November 01, 2003
Postgame notes and quotes from Saturday's 45-33 win over Kansas at Kyle Field...
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
MURPHY MOVES UP RECEIVING CHARTS: Junior Terrence Murphy became the fifth Aggie receiver and the first junior to reach 100 career receptions with three catches for 72 yards against Kansas. Murphy's career statistics stand at 100 receptions (No. 5 in school history) for 1,476 yards (No. 5 on the A&M chart). He passes Albert Connell (98 catches) on the career receptions list and jumped Shea Walker (1,411) on the career receiving yards list today. Bethel Johnson (1999-02) owns the school records for receptions (117) and receiving yards (1,740).
APPEL REACHES 100 TACKLES: Sophomore safety Jaxson Appel has eight tackles today to became the third Aggie defensive back with 100 tackles in a single season with 103. He joins Larry Horton, who did it twice (1989 and 1990) and Carl Grulich, who did it in 1977. Appel is averaging 11.4 per game, which puts him on pace to break Grulich's DB school record of 132 tackles.
LEWIS CLIMBS FRESHMAN CHARTS: Redshirt freshman Courtney Lewis scored his 11th rushing touchdown of the season against Kansas to take sole possession of No. 2 on A&M's freshman rushing TD list. Lewis, from Houston Madison High School, trails Greg Hill's 12 TDs in 1991on the list. Lewis finished the day with 120 rushing yards on 26 carries, his fifth 100-yard game of the season and his second straight. For the season, Lewis has rushed for 868 yards (144 carries) and is bidding to become A&M's first 1,000-yard rusher since Dante Hall in 1998 (1,024). Lewis ranks second on A&M's freshman rushing chart behind Greg Hill (1,216 in 1991).
MCNEAL POSTS CAREER-HIGHS IN PASSING, TOTAL OFFENSE: Sophomore quarterback Reggie McNeal passed for a career-high 259 yards today, completing 11-of-18 passes with one touchdown. McNeal also rushed for 71 yards and one score on 12 carries, giving him a career-high 330 yards of total offense, tying him for the ninth-most in school history (Randy McCown, 10 rush/320 pass vs. Tulsa, 1999). Today marks the 18th time in school history a player has reached 300 yards of total offense and McNeal is the ninth Aggie to surpass the mark. McNeal is only the second player in school history to rush for at least 50 yards and reach 300 yards of total offense, joining Bucky Richardson (120 rush/231 pass/351 total).
BALANCED ATTACK MAINTAINS 200/200 PACE: The Aggie offense continued its 200/200 rush-pass balance by rushing for 253 yards and passing for 294 today against Kansas. Coming into today's game, A&M and Oklahoma State were the only teams in the Big 12 Conference averaging more than 200 yards rushing and passing. The Aggies finished today with 547 total offensive yards, their second-most of the season behind their 669 yards against Baylor.
FIRSTS: Junior running back Derek Farmer's third-quarter touchdown was his first of the season. ... Sophomore safety Jaxson Appel's 5-yard fumble return for a touchdown was the first by the Aggies since Byron Jones returned one 66 yards to paydirt against Nebraska in 2002. ... The Aggies scored on their first possession of the game for the second time this season. The other time was against Baylor. Kansas also scored on its first possession, marking the fourth time an A&M opponent has scored on its initial possession. The other first possession scorers were Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech.
FOR THE RECORD: Attendance for the Kansas game was 68,487, which was the lowest since Sept. 25, 1999 when a crowd of 65,264 attended the A&M-Southern Miss game. The Bernard C. Richardson Zone was open, but not complete for that game and capacity was listed at 67,000 for the USM game. It stops a streak of 22 straight home games with 70,000 or more fans in attendance. ... Game captains for the Kansas game were: senior Tim Van Zant, junior Derek Farmer and sophomores Ronald "Ray Ray" Jones and Todd Pegram. Kansas won the toss and deferred to the second half. ... The 12th Man Kickoff Team representative was Frederick Woods, a sophomore linebacker from Houston Washington High School. ... A&M started the game in a two-tight end set for the third time this season (other games are Baylor and Arkansas State).
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "I think in all three aspects of the game we did good things, especially when you get more than 500 yards. Their freshman quarterback did a good job and moved the ball well and we forced three turnovers. Jaxson Appel had a big day with the interception and the fumble recovery for the touchdown. Courtney Lewis had a big day, getting 120 yards. And Derek Farmer had a big day. While he didn't get a lot of yards, he had some hard-nosed runs for us. That was the way to start the second half. We got them penned down and got as touchdown on defense, which created a 17-point difference. They scored and we answered and I think that was the big swing in the game. We have three tough games ahead of us. They've all been tough with this schedule. A win is something we needed going into that stretch. Each win is important. We needed to win here at home and to start this stretch in November. This was good for the players, emotionally and mentally. It was good for the fans and coaches, too. We all needed it. I felt like we did a good job on offense. The quarterbacks did a good job when they were in there. Our protection was good; It gave us time to set our feet and make good throws. It's what you do after you get a win that counts and we're going to try to do something with it."
SAFETY JAXSON APPEL: "You can watch any game played on Saturday and the team with the least amount of turnovers wins. We really worked on creating turnovers this week in practice and it worked out for us. (On fumble recovery) I was getting ready to congratulate somebody on knocking the ball out and it was sitting right down at my feet, so I just picked it up and ran."
OFFENSIVE TACKLE ALAN REUBER: "I think the heat might have had a little effect on them because I know it affected us a little bit. But we've been practicing really hard and I think we're in pretty good shape right now. Before the game, we were really looking forward to running on them. We wanted to come out and be very effective inside."
RECEIVER TIM VAN ZANT: "Today we came out and made a lot of big plays. The last couple of weeks we were kind of struggling. I thought the coaches called some great plays and we did a good job of executing them. We definitely spread the ball around quite a bit."
RECEIVER TERRENCE MURPHY: (on 100th career catch) "I was just trying to go out and help my team. I try to be consistent and I feel since the day I walked in here I've been consistent. We just have to step up and continue to try to get better. One hundred career catches is not that big a deal. I just have to go out and help my team win. If I come out with 90 million catches, it doesn't matter. We just have to win and try to get to a bowl."
QUARTERBACK REGGIE MCNEAL: "We just had to go out and play. I was just trying to show my team that we can get through anything together. (on next week vs. OU) We have to come out and play four quarters like we did today. We just have to come out and do what we have to do."
LINEBACKER ARCHIE MCDANIEL: "It was really important for us to make stops today. This game is going to be a big momentum builder for us going into next week. We just needed to get our confidence back up. We still didn't play as well as we think we should have, but to get a win in our bellies is really big for us. The turnovers were very important. We hadn't had any key turnovers in a while and the coaches are preaching turnovers all the time. We had set a goal of causing some turnovers and we did."
DEFENSIVE BACK BYRON JONES: (On KU QB Barmann) "He had a good day. I thought he was an upperclassman. He played really well for a freshman. Overall, he played great. (on forced turnovers) Our coach always stresses the importance of turnovers and I just tried to come up and make plays. The ball was just coming out for us. We have to go back and go to work. We made a lot of mistakes today. We have to get better."
Kansas Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH MARK MANGINO: "Our kids played very hard today. They competed very well and gave it everything they had. I want to especially point out the play of Adam Barmann today. I believed he was going to play well. I think what he did today was one of the most gutty performances in the recent history of Kansas football. Not only did he play well, but he managed the huddle, he checked at the line of scrimmage as often as Bill (Whittemore) does, and was correct in just about every check he made today. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. To think this was his first start -- in College Station, Texas, in one of the best and hostile venues in college football - to go out and perform like that is just unbelievable. We thought all along he was going to be a player for us and he stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. The special teams, specifically the kickoff return unit, did not perform well and we will make changes on that unit. I called an offensive play at the beginning of the second half and did not have proper personnel in the game. That put us in a hole right off the bat. That's my fault. Our kids are more angry than feeling bad about losing the game because it was a winnable game for us. Coming in here with a freshman quarterback that everybody was worried about, I knew we had other worries. If you watched the game today, you know what they are."
QUARTERBACK ADAM BARMANN: "To tell you the truth, I wasn't really nervous. I felt all I had to do would be to be efficient and get the ball to our playmakers. We have a lot of guys on offense who are extremely talented. Our wide receivers will make plays, our running backs will make plays and our line has blocked well all year. I knew if I could just do my job we'd be all right. I knew coming in it would be a big stage. This is a huge stadium to play in. We knew it was going to be like that coming in. We were prepared for it. When you get out there, it's just playing football. I've done that my whole life. I just went out and tried to do the things I could do to help our team be successful. Just getting those first few plays in gets the nervousness out. I felt our offense get into a little bit of a rhythm when we scored. Bill (Whittemore) has been a great help to me. He's definitely not moping around about his injury. He's just trying to help all the other quarterbacks become better players."