By Will Martin
Ranked #6 nationally for good reason for the Texas A&M Aggies. No one was giving the Mustangs of SMU any chance against the guys from College Station at Gerald Ford Stadium on September 20, 2014.
The crowd of 34,582 had a large partisan following of Aggies fans who wore the #12 jersey.
It was a day for Kenny Hill to shine. It was also a day to see a very good SEC team do their thing up close and personal.
In case you missed it, be aware that you can get another chance at watching Texas A&M (4-0) do their thing at AT&T Stadium with Arkansas (3-1) on September 27. Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm CST. It should be a high scoring affair!
Fans of up tempo football have much to be fired up about quick scoring in Texas. Between the Baylor Bears, TCU Horned Frogs, and Kevin Sumlin’s Aggies the action is fast, furious, and frenetically frequent.
Josh Lambo got the scoring started on a 39-yard field goal as Texas A&M had a bad case of the penalty bug their very first drive of the game. Still, a ten play 59 yard drive that netted three points.
Later in the first period sophomore Aggie Kenny Hill Jr. showed his prowess on the field, running the football for 57 yards to get within ten yards of a touchdown. Trey Williams ran one in for eight yards and a 10-0 lead ten minutes into the ballgame.
“I thought it was big” Kenny Hill stated after the game, “It was a broken play and were blocking great. I broke a couple tackles and found some room to the left. I think it showed that I can do it if I needed to. I do not like to do it, but I can”.
Hill would then throw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Tabuyo for a 17-0 lead with 75 ticks of the clock left in the 1st period.
The rout was on. The Aggies placed 17 points on the scoreboard in a matter of seconds. 20 plays in under six minutes.
Trey Williams and Jeremy Trabuyo would each gather another touchdown via the rush and a 50-yard pass to up the lead to 31-3 right before the half.
Then one final dagger from the former Southlake Carroll prodigy as he fired a long toss of 70 yards to a wide open Josh Reynolds that took all of 13 seconds.
38-3 halftime lead became a 58-6 blowout as Kyle Allen took over the QB reins.
Kenny Hill was 16-22-1 passing for 265 yards with two touchdowns in addition to two carries for 58 yards. Kyle Allen went 8 for 15 for 130 yards and one touchdown.
Trey Williams was your leading rusher for Texas A&M with 66 yards on seven carries. James White tacked on another 64 yards on seven touches.
Defensively Shaan Washington and Alonso Williams were tough on the Mustangs Garrett Kristich and Kolney Cassel. The two were sacked a total of eight times while Washington and Williams would tally three and a half of those sacks while combining for 13 tackles at the Hilltop.
First downs favored the Maroon 28-13. Total yards also favored the Aggies 663-241. Team Sumlin went 6 for 11 on 3rd down conversions while SMU went 7 for 19.
Texas A&M a perfect five for five inside the Red Zone in getting to 4-0.
Kevin Sumlin was asked what was learned from a game like this.
“We got a lot of guys in. We got through the game without Mike Matthews , so he can get another week to rest his ankle.” Coach Sumlin conceded.
“The positives were getting some more guys back and getting through the game without injuries. We had the return of some folks like Shaan Washington.”
“We had some young guys, especially in that second half that played a lot of football. We will need depth going down the stretch when we play SEC opponents”.
Coach Sumlin also discussed getting an early jump on the Mustangs.
“That is already kind of our M.O. We want to start fast. The disappointing part of this game was starting it with three straight penalties on three straight plays. The thing we talked about at the end of the game was the third down percentage. Until that fourth quarter when we had backups in, we were pretty good.”
Kenny Hill had some thoughts on the start to the game and the penalties.
“I’m more upset with the penalties than anything else. That is just mental things we need to improve.”
What about that interception you threw early in the first quarter?
“It was a miscommunication, mostly on my part. I did not signal to him pre-snap and we were thinking two different things.”
Sophomore defensive lineman Jay Arnold had his thoughts on the big win over the Mustangs.
“It was just another football game. It was nice for us to go out and prove ourselves. There are still lots of areas we need to improve on but a win is a win.”
What was it like to play a team like SMU?
“Our job is to go out there and play the best football we can. We cannot help anything else. Just play the best we can play. There were some questions about what they would do, but overall we prepared for what we know.”
Any final thoughts on the overall play of quarterbacks Hill and Allen?
” I thought those guys did a great job today. It was great football. We all have areas we need to improve on but offense did great.”
Texas A&M, like most of the college world now goes into conference play mode. A big audience expected to be watching in person or on the television when the Razorbacks and the Aggies proceed to meet and put on an offensive fireworks show of amazing.
