Ag Football Preview: LSU Tigers

Tiger Stadium.  One of the most revered atmospheres in all of college football.

Over the last five seasons the Tigers have lost twice in Death Valley, to #1 'Bama in 2012 and to #1 Florida in 2009.

But then again Johnny has never stepped foot into Tiger Stadium.

Johnny spent his bye week like he should....chillin' with Drake who just so happened to be on the Texas leg of his tour.  Should Sumlin be upset about this?  Heck no, he was the Drake show the next night in Houston. 

Sean and I stopped by Tiger Stadium during our road trip to Auburn last season but like a game at Ole Miss, an SEC night game at Tiger Stadium has been on my bucket list for years.  Fortunately for our chances of winning, we're not going to get exactly that with a 2:30 kickoff but it will definitely be dark before the end of the game.

Regardless, I'm pretty excited.  

Here's a quick preview:  They're going to pound the ball and then attack us with play action to one of their freak WRs.  There will be at least one trick play.  It is going to be a shootout and we're going to have to convert 3rd downs and TDs.

If we can go 2-0 at LSU and at Mizzou we're going to go to the Sugar Bowl and Johnny will win his second Heisman.  It's all there on the table for the taking.

But first, we have to get past Tiger Stadium.

Ag Football Recap: Ags Send off Kyle Field with a 51-41 Win over MSU

Say goodbye to her as you know her.  They started demolition within an hour of the final whistle.

It was also Senior Day as we cast our farewells to Ben Malena, Steven Jenkins, Jake Matthews, Toney Hurd, Derel Walker and the rest of the senior class.  They committed to us coming off of a bleh season and a horrific bowl loss....before Von Miller was VON MILLER, before the SEC rumblings even started, before "new" Kyle Field was even a sketch on a napkin, and before Sumlin.  They helped us get to this point.

It was also Sophomore Day as we saw Mike Evans and Johnny take Kyle Field for what should be the last time.  What a tandem - wow.

We got to see the 12th Man block a punt for a safety - our second safety via blocked punt in as many weeks.

We got to see Trey Williams break off an electric 103 yard KOR.

It was a good day.

Johnny had another one of those plays where the entire stadium went silent for a nanosecond because they were gasping in amazement while their brains attempted to comprehend how he could be running at full speed, juke one way and reverse spin the opposite direction at the exact same time to avoid an 18 yard sack? 

You can't even do that in a video game.

By the way, he completed the pass to convert on THIRD AND TWENTY FIVE.

Johnny had 493 yards and 5 TDs and set the school single season record with his 31st TD pass AND the all-time record with 9,040 career yards.  Mike Evans also set the single season record with his 1,263 receiving yards after his 6 catch 116 yard performance.  Remember, we have three games still to play.

In the three games we've kicked off at 2:30p on CBS this season, Johnny has accumulated 1,557 yards and 15 TDs while Evans has 24 receptions for 681 yards and 5 TDs.  THREE GAMES.

All that said, I still don't feel like we've put it all together on offense...the numbers are there but I feel like it still hasn't hit on all cylinders.  I go back to the last five games of 2012 and it was just so fluid, we were completely unstoppable.  This year, there are 3-and-outs, stalled drives (insert "Thank goodness for Drew Kaser" comment here), and turnovers.

I know, I'm crazy.

My favorite part of the day was the final 2 minutes of the game.  We attempted to take a knee (there was officiating confusion and 4 MSU timeouts) but in the down time we got to give Johnny an appropriate send off.  He was pretty fired up and motioned to the student section to get loud, and saluted them.  Then after the game, he ran over and jumped the wall into the crowd to sing the War Hymn with the student body.  It was cool to watch.

We're off this weekend which gives us a little bit of time to fine tune the game plan for our upcoming games against the Tigers (at LSU & at Mizzou).

Ag Football Recap: Ags Cover Against Miners, 57-7

We opened the game by blocking a punt for a safety but the score at the end of the 1st quarter was just 9-7.  The line on the game was 45 points so there were a lot of people pretty frustrated with the performance.

Fortunately we went on a 55-0 run to finish things off (including our 1st Q TD).

Johnny finished with 340 yards of offense and 6 more TDs (4 passing/2 rushing) before coming out of the game with 7:39 remaining in the 3rd quarter.


Kevin Sumlin apparently saw something in practice this week because Kenny Hill came in as the 2nd team quarterback and finished the entire rest of the game.  I'm curious what happened to keep Joeckel from getting any time (usually they split mop up duties about 60/40).

I thought Hill looked as good as he has all season.  He was 5-for-6 for 57 yards and hit his former HS teammate, Sabian Holmes for a nice long completion.

We did have a scare late in the 4th quarter when Tra Carson went to the turf following a fumble.  The medical staff was out there for a very long time and he was taken off the field in a stretcher - with his helmet still on (which they usually only do for head/neck injuries).  The word on the street is that it was all precautionary and he didn't even have to go to the hospital (and the x-rays were negative).  Pshew.

Darion Claiborne led the team with 12 tackles and a forced fumble - he has quickly turned into a favorite of mine.  Howard Matthews also picked off his second and third passes in the last two games.

Next week is Mississippi State in what will be the final game at Kyle Field in it's current configuration.  It will also be Senior Night, and we might very well be saying good bye to two of the greatest - Mike Evans and Johnny Evans.

Ag Football Recap: The Commodores Sink at Kyle Field, 56-24

This was a weird game for me because I missed the first half.....and I never miss an entire half.

I'm the assistant coach to my son's soccer team and the head coach was out of town this weekend so I couldn't miss his game....which started at 10:30am.  His game would be over at 11:15 and it takes me exactly one hour to College Station and then usually 35 min. to park and walk to the stadium (and then 10 minutes to get up the ramp to my actual seats) but with the 11:21 kick-off, I was hoping to make it by halftime.

The unfamiliar situation spawned a great thing though.  My son has been asking weekly why he can't come to the Aggie games with me and honestly, it's because I don't think he could sit through an entire game, but this gave me an opportunity to take him and only have to worry about him making it through the second half.

I packed us a lunch to eat, all our Aggie gear, and coordinated a ticket for him on Friday so as we were walking back to the car after his game I told him that we had better hurry up because he was going to the game with me.  We kissed Momma and sister good bye and headed up to College Station.

We listened to the game on the radio on the way up and the Ags had stretched the lead to 28-0 as exited HW6 into town and I got concerned that he wouldn't get to see Johnny Football play.  Coming off his shoulder injury I thought that we'd be quick to get him out of the game safely and keep him as healthy as possible for the final stretch of our schedule (at #12 LSU and then at #5 Mizzou).

Out of sheer luck, I found a spot to park at the corner of Welsh and Kerry, which is just a couple blocks from the stadium.

I had anticipated a good little walk and his little legs can't keep up with mine so I had also thrown his bike in the back of my truck for him to ride up to the stadium, which worked great.

We got through the gates and there was about 5 minutes left in the half so we watched a few snaps from down by the south end-zone bleachers and then headed up the ramp so he could see the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band and all their formations.

He was really into waving his 12th Man Towel which made me proud.  I was also impressed with how much of the War Hymn he knew.  I've sing him The Spirit of Aggieland every night when I put him to bed but I'm not sure how he picked up so much of the War Hymn.

He was also remarkably sad when told him that we were going to build a new Kyle Field.  He wanted to know why they couldn't build the new one "over there" (pointing to Spence Park, which is visible from our seats) and argued that the current stadium has lots of seats already.  I'm not completely sure why he has such a nostalgic view of the stadium but I appreciated his concern.

After the half, we were treated to an opening pick-6 by Howard Matthews on the first play of the half.  We did get to see Johnny for 3 possessions, albeit only one was a full possession thanks to two fumbles (on the 1st play of the first drive and on the 2nd play of the second drive).  We ended with FIVE turnovers in the game.

Johnny left the after the third possession which ended with an 11 yard TD pass to Derel Walker with 6:10 remaining in the 3rd quarter.  He finished with 316 yards and 4 TDs (305 passing/11 rushing).

Malcome Kennedy had 8 receptions for 83 yards and Mike Evans had 5 for 77 and two TDs.

The defense forced 7 sacks in the game to literally double their season total.  Howard Matthews had a whale of a game, adding 14 tackles to his pick-6, as did Darion Claiborne, Steven Jenkins and Gavin Stansbury.

It was, without a doubt, the best defensive performance of the season.

The post-game was a big disappointment.  When we went back to bike rack where we had left Benjamin's bike, we discovered that someone else decided that they deserved it more and took it - training wheels and all.  I couldn't believe it and was seeing red.  He put on a big boy face but inside it crushed him - it was all he talked about on the way home.  It gutted me.

All in all, the day was a success but I just hope that he doesn't let the bike situation ruin the memories of the rest of the day.

Ag Football Preview: UTEP

Seeing UTEP on our schedule doesn't even excite me as much as Rice or SMU but this year is a little different.

This past February backup QB, Jameill Showers, decided to transfer out of A&M so he could get some playing time during his senior season.  He already had his degree from A&M completed, so he could transfer to another university for grad school and not have to sit out a season.

What makes this more interesting is that Coach Sumlin allowed him to transfer to UTEP, a school that was on our schedule for this season.  That gave Showers the opportunity to dress out in the visitor's locker room at Kyle Field.

I'd be curious to know how many players have actually played against the school they graduated from?

As soon as I realized the opportunity, I was excited for Showers.  By all accounts, he is a good kid and he loves A&M.  He was in town, on the sidelines, for the Auburn game two weekends ago (UTEP was off that weekend) and was able to dunk his Aggie ring.

Unfortunately, we're not going to get the opportunity to see it play out that way.  Showers suffered a separated shoulder in last week's game and is likely done for the season.  I was really glad to read that they are still going to let him travel and be the team captain for the game.

We've played UTEP twice, beating them in 1984 (20-17) and again in 2000 (47-17), both at Kyle Field.  This season, the Miner'sare not a very good football team.  In fact, they're really bad.  They're 1-6 on the season but their losses have come to some other really bad teams (2-5 New Mexico, 2-5 Tulsa, 3-5 La Tech, & 3-5 UTSA).

This is a game to use to build on the confidence we gained last weekend on defense and to let Joeckel and Hill get more live snaps.

Ag Football Preview: Vanderbilt

For whatever reason I wrote this entire piece with one of those History Channel voice-over guys reading it in my head.

Vanderbilt is not a traditionally strong football school.  In fact, they've been down right terrible for the better part of forever.

As the token private school in the SEC they have just under 13,000 students that get the benefit of living in beautiful Nashville, TN.

The city of Nashville makes our return trip (whenever that might be) a road trip destination - because I can get my wife to go because she has always wanted to go to Nashville.

Vanderbilt Stadium was "built" 1922 and has a capacity of 40,550.  Technically, it was Dudley Field that was built in 1922 and current Vanderbilt Stadium was built in 1980.  Unfortunately, a 30 year old stadium doesn't have quite the same aura to it.

The school was founded by a gift from Cornelius Vanderbilt, the great American shipping & railroad tycoon.  His nickname was The Commodore....thus the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Two other Cornelius Vanderbilt fun facts

• He had 13 children to his wife (who was also his first cousin)
• Anderson Cooper is his great-great-great Grandson

The Commodores have never won an SEC title (despite being a founding member of the conference), have had six winning seasons since 1959, have been to six bowl games (including the last two seasons), and finished ranked #23 in the country last year - the first time they've ended a season ranked since 1948.

I'm going to have to say that their fight song is one of the highlights of their program:

Dynamite, Dynamite
When VANDY starts to fight.
Down the field with blood to yield,
If need be, save the shield.
If vict'ry's won, when battle's done,
Then VANDY's name will rise in fame.
Win not lose,
It's ours to choose,
And VANDY's game will be the same.
Dynamite, Dynamite
When VANDY starts to fight!
Fight!

Back to the bad....they have the worst logo in the SEC (see top of page) and they are forced to boast Jay Cutler as one of their more prominent quarterbacks, if you can say that about Jay Cutler.

The Anchor is the symbol they use a lot (I'm not sure if it is an official symbol or logo or what) but it started in the mid-90s and stands as a symbol of unity and strength.  There is an actual anchor (from a boat) that travels with the team. 

HC James Franklin does have them on a really nice little run in his third season.  Like I mentioned, they have gone bowling in his first two campaigns and finished last season ranked.  I know I'm not the only one who thinks he's about to get hired away by a big time school as a result.

Going into the season, I honestly thought that this was the third scariest game on our schedule.  That faded as the season transpired, but after last weekend's mess that was our Auburn game, it's certainly not a gimmie.

BHTO Vandy!  WHOOP!

Ag Football Recap: Auburn Trips Up Ags, 45-41

He's human after all.

But we're all now questioning if Mike Evans is.  The Beast ripped off another record breaking performance with 11 catches for 278 yards and 4 TDs.  It's silly how good he is.

Johnny still had a huge game (454 yards & 4 TDs passing with 48 yards and a TD rushing) but he threw two INTs.  The first of which I put on the paws of one of the TEs - it bounced into the air off his hands....but the second one was Johnny trying to force a ball into an area he shouldn't have.

This is SEC football.  This is what we clamored for.  When you play with the big boys, you're not going to win them all.....they're all pretty darn good.  People forget that Auburn won a NC three years ago so those kids they recruited coming off of that are now RS-So or juniors - their worst finish in the recruiting rankings over the last 4 years is 10th.

I thought that Auburn had the best defense we have faced all season.  Their front 4 continually abused our OL and the spy they had on Johnny kept him in check better than anyone else has.  As a result, we only converted on 38.4% of our third downs (a season low) and they got off the field. 

We had to settle for FGs in a game where we gave up 615 yards of offense.  Auburn averaged 7.2 yards per snap.  The defense is bad.  Way, way, way bad.

With a 31-24 lead going into the 4th quarter and the ball at Auburn's five yard line it looked like we were going to be able to push the lead out to something more comfortable.  On the first snap of the quarter, Johnny scrambled and ran into a defender and hurt his shoulder.  He was in visible pain and had to come out of the game.

Matt Joeckel came in and on his first snap (which was a 3rd & G from the 2) threw a little out route to the TE, which wasn't a very good pass but should have been caught for a TD.  We settled for a FG.

Auburn answered with a very fast 7 play TD drive and we went 3-and-out and then Auburn struck again with an even faster 6 play TD drive. 

Johnny came back into the game at this point but it was too late and the damage had been done.  In a barn burner we scored 3 points on two drives and the opponent scored 14.

We traded TDs and on our final drive, with 1:19 left on the clock and down by 4 points took over at our own 35 yard line. 

Johnny found Evans for 19 yards, then scrambled for 6, then found Evans again for 22 yards (how are they not triple covering him at this point?).  Then there was an incomplete pass and an 8 yard sack dropping us to Auburn's 26 yard line.  We took a timeout at this point with 28 seconds left on the clock.

The next play was literally the play that won the game.  Johnny scrambled out towards the left sideline and the horse collared him, clear as day, textbook horse collar.  No flag.  So instead of a 1st & Goal with 18 seconds to play (which is at least 4 snaps), it was 4th & 13 from the 21.

For the first time in two seasons, we saw Johnny unable to do the impossible.

Here are some interesting facts amidst the doom and gloom....

• We are 16-4 in the Sumlin era and those four teams have accounted for the last 6 National Championships.  
• The largest margin of victory in those four losses was the 7 points we lost to 'Bama earlier this year (the four losses have been by a total of 19 points)
• In our two losses this season we scored 83 points and had 1,230 yards of offense
• Johnny had 1,064 yard of offense and 10 TDs