Aggies Blank Wyoming, 31-0, in Home Opener

Saturday, September 11

College Station

TBA

Texas A&M

1-1

Wyoming

1-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Wyoming

Texas A&M

Sep 11, 2004 | Football

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

September 11, 2004

Reggie McNeal threw for 298 yards, including an 84-yard touchdown to freshman Kerry Franks, and ran for another score to lead Texas A&M to a 31-0 win over Wyoming on Saturday.

Texas A&M won its 17th straight home opener, bouncing back at Kyle Field with a dominant performance after a 20-point loss at Utah to open the season.

Justin Warren returned an interception 23 yards for a touchdown, Chris Alexander scored on a 1-yard plunge and Keith Joseph rushed for 82 yards in the Aggies' first shutout since a 41-0 win over Baylor in 2002.

The Aggies, who gave up 582 yards against the Utes, turned in one of its best defensive efforts since coach Dennis Franchione took over last season. Wyoming gained only 181 yards, including minus-3 yards on the ground.

Joseph, who ran for 64 yards all last season, replaced injured tailback Courtney Lewis with his best performance since rushing for 105 yards against Wyoming in 2001.

Lewis, who last year became the first 1,000-yard rusher at A&M since Dante Hall in 1998, didn't even suit up. He was slowed by a leg injury throughout summer practices and rushed for only 44 yards against Utah.

Terrence Murphy, A&M's career receiving leader, was also injured after catching a 9-yard pass in the third quarter. He spent the rest of the game on the sidelines.

Despite missing a couple of offensive stars, A&M probably could have won by a lot more.

Wyoming (1-1) twice stopped the Aggies inside the 5-yard line, stuffing Alexander on a fourth-and-1 in the first quarter and sniffing out holder Chad Schroeder's run on a fake field-goal attempt in the third.

But McNeal, who had minor surgery on his left (non-throwing) thumb last week, showed little problem moving the Aggies. He completed 17 of 24 passes, ran for 44 yards and committed no turnovers.

McNeal scored the game's first touchdown on a third-and-11 from the 22, scampering untouched down the center of the field after dropping back to pass.

He also hooked up with Franks, the only true freshman to play for A&M this year, on a long pass midway through the fourth. Franks shook off a tackle at about the 20 and scored his first college touchdown. Franks finished with five catches for 128 yards.

Wyoming did almost nothing right after routing Division I-AA Appalachian State 53-7 last week.

Cowboys quarterback Casey Bramlet, who threw for two touchdowns in his first start last week, was benched for J.J. Raterink after the first series of the second quarter and didn't return until late in the third.

Raterink was intercepted by Warren on the first play of the second half, and the linebacker took it 23 yards for a touchdown.

Bramlet finished 8-of-20 for 103 yards with two interceptions, while Raterink was 11-of-16 for 81 yards and an interception. Wyoming was ineffective on the ground, particularly after tailback Ivan Harris sat out the second half following an undisclosed injury.

Texas A&M has won all three games between both schools by a combined score of 105-20.

Texas A&M Postgame Notes

WIN NO. 160 FOR FRAN --- Today's Aggie victory was the 160th of Dennis Franchione's 22 seasons as a head coach. Franchione is the No. 7 winningest active Div. I-A head coach in the nation. His overall record improves to 160-82-2.

DEFENSE SHINES --- A&M held Wyoming to 181 yards (-3 rush/184 pass), the fewest by an opponent since Southern Mississippi gained just 129 yards (18 rush/111 pass) at Kyle Field in 1999. Wyoming's -3 rushing yards were the fewest by an opponent since 1996, when North Texas was held to -10 yards at Kyle Field.

2,000 RECEIVING YARDS FOR T-MURPH --- With his first catch of the game - a 48-yarder -- Texas A&M all-time receiving leader Terrence Murphy became the first Aggie to break the 2,000-yard mark in career receiving yards. Murphy has 127 career receptions for 2,064 yards.

JOSEPH LIKES THE COWBOYS --- Fifth-year senior Keith Joseph rushed for 82 yards on 20 carries, the second-best rushing total of his career. His career-best rushing game was against Wyoming in 2001 when he gained 105 yards on 21 carries as a redshirt freshman.

MCNEAL HAS CAREER DAY --- Junior quarterback Reggie McNeal had the best statistical performance of his career, passing for a career-high 298 yards and completing 17-of-24 passes, including a touchdown. He also rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. His 342 total offensive yards are also a career high and are the ninth most in school history. McNeal's 84-yard scoring pass to Kerry Franks tied for the sixth longest in A&M annals and was the longest since McNeal tossed a 91-yarder to Jamaar Taylor last season against Baylor.

FIRST SHUTOUT AT KYLE SINCE 1998 --- The Aggies' 31-0 victory marked their first shutout since 2002, when they blanked Baylor, 41-0, in Waco. The last time A&M posted a shutout at Kyle Field was a 29-0 win against Oklahoma in 1998.

KERRY SO VERY --- True freshman receiver Kerry Franks (Orange, Texas) caught the first pass of his career - a 17-yarder - in the third quarter, and went on to catch five passes for 128 yards, the second most receiving yards ever by an A&M freshman. His biggest highlight came in the fourth quarter, when he scored on an 84-yard pass from Reggie McNeal in the fourth quarter, the longest reception by an A&M freshman in school history..

FIRSTS --- Redshirt freshman Kirk Elder (Klein, Texas) made his first career start at quick guard ... Sophomore Justin Warren (Tyler, Texas) started at middle linebacker for the first time. Warren also notched his first career interception in the third quarter, which he returned for a touchdown. It was A&M's first INT return for a TD since Jaxson Appel returned one 64 yards against Baylor in 2003 (seven games) ... Junior DeQawn Mobley (The Bronx, N.Y.) made his first career start at wide receiver ... Redshirt freshman Japhus Brown (Edna, Texas) made his first career start at strong safety ... Senior cornerback Jonte Buhl's second quarter interception was A&M's first turnover gained in 2004 ... Junior Renuel Greene (McCalla, Ala.) made his first career quarterback sack. ... Sophomore Layne Neumann (Hondo, Texas) saw the first action of his career as a kickoff specialist in the second half. ... Redshirt freshman Chris Alexander notched his first career touchdown on a 1-yard blast in the fourth quarter...Redshirt freshman defensive back Erik Mayes had a team-high 10 tackles, including one for a loss...senior defensive back Byron Jones had a big game with six tackles, including two sacks, and also forced a fumble and broke up a pass.

MISCELLANEOUS --- Game captains for the Aggies were Aldo De La Garza (New Braunfels, Texas), Jaxson Appel (Friendswood, Texas), Red Bryant (Jasper, Texas) and Terrence Murphy (Tyler, Texas) ... the Aggies' 12th Man Kickoff team representative was John Ray, a sophomore from Giddings, Texas. Ray also was the 12th Man for the Utah game...today's attendance was 65,600....senior defensive back Jonte Buhl posted his second career interception.

Wyoming Postgame Notes

TEAM NOTES

Wyoming's record against Texas A&M now stands at 0-3-0.
The Cowboys record in road openers now stands at 37-62-2.
In games played against Texas A&M in College Station, UW is now 0-2-0.
The last time Wyoming defeated a Big 12 Conference team was Sept. 6, 1997, when the Pokes defeated Iowa State, 56-10, in Laramie.
The last time UW defeated a Big 12 Conference team on the road was Sept. 9, 1996, at Iowa State. The Cowboys won that game by a score of 41-38 in overtime.
Wyoming's all-time record against members of the Big 12 Conference now stands at 16-55-2. Since the 1996 season when the Big 12 began competition, Wyoming is 2-7-0 versus the Big 12.
The Pokes record against A&M head coach Dennis Franchione now stands at 3-2. The Cowboys defeated Franchione's New Mexico Lobos twice, in 1992 (35-21 in Laramie) and 1994 (38-28 in Laramie), and defeated his TCU Horned Frogs in 1998 (34-27 in Fort Worth). Wyoming's previous loss to a Franchione-coached team was in 1993 (7-10 in Albuquerque).
The last time Wyoming was shutout in a game was Oct. 20, 2001 by Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. UW lost that game 35-0.
The last time UW was held under 200 yards passing was Oct. 18, 2003, when BYU limited the Cowboys to 140 passing yards. But Wyoming won that game 13-10.
The last time UW was held under 200 yards of total offense was Nov. 22, 2003, when New Mexico held the Pokes to 122 yards of total offense in a game the Lobos won 26-3 in Laramie.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Dustin Pleasant led the Cowboys in receptions for the second consecutive week. Pleasant caught 8 passes for 50 yards against Texas A&M. In the season opener versus Appalachian State, he caught seven passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns.
Pleasant's eight catches against A&M was a career high. His previous high was seven vs. Appalachian State.
J.J. Raterink completed a career high 11 passes for a career best 81 yards today.
Jovon Bouknight has now caught at least two passes in the last 26 consecutive games -- every game of his career.
Junior wide receiver Jovon Bouknight entered today with 116 career receptions, good for 11th place in career catches at UW. With his two receptions today he moved within one catch of 10th place on the UW career chart with 118. He needs one more catch to tie Shawn Wiggins (119 career receptions from 1987-90) for 10th place.
Junior place-kicker Deric Yaussi didn't attempt a field goal for the first time in five games.
Trenton Franz started his 33rd consecutive game at center for the Cowboys today.
Zach Morris has started the last 16 consecutive games.
Jovon Bouknight (WR), Chase Johnson (OT), Jason Karcher (OG), Randy Tscharner (MLB) and Deric Yaussi (K) have each started the last 14 consecutive games.

Postgame Quotes

WYOMING HEAD COACH JOE GLENN --- "We just missed a lot early on. We missed on plays and on too many things. We weren't clicking. To help the team out, we thought we'd try J.J. (Raterink). He'd gone in and done a good job last week. He's done good in practice, he's a senior and he actually went in and played pretty darn good. He got let down by his teammates a little bit in there. We were just real sloppy. In an effort to try to find something, we went back to Corey (Bramlet). But it was too little, too late. I thought we played hard. We lost some players who got hurt. We had a lot of guys who didn't finish the game for us. That said, I thought we played darned hard on defense. We had a couple of goal line stands and that's tough stuff. We hung in there with them real good. I don't think we crossed the 30-yard line on offense. We have to go back and figure out what the hell is going on with our offense. Maybe we've got to subtract some stuff since we're making so many mistakes."

WYOMING QUARTERBACK COREY BRAMLET --- "Obviously, We didn't do very well. As quarterbacks, we could have done a lot better. We could have done better things with reads and where we're going with the ball. We didn't see anything we haven't seen, we could have made a lot better throws and a lot better decisions than we did. (On leaving game) We were just trying to get some rhythm going. When I was in there, we weren't getting anything going and I understand that. J.J. played well today and we need somebody to come out here and run this offense."

A&M SENIOR RUNNING BACK KEITH JOSEPH --- "I'd like to thank Coach Fran for believing in me. He told me Courtney (Lewis) wasn't going to play and I had to play tailback. My main focus is going off the bench to play the best and go in and do my thing. It felt real good you know. I played tailback in high school, so I still got a little tailback in me. It felt good overall."

A&M FRESHMAN DEFENSIVE BACK ERIK MAYES --- "Basically we executed better than we did last week. Everybody settled down a little bit and got the job done."

A&M SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK JONTE BUHL --- "I just think we let the game come to us instead of forcing the game last time. Last time we tried to force plays, we had to let the game come to us. Tackling is better when we do that. (on the interception) We talk about defensive backs having short-term memory. The ball came our way, so all I did was intercept it."

A&M JUNIOR QUARTERBACK REGGIE McNEAL--- "Today, it went fine. Went through all that week in practice-just try to get it done. Just knew I was going to have to come out and be more focused because of that (injury). Everything went good and got all the snaps down. I can't complain about nothing. (on the defense) When they go out and play like that any offense will have confidence. When you put 7 points on the board, you're like all we need to do is win. Our defense was going to go all out there and play ball every snap. But when you go out there and having them play that way, it makes the offense boost that much more. Just go out there and execute. Execute the defense and we came out, pitched a shutout and we put 31 points on the board."

A&M HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE --- "Got to point out the defense first bouncing back like they did and tackling better and creating some turnovers. We were much better on third down, but I think if you look at it we were much better on first down having a lot of second and nines or situations like that. And we got the plus in the take away battle offensively for the second straight week. No turnovers and I was pleased with that. You know I thought there were a number of guys that played well and got some sacks and got some pressure on the quarterback. And we defended the deep balls pretty well today. Pretty good effort and it been a pretty long time since we've had a shutout. It's hard to get shut outs against anybody in college football, but that was nice. Offensively, I've got to point out Reggie. I think that was a pretty good effort on his part today in light of what he's gone through in the last week and the way he played and handled the situation was very good. The offense not turning the ball over was very pleasing and if there was a down side to a 31 nothing win, we got down inside the five a couple of times and didn't get points and maybe a few too many penalties, but again we played a lot of people as the game wore on."