed and rushed on the outside. That threw us off. Losing's hard and everyone deals with it differently."

TEXAS DEFENSIVE LINEMAN FRANKLIN OKAM: "We had a tough day being down so much and having to fight back to make it a close game. They're a good team. I have to give them a lot of credit. We gave ourselves a chance at the end. It was a shot, but a little one. We have to do a better job on third and we were a little inconsistent on tackling. There's a lot of improvement to be made. We'll take that in stride and get ready for our bowl game."