November 13, 2002
| --Extra Points with Steve Miller appears throughout the Texas A&M athletics season and is generally posted every other week.
Like a beacon in the night, the scoreboards at Kyle Field still shined bright on Monday with the score of the game that Texas A&M fans will never forget. The Aggies are accustomed to being on the winning side of the scoreboard, but it's been a rare outcome that has kept the scoreboards lit at Kyle much longer than the next day's sunrise. It's been years, maybe decades, maybe a game has slipped the mind, since the scoreboards shined that way. Saturday at Kyle Field was electric. And that after, just as some two-percenters thought, the Big 12's largest stadium had become the latest victim of some "electric outage." The memories of A&M beating No. 1-ranked Oklahoma will become the latest in a line of historic games that Aggies will talk about for years. Whether its Sirr Parker's run to the endzone to win the 1998 Big 12 Championship, or stopping Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson on the goal line at the 1986 Cotton Bowl, or pupil vs. teacher when Gene Stallings' Aggies beat Paul "Bear" Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide in the 1968 Cotton Bowl, everyone has their list of Aggie memories and this is one more.
The 2002 game when A&M beat No. 1-ranked Oklahoma at Kyle Field will have its place, only time will tell where. Down 10-0, the Aggies looked to the bench and to heralded freshman quarterback Reggie McNeal to see what he could offer. The offering of an A&M freshman record four touchdown passes and 280 yards of total offense was definitely accepted and much appreciated from the newcomer from Lufkin, Texas. He made the play checks, and completed the passes. He even ran when he had to. He had the receivers, he had the backs, and more importantly he had the lineman to show him the way. Reggie had a Wrecking Crew defense that made the stops, made sacks, made the tackles for loss, and broke up the passes. He also had punter Cody Scates and the coverage team to thank for pinning the opponents' backs against the wall at so many crucial times. But the game and its outcome were much more than one player and his place in A&M lore. It was a group of football players pulling together and continuing to fight and to just play football the way they knew how.
The task was not an easy one, beating an Associated Press No. 1-ranked team. Not beating one at home, but just beating one, period. The Aggies have been playing football since 1894 and the AP poll has been around since 1936. That's a lot of years, a lot of weeks, a lot of games, a lot of top-ranked teams. Fans say that number one teams get beat all of the time, and that is partially true. But since 1936 only 114, better make that 115, top-ranked teams in the AP poll have been beaten or tied. The Aggies are now part of that history as well. Playing football is all about winning. It's the drive to be number one and the determination to beat number one. Saturday at Kyle Field, the Aggie football team became the number one story in the nation. From coast to coast, and border to border. Everyone was talking about the Aggies because of the determination they had, and the character they showed to beat the number one team, just as many said it couldn't be done. The scoreboards at Kyle Field remained on for a time just to remind everyone what the Fightin' Texas Aggies had done. |
