I am going to tell you this sheepishly....the SMU game was the first home game I've missed since the 2005 Texas State game that was pushed up to a Thursday night due to Hurricane Rita....it's only the third home game I've missed in season since I started school (this is my 12th season).
I missed it with good reason though....Sean and I had a trip planned that was pretty awesome....Thursday we scratched Camp Randall off the bucket list as we saw Wisconsin romp UNLV, Friday we took a tour of Wrigley Field (got to watch part of BP from on the field) then attended the Cubs game later that afternoon, and on Saturday and Sunday we were at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin for both of Pearl Jam's 20th Anniversary shows (my all-time favorite band).
It was completely worth it - but I'd be lying if I said that my heart didn't pound a bit on Sunday evening when I glanced at my phone and saw it was 6:27pm and I knew Aggie football was being played on Kyle Field without me.
Luckily, I had a DVR back home recording the opener for me to watch upon my return to the Lone Star State.....and 86,951 other Ags were attendance for the 6th largest crowd in school history and largest for a season opener.
- Cyrus Gray ran for 132 yards and 2 TDs on 21 carries and became the school's all-time all purpose yardage leader (passing Darren Lewis). It was also his 8th consecutive game of 100+ yards. C-Mike added another 85 yards and 2 TDs on 14 carries.
- Ryan Tannehill was 21-for-26 with 2 TDs and 246 yards
- Ryan Swope had 8 catches for 109 yards and a TD and Fuller had 6 for 52
- TJE had three sacks leading the way for Coach DeRuyter's defense to pick up a total of EIGHT. I can't remember a game in my time where we had more. Sean Porter had 10 tackles and 1/2 a sack.
- The defense also picked off SMU's first two possessions which put returning QB Kyle Padron on the bench for his 5th year senior backup, J.J. McDermott.
- I thought that special teams looked worse than any other part of our squad.....KO out of bounds, two PATs blocked, and a muffed punt return.
Ags 37 v. Idaho 7
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but since Sean graduated in the spring he and I had to spring for real season tickets for the first time. Prior to this past weekend's game I had been in the student section for every home game I had attended with the exception of one (when I had 50 yard line, row 2 seats on the alumni side).
Obviously we missed the first game....and we still haven't seen our actual seats. My father-in-law texted me on Friday night and offered Sean and I two extra seats down with them so we gave our seats to an Ag outside the ticket office and sat with them. I'm sure whoever has the seats next to us is going to be confused when we show up for the oSu game as the third set of people in as many games.
It was a pretty dominant performance. Going into the 4th quarter the defense had Idaho shut out and had given up less than 75 yards of total offense and only allowed 3 first downs.
The offense accumulated huge numbers and the end result was great - but in the first half I did feel like we left points on the board.
Tannehill finished the day 26-0f-39 for 337 yards and 1 TD (on 1 INT, which was a tipped pass). All three of our starting WRs had 5+ receptions with EZ leading the way with 6 for 80 and Swope having 6 for 74 (1 TD). Fuller had 5 catches for 79 yards including a reception that put him ahead of my boy, Terrence Murphy, on the school's all-time receptions list. He already owns the Receiving TD record and is just 284 yards (minus Idaho game) from taking T-Murph's #1 spot in receiving yards.
Cyrus added 58 yards receiving and a TD to his rushing totals of 101 yards and 2 TDs on 29 carries. C-Mike only had 5 carries (31 yards) as a result of a fumble.
Cyrus leapfrogged Bob Smith, 'Lectric Leeland, and Roger Vick moving from 13th to 10th on the school's all-time rushing leader board. He has no chance at catching Darren Lewis at the top but he will very likely finish in the top 5 and possibly top 3.
Drew Kaser, the top rated punter in this year's freshman class, made his Aggie debut. On his first punt he mishandled the snap and had to get it off quickly resulting in a 23 yard squib. I believe my comment to my father-in-law was along the lines of, "I miss Justin Brantly." I almost forgot Justin existed after Kaser's second punt.....a 68 yard BOMB. It was insane.
Freshmen who have had their redshirts pulled:
- SMU (5): Deshazor Everett, Steven Jenkins, Howard Matthews, Tyrell Taylor, Shaun Ward
- Idaho (8): Brandon Alexander, Donnie Baggs, Taylor Bertolet, Ben Compton, Drew Kaser, Johnny Manziel, Floyd Raven, Darzil Washington
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