Texas A&M 35, The Citadel 3

Saturday, September 2

College Station

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

1-0

The Citadel

0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

The Citadel

Texas A&M

Sep 02, 2006 | Football

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

September 02, 2006

Stephen McGee threw for 200 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score in his second career start as Texas A&M beat The Citadel 35-3 Saturday night.

Courtney Lewis had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs and Kerry Franks blocked a punt and returned the second-half kickoff 52 yards for the Aggies, who won their 20th consecutive home opener.

McGee, a sophomore, completed 16 of 24 passes without an interception. The Aggies were one of 11 teams to average 200 yards rushing and passing last season and they were balanced again, complementing McGee's night with 184 yards on the ground.

Duran Lawson completed 19 of 38 passes for 128 yards for the Division I-AA Bulldogs, who've lost 16 consecutive games against I-A opponents.

Though they didn't score a touchdown, the Bulldogs finished with 243 total yards.

The Citadel had 173 yards and nine first downs at halftime -- more than it had combined in two games last season against Florida State and Mississippi.

McGee and the A&M offense made sure the result was the same.

The Aggies went 63 yards for a touchdown on their opening drive. McGee completed his first two passes and Lewis scored less than six minutes into the game.

Chad Schroeder made a leaping 38-yard catch on A&M's next possession, but McGee fumbled a snap at the Bulldogs' 11. Two plays later, Bulldogs' receiver Andre Roberts fumbled after catching a screen pass, setting up Jorvorskie Lane's 5-yard TD run.

Early in the second quarter, Franks swatted Mark Kaspar's punt from inside the Bulldogs' 10, safety Alton Dixon recovered at 1 and McGee plowed into the end zone on the next play. Kaspar, a native of nearby Navasota, had a punt blocked for the first time in 83 career attempts.

The Bulldogs chewed up 8:31 on an ensuing 18-play drive to the Aggies' 7, but Kellen Heard sacked Lawson on third down. Blake Vandiver kicked a 29-yard field goal to trim A&M's lead to 21-3.

The lopsided score belied how well the Bulldogs moved the ball in the first half. Lawson was 12 of 22, but several of his incompletions were drops by his open receivers.

Franks broke free down the sideline on the second-half kickoff and Lewis scored again four minutes later to keep the Aggies in control.

McGee found a wide-open Schroeder for a 27-yard TD connection with 5:18 to go, capping an 84-yard drive.

Texas A&M Postgame Notes

BULLET POINTS:

Kerry Franks' 51-yard kickoff return was the longest by an Aggie since 2003 when Jason Carter had an 89-yard touchdown against Nebraska.
Courtney Lewis had his 29th and 30th rushing touchdowns of his career, moving past today's honorary game captain Leeland McElroy to a tie for No. 6 on the school career rushing TD list with Joel Hunt (1925-27) and Bucky Richardson (1987-89, 91).
Preseason All-Big 12 linebacker Justin Warren didn't start due to an injury suffered during fall camp, but he did see significant action.
In a rarity, the Aggies lost the turnover battle but still won the game. The Aggies lost four fumbles, while gaining only one turnover. In the Franchione era, A&M improved to 4-18 in games with an even or minus turnover margin. A&M is 13-1 when winning the turnover battle.
In his return to the playing field, senior L'Tydrick Riley grabbed one catch for six yards. Dating back to 2004, Riley has at least one catch in nine straight games and 14 of his last 15.

RETURN TO ACTION --- Returning to action after suffering season-ending injuries last fall were wide receiver Chad Schroeder and defensive back Japhus Brown, who were in the starting lineup, and wide receivers L'Tydrick Riley and Earvin Taylor.

FIRST DRIVE SUCCESS --- After forcing a three-and-out on defense, the Aggie offense promptly scored a touchdown on its first possession of the game. The Aggies used 10 plays to move 63 yards in 4:37 and culminated the drive with a one-yard Courtney Lewis run.

FIRSTS --- Making their starting debuts were fifth-year senior Bryce Reed at defensive tackle, fifth-year senior Grant Dickey at guard, junior Chris Alexander at fullback, redshirt freshman Matt Featherston at linebacker, redshirt freshman Jordan Peterson at cornerback and junior transfer Misi Tupe at linebacker. Also making starting debuts at specialist positions were true freshman Matt Szymanski at placekicker and sophomore Chris Smith at deep snapper.

SUCCESSFUL RETURN - Senior wide receiver Chad Schroeder rebounded from a season-ending injury last season to record A&M's first 100-yard receiving game since Jason Carter caught eight passes for 219 yards against Texas State on Sept. 22, 2005. Schroeder set career highs in both receptions (six) and receiving yardage (101) while scoring a late touchdown.

BURNT REDSHIRTS --- Making their maroon and white debuts were several members of the 2006 signing class including: junior college transfers Mark Dodge, Misi Tupe and Johnathan Batson and true freshmen Mike Goodson, Jordan Pugh and Matt Szymanski.

MISCELLANEOUS --- Making his 12th Man Kickoff Team debut was linebacker Nick Lamantia, a walk-on sophomore from Mission, Texas. ... Game captains were senior L'Tydrick Riley and juniors Mark Dodge, Cody Wallace and Red Bryant. ... Spotted on the sideline were former A&M wide receiver Terrence Murphy and Blinn College head football coach Brad Franchione.

The Citadel Postgame Quotes

HEAD COACH KEVIN HIGGINS: "I thought our players played extremely hard tonight. Unfortunately, we had a lot of penalties that really hurt us. We've got to be a smarter football team if we're going to be a successful football team. On offense, we dropped too many passes. We had guys in the right position but we just didn't finish the plays. I was really proud of our defense. We forced several turnovers and got the ball back for our offense, but we were unable to produce anything with that."

QUARTERBACK DURAN LAWSON: "We came out and we had a good game plan. We had it narrowed down to the plays we thought would work. We came out and executed pretty good. One of our goals was to hold onto the ball and keep the defense off the field. Time management was one of the things we were really focused on. I really don't think we need to make many changes, we just need to execute and finish plays."

Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

QUARTERBACK STEPHEN MCGEE: "Our defense did an incredible job. Our hat goes off to our defense for keeping them out of the end zone. We were clicking really early, but had a couple of turnovers. Anytime you turn the ball over, it's easy to get into a slump. Chad (Shroeder) had an incredible game and got us back into scoring position. Our plan was to run the ball and establish the running game. I really felt like The Citadel played well on defense. We turned over the ball and held ourselves down. It's just great to get a win. This was only my second start. I got more comfortable as the game went on."

LINEBACKER MARK DODGE: "We played well as a whole. They had the 18-play drive, but we never got down and kept working together. We kept them out of the end zone and that was our main focus."

RECEIVER CHAD SCHROEDER: "It felt great. Stephen did a great job tonight. On the one blitz, I just got a little ahead of myself. The defense really helped us out tonight."

Coach Fran Postgame Transcript

"It was nice to open up at Kyle Field in a season opener. We had a great crowd. As usual the 12th man stood tall. We were able to win and play a lot of players. I think we might have played nine or ten running backs in the game and the defense I know played a lot of guys. The offense got to play quite a few. Kicking-game-wise we did -- played some true freshmen out there tonight. I thought the defense had a nice evening. You know, five for 18 on third down and one for three on fourth down; that's a good start right there. The 18-play drive I think took us a little bit out of sync offensively. We blocked the punt then scored on the quarterback sneak but then we didn't have the ball for a long time. I think that got us a little bit out of rhythm on that side of the ball. We probably should have got a field goal right before the half. That last sack hurt us a little bit. We still could have made that kick. Obviously offensively we've got to hold onto the football. That's not a characteristic of our team to lay it on the ground. I think it's one of the few games we lost the turnover battle and won the game. I don't like that statistic. Justin Brantly had a nice game. He had a 57-yard punt average. We blocked a punt and had a nice kickoff return. We had nice coverage on kickoffs. I was encouraged by some of those kinds of things. Just a good way to get started."

Coach, what specific area impressed you the most on defense??

"Well, we did a pretty job in the secondary this evening and I thought that we had good speed to the football. We almost always had more than one guy there. You miss a lot fewer tackles when you have more than one person there. They made some fourth downs. You know, five out of 18 on third down and one on 3 on fourth down we got off the field. The 18-play drive we didn't but we got off the field other than that."

How do you handle a guy like Mike Goodson -- two electric identifying plays then he puts it on the ground twice. How do you work with a guy like that?

"If I was to say how Mike's evening would go I would have probably guessed just about right. I probably would have said one instead of two because that's been a major emphasis with Mike is to take care of the football. You know in defense of our backs we have not scrimmaged a lot and this was game action. Tthis was his first college football game. There's no doubt he's got a special gear and special talent. We've just got to continue to bring him along and put him in good situations. I think every time he touched it, he wanted to hit a home run. I think eventually he'll want to make four yards and the home runs will take care of themselves. Then all that will come together when it does come together. So this was a great lesson tonight and that's probably all the needs to be said."

Coach, can you talk about the lift that Kerry Franks gave you guys both on the block punt and the kick off return??

"Kerry has been known for those blocked punts. That was a big play. It set us up for an easy score. Then to come out and start the third quarter with a kickoff return and good field position then go down and put up the fourth touchdown gave us extra breathing room. Certainly those were big plays in this football game."

Coach, can you give us your assessment of Steven McGee and the night he had?

"I think the one thing you have to understand is Steven had some arm trouble in camp and didn't get to throw a lot for several days. I don't ever talk about or complain about injuries. But I think you need to understand that when you assess Steven's game. He's only going to get a little better in his pocket presence as he gets more relationships in doing those things. For the most part he was a good field general. He directed the team well and gave them a lot of energy. He didn't turn the ball over except for a center-quarterback exchange problem which he has to temper some responsibility for that but I think the center would probably take most of it in that situation. The one play that he had that was bothersome to me was he took a sack at the end of the first half. In that situation you always throw the ball away and let us have the short field goal attempt. That's just pocket presence. He held onto the ball a little bit long a few times and that'll come with more relationships in that area of the passing game. But as far as everything else he did not hurt us. He didn't make bad plays and I thought he had a good solid football game. He's going to have better games, more flashier games, but he had a solid game especially in light of the number of days that he didn't get to throw the football in two-a-days."

Coach what can you say about the night Chris Harrington had? He was in the backfield a lot.

"I thought Chris and Red and Kellen Heard -- all showed some flashes tonight. Kellen had tremendous push. Chris had lots of pressure on the quarterback all evening long and Red was a factor inside all evening long. We did a pretty good job of getting pressure on the quarterback and they had to move him around."

Coach, with all the new players and coaches and schemes and stuff like that, how much help is it now to have a game to evaluate everything you're trying to put in?

"It should help a lot. You know, the theory among coaches is that you should make dramatic improvement from game one to game two. In our situation, we scrimmaged a lot in the spring but not a lot in the fall so this game under our belt will be very valuable teaching tool. As a coach, you can tell someone a hundred times that this is going to happen if you don't do this. But sometimes they have to go out and experience that in a game situation. That's when they really learn the most. We had some things like that happen this evening and now they'll remember that and that'll be a better than all those times we may have said it."