Team Stats

A&M 3, UFL 0
A&M - Bond,Randy 31 yd field goal 14 plays, 62 yards, TOP 06:46

A&M 10, UFL 0
A&M - Melin Öhrström,Theo 29 yd pass from Reed,Marcel (Bond,Randy kick) 9 plays, 92 yards, TOP 05:12

A&M 13, UFL 0
A&M - Bond,Randy 48 yd field goal 9 plays, 24 yards, TOP 03:34

A&M 20, UFL 0
A&M - Reed,Marcel 1 yd run (Bond,Randy kick), 15 plays, 99 yards, TOP 07:23

A&M 20, UFL 7
UFL - Badger,Elijhah 14 yd pass from Mertz,Graham (Smack,Trey kick) 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 03:11

A&M 26, UFL 7
A&M - Allen,Cyrus 73 yd pass from Reed,Marcel () 2 plays, 75 yards, TOP 00:49

A&M 33, UFL 7
A&M - Anderson,Bryce 45 yd interception (Bond,Randy kick)

A&M 33, UFL 14
UFL - Dike,Chimere 7 yd pass from Lagway,DJ (Smack,Trey kick) 10 plays, 72 yards, TOP 04:18

A&M 33, UFL 20
UFL - Jackson,Ja'Kobi 2 yd run (), 9 plays, 78 yards, TOP 03:15
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
Reed Leads Aggies to 33-20 Win at Florida
Sep 14, 2024 | Football
From start to finish, the Aggies (2-1, 1-0 SEC) showed to be the superior team as they outgained the Gators (1-2, 0-1 SEC), 488-301, on the day. Marcel Reed made his first career start in the Maroon & White and finished the day completing 11-of-17 passes for 178 yards and two scoring strikes, while adding 83 yards rushing on 13 carries and one touchdown. Le'Veon Moss eclipsed the century mark for the first time this season and second of his career after tallying 110 yards on 18 rushes.
The Aggie defense limited Florida to 52 yards rushing, while Marcus Ratcliffe, Jayvon Thomas and Bryce Anderson each recorded an interception. Ratcliffe, Taurean York and Shemar Stewart tallied five tackles each.
After receiving the opening kick, the Aggies struck first as Randy Bond connected on a 31-yard field goal to cap off a 14 play 62-yard drive. Following a Florida punt, the Maroon & White extended their lead to 10-0 behind a 29-yard touchdown pass from Reed to Theo Melin Öhrström with just under 30 seconds left in the first quarter. On the drive, the Aggies marched 92 yards on nine plays in 5:12.
In the opening quarter, Texas A&M outgained the Gators 174-8 en route to a 10-0 advantage.
Despite a 37-minute weather delay, the Aggies remained hot as Bond made it 13-0 with his second field goal of the afternoon, this time from 48 yards out. After forcing the third Florida punt of the afternoon, Ol' Sarge's charges marched 99 yards on 15 plays to stretch the lead to 20-0 courtesy of a Reed 1-yard rushing score with under a minute remaining in the half. On the drive, 97 of the 99 yards came on the ground as the Maroon & White continued to control the line of scrimmage.
Defensively, the Aggies imposed their will in the opening half, holding the Gators to 73 yards of offense and only 7 yards rushing. Ratcliffe put an exclamation point on the first half with an interception in the end zone as time expired, marking the second pick of the season for the sophomore.
After Florida broke through on the scoreboard with a 14-yard pass from Graham Mertz to Elijah Badger, the Aggies answered 49 seconds later when Reed connected with Cyrus Allen for a 73-yard touchdown. A failed two-point conversion by the Maroon & White made the score 26-7 with 11:00 left in the third.
Texas A&M later extended its lead to 33-7 when Bryce Anderson capitalized on a Will Lee III deflection as the junior picked off Mertz and took it to the house for a 42-yard touchdown. The pick-six was the first of the year for the Aggies and the first of Anderson's career.
The Gators added a pair of late scores to trim the Aggie deficit to 33-20 with 5:13 remaining in the fourth quarter. Thomas came up with the Aggies' third interception to end the Gators' threat with 2:37 remaining, before the Maroon & White ran out the clock.
Postgame Notes: A&M 33, Florida 20
Team Notes
- Texas A&M rushed for 310 yards, marking the first time to rush for 300-plus yards in consecutive games since 2012 when the Aggies totaled 352 yards at Auburn and 361 yards at Mississippi State.
- The Aggies limited Florida to just 52 rushing yards in the game, making it back-to-back games of keeping their opponent in double-figures on the ground.
- The Texas A&M offense showed its explosiveness recording 10 rushes of 10-plus yards and completing five passes of 15-plus yards.
- Texas A&M's 15 play 99-yard scoring drive late in the second quarter was the longest scoring drive since going the same distance on eight plays against Alabama in 2018.
- The Aggies finished the win with two 90-plus yard scoring drives, adding a 9-play, 92-yard drive that resulted in a 29-touchdown reception in the first quarter to mark the first time A&M has had two 90-plus yard scoring drives in the same game since Nov. 23, 2007, when the Aggies had an 11-play, 95-yard and 4-play, 90-yard scoring drives against Texas.
- The Texas A&M defense recorded three interceptions in a game for the first time since the Mississippi State game last season.
Individual Notes
- Freshman QB Marcel Reed made the first start of his career throwing a career-best two touchdown passes in the win and finishing the day 11-of-17 passing for 178 yards, while adding 83 yards rushing on 13 carries and one touchdown.
- Junior RB Le'Veon Moss registered the second 100-yard game of his career and first of the season with a career-high 110 yards on 18 carries.
- Junior RB Amari Daniels tallied 68 yards on 13 carries in the win to up his career total to 1,014 and eclipse the 1,000 yards mark for his career.
- Sophomore TE Theo Melin Öhrström hauled in a 29-yard pass for his first career touchdown grab on just his second career catch to extend the Aggies' early first quarter lead.
- Junior WR Cyrus Allen extended his streak to 16 straight games with at least one catch, dating back to his time at Louisiana Tech. Allen caught all three passes thrown his way for 81 yards and the first touchdown of his Aggie career.
- Junior DB Bryce Anderson registered his first interception of the year and the second of his career, returning the pick 45 yards to the end zone for his first career score.
- Sophomore DB Marcus Ratcliffe made it back-to-back games with an interception when he picked off a pass as the clock hit zero in the first half.
- Sophomore DB Jayvon Thomas picked off a pass late in the game to record the first interception of his career.
- Junior DL Shemar Stewart matched his career high and helped lead the team with five tackles in the win.
- Graduate K Randy Bond's 49-yard field goal in the second quarter moved his career total to 44 made field goals and gave him sole possession of sixth on A&M's all-time list.
Postgame Quotes: Mike Elko
"It's now been zero days since we've won an SEC road game. So that's a positive. Obviously the physicality in the game is going to be the big story. When you win the rushing battle 310 to 52 yards, that's going to win you a lot of football games. I'm really proud of how our offense played, and I'm really proud of how our o-line and our running backs played. I thought every kid that played on the o-line today, every kid that played at running back today, played with the demeanor that we want them to play with. And then how about 10 (Marcel Reed)? He was lights out. I thought he could have thrown it a lot more. We kind of took the air out of it a little bit when we got the big lead in the second half, kind of protecting the game the way I think you should to win football games on the road. He was calm, he was confident, he made throws. That first drive he put together, I thought he made some tremendous throws on third down. It was really, really good to see. He was consistent all day and operated at a really, really high level. We had confidence that he could go out there and do it, and he went out there and did it. "Defensively, I thought we did a better job in the run game. I thought we controlled the game until it became a throw game at the end. I think we've got a lot of things at the end of that game that we've got to clean up. We didn't finish it obviously the way we wanted to defensively. We've got to make some field goals down the stretch. Those are going to be big problems as we move forward. So there's certainly going to be things we've got to get better at, and that's what we told them, but that'll be for tomorrow. They need to enjoy this win.
"And then just a quick injury update. Tyreek Chappell is going to be out for the year. He suffered a non-contact injury Wednesday in practice, unfortunately. And so, he'll be done for the year. Trey Jones had an upper-body thing, kind of a freak thing, happen on Thursday, but we anticipate him to be back soon. So, hopefully he's back next week. And then with Conner, just so everybody knows, it's an AC in the shoulder. It happened in the Notre Dame game. We kind of went through a process last week where it loosened up as the week went on, and he was able to go out and function really well. We anticipated that's how it would go this week. He had a full practice on Wednesday. He was able to go out there and throw the ball and then, you know, just had a setback on Thursday, for whatever reason. We're trying to still figure that out from a medical standpoint. And so he just wasn't able to go today. So again, we'll leave that for Monday and kind of move forward with that. But proud of our guys. Proud of the win. Proud of the job we did coming down here on the road and winning this game."
When did you know you were going to start Marcel and you said you weren't surprised that he came out and played the way he did?
"We talked about we think we had multiple quarterbacks that can function and play. Marcel won the backup job. It was a battle. Jaylen Henderson is a good quarterback, we just felt Marcel had a little bit better camp, did a better job operating, so we went with him as the No. 2. and everything. We prepare quarterbacks. We can't just prepare one quarterback. It's not like we've only been preparing one quarterback and now all of a sudden we've got to get a second one ready. That's certainly not a real smart thought process in this league, as you go through this league. Marcel's been getting a ton of reps with the ones, with the twos, we rotate guys through every week and every practice. And so you see it from him. Yeah. We had a lot of confidence in him. When did I know? Probably coming out of Thursday's practice, it was really concerning where Conner was. He's a competitor, he's tough as nails and he was going to try everything he could to get ready to go today. But you know, just the way he was Thursday, we just didn't know that was going to be the right thing for him long term for the season to come out and go today."
What did you think that early 31-yard run did for Marcel?
"Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it was one particular play. That's the dimension that he has, right? He has the ability, when a play breaks down, he can utilize his legs and he can make something happen. He's got a lot of confidence in his ability to do that. And so I think that relaxes him for sure. But I think the dig ball that he threw to Moose Muhammad was probably every bit as important and impressive, that he stood in the pocket and drilled that one across the middle. And so, yeah, we've got a lot of confidence in Marcel."
So could you speak to the job your runners did in your offense in these conditions?
"It was physical SEC football by our offense today. And that's again what you need when if you want to win games on the road. And so, for Le'Veon to go over 100 yards, average over six yards a carry, for Marcel Reed to average over six yards a carry, for Amari Daniels to average over five yards a carry...that's what we want to be able to do. And it's not that we're taking the air out of the ball, but when you get a lead, you want to be able to control the game. We talked about game control on the road being something that's really important. And we were able to do that today."
That 99-yard drive, 97 of it on the ground with two guys that didn't start on the line at the time, how impressed were you with what you saw from your line just on that drive in particular?
"It was obviously a huge drive. I thought there were two of them. I thought that one was critical because we were backed up. It's still a game. It was 13-0 at the time. And we've got to run a quarterback sneak just to get it off the goal line. That's how tight we were backed up in there, and for us to be able to do it...And then obviously we start driving and here comes the rain. So now the throwing conditions are challenging and it's really hard to throw it at that point. You're kind of stuck to being on the ground a little bit during that drive as it's kind of raining sideways on you...for us to put that in the end zone I thought that was huge. I thought the 7-minute drive from the end of the third quarter to the start of the fourth quarter was a big one, even though it didn't end up in points. I just thought that really sucked the air out of the game and really put us in a position where we were really had control of it. And then obviously Marcel's response when he hit Cyrus. After they hit the score to get back into it, he comes right back on the next play and hits Cyrus for a long touchdown, I think, was another one that was really big."
What do you feel like the difference was for your run defense and how they played today versus earlier in the season?
"We just didn't give up the big one. I think we were a little bit more consistent in how we fit things. I think when we look at the film, of the 52 yards rushing they had, I'm going to bet probably 35 of it was on plays when we were in like 2-minute prevent defense, the end of the half and then some at the end of the game. And so I think if you look at our run efficiency today, we fit things better. Our lines were better. Our lines were tighter. And we didn't let the ball get out. And if you don't let the ball get out, you're going to be really good."
Anything on the penalties? Road game or anything like that?
"No, I mean, obviously extremely concerning. We can't have that many penalties. We can't have that many personal foul penalties. That's atrocious. And so (that's) things that we've got to fix for sure. For us to commit 13 penalties on the road and still come away with a win, that's not going to happen very often. So it's something we have to get fixed and address real quick."
Did Kolinu'u Faaiu get hurt?
"Yeah. So Koli suffered something in game and was out for the game. We'll kind of figure out where he's at coming out of today. I don't think it's long term, but we'll figure it out coming out of today."
Talk about what you saw out of Shemar (Stewart) today.
"I think Shemar is a really talented player. I think he's really become a much better player from a production standpoint. I think he's always been athletic, right? And I think you've seen his progression from year one to year two to year three, where now he's an athletic kid that understands the game a little bit more and understands leverage a little bit more. And he's just put himself in position to be really, really productive football player for us."
How critical was it to get Marcel first-team reps against McNeese and how many did he get this week?
Obviously that was critical. And why Conner left so early, it had nothing to do with the injury. Conner left so early because we just we really wanted Marcel to get reps with the ones. We thought that was a really important thing for the duration of this season. And so, we did that and I thought that was really helpful. We split reps pretty evenly between the ones and the twos. And so when you say reps with the ones, in any given practice, it's probably 60/40 or even 55/45 in terms of reps ones/twos. And then what that looks like is not a lock-solid thing. The wideouts are rotating between those groups. The o-linemen are rotating. We don't just put 11 guys out there and then put the next 11 out there. I don't mean that any kind of way...I just think...he gets a lot of reps. We try to give him about 45% of the weekly reps every single week, so that he's developing at the level he needs to for the moments when you need him. And he was able to be ready today."