Football Falls to LSU in Regular Season Finale

Thursday, November 24

College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

8-4 , 4-4

LSU

7-4 , 5-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

LSU

Texas A&M

Photo by: Thomas Campbell/Texas A&M Athletics

Nov 24, 2016 | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery LSU 54, A&M 39 - Final Stats (PDF)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Derrius Guice ran for a school-record 285 yards with four touchdowns and Danny Etling threw for 324 yards and two scores to give short-handed No. 25 LSU a 54-39 victory over No. 22 Texas A&M on Thursday night.

The Tigers were playing without star running back Leonard Fournette and leading tackler Kendell Beckwith because of injuries. But Guice and Etling did plenty to allow LSU (7-4, 5-3 SEC) to handle Texas A&M, and gave the Tigers a 300-yard passer and a 200-yard rusher in the same game for the first time in school history.

It certainly wasn't the first time Guice has had a big game this year, with Fournette struggling with an ankle injury for a big chunk of the season. His performance pushed his career-high rushing total to 1,249 and his four TDs were a career high. The game gave him one more yard than Fournette gained to set the school's single-game rushing record last month.

The Tigers spoke this week about wanting a win to help boost interim coach Ed Orgeron's chances of keeping the job. But on Thursday reports surfaced that LSU was zeroing in on Houston's Tom Herman. The reports prompted LSU's vice chancellor and athletic director Joe Alleva and university administration to issue a statement denying they had chosen a new coach and praising Orgeron's work since taking over in September when Les Miles was fired.

While LSU wasn't at full strength, the Aggies (8-4, 4-4) were the healthiest they've been in weeks, with defensive end Myles Garrett over an ankle injury and quarterback Trevor Knight back from a shoulder injury. Knight made an unexpected return after missing the last two games with the injury. Coach Kevin Sumlin said days after he was injured that he would miss the remainder of the regular season but would return for A&M's bowl game. Instead he returned to throw for 211 yards and three touchdowns before leaving the game late in the fourth quarter with what looked to be a knee injury.

The Aggies cut the lead to 10 with a field goal on the opening drive of the second half, but soon Guice was at work again. His second 45-yard touchdown run came on LSU's next drive to extend the lead to 27-10. Texas A&M failed to convert on fourth-and-4 to give the Tigers the ball back and Guice got to the end zone again, this time on a 6-yard run, to make it 34-10.

Texas A&M cut to deficit with touchdowns three times after that, but each time LSU responded with TDs of its own to keep the game out of reach.

Guice, who had 37 carries, had 65 yards rushing on LSU's first possession, highlighted by a 45-yard touchdown run that made it 7-0. The Aggies tied it in the first with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Knight to Christian Kirk.

The Tigers added two field goals before Devin White forced and recovered a fumble by freshman Trayveon Williams late in the second quarter. He returned it for what was initially ruled a touchdown but was called back after a review. It didn't matter much though as Etling connected with Malachi Dupre two plays later on a 20-yard scoring pass that extended LSU's lead to 20-7.

ABOUT THE GAME...
Texas A&M closed out the regular season with an 8-4 record after dropping a 54-39 decision to the LSU Tigers in front of a crowd of 102,961 on Thanksgiving night at Kyle Field.
•   The Aggies finish with a 5-2 record at Kyle Field for a second straight year.

FIRST TRUE FRESHMAN 1,000-YARD RUSHER
RB Trayveon Williams, a freshman from C.E. King HS in Houston, became the first Texas A&M true freshman to reach the 1,000-yard mark in season rushing yards.
•   Williams hit 1,000 with style on a 33-yard scoring burst in the third quarter.
•   He is the fourth freshman -- redshirt or true -- to reach 1,000, joining QB Johnny Manziel, RB Greg Hill and RB Courtney Lewis.
•   It was the sixth TD rush of more than 20 yards by Williams in 2016.

TAMU Freshman Rushing Yards
Johnny Manziel          1,410           2012
Greg Hill                       1,216           1991
Courtney Lewis           1,024           2003
#Trayveon Williams        1,024           2016
#Mike Goodson              847           2006
-#True Freshman

MOVING ON UP...
Sophomore WR Christian Kirk had a monster game with two touchdowns, 227 all-purpose yards, including 107 receiving yards.
•   Kirk finished with 8 catches on the day, pushing him to 77 catches on the season, the sophomore became the first Texas A&M player to post 70-or-more catches in his first two seasons in the Maroon & White.
•   The eight catches gives the Arizona native 157 grabs in his career, the fourth-most in Texas A&M history.
•   It was Kirk's third 100-yard game thru the air of 2016 and the sixth time he had seven or more catches in a game.
•   Kirk also had a career-long 66-yard kickoff return against the Tigers.
TAMU Season Receptions
Ryan Swope                      89           2011
Mike Evans                       82            2012
Christian Kirk                   80             2015
Christian Kirk                   77             2016
Ryan Swope                      72            2012
Jeff Fuller                          72            2010
Ryan Swope                      72            2010

TAMU Career Receptions
Ryan Swope                    252      2009-12
Jeff Fuller                        233      2008-11
Terrence Murphy           172      2001-04
Christian Kirk                 157           2015-
Uzoma Nwachukwu      152      2009-12
Josh Reynolds                 152           2014-
Mike Evans                     151      2012-13
Malcome Kennedy        150      2011-14

REYNOLDS' TD STREAK
Senior WR Josh Reynolds caught a touchdown for the seventh consecutive game after his 32-yard grab in the 4th quarter. Reynolds has caught a TD in 10 of 12 contests.
•   With his 3-catch 51-yard performance against LSU the senior has compiled152 career catches and 2,634 yards. Reynolds now has 28 career touchdown grabs trailing only Jeff Fuller's 34 on Texas A&M's career TD list.
•   Reynolds 10 TDs this season makes him the only Aggie to post a double-digit season on multiple occasions (13 TDs in '14).

LACAMERA HITS 100 POINTS...
With 5 points tonight against LSU, sophomore PK Daniel LaCamera became the fifth Texas A&M place kicker to score 100 points in a season.
•   LaCamera joins Randy Bullock (2011), Taylor Bertolet (2012, 2015), Kyle Bryant (2007) and Scott Slater (1986) to reach the century mark.
•   For the season, the sophomore has booted 17 of 23 field goals and 50 of 50 extra points for a total of 101 points.

GAME NOTES
•   In addition to Kirk eclipsing the century mark receiving, junior Speedy Noil hauled in five catches for 102 yards. Saturday's game marked the first time a pair of A&M receivers went over 100 yards through the air since Reynolds and Kirk did so against Arkansas in 2015.
•   Senior Trevor Knight tallied three touchdown passes, matching his season-high for passing scores this season (3 against Prairie View A&M)
•   Junior Keith Ford rushed 15 times for 100 yards against LSU, Saturday's game marked the first time Ford reached triple-digits rushing in an A&M uniform.
•   Junior Shane Tripucka added to his A&M record punts downed inside the 20 this season, adding a trio to bring his 2016 total to 27.

GAME CAPTAINS, 12TH MAN
•   Game captains for the Aggies were graduate transfer QB Trevor Knight, junior WR Ricky Seals-Jones, senior LB Shaan Washington, DE Myles Garrett and senior DB Alex Sezer Jr. LSU won the toss and elected to receive.
•   The Aggies' 12th Man representative was sophomore LB Cullen Gillaspia (Katy, Texas) in his 12th straight start. A former walk-on, Gillaspia was awarded a scholarship at the end of fall camp.