In the season's final installment of After "Math", we'll take a look at the Liberty Bowl win and ahead to 2015.
Catch the season finale of "The Pulse: Texas A&M Football" right here.
AFTER MATH: 2014
by Will Johnson '01
12th Man Productions
Only two days before ringing in the New Year, the West Virginia Mountaineers rang up 20 first-quarter points on the Texas A&M Aggies, working up an early advantage in the 56th playing of the Liberty Bowl.
West Virginia averaged 9 yards per play on their first five offensive drives. Then, the Aggies decided to clamp down. The Mountaineers had nine more possessions the rest of the game, going for just 4.8 per snap on those.
In fact, there was a point in the second and third quarters where seven consecutive West Virginia drives saw them run 37 plays for 104 yards (a paltry 2.8 average). The adjustments allowed the Aggies to get moving and outscore the Mountaineers 31-10 in the middle two frames, and ultimately win.
What adjustments?
Turning up the heat on young Mountaineer quarterback Skyler Howard.
When West Virginia had success on their first five possessions, A&M had only hurried Howard once, while registering two tackles for lost yardage. For the remainder of the Liberty Bowl, the Aggies sacked Howard three times, hurried him 3 more times, totaled seven TFL's and forced a turnover.
“Philosophically, we're about the same how we approach the game from a fast start standpoint,” Kevin Sumlin stated, certainly with a nod to Mountaineer head coach Dana Holgersen, who worked for Sumlin in the past.
“I said it was going to be a 4-quarter game. That turned out to be the case.”
On a frigid Memphis afternoon, the Aggies left with the warmth of a 3-0 bowl record in the Kevin Sumlin and SEC eras.
It was the end of the line for a senior class that never lost a postseason contest. For leaders like Malcome Kennedy and Ben Compton, it was the right way to close.
One image from the Liberty Bowl has to be Kennedy's 21-yard reception on the most crucial third down of the game. A great offensive call dialed the Aggie Heart Award winner's number with a little more than two minutes remaining in the final period. He converted, and Aggies hung up on the Mountaineers.
Another, Ben Compton. Drawing a rare start at center, he played on an ankle that's bothered him. With his teammates celebrating on the field postgame, Compton limped in agony. In the locker room, he was nowhere to be found while players were all smiles posing with the Liberty Bowl trophy, only to enter on crutches after the joyous moment concluded. But make no mistake about it, Compton was present when it mattered most.
Kennedy and Compton leave an example for those that return.
A group that will look for consistency.
The 2014 season had a lot, but what it may have lacked was steadiness. Five consecutive wins to start the year resulting in a No. 6 national ranking, and inclusion in College Football Playoff discussions. Then came three consecutive defeats in dismal fashion.
Two wins followed the losing streak, one of which came at No. 3 Auburn. Looking like they were poised for a strong finish after the upset on the plains, the Aggies dropped two narrow decisions to ranked teams that left them with a 'what if' feeling. All of this before the Liberty Bowl victory.
Eight wins is good, but not quite good enough for Kevin Sumlin. Youth certainly was a factor. It was apparent after A&M had gone through the high of the 5-game win streak, and low of three straight losses.
“I think we hit the wall. Young guys hadn't been through this type of rigid schedule, physically and mentally,” the coach said.
“Winning is winning, losing is losing. We're not where we want to be.”
Yet.
The Aggies' youth was noticeable in the finale. West Virginia played one true freshman…A&M sent 10 onto the field.
With growth and experience the Aggies will get better, but they'll still play a daunting schedule that has guaranteed wins at a minimum.
The SEC, and Western division, drew criticism for their performance in the bowl season. Yet the conference went 7-5 in the postseason, completing their 12th consecutive .500 or better bowl season. The next closest streak is Conference USA's four in a row.
The seven victories tied a college football record for postseason wins by a conference, matching the league's seven from last season.
Some in the past threw jabs at the conference saying it was 'top-heavy'. If the bowls proved anything, it's that the league may easily be the deepest.
Texas A&M, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina all went into the postseason unranked, and with .500 or worse SEC records. All of them won. Four of them beat an opponent that finished with a better record in their respective conference (South Carolina and Miami met in the Independence Bowl with identical 3-5 league marks).
“In every league, the top couple teams are pretty good,” says Sumlin. “I think the difference is the depth. What you see (in the SEC) is a league that is really strong from top to bottom.”
Before the season started, at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., 12th Man Productions asked some of the contingency who is the biggest threat to the league's supremacy?
The answers varied, but a couple stuck out.
Commissioner Mike Slive didn't pinpoint one entity, but acknowledged the difficulty of remaining at the top. Saying that others were climbing, and 'we can see them coming.'
Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports proved the most prophetic.
“I think it's the Pac 12,” he said from the Wynfrey Hotel in July, citing quarterbacks like Marcus Mariota and Brett Hundley.
“I don't know if top to bottom (the Pac 12) has as many real tough teams.”
He's probably correct, and the Pac-12 was very good in 2014. And they aren't finished. Oregon will attempt to bring the conference its first national title since 2004 on Monday against Ohio State. The league went 6-2 in bowl games and were 8-3 against other Power 5 conferences in the regular season.
Offseason rhetoric could center around which is stronger, the SEC or Pac 12. Usually sample sizes are too small when trying to compare leagues against each other, there just aren't enough head-to-head matchups to make a fair analysis. And, in 2014 these two conferences did not face each other at all.
In 2015, only one SEC vs. Pac 12 matchup is slated. It certainly won't be the tell-all between the two, a single game doesn't suffice. But it will be big. It'll be scrutinized. Several will take notice.
It'll go down in Houston, Texas.
It will start a new season.
It's the Texas A&M Aggies and Arizona State Sun Devils on September 5th.
Start the clock.