September 09, 2006
Jorvorskie Lane ran for a career-high four touchdowns and Stephen McGee threw for 200 yards and a score as Texas A&M beat Louisiana-Lafayette 51-7 on Saturday night.
Backup Ty Branyon added a 56-yard TD pass to Joey Thomas and ran for another score.
The Aggies (2-0) looked much sharper than they did in their opening 35-3 win over The Citadel.
The offense scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and gained 496 yards without a turnover, while the defense allowed 171 yards, 10 first downs and two completions. Defensive end Chris Harrington had two of A&M's three sacks and safety Devin Gregg recovered a fumble.
The Aggies led 14-0 before the Ragin' Cajuns got their initial first down.
Chad Schroeder returned Lafayette's first two punts past the 50 and Lane finished each drive with a short touchdown run.
McGee completed his first six passes, including a 25-yard reception by tight end Martellus Bennett that kick-started A&M's third possession. McGee found Schroeder on a crossing route for a 15-yard touchdown with 12:40 left in the second quarter.
On Lafayette's next drive, with quarterback Jerry Babb scrambling, defensive end Michael Bennett stripped the ball and Gregg scooped up the fumble at the Ragin' Cajuns 37.
On first down, McGee fooled the Lafayette defense with a fake handoff and found Lane open down the sideline to set up a first and goal. Lane barreled into the end zone from 5 yards out on the next play.
Matt Szymanski kicked a 35-yard field goal with 6:05 left in the half for a 31-0 lead.
Michael Desormeaux replaced Babb as the Cajuns' quarterback and broke a 36-yard run on his third snap. An A&M personal foul kept the drive alive and Desormeaux shed a tackler and dove into the end zone with 1:58 left in the half.
A&M's Kerry Franks returned the second-half kickoff to midfield and the Aggies converted two fourth downs before Lane scored again with 8:32 left in the third quarter.
Branyon replaced McGee on the Aggies' next drive and on his second snap, he faked a handoff and found Thomas deep down the middle. Cajuns' cornerback Torres Kingsby tipped the pass, but Thomas, a backup tight end, caught the ricochet and scored.
Branyon weaved for a 12-yard touchdown run on the last play of the third quarter.
A&M coach Dennis Franchione used mostly backups in the fourth quarter, including a kickoff team comprised entirely of walk-ons.
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
LANE TRAIN --- Sophomore Jorvorskie Lane?â„¢s four rushing touchdowns were the most by an Aggie since Darren Lewis had four rushing scores against SMU in 1990. Lane?â„¢s effort ties for second-most in a single game in school history with Lewis. The record for single game rushing touchdowns is seven by Jelly Woodman in 1926. It was also Lane?â„¢s career-high. His previous best was three TDs against Oklahoma State in 2005. For the game, Lane rushed for 52 yards on 12 carries.
STARTING FAST --- A&M scored on its first five possessions (TD, TD, TD, TD, FG). Last year, the Aggies scored on their first five possessions against Oklahoma State (FG, TD, TD, FG, TD). Against SMU in 2005, A&M scored TDs on its final seven possessions. Against OU in 2004, A&M opened with four straight TD drives.
SPREADING IT AROUND --- Quarterback Stephen McGee used eight different receivers in the first half. For the game, McGee and Ty Branyon hit 11 different receivers.
Tight end Martellus Bennett had five catches for 54 yards, which matches his career high for receptions and surpasses his previous best for receiving yards. He also had four catches against Colorado in 2005. His previous high in receiving yards was 39 vs. CU. Bennett?â„¢s 25-yard catch was also a career long (previous best was 22 yards vs. SMU, 2005).
FIRST STARTS --- Making their first career starts were sophomore Travis Schneider at offensive tackle, junior Mark Dodge at linebacker and fifth-year senior L?â„¢Tydrick Riley at wide receiver.
12TH MAN, CAPTAINS --- The 12th Man for the second straight week was sophomore linebacker Nick LaMantia (Mission, Texas). The Aggies used an all-12th Man kickoff team in the fourth quarter ?... game captains were senior Justin Warren, junior Kirk Elder and sophomores Devin Gregg and Stephen McGee.
TOP NOTCH PASS DEFENSE --- The Aggies held the Cajuns to 17 yards passing. Louisiana-Lafayette quarterbacks Jerry Babb and Michael Desormeaux combined to complete 2-for-12. The 17 yards allowed passing is the lowest given up by the Aggies since Arkansas failed to gain any passing yards (0-3 attempts/completions) on Nov. 16, 1991.
TAKE FIVE, JUSTIN --- Texas A&M sophomore punter Justin Brantly?â„¢s lone punt of 58 yards came with less than three minutes remaining. The last time A&M had one punt in a game was in a 66-8 rout of SMU last season.
GETTING DEFENSIVE --- The Aggies held Louisiana-Lafayette to 171 total yards on 50 plays, the lowest yardage A&M has given up since Sept. 25, 1999 against Southern Miss. Tonight?â„¢s attendance of 67,079 was the lowest for an A&M home game since that same night against Southern Miss. (65,264), before the construction of The Zone. A&M has allowed just 10 points in two games this season, its fewest in consecutive games since 2004 when it gave up just six points to Wyoming (31-0) and Clemson (27-6). The last time A&M surrendered fewer points in the first two games was in 1998 against Sam Houston State (59-6) and Louisiana-Lafayette (66-0).
RIBBON BOARD ADJUSTMENTS --- The brightness on the Aggies?â„¢ brand new stadium ribbon boards was lowered to 10 percent of capacity once darkness.
HANGING ONTO THE BALL --- After suffering four fumbles in last week?â„¢s opener, the Aggies had no turnovers against the Cajuns. The last time A&M committed no turnovers was in a win against Texas Tech in 2004.
Postgame Quotes
ULL QUARTERBACK MICHAEL DESORMEAUX --- ?They were really good up front. I?â„¢m not taking anything away from any position out there. They were amazing on d-line. They put pressure on our passing game and that caused us to not be able to throw the ball very effectively and it made it easier on their defensive backs. I?â„¢m not trying to blame anybody, but we didn?â„¢t have a whole lot of time. You have to work with what you have. We didn?â„¢t do a very good job as quarterbacks and working with what we had.?
ULL DEFENSIVE BACK KYLE WARD --- ?They had the right play called whenever we brought pressure. We did feel like they were going to run a whole lot of options, but they gave us a whole lot of power, smash-mouth football.?
ULL HEAD COACH RICKEY BUSTLE --- ?We?â„¢re going to have to get back to fundamental things. We got beat one-on-one. They didn?â„¢t pressure us at all. We didn?â„¢t defend the quarterback. They just whipped us. We knew they had more in their offense. They threw the ball a little bit more. If we just read their keys and do the right things, we?â„¢ll be closer to the right place. (on backup quarterback) Of course he gave us a spark. He stepped up in there, his first time in, and took us to a score. We came right back defensively and they missed a field goal going into the half. We played two pretty good series right there, about the two best we?â„¢ve had. Obviously, he led us to the end zone and that definitely gave us a spark.?
COACH FRANCHIONE ---I thought we played a lot better and played pretty well. The defense got us off to a great start. We kick off and they go three and out the first two possessions. We take the ball on their side of the 50-yard line twice and it's 14 to nothing immediately. We stayed in control and never really gave them any hope to get back into the game after that. We held them to less than 200 yards and had no turnovers tonight which I'm proud of. We stressed that a lot this week at practice and stressed pass protection a lot with our backs and they did a good job. We missed a field goal right before the half and scored off every other possession of the half. We got to play a lot of guys again and that's going to be a beneficial to us as we move forward.
THE QUESTION: Coach, you talk a lot about building confidence. How far does this go - where you're able to get off to the quick start, you're at home and it seems like everyone is getting eased into their positions and go with the flow and put on a good show?
COACH FRAN: It's immeasurable. It's a intangible that?â„¢s hard to show. It's valuable. We sometimes forget how physical this game is. I think of only how physical this game is and it is a mental game as well as a physical game and confidence in getting on a roll is valuable. You know, you get to going well and playing a lot of people and I think it helps your practices, it helps your players, it helps your team. I don't know how to quantify it completely for you other than I think it's something that we can use for our benefit as we go forward.
THE QUESTION: Coach, would you discuss your defensive line's efforts how disruptive they were tonight?
COACH FRAN: We had good control of the line of scrimmage. I don't know how many sacks we got tonight off the top of my head. You hold somebody to less than 200 yards, I believe they only completed two passes for 17 yards, had four three and outs on the evening. When they did try to throw in the pocket, we had people there. I don't think we blitzed a whole lot tonight. Looking back on it, they only ran 50 plays and both lines controlled the game. I thought our offensive line was very physical and controlled the line of scrimmage and I thought our defensive line did the same thing on the other side.
THE QUESTION: Coach, can you talk about the running game tonight? You had four guys with 40 yards or more then Jorvorski with four touchdowns?
COACH FRAN: I felt like this was a team going into the game that we could run the ball on. We still maintained pretty good balance. We've got depth at that position and with the way the line played and controlled the line of scrimmage -- the quarterbacks read the zone well. That's the way this game has been shortened with these new clock rules. I think that that is a big asset that hopefully we can take with us week in and week out to some degree as a strength. Certainly with the guys that we've got in the backfield and the way the line played you hope that we can continue to put ourselves in those kind of positions and continue to get better.
THE QUESTION: Coach, what did you think of Bellville product Travis Schneider's first shot at tackle?
COACH FRAN: Having just looked back and reflecting on the game I would say he played pretty well. We didn't have a lot of pressure on our quarterback and 500 or so yards of offense -- I'd say Travis must have done a pretty good job.
THE QUESTION: Coach you talked about improvement from game one to game two. Did you see some drastic improvement in your team?
COACH FRAN: My impression leaving the field tonight is yes, that we improved in just about every aspect. We didn't have many penalties, didn't turn the ball over, didn't miss a lot of tackles, didn't miss a lot of assignments, played very physical. We got a team in position to finish them and we did. You know, we didn't play a Big XII opponent obviously but in looking at it -- I think we maybe played a more talented team tonight than we did last week. I?â„¢m not willing to say completely a better team necessarily but a more talented team. They did win their conference last year and they had a lot back. I don't think we let them look good tonight. I think our team contested just about everything defensively and offensively we didn't slow down much whether it was the first offensive line or second offensive line in the game. The defense had total control most of the time.
THE QUESTION: Does it say a lot about your team's maturity and may be the leadership that you guys had six turnovers last week and this week they appeared to go to work pretty hard at making sure they didn't let any of them get away.
COACH FRAN: One of the things I'm most proud of is after the game last week we were excited and felt good about the win but I didn't have to say we've got some things to work on. They said it. And they went to practice with purpose to correct those things. That is maturity to a certain level, that is leadership to a certain level and it's individuals taking account and responsibility. Michael Goodson -- he had one run he got a little loose with the football when he changed directions on the field but all in all he was very aware of ball security and all of our backs were tonight so you know I do think that what you're mentioning is accurate.