Nov. 21, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP)--Texas A&M freshman Christine Michael scored on a 97-yard run for the longest play from scrimmage in school history and the Aggies secured bowl eligibility with a 38-3 win over Baylor on Saturday.
A&M (6-5, 3-4 Big 12) rushed for a season-high 375 yards against the Big 12's worst run defense. Michael ran for 116 yards and Cyrus Gray ran for 107, the second time this season both backs have topped 100 yards in a game.
Jerrod Johnson threw for 153 yards to set a single-season school record (2,875 yards). He threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score as the Aggies beat Baylor for the ninth straight time at Kyle Field.
Nick Florence completed 21 of 31 passes for 177 yards with two interceptions for the Bears (4-7, 1-6 Big 12), guaranteed a losing record for the 14th consecutive season.
Michael's big run followed a goal-line stand by the Aggies' defense early in the second quarter.
The Bears drove to the A&M 8-yard line with the Aggies leading 14-3. On third-and-goal, receiver Kendall Wright took the ball from Florence and threw to the end zone, but A&M cornerback Terrence Frederick intercepted.
On second down, Michael burst through a hole and outran Baylor safety Jeremy Williams down the sideline to the end zone. The previous longest rush in school history was D'Andre Hardeman's 95-yarder against Baylor in 1996. Randy McCown's 96-yard pass to Chris Taylor against Tulsa in 1999 had been A&M's longest play from scrimmage.
The Bears threatened again late in the half, but A&M linebacker Kyle Mangan intercepted a Florence pass at the 2 with 24 seconds left.
The Aggies rushed for 287 yards in the first half after breaking several big runs.
Gray had gains of 17 and 42 yards on A&M's first series, and Johnson threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Brown less than four minutes into the game.
Baylor linebacker Logan Lanier blocked a punt later in the quarter, leading to Dary Stone's 31-yard field goal that cut A&M's lead to 7-3.
On A&M's ensuing possession, Gray had another 17-yard run and freshman receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu gained 35 yards on a reverse. Johnson finished the drive with a 1-yard sneak. It was Johnson's 60th career touchdown, either running or passing, an A&M record for TD responsibility.
Randy Bullock's 48-yard field goal early in the third quarter stretched A&M's lead to 24-3. Later in the third, Johnson passed Reggie McNeal's 2004 record for pass yards (2,791).
Michael tacked on a 2-yard touchdown run in the first minute of the fourth quarter. Johnson threw a 7-yard TD pass to Ryan Tannehill with 6:55 left. Johnson has 24 touchdown passes this season.
ABOUT THE GAME...
GOING BOWLING --- The Aggies earned their sixth victory to become bowl-eligible in head coach Mike Sherman's second season at Texas A&M. A&M has been to 30 bowl games in its history, including six in the last 10 years. In attendance at today's game were bowl representatives from the Texas Bowl (Houston, Texas) and the Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.).
MICHAEL'S RECORD RUN --- True freshman running back Christine Michael produced the longest offensive play in school history with a 97-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Michael's explosive run around the right end eclipsed the previous long offensive play of 96 yards on a touchdown pass and catch from Randy McCown to Chris Taylor against Tulsa in 1999. It also broke the school record for longest rush, which was a 95-yard touchdown run by D'Andre "Tiki" Hardeman against Baylor in 1996, the first year of the Big 12 Conference.
The run boosted Michael to his second career 100-yard rushing game. Michael had a 121-yard effort against Texas Tech.
100/100 FOR MICHAEL/GRAY --- The dynamic backfield duo of Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael both posted 100-yard rushing efforts. It was the second time in 2009 that the pair have gone over 100 in the same game (Texas Tech). Michael contributed 116 yards on 11 carries, while Gray produced 107 yards on 17 carries.
SEASON-HIGH RUSHING DAY FOR AGGIES --- The Aggies rushed for a season-high 375 yards. The previous high was 321 yards in the Aggies' 52-30 win over Texas Tech in Lubbock. The Aggies' top six rushing performances of the season have produced all of the Aggies' victories in 2009.
JOHNSON IS NEW PASSING LEADER --- Junior Jerrod Johnson broke Reggie McNeal's single season passing yardage record against Baylor, the 11th game of 2009. With 153 passing yards against the Bears, Johnson's season total moved to 2,875 yards which breaks the old mark of 2,791 set by McNeal in 2004.
Johnson also broke McNeal's career record for touchdown responsibility with a trio of scores against Baylor which raised his career total to 61 (47 passing, 14 rushing). His 47 career passing touchdowns are just one shy of Kevin Murray's record of 48 (1983-86).
NWACHUKWU NEARS *TRUE* FRESHMAN RECORD --- True freshman Uzoma Nwachukwu grabbed three passes for 20 yards today. For the season, he has 33 receptions for 628 yards, just two yards shy of the school record (630) for a true freshman set by Jeff Fuller in 2008.
MISCELLANEOUS ---
• The Aggies grabbed a trio of interceptions against the Bears, which was their most since posting three against Colorado last year.
• Junior Jerrod Johnson rushed for a career high 83 yards on 16 carries. His previous high was 78 yards on 11 carries vs. Utah State earlier this season.
• Sophomore placekicker Randy Bullock pooched a punt on fake field goal to pin Baylor on their 12-yard line. It was the first punt of Bullock's A&M career.
• Bullock connected on five extra points against Baylor, and has now hit 64 consecutive PATs.
• Sophomore Cyrus Gray become the 39th member of the Aggies' 1,000-Yard Club in career rushing yardage.
• Game captains were senior Michael Shumard (offense), sophomore Trent Hunter (defense) and sophomore Lionel Smith (special teams).
• The 12th Man was Derek Dumas, a senior from Crawford, Texas.
QUOTES
A&M COACH MIKE SHERMAN "I was proud of them today. I thought they did a good job of responding to the challenge they had in front of them. They knew what the implications of this game were. We wanted to be able to win this football game at home and put ourselves in a good position to play Texas on Thursday. We look forward to that ballgame now." On becoming bowl eligible... "This game reminds me a lot of the way our team responded after the K-State game. Obviously we played Oklahoma last week and played very poorly, as we did against K-State. They are just the cardiac kids. One week it's one thing, and the next week it's something else. I've got to give them credit, when their backs are against the wall--as it was going to Lubbock and as it was again today--they responded. I'm not pleased with the penalties. We had way, way too many penalties. Stupid penalties. Undisciplined penalties. That's really frustrating to me because we spend a lot of time talking about those things. Other than that I thought they responded to the challenge they had today and I'm proud of them for that." On the play of the seniors and getting the class to a bowl... "These seniors have had to deal with a couple of head coaches and deal with some adversity at different times. We owe these guys a lot. They have kind of kept things together for us this year. I wanted them to go out winners. This game was important for that, and they contributed tremendously. Before the game I thought maybe the guys were going to make more out of it and not respond like I asked them to, so I just asked them to be 100 percent of who you are today. You don't have to be somebody else. Be yourself, but be all of yourself. I thought Jordan Pugh, and our offensive line, and different guys gave us everything they had when we needed it. The turnovers were big, obviously, to be able to create momentum for our offense." On what it means personally to get to a bowl game... "Well, it's huge for us. We've done a lot of good things this year, but we've also had some adversity along the way. When I look back at the season and I see the highs and lows, it went kind of how I'd expected it to. I knew with a bunch of freshmen it would be a bit of an up and down type of team at different times. Sometimes the freshmen will help you win a football game, other times they'll bite you in the butt. But this is a just reward for a lot of hard work. These kids have worked too hard, starting back in January. And I wanted this game so much for them, more than for myself, because of how hard they've worked to get to this point. I know we haven't done anything on a national scope, but from our standpoint, and where we started, and the amount of young players we're playing, I'm proud of the accomplishment of getting to a bowl game. I'm still disappointed with some of our play this year, and we can work on that, but these guys are fighters and I think they proved it today." A&M SOPHOMORE DB Terrence Frederick On being bowl eligible... "Coming into the game we knew we had to win. Hopefully we are eligible now for a bowl game, but we still have to come out against Texas and keep playing hard." A&M SENIOR OL Lee Grimes On being bowl eligible... "It's a great feeling knowing that Thursday isn't our last game. It's rewarding to the team to know we are coming back to play a bowl game." A&M SENIOR OL Michael Shumard On Michael's 97-yard TD run... "The good thing about that is us offensive linemen, we love one play drives. You can come over to the sideline fast. If anyone can do that it would be our guys. I've never seen a run that long before. We had good movement, and he (Michael) found the seam. I'll take that any day." On his last home game coming up Thursday... "I try not to think about it. I don't want it to end. At the same time we would love to go out with a bang, and a win. It would be great to saw `em off after we really do it." A&M FRESHMAN RB Christine Michael On his 97-yard TD run and the school record... "That is another blessing, having the record of the longest touchdown. I can't keep it on my heart, I just have to keep playing." On facing Texas... "I'm just going to take them as any other school, but these seniors want to go out with a bang. I want to give them all that I can. Cyrus Gray and I are going to be good together and we just want to give Texas A&M everything that we can." A&M SENIOR DB Jordan Pugh On not allowing a touchdown... "It's big as a defense. That is what you try to do. The goal is to keep them from scoring and that is what we did today." A&M JUNIOR QB Jerrod Johnson On the victory... "It feels pretty good. It always feels good to beat another team in Texas. We definitely didn't feel that we played as well as we should have last year. We have a lot of respect for them but we wanted to come out and beat them." On becoming bowl eligible... "It's huge, not only for us. Texas A&M should never not be in a bowl game. Last year was hard on us. It is a great feeling to have to have qualified for a bowl game. It will be a great experience for our freshmen, and hopefully we will get something rolling." A&M FRESHMAN DE Spencer Nealy "Every day this week our team was running the ball and the coaches really brought it to us to prepare for this game. We worked hard and we knew this game would be big and we got the win. This is probably the best week of practice that we've had since I've been here. This game gives us momentum to carry into Thursday and beat Texas." A&M SOPHOMORE DL Eddie Brown "All this week coaches rode us. We really came together as a defensive line this week. This win has given us a lot of the confidence that we need. It was huge for us to keep a team out of the end zone for an entire game. The win was great -- it means we're going bowling. Now we can't wait for Texas on Thursday." A&M SOPHOMORE DB Trent Hunter "Our coaches killed us in practice this week. Last week, we had a bunch of points scored on us so to hold them to a field goal meant a lot to us. It feels good to be bowl-eligible, but we have one game left. We're ready to play Texas and we want to win that state championship by beating all the Big 12 teams in Texas." A&M SOPHOMORE RB Cyrus Gray "We came into this day expecting the big performance we had. Last week, we didn't do well, so we wanted to do twice as well this week. I'm so proud of the offensive line. We get more comfortable running behind them every week. It's good to be bowl-eligible. I told Jamie McCoy before the game that I was going to do everything I could to get the seniors into a bowl game. We're ready to beat Texas in our house."
BAYLOR QB NICK FLORENCE (on A&M's long run) "It was definitely a momentum swing. We still had chances to make things happen as an offense. We didn't finish and we hurt ourselves a lot. We bounced back and got in the red zone again but didn't do anything with it. I didn't play very well but that's the way it goes. We have to work on finishing and moving the ball well. We had a lot of penalties but we still have to finish." BAYLOR SAFETY JORDAN LAKE "It hurts. As a senior, you want to go out leaving your legacy and go to a bowl game. For the seniors, it's devastating that we can't do that. A&M did a really good job up front. They came out and controlled the line of scrimmage. We didn't play very well. We had missed assignments and missed hits." BAYLOR HEAD COACH ART BRILES "I feel like this was my fault. We wanted our seniors to go out and have the chance to play in a bowl game. I think they have done everything we have asked them to do since we stepped off the field at Texas Tech last year. To do that says a lot about them. I apologize to them for not letting them fulfill that dream. They put a lot of sweat, effort and good attitudes into Baylor football and the university. They should have never had the long run. We should have put points on the board. When you get down there, you have to score. I don't know what patience is. I don't feel like we're building a program. I feel like we're fighting our tails off to make Baylor football respectable. To me, that's not building; that's doing what you're supposed to do. We want to put a team on the field that represents the university the best we can." |