Aggies Rally to Top Colorado in Overtime, 29-26

Saturday, October 23

College Station

1:37 PM

Texas A&M

6-1 , 4-0

Colorado

4-3 , 1-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Colorado

Texas A&M

Oct 23, 2004 | Football

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

October 23, 2004

Todd Pegram kicked a 19-yard field goal in overtime and Lee Foliaki recovered a fumble on the next possession, giving No. 17 Texas A&M a 29-26 victory over Colorado on Saturday.

After Pegram made his fourth field goal of the game, Foliaki poked the ball away from Bobby Purify on the second play of Colorado's possession.

Foliaki came out of a pile with the ball, ending the game and setting off a wild celebration at Kyle Field. A&M's players stormed the field, while Purify and some of his teammates laid on the turf in disbelief.

Reggie McNeal finished with 382 yards of offense and Courtney Lewis scored two touchdowns, leading the Aggies to their sixth consecutive win. It's A&M's longest win streak since 1998, when the Aggies won their only Big 12 championship.

The Aggies (6-1, 4-0 Big 12) now have enough wins to be eligible for their first bowl berth since going to the 2001 Galleryfurniture.com bowl. With lowly Baylor up next week, A&M appears to be headed toward a showdown for first place in the Big 12 South against No. 2 Oklahoma on Nov. 6.

That would give the Aggies a chance to avenge a school and Big 12-record 77-point loss to the Sooners last season.

Colorado (4-3, 1-3) came very close to thwarting A&M's big plans.

The Buffs led for much of the game, taking a 19-7 lead early in the third quarter on Joel Klatt's 24-yard touchdown pass to Evan Judge.

But Colorado coach Gary Barnett made a questionable decision to go for a 2-point conversion instead of an extra-point attempt. The pass failed, and Barnett's call came back to haunt the Buffs later.

Lewis scored on a 2-yard dive with just over 11 minutes left to give the Aggies their first lead of the game, 20-19, and Pegram's 34-yard field goal about seven minutes later increased the lead to four points.

Colorado responded with a 13-play, 82-yard drive, highlighted by Dusty Sprague's leaping 34-yard catch. Purify capped the drive with a 1-yard dive to give the Buffs a 26-23 lead.

McNeal had one more chance to rescue the Aggies, and he delivered.

He led A&M on an 80-yard drive to set up Pegram's 20-yard field goal as the clock expired, sending the game into overtime.

McNeal rushed for 139 yards on 22 carries, and completed 23 of 38 passes for 243 yards.

The 6-foot-2 junior quarterback also set a Big 12 record with 195 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. That streak breaks Kliff Kingsbury's mark of 179 in 2002 for Texas Tech.

Purify led Colorado with 130 yards on 20 carries with one touchdown. Klatt went 25-of-42 for 346 yards and two touchdowns, both to Evan Judge. Sprague added 101 yards on eight receptions.

Colorado has now lost six straight to Big 12 South teams.

Texas A&M Postgame Notes

AGGIES IN OVERTIME - A&M is now 3-3 in overtime games. Today's victory ended a three-game overtime losing streak - 1997: A&M 28, Oklahoma State 25, in College Station; 1998: A&M 36, Kansas State 33, in Big 12 title game in St. Louis; 2000: Mississippi State 43, A&M 41, Independence Bowl; 2002: Texas Tech 48, A&M 47, in College Station; 2002: Missouri 33, A&M 27, in College Station.

MCNEAL BREAKS KINGSBURY'S BIG 12 RECORD -- Aggie junior quarterback Reggie McNeal has thrown 195 passes without an interception, an A&M and Big 12 record. The previous Big 12 mark was 179 by Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury in 2002, while the A&M mark was 177 by Edd Hargett in a five-game span in 1968. As a team, A&M has attempted 220 passes without a pickoff, also a school record.

MCNEAL ROLLS ON - Reggie McNeal set career highs for pass completions and attempts, completing 23-of-38 passes for 243 yards. McNeal also rushed for a career-best 139 yards on a career-high 22 carries, his second 100-yard rushing game of the year. McNeal now has 3,806 yards in career passing and 1,100 yards rushing, making him the first player in school history to pass for at least 3,500 yards with 1,000 yards rushing. McNeal's 382 total offensive yards were the second most of his career behind his 386 yards last week at Oklahoma State. His five career 300-yard games are the most in A&M history.

PEGRAM REMAINS PERFECT - Junior kicker Todd Pegram made a career-high 5-of-5 field goal attempts, tying for the second most field goals in a game in school history. The school record is six by Alan Smith vs. Arkansas State in 1983, while Tony Franklin also had five against Rice in 1976 (Kyle Bryant also had five in the 1995 Alamo Bowl vs. Michigan). Pegram is a perfect 9-of-9 for the season and has made 13 straight field goal attempts going back to last season. In his career, Pegram is 38-of-52 (.731), the second best career percentage in school history behind Terrence Kitchens (30-of-41, .732, 1998-00). In the last two seasons, Pegram has connected on 26-of-31 (.838).

CARTER'S BIG DAY - Senior receiver Jason Carter posted a career-high seven receptions for 72 yards, his second-most receiving yards behind his 99 yards (5 catches) against Iowa State.

MURPHY BUILDS ON RECORD - Senior receiver Terrence Murphy caught seven passes for 34 yards, running his school career records in both categories to 145 receptions for 2,310 yards.

NO TURNOVERS AGAIN - A&M had no turnovers and continues to lead the nation with only one fumble this season. CU had two fumbles, running A&M's season turnover margin to 17-to-1, best in the nation.

OFFENSIVE NOTES - A&M had a season-high 532 yards of total offense 238 rush/294 pass). The previous high was 502 yards against Clemson. The Aggies 238 rushing yards were their second most of the year behind the 324 they gained against Clemson. A&M's 294 passing yards were also their second most of the year behind their 325 yards against Wyoming.

DEFENSIVE NOTES - Colorado gained 510 total yards, the first time A&M has allowed more than 400 since Utah gained 582 yards in the season opener.

FOLIAKI SAVES THE DAY - Junior linebacker Lee Foliaki caused and recovered the fumble at the end of overtime to ice the game for the Aggies. Foliaki also recovered Colorado's other fumble earlier in the game.

JONES IS 15TH DIFFERENT RECEIVER --- Byron Jones' catch on the successful fake punt gives A&M 15 different players with at least one catch, which is a school record. The previous best was 14 different receivers, which has been accomplished by five Aggie squads.

MISCELLANEOUS --- Today's win was A&M's first against Colorado at Kyle Field (1-2)...A&M's lone previous win against CU came in Boulder in 1996 (16-10)...Colorado scored on a long drive to open the second half. It was the first time since the season-opener that the Aggies have allowed a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter. ... The Aggies' 13-7 halftime deficit marked the first time since the season-opener that A&M has trailed after two quarters. The Aggies trailed the Utes, 27-7, at halftime. ... Game captains were Ty Branyon, Jaxson Appel, Johnny Jolly and Mike Montgomery ... The 12th Man Kickoff Team representative was John Ray, a sophomore from Giddings, Texas. Ray has been the 12th Man in every game this season...A&M is 6-1 for the first time since 2001, when it began the season with a 7-1 mark.

Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

WIDE RECEIVER JASON CARTER: (on the ups and downs of the game) "It was crazy. I knew we didn't want to lose. I think the team did a good job of feeding off each other. We made some good plays. That was a good ball club. They made some plays. It's hard to explain how I'm feeling and my teammates are feeling. I don't know what to say right now."

QUARTERBACK REGGIE McNEAL: (on the final drive of the game) "The difference was the execution -- I mean, everybody was on the same page. The offensive line knew if they gave me time I would pick out receivers and the receivers would make plays. That's what happened. The O-Line stayed up."

(on Jacob Young's throw on the fake punt) "I looked up and saw Byron (Jones) running down the field. It seemed to be a pretty good pass. I hope (Jacob) doesn't take my spot come tomorrow."

(on what CU's defense had done differently than other teams) "Nothing. Everything that they did we saw on film, we were prepared for everything. It wasn't really different than that, they just played a hard-fought game."

WIDE RECEIVER TERRENCE MURPHY: (on the no touchdown call late in regulation) "Everybody thought it was a touchdown, that's what they called. I was expecting them to give us the 7 points and when they didn't, I feel like we were cheated out of it. It didn't matter because we came back and fought together as a team and won."

PUNTER JACOB YOUNG: (on the fake punt) "Well, we watch film all week and Colorado showed the tendency to run their corners off our gunners, then blitz extra people off the edge. We saw an opportunity that with the right field position if they showed that that we could make a call at the line and that's how it worked that way."

KICKER TODD PEGRAM: (on his day) "Last night coach told us to visualize before we went to sleep about making a game winning kick and things like that, and he talked about eliminating doubt and think about success and I got to visualizing and didn't stop until it was too late. Then I couldn't go to sleep. But I guess you know that all pays off. You see yourself having success and I guess without God in my life that would be tough."

LINEBACKER LEE FOLIAKI: (on whether or not he stripped the football on the game's final play) "I don't know. I remember he was in the area and my intention was just to make a tackle. I think I had let my arms come under and the ball came out and it was on my hip. I had to get up and let (the officials) see the ball before they made the call."

HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "Well, first off let me say that our team had a lot of respect for Colorado going into the game and still do. These guys played very well. I thought the quarterback played an excellent game and I'm proud of our players. They worked the script that we always talk to them about in situations. Played as a team, played hard. Kept playing until it said 0:00 and even passed that a little bit. Didn't get down. Kept their poise. Great drive there with a minute and five seconds to go. You know, turnovers and take-aways are the big -- big stories. They had 500 yards we had 500 yards neither defense did a great job of slowing the offense down except at critical times. Got two turnovers today. Seven games without a turnover is an unbelievable statistic. I thought a big play early in the game was maybe the fake punt that worked for us and we took advantage of their alignment and that -- the reason I say that kind of jump started us a little bit and got us going when we were a little up and down there early in the football game gave us momentum there in the first half."

(on the team coming together) "As a coach you can tell them and tell them and tell them but sometimes they have to experience it. And once they experience something, then they say you know this guy might know what he's talking about. We've had several occasions this year where the thing that we constantly talk about as a coaching staff have been put in front of us and they've responded the right way and it gives them confidence in close games and you know when they scored with a minute and five seconds to go I didn't see anybody on our sideline that didn't think we weren't going to get a field goal."

(on Reggie McNeal's performance) "I thought Reggie McNeal didn't have his best game today but gosh he made a lot of plays today and had great poise and patience in the pocket and moving around and finding people and running with it. I mean, just a weapon that is really good to have on my side."

Colorado Postgame Quotes

COLORADO QUARTERBACK JOEL KLATT - "We put points on the board and they fought back right away. They played a good game. Unfortunately, it ended up that way. I was proud of our guys in that locker room. I thought we played a tremendous ball game. We can't let this game affect us next week. (On fumble on final play) Yeah, he was down. His shoulder was down, his elbow was down. I don't know what else to say. Obviously, it would be tough for the officials to get everybody off the field. We cost ourselves some points with penalties. I think that came back to bite us in the butt a little bit. What can you say? It was a tremendous football game. It was a great atmosphere and we came up a little short today. (On getting to overtime) I was elated. I was so proud of our offensive line and our skill position guys. We had (Joe) Klopfenstein drop a third-down ball earlier and obviously Dusty (Sprague) fumbled in the fourth quarter. I told those guys on the sidelines 'we're going to have another chance.' You look who made the two big plays on that drive, Klop down there close to the goal line and Dusty goes up and makes a huge catch. Our guys just fought back so gallantly. I'm very disappointed right now with the way it ended."

COLORADO COACH GARY BARNETT - "It was a great effort by our guys. (On the last fumble) Bobby said he was down. Our whole team hung in there across the board. They hung in there and fought very hard this game. It's hard to lose a game like this. (On CU's last scoring drive) It was a had-to drive. We had to do it. I think it was the first time all year we've made plays and did what we had to do. We played 60-plus minutes that way. It was just a great, great drive. Joel (Klatt) did a great job engineering the plays and directing the guys. There was great energy and spirit on our team. (On going for two early in game) I think we knew what we had to do and we wanted to get to 21. I'd do it again. We had a good play called, but we just dropped the ball. Bobby (Purify) played a great game. We had so many guys play well and he was one of them. I'm really proud of this team -- damn good football team. (On talking to referees after game) Are you kidding me? I didn't get to talk to them all game. This is the second time we've had them. Oklahoma State was the first. They ran off - they always do. I couldn't see anything. I just saw somebody running with the ball, then I saw them signal it was their ball. You guys had a better angle than I did. (On A&M's fake punt) The 'destroyer' (corner blitz) just showed it too early. You've got to have the guts to call it and we did. Bobby (Purify) is a warrior and he wanted to play in this game in the worst way. I don't know what he did statistically, but he sure looked good to me. He sure made some plays for us. I thought Joel (Klatt) had a great game. I thought he engineered a tremendous performance out there. We had good catches at key times. It had to be a great college football game to watch. Other than losing, it was fun to be a part of. It always comes down to a play or two plays. This one probably had about 10 plays that made a difference. I think our guys enjoyed the challenge of coming down here and playing in a great atmosphere."