Football Falls to Louisville in Music City Bowl, 27-21

Wednesday, December 30

Nashville, Tenn.

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

8-5 , 4-4

Louisville

8-5 , 5-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Texas A&M

Louisville

Photo by: Bryan Byerly/ISI Photos

Dec 30, 2015 | Football

Box Score

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Lamar Jackson ran for a career-high and Music City Bowl-record 226 yards and two touchdowns and threw for two more scores to help Louisville beat Texas A&M 27-21 on Wednesday night.

The freshman, making his first start since Oct. 30, finished with a bowl-record 453 total yards, and set the Louisville career rushing mark before the end of the first quarter in giving the Cardinals a 20-7 lead they never lost. Jackson ran for 126 yards in the first 15 minutes, including a 61-yard scoring run.

Louisville (8-5) won for the eighth time in 10 games. The Cardinals also had their third bowl victory in their past four trips.

Texas A&M (8-5) became the first Southeastern Conference team to lose this bowl season. The Aggies made it interesting in the final minutes with their third-string quarterback making his first career start.

Hubenak shook off five sacks and two turnovers to throw for 307 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk with 4:54 left that pulled the Aggies to 27-21.

Texas A&M nearly had first-and-goal at the Cardinals 6, but a review showed Kirk did not maintain possession of the ball on his catch. That left Hubenak two more chances inside the final 2 minutes. The Cardinals batted down a pass, then Hubenak was incomplete throwing into the end zone.

The Aggies lost their second straight overall and snapped a four-game bowl winning streak. Aggies wide receiver Josh Reynolds set Music City Bowl records with 11 catches for 177 yards.

Louisville linebacker Devonte Fields had three sacks, and Louisville safety Josh Harvey-Clemons stripped Hubenak him of the ball and intercepted a pass both in the third quarter.

Jackson had no such issues as he passed Stefan LeFors' previous career rushing mark of 756 yards between 2002 and 2004. He showed off the speed that Louisville coach Bobby Petrino wants to bring to the Atlantic Coast Conference, running through, around and over the Aggies.

Jackson set a bowl rushing record, topping the 187 yards Marion Barber of Minnesota ran for in 2004. He also set the total offense mark of 424 set by Mike Glennon of North Carolina state in 2012 as he threw for 227 yards.

He put Louisville up 27-14 with 3:01 left in the third with a 17-yard TD pass to a wide-open Keith Towbridge for his second TD.

Louisville senior linebacker James Burgess' career ended on the Cardinals' first defensive play of the game. He was flagged, then ejected for targeting Texas A&M wide receiver Damion Ratley on a hit that left both the receiver and Cardinals cornerback Shaq Wiggins on the ground for a few minutes. He didn't return until late in the first quarter with a strained lower back.

Aggies defensive end Myles Garrett, who came in leading the SEC in sacks, had a pretty quiet night aside from one sack, giving him a career-high 12 1/2 for the season.

TEAM/GAME NOTES
• The Aggies closed out 2015 with an 8-5 overall record, marking the program's fourth straight season with at least eight wins.
• The loss ended a four-game winning streak in bowl games, which was tied for the nation's longest in consecutive years.
• It also snapped a 20-game streak of wins over non-conference opponents, which was the nation's longest.

OFFENSIVE NOTES
• True freshman RB/RS Christian Kirk went over the 1,000-yard mark in season receiving yards tonight. Kirk had 84 yards on a career-high 10 catches to raise his season total to 1,009 yards. He is the second Aggie freshman to eclipse the 1,000 receiving yards plateau (joining Mike Evans, 2012) and he's the first true freshman to do it. Kirk's 2015 numbers of 80 catches for 1,009 are second among freshmen only to Evan's 82 for 1,105 in 2012.
• Kirk neared the single season all-purpose record of 1,806 by Cyrus Gray in 2010, but his 130-yard night left him 17 yards away from the record.
• With Kirk going over 1,000 receiving yards, Texas A&M had a 1,000-yard rusher (Tra Carson) and a 1,000-yard receiver in the same season for the fourth time in program history. The other tandems were Cyrus Gray/Jeff Fuller in 2010, Gray/Ryan Swope in 2011 and Johnny Manziel/Mike Evans in 2012.
• Senior RB Tra Carson rushed for 106 yards on 20 carries, which was his seventh century game of 2015. It's the most 100-yard rushing games in a season since Johnny Manziel had seven in his Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2012.
• Carson enjoyed a 55-yard romp, which was his career long and was the Aggies' longest rush in 2015. His previous long rush was 39 yards vs. West Virginia in the 2014 Liberty Bowl.
• Junior WR Josh Reynolds had career high in catches and receiving yards with 11 catches for 177 yards. It was Reynolds' fourth 100-yard game of 2015 and the fifth of his career.
• Reynolds' 11 catches give him 103 for his two-year career at Texas A&M. He is the third Aggie to reach the 100-catch plateau in his first two seasons, joining Ryan Tannehill and Mike Evans.

DEFENSIVE NOTES
• Sophomore DE Myles Garrett was disruptive all game with three QB hurries, a QB sack and another sack negated by a holding penalty.
• Garrett's QB sack pushed his season total to 12.5, which is a career high and moved him into a tie for No. 12 for sacks in a season with Damontre Moore in 2012. It moved his career total to 24.0, which is tied for No. 9 in school history (with Roylin Bradley).
• Sophomore FS Armani Watts had a game-high 15 tackles, which raised his season total to 126. It was the most tackles by an Aggie in a season since 2003 when Jaxson Appel had 135.

SPECIAL TEAMS NOTES
• Senior P Drew Kaser fell just shy in his pursuit of the NCAA FBS record for career punt average with a 43.7 average on seven boots. For his career, Kaser averaged 46.196 yards on 168 punts (FBS record is 46.31 by Todd Sauerbrun of West Virginia, 1991-94).
• Kaser become the second player in NCAA history to average more than 46.0 for his career (with a minimum of 150 punts).

MISCELLANEOUS
• Game captains were OC Mike Matthews, RT Germain Ifedi, DE Myles Garrett and 12th Man Sam Moeller. The Aggies won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff.
• Moeller was the Aggies' 12th Man for school-record 39th straight game. He was the 12th Man in every game for the past three seasons. The Aggies' most recent 12th Man not named Sam Moeller was C.J. Jones in the 2013 Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma.