Texas A&M
North Texas
(#18) Texas A&M 36, North Texas 10
Sep 27, 1997 | Football
September 27, 1997
The undefeated Aggies traveled to Texas Stadium looking for a challenge after blowout victories over Sam Houston and Southwestern Louisiana, and that's exactly what the Aggies got from the North Texas Mean Green before pulling away for a 36-10 victory before a UNT record crowd of 42,224 fans.
"This is the type of game we were expecting," Aggie running back Dante Hall said. "And I think it's the type of game we needed. We had played two blowouts and really weren't getting good looks. So it was good to play in a tough game like this before we play Colorado. I can't wait to play Colorado."
In the early going it appeared that A&M was intent on quickly burying UNT as the Aggies sprinted to a 10-0 lead after their first two possessions.
The Aggies opened with a crisp six-play, 79-yard drive that culminated with a short Sirr Parker touchdown run. After the A&M defense produced a second consecutive three-and-out UNT possession, the Aggie offense again drove the ball deep into Green territory before it stalled and Kyle Bryant connected on a 48-yard field goal.
But the rest of the half was all North Texas. The Eagles took the ensuing kickoff and mounted an impressive drive that led to a 48-yard field goal by UNT.
Right before halftime, the Eagles threw down the gauntlet to the Aggies with a methodical 80-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Jason Mills to Bo Harrison. It was the first touchdown allowed by the Aggies all season.
Sufficiently challenged by the Eagles, the Aggies dominated the second half with 26 unanswered points.
The second-half scoring barrage was started by a punishing hit on UNT return man Tubby Coleman by A&M reserve Jeff Wilson. The resulting fumble was recovered by true freshman Michael Jamison at the UNT 18 and the Aggies quickly widened their lead to 17-10.
Another Bryant field goal made the A&M lead 20-10 after three quarters.
Once in the fourth stanza, the Aggies added a quick field goal and two-play touchdown drive to increase the margin to 29-10. The Aggies then took the life out of the Eagles with a 12-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that drained five minutes, 37 seconds off the clock. The long drive ended with D'Andre Hardeman rumbled into the endzone from nine yards out.
"We've got a lot of respect for North Texas," head coach R.C. Slocum said. "They are a talented team and they played hard. We came out in the first half and made some mistakes but I thought we kept playing hard and corrected those mistakes in the second half. We came out and took control in the second half and showed a great deal of character."
Leading the way for the Aggies offensively were the tailback tandem of Sirr Parker and Dame Hall, who both broke the century mark in rushing yards. Hall averaged 8.2 yards a carry on his way to 156 yards, while Parker averaged 7.3 per tote on 124 yards.
Punter Shane Lechler broke into the national rankings with a whopping 48.7 punt average on seven punts. Lechler, who didn't have enough attempts to qualify before the UNT game, burst into the national rankings at No. 4 the next week.
On defense, the Wrecking Crew limited the Mean Green to 78 yards on the ground and 229 total yards. Leading the way was safety Rich Coady who totaled nine stops and defensive end Brad Crowley who posted six tackles, including a quarterback sack, and recovered a fumble.
