November 28, 2003
Postgame notes and quotes from A&M's 46-15 season-ending loss to No. 6 Texas Friday at Kyle Field...
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
MURPHY BREAKS HANDFUL OF RECORDS: Junior Terrence Murphy (Tyler, Texas / Chapel Hill HS) broke a handful of season and career records with a strong performance against the Longhorns. Murphy set the season kickoff return yardage record, the career receiving yards record and matched the school mark for career games with 100-plus receiving yards. With 150 yards on seven catches against the Longhorns, Murphy raised his career receiving yards total to 1,879 to overtake the old record of 1,740 yards set by Bethel Johnson from 1999-2002. It was Murphy's sixth career game with 100-plus receiving yards., matching the school record for career 100-yard receiving games set earlier this year by Jamaar Taylor. Murphy's 116 career receptions ranks second in school annals behind Johnson's 117. Murphy also broke A&M's season kickoff return yards record with 626 yards, breaking the old record of 590 set by Leeland McElroy in 1993. Murphy's 23 kickoff returns this season ties the school record set by Dave Elmendorf in 1970.
Texas A&M Career Receiving Yards 1. Terrence Murphy, 2001-03 1,879 2. Bethel Johnson, 1999-2002 1,740 3. Jamaar Taylor, 2001-2003 1,705 4. Tony Harrison, 1989-93 1,576 5. Albert Connell, 1995-96 1,525 Texas A&M Career Receptions 1. Bethel Johnson, 1999-2002 117 2. Terrence Murphy, 2001-03 116 3. Keith Woodside, 1983-87 110 4. Jamaar Taylor, 2001-03 108 5. Rod Bernstine, 1983-86 105 Texas A&M Season Kickoff Return Yards 1. Terrence Murphy, 2003 626 (23) 2. Leeland McElroy, 1993 590 (15) 3. Dave Elmendorf, 1970 457 (23) 4. Hugh McElroy, 1971 439 (17) 5. Carl Roaches, 1973 426 (15)
LEWIS REACHED 1,000-YARD MARK: Redshirt freshman running back Courtney Lewis rushed for 84 yards on 17 carries today, giving him 1,024 yards on the season, the second most by a freshman in school history. Lewis becomes A&M's first 1,000-yard rusher since Dante Hall gained 1,024 yards in 1998.
Texas A&M's Freshman Season Rushing Yards 1. Greg Hill, 1991 1,212 2. Courtney Lewis, 2003 1,024 3. Curtis Dickey, 1976 726 4. Darren Lewis, 1987 668 5. Dante Hall, 1996 642 Texas A&M's Last Five 1,000-Yard Rushers Year Player, Class-Exp. Yards 2003 Courtney Lewis, Fr-RS 1,024 1998 Dante Hall, Jr-2L 1,024 1995 Leeland McElroy, Jr-2L 1,122 1992 Greg Hill, So-1L 1,339 1991 Greg Hill, Fr-RS 1,216
APPEL NEARS TACKLES MARK: Sophomore safety Jaxson Appel posted seven tackles (according to press box stats) today, giving him 131 on the season, one shy of the A&M record for defensive backs set by Carl Grulich in 1977 (132).
Texas A&M Season Defensive Back Tackles 1. Carl Grulich, 1977 132 2. Jaxson Appel, 2003 124 3. Larry Horton, 1990 117 4. Larry Horton, 1989 102 t5. Terrence Kiel, 2002 95 t5. Patrick Bates, 1992 95
FOR THE RECORD: Game captains for the Aggies were: senior Tim Van Zant and senior Alan Reuber ... The 12th Man Kickoff Team representative was junior Blake Kendrick, a linebacker from Willis, Texas (Willis HS)...today's sellout attendance of 84,094 was the seventh largest crowd in Kyle Field history. It was the 12th consecutive above-capacity crowd for A&M-Texas games at Kyle Field.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "We got it to 20-15 and had it down there and turned the ball over. Our three turnovers hurt us today. We also had three takeaways, but to beat a top 10 team, we can't have those kinds of mistakes we had in the third quarter with the fumbled punt and those kind of things. We felt good up to that point and felt like we had a script going that might put us in position to get an upset. We went into the game saying we would play both of those guys (Long and McNeal). We tried to utilize the skills that both of them have. We thought that was our best chance and the guys responded to it very well. They are two unselfish players and have been all year. I thought it really worked pretty well. (Cedric) Benson is an impressive player and has been for a long time. I remember him when he was in high school. He's an outstanding football player. He's a powerful runner and we missed some tackles on him. If we could have eliminated three or four bad plays, it would have been a tight game. (On Nathan Vasher's third-quarter interception in endzone) Their cornerback made a great play on the ball, as fine a play as you could make in that situation. It was unfortunate for it to happen when it did. We meet as a team on Monday and go back to work on Tuesday. That's the only thing you can do. We need to find every way we can to improve this football team. We certainly have some things to build around."
SENIOR LINEMAN ALAN REUBER: "We were given the opportunity to play well today, but we just made too many mistakes and couldn't keep up. You can't do that against a good team like Texas. You can't have that many mistakes. There is a bright future at Texas A&M. These young guys will get things turned around. They have a lot of fight in them. They know what this feels like and they never want to have it again."