Texas Bowl: Texas A&M vs Kansas State

Wednesday, December 28

Houston, Texas

8:00 PM

Texas A&M

Kansas State

Tickets

Dec 28, 2016 | Football

Texas A&M Bowl Guide

Texas A&M looks to close the season in style as the Aggies (8-3) battle former Big 12 foe Kansas State (8-4) in the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl inside Houston's NRG Stadium. Kickoff is set for 8:05 p.m.

Dave Flemming, Jesse Palmer and Laura Rutledge will have the call of the action on ESPN. It will air regionally on the Texas A&M Sports Network (Dave South, Dave Elmendorf, Will Johnson), and a Spanish broadcast of the game can also be heard regionally on the Texas A&M Spanish Network (Pedro Vela Almaguer, Noel Orellana). ESPN Radio will have the national broadcast.

The national radio feed can be found on Sirius / XM Channel 80.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: #TAMUvsKSU

Texas A&M will face old Big 12 rival Kansas State in the 2016 edition of the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl on Dec. 28 at NRG Stadium.

•    Fifth-year Aggie head coach Kevin Sumlin will be seeking his fourth bowl victory, which would be the most in program history. He is currently tied with R.C. Slocum, who won three from 1989-2002.
•    Texas A&M will be playing in a bowl game for the eighth straight season, which is the longest streak of bowl appearances in program history.
•    Texas A&M will be facing a Big 12 opponent in a bowl game for the third time since leaving the league for the SEC after the 2011 season. The Aggies are 2-0 in those games with wins over Oklahoma in the 2013 Cotton Bowl and West Virginia in the 2014 Liberty Bowl.
•    Although the Aggies lead the all-time series between the schools (8-7), Texas A&M will be seeking to snap a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats.
•    A Texas A&M victory would give head coach Kevin Sumlin his third nine-win season in five seasons in Aggieland.
•    Texas A&M is one of 12 FBS teams with at least eight wins in the last five seasons. The others are Alabama, Boise State, BYU, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Navy, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Stanford and Wisconsin
•    The Aggies are 14-2 on artificial turf under Sumlin, including a 6-0 record in domed stadiums.

Milestones Achieved or on the Horizon

•    Sophomore WR Christian Kirk needs three catches to become the first Aggie to post multiple 80-catch seasons. He needs 158 receiving yards to join 2013 All-American Mike Evans as the only Aggies with multiple 1,000-yard seasons.
•    RB Trayveon Williams became the first true freshman to reach the 1,000-yard plateau in season rushing yards in program. He hit the milestone on a 33-yard TD run vs. LSU enters the bowl game with 1,024 yards.
•    Graduate QB Trevor Knight is the fifth QB in school history to rush for 500+ yards and pass for 2,000+ yards in a season (Others are Johnny Manziel, Jerrod Johnson, Reggie McNeal and Stephen McGee).
•    Junior DE Myles Garrett is 1.5 QB sacks away from becoming the second player in SEC history to reach double digits in the first three seasons of his career.
•    Senior WR Josh Reynolds will be seeking a TD catch in his eighth straight game, which is already a school record. Reynolds is already the first Aggie with multiple double-digit receiving TD seasons (13 in 2014 and 10 in 2016).
•    Junior punter Shane Tripucka already owns A&M's single school record with 28 inside-the-20 punts. The old record was 22 shared by Drew Kaser and Cody Scates.
•    Sophomore PK Daniel LaCamera became the fifth Texas A&M place kicker to score 100 points in a season. LaCamera has connected on 67-of-73 total placekicks (.918) -- 17-23 on FGs and 50-50 on PATs. With three more FGs, LaCamera would become the fourth PK in school history to connect on 20 in a season.
•    Texas A&M is four successful PATs away from reaching 200 straight extra points made. The Aggies have connected on 196 consecutive extra points dating back to 2013, which is easily the longest streak in school history The NCAA record is 262 straight by Syracuse from 1978-89.

Road Warriors

•    Texas A&M has compiled a 21-9 record in games away from Kyle Field (road and neutral site games) during the Kevin Sumlin era.
•    The Aggies are 7-1 at neutral sites and 14-8 in true road games.
•    Texas A&M has at least one win over AP Top 25 opponents away from Kyle Field in all five seasons under Sumlin.

Away from Kyle Field under Sumlin

Year    Record   AP Top 25 road wins
2012       7-0       #22 LT, #15 MSU, #1 ALA, #11 OU
2013       3-2       #22 Duke
2014       5-2       #9 SC, #3 AUB
2015       3-3       #15 ASU
2016       3-2       #17 ARK

Senior Class of 2016

The Senior Class of 2016 has produced a 33-18 record entering the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl vs. Kansas State.

• The 2016 seniors will rank among a select group of Texas A&M seniors that will have played in four bowl games. The seniors are 2-1 in bowl games -- with wins in the 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl and 2014 Liberty Bowl.

Senior Class of 2016

Jermaine Eluemunor    Denville, N.J.
Justin Evans                  Wiggins, Miss.
Avery Gennesy            Southaven, Miss.
Claude George             Lafayette, La.
Peter Grady                 Cedar Park, Texas
Daeshon Hall                Seattle, Wash.
Trevor Knight              San Antonio, Texas
Chad Loitz                    Round Rock, Texas
Conner McQueen          Klein, Texas
Josch Motley                 College Station, Texas
Boone Niederhofer      San Antonio, Texas
Will Paulhill                  Conroe, Texas
Edward Pope                Carthage, Texas
Josh Reynolds               San Antonio, Texas
Alex Sezer Jr.               Orange, Texas
Jeremy Tabuyo             Honolulu, Hawaii
Hardreck Walker         Spring, Texas
Shaan Washington       Alexandria, La.

Team Honors

Aggie Heart Award: Alex Sezer Jr.
Coaches' Choice Award: Shaan Washington
Offensive MVPs: Trevor Knight, Josh Reynolds
Offensive Captains: Trevor Knight, Ricky Seals-Jones
Defensive MVPs: Justin Evans, Myles Garrett
Defensive Captains: Myles Garrett, Shaan Washington
Special Teams MVPs: Cullen Gillaspia, Alex Sezer Jr.
Special Teams Captain: Alex Sezer Jr.
Offensive Scout Team MVP: Matthew Kirchner
Defensive Scout Team MVP: Braden White
Academic Excellence: Roney Elam

Weight Room Off-Season MVP: Shaan Washington

National Awards

•    Senior QB Trevor Knight received the prestigious Wuerffel Trophy, which is considered "College Football's Premier Award for Community Service."
•    Junior DE Myles Garrett remains a finalist for the 2016 Rotary Lombardi Award, along with Alabama DE Jonathan Allen, Louisville QB Lamar Jackson and Michigan LB Jabrill Peppers. The winner will be announced in Houston on Feb. 11. Garrett was also a Lombardi finalist in 2015.
•    Garrett was invited to the 2016 Home Depot College Football Awards in Atlanta as a finalist for the Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year).
•    Additionally, Knight and Garrett were Maxwell Award semifinalists; Knight was a Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm semifinalist; WR Christian Kirk was a semifinalist for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award; and DB Justin Evans was a Thorpe Award semifinalist.

All-Americans

•    Junior DE Myles Garrett became the ninth unanimous All-American in school history, joining former Texas A&M greats John Kimbrough (1940), John David Crow (1957), Ed Simonini (1975), Robert Jackson (1976), Marcus Buckley (1992), Dat Nguyen (1998), Luke Joeckel (2012) and Jake Matthews (2013).
•    Garrett was named to the teams selected by the American Football Coaches Association, Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, The Sporting News and Walter Camp Foundation among others.
•    Sophomore WR Christian Kirk was named to the FWAA's second team as punt returner and the AP's third team as all-purpose player.
•    Freshman RB Trayveon Williams was named to ESPN's True Freshman All-America team and Campus Insiders Freshman All-America team.

All-SEC

• Earning All-SEC honors from the league head coaches were Kirk (as wide receiver, all-purpose and return specialist), Garrett and senior offensive tackle Avery Gennesy on the first team, and senior safety Justin Evans on the second team.
• Being named to the Freshman All-SEC team were RB Trayveon Williams and OC Erik McCoy.

Aggies in All-Star Games

•    Accepting invitations to participate in the Reese's Senior Bowl were DE Daeshon Hall, WR Josh Reynolds and DB Justin Evans.
•    OT Avery Gennesy is expected to play in the East-West Shrine Game.
•    OT Jermaine Eluemenor, along with Evans, Gennesy, Hall and Reynolds are invited to the NFLPA Game.

Aggie Graduates

• Aggies receiving their diplomas during December 2016 commencement were: Alex Sezer Jr., Ed Pope, James White, Will Paulhill, Jermaine Eluemenor and Boone Niederhofer.

• In addition to graduate transfers Trevor Knight and Kalvin Cline, senior OT Avery Gennesy already had his diploma in hand prior to the 2016 season.