Texas A&M Football
Comeback in Oxford proves A&M is playing a new ballgame
October 7, 2012
8,279
OXFORD, Miss. — As he left a postgame press conference held under the bleachers of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Texas A&M Kevin Sumlin flashed a quick grin to one final question.
“Just like Tulsa?”
Sumlin nodded.
“I’ve had a few of these,” he said. “I wish I didn’t.”
Come on. What football coach wouldn’t want to experience the exhilaration of an amazing come-from-behind victory? What coach doesn’t want to see his loyal fans go from agony to ecstasy in a manner of minutes? What coach wouldn’t want his team to snatch victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat?
Jaws? Hell, the Aggies reached down into Colonel Reb’s esophagus to pull out a 30-27 victory over Ole Miss that likely will vault them into the top 25 and provide the confidence to stay there awhile.
Trailing by 10 points with just 7:47 to play and backed up to their own 1-yard line, the Aggies took off like a jet.
“What you can draw from this is you have to believe and you have to keep playing. Period,” Sumlin said. “Sooner or later, if you keep doing your job, you have to believe good things are going to happen.”
Sumlin knows that from experience.
In 2009 while he was coach at Houston, his Cougars trailed Tulsa by two scores with 30 seconds remaining. They scored a touchdown with 21 seconds to go, recovered an onside kick and, two completions for 27 yards later, kicked a 51-yard field goal on the final play for a 46-45 victory.
“Offensively, defensively, everybody knows that no matter what the score is, we’re never out of the game,” Sumlin said then.
He might have said that midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday night, but you wonder if anyone would have truly believed. For 3.5 quarters of football the Aggies had done almost everything to assure their trip to Ole Miss would be disappointing because of:
· Ole mistakes
· Ole miscues
· Ole missteps.
· Ole missed tackles.
Manziel threw an interception. Christine Michael fumbled to set up an Ole Miss field goal. Swope fumbled to kill an A&M scoring opportunity. They could not convert on fourth-and-inches at the Ole Miss 22. They could not get a touchdown on third-and-goal from the one and settled for a field goal. A coverage bust late in the second quarter resulted in a 68-yard completion that set up an Ole Miss touchdown.
TexAgs
Ole Miss had Manziel largely contained and the Aggies on the ropes, with six turnovers nearly doing A&M in.
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Yet, despite that Aggies were able to forge a 17-17 halftime tie when Sean Porter’s blitz forced Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace to lose the football. Steven Jenkins snatched it out of the air and returned the interception for a 37-yard touchdown that forged a 17-17 tie at the break.
At that point the Aggies could be confident because they had performed so poorly yet were still tied.
But then the third quarter got worse.
Ole Miss converted three third downs and a fourth down on a 17-play drive for a field goal to start the third quarter. Meanwhile, the next three times A&M had the ball Manziel fumbled, threw an interception and Dustin Harris fumbled a punt that Ole Miss recovered and turned into a touchdown for a 27-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
At that point the Aggies' situation looked dire. It would soon appear worse still.
A&M started from its own 12 after an exchanged of punts, but Manziel was immediately sacked by Issac Gross for an 11-yard loss.
It was actually 11 yards, two feet and about 11 inches. Manziel barely kept the football out of the end zone to avoid a safety that would have given Ole Miss two more points and put the outcome out of reach.
But then, it seemed out of reach anyway. That was until Manziel started playing like a Heisman contender.
He hit Mike Evans with a 32-yard pass. Ben Malena followed with a 36-yard run. Then Manziel ran 29 yards for a touchdown that cut the Ole Miss lead to 27-23 with about 6:30 left.
The Aggie defense made an equally big play on Ole Miss’ ensuing possession as Stewart stopped running back Jeff Scott cold on fourth-and-one at their 39.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re down two points or two 21 points,” Stewart said. “We’re gonna keep playing.”
Four plays after Stewart’s stop, Manziel beat an Ole Miss blitz and threw to Swope, who made a stellar over-the-shoulder catch in the right corner of the end zone touchdown.
“I definitely felt the momentum shifting,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “We had a chance. We had a good blitz call and it came free, but we missed it.”
Yet, 1:46 remained and Ole Miss only needed a field goal to force overtime. The Rebels reached A&M’s 32-yard line, but junior nickelback Toney Hurd stepped in front of a receiver to intercept a Wallace pass and clinch the improbable victory.
“We have a lot of young guys that hadn’t been in that type of situation,” Sumlin said in that postgame press conference. “There wasn’t a lot of heads hanging. We have a lot of good leadership. I can’t be happier than I am right now for the guys.”
That’s because his team never panicked. They never quit. They never thought they couldn’t snatch a nearly impossible victory at Ole Miss.
Just like Tulsa.
“Just like Tulsa?”
Sumlin nodded.
“I’ve had a few of these,” he said. “I wish I didn’t.”
Come on. What football coach wouldn’t want to experience the exhilaration of an amazing come-from-behind victory? What coach doesn’t want to see his loyal fans go from agony to ecstasy in a manner of minutes? What coach wouldn’t want his team to snatch victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat?
Jaws? Hell, the Aggies reached down into Colonel Reb’s esophagus to pull out a 30-27 victory over Ole Miss that likely will vault them into the top 25 and provide the confidence to stay there awhile.
Trailing by 10 points with just 7:47 to play and backed up to their own 1-yard line, the Aggies took off like a jet.
What you can draw from this is you have to believe and you have to keep playing. Period. Sooner or later, if you keep doing your job, you have to believe good things are going to happen.
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Quarterback Johnny Manziel, who just minutes earlier barely avoided a loss-clinching safety, ran 29 yards for a touchdown and threw a 20-yard pass to Ryan Swope in a span of about four and a half minutes and the A&M defense came up with a pair of clutch stops as the Aggies (4-1) made their first SEC road trip an incredible memory.“What you can draw from this is you have to believe and you have to keep playing. Period,” Sumlin said. “Sooner or later, if you keep doing your job, you have to believe good things are going to happen.”
Sumlin knows that from experience.
In 2009 while he was coach at Houston, his Cougars trailed Tulsa by two scores with 30 seconds remaining. They scored a touchdown with 21 seconds to go, recovered an onside kick and, two completions for 27 yards later, kicked a 51-yard field goal on the final play for a 46-45 victory.
“Offensively, defensively, everybody knows that no matter what the score is, we’re never out of the game,” Sumlin said then.
He might have said that midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday night, but you wonder if anyone would have truly believed. For 3.5 quarters of football the Aggies had done almost everything to assure their trip to Ole Miss would be disappointing because of:
· Ole mistakes
· Ole miscues
· Ole missteps.
· Ole missed tackles.
Manziel threw an interception. Christine Michael fumbled to set up an Ole Miss field goal. Swope fumbled to kill an A&M scoring opportunity. They could not convert on fourth-and-inches at the Ole Miss 22. They could not get a touchdown on third-and-goal from the one and settled for a field goal. A coverage bust late in the second quarter resulted in a 68-yard completion that set up an Ole Miss touchdown.
TexAgs
Ole Miss had Manziel largely contained and the Aggies on the ropes, with six turnovers nearly doing A&M in.
{"Module":"photo","Alignment":"right","Size":"large","Caption":"Ole Miss had Manziel largely contained and the Aggies on the ropes, with six turnovers nearly doing A&M in.","MediaItemID":22674}
At that point the Aggies could be confident because they had performed so poorly yet were still tied.
But then the third quarter got worse.
Ole Miss converted three third downs and a fourth down on a 17-play drive for a field goal to start the third quarter. Meanwhile, the next three times A&M had the ball Manziel fumbled, threw an interception and Dustin Harris fumbled a punt that Ole Miss recovered and turned into a touchdown for a 27-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
At that point the Aggies' situation looked dire. It would soon appear worse still.
A&M started from its own 12 after an exchanged of punts, but Manziel was immediately sacked by Issac Gross for an 11-yard loss.
It was actually 11 yards, two feet and about 11 inches. Manziel barely kept the football out of the end zone to avoid a safety that would have given Ole Miss two more points and put the outcome out of reach.
But then, it seemed out of reach anyway. That was until Manziel started playing like a Heisman contender.
He hit Mike Evans with a 32-yard pass. Ben Malena followed with a 36-yard run. Then Manziel ran 29 yards for a touchdown that cut the Ole Miss lead to 27-23 with about 6:30 left.
The Aggie defense made an equally big play on Ole Miss’ ensuing possession as Stewart stopped running back Jeff Scott cold on fourth-and-one at their 39.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re down two points or two 21 points,” Stewart said. “We’re gonna keep playing.”
We have a lot of young guys that hadn’t been in that type of situation. There wasn’t a lot of heads hanging. We have a lot of good leadership. I can’t be happier than I am right now for the guys.
{"Module":"quote","Alignment":"right","Quote":"We have a lot of young guys that hadn’t been in that type of situation. There wasn’t a lot of heads hanging. We have a lot of good leadership. I can’t be happier than I am right now for the guys.","Author":"Sumlin"}
And winning.Four plays after Stewart’s stop, Manziel beat an Ole Miss blitz and threw to Swope, who made a stellar over-the-shoulder catch in the right corner of the end zone touchdown.
“I definitely felt the momentum shifting,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “We had a chance. We had a good blitz call and it came free, but we missed it.”
Yet, 1:46 remained and Ole Miss only needed a field goal to force overtime. The Rebels reached A&M’s 32-yard line, but junior nickelback Toney Hurd stepped in front of a receiver to intercept a Wallace pass and clinch the improbable victory.
“We have a lot of young guys that hadn’t been in that type of situation,” Sumlin said in that postgame press conference. “There wasn’t a lot of heads hanging. We have a lot of good leadership. I can’t be happier than I am right now for the guys.”
That’s because his team never panicked. They never quit. They never thought they couldn’t snatch a nearly impossible victory at Ole Miss.
Just like Tulsa.
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