College Confidential

Texas A&M will carry lots of souvenirs, momentum into off-season after dream debut as SEC member #TAMU

ARLINGTON _ As the curtain drops on Texas A&M’s dreamy debut season as a member of the Southeastern Conference, the Aggies will carry the following souvenirs into the off-season and recruiting campaign after a 41-13 rout of Oklahoma in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic:

--          No. 9 A&M (11-2) will finish with the best record of any major-college football team in Texas and is headed to a Top 10 finish in the post-season polls for the first time since the 1994 season.

--         The Aggies will welcome back the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who racked up 516 yards (229 rushing, 287 passing) and accounted for four touchdowns in Friday night’s romp over No. 11 Oklahoma (10-3) at Cowboys Stadium.

--          By dusting the Big 12 co-champion to end the season, coupled with a long list of impact returning starters, the Aggies will begin next year on a short list of schools as favorites to claim the 2013 national championship.

--          The Aggies finished the 2012 season as arguably the hottest team in college football. A&M did not trail in any of its final six games, a stretch that included victories over then-No. 1 Alabama, then-No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 11 Oklahoma. A&M began those six contests with a combined salvo of 175-0, seizing leads of 28-0 (Auburn), 31-0 (Mississippi State), 20-0 (Alabama), 47-0 (Sam Houston State), 42-0 (Missouri) and 7-0 (Oklahoma) before the opponent answered.

--         Against Oklahoma, an A&M team known for second-half collapses during a 7-6 campaign in 2011 finished with a 27-0 flurry in the second half that underscored one significant point to first-year coach Kevin Sumlin.

The Aggies, said Sumlin, became “a different team” as the 2012 season unfolded, erasing legions of doubters in the process.

“There was reason for people to doubt us,” said Sumlin, who inherited a program that finished 25-25 under predecessor Mike Sherman and won its lone Big 12 football title in 1998. “Moving into a new league, a .500 program over the last 10 years … One game doesn’t define your program. Your body of work does. This game (against OU) was indicative of how these guys have played all year. Our guys expected to win. That’s probably the biggest change that we’ve made over the course of the last six months.”

Manziel said the Aggies “played with a lot of heart” and showed no rust from the layoff between their regular-season finale _ a Nov. 24 victory over Missouri _ and Friday’s bowl appearance while securing only the fourth season with 11 or more wins in school history. Even better, Manziel said, was doing so against the Big 12 co-champion in A&M’s first season after moving from the Big 12 to the SEC.

“To come in and go against a Big 12 rival and do everything we wanted as a team, we couldn’t feel any better,” Manziel said. “We came out and played one of our best games all year. This is the kind of game that turned the page again. To go out and win 11 games and do what we’ve done is impressive.”

In the near future, A&M will learn whether its two All-America offensive tackles _ juniors Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews _ will join defensive end Damontre Moore in making themselves available in the 2013 NFL Draft. Joeckel, an Arlington High School graduate who won the 2012 Outland Trophy, is projected as possibly the top overall selection in April, with Matthews also pegged as a first-round talent.

Regardless of who protects him next season, Manziel will be back in 2013. After Friday’s contest, NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt, the Dallas Cowboys’ former vice-president of player personnel, posted a tweet calling Manziel’s effort the “best performance” he’d ever seen by a college football player.

On his Twitter account, Brandt wrote: “Best performance by player I’ve ever seen. @JManziel2 was unbelievable. Better than Cam vs. Bama in 2010.”

As for the future, Manziel said: “I’m not really worried about the future right now. I’m really enjoying this. It’s been crazy … how we’ve progressed as a team, how we’ve continued to get better every week.”

All the way to being the best college football team in Texas during the Aggies’ debut season as an SEC member.

Twitter: @Jimmy_Burch

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel shows post-Heisman rust no factor in Cotton Bowl

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in the award’s 77-year history, racked up 516 yards of total offense and accounted for four touchdowns in the ninth-ranked Aggies’ 41-13 rout of No. 11 Oklahoma in Friday night’s AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium.

Manziel rushed for 229 yards, a Cotton Bowl and FBS bowl record, and stressed after the contest that the Aggies (11-2) were far from rusty in securing what likely will be a Top 10 finish in the post-season polls.

“There is too much talk about how you perform after the Heisman and about the layoff and all that,” Manziel said. “There wasn’t anything holding us back. No rust, there was no nothing. We played as a unit and that’s all you can ask for … To go out and win 11 games and do what we’ve done is impressive.”

Manziel said the Aggies “played with a lot of heart” in breaking open a 14-13 game at the half and securing only the fourth season with 11 or more wins in school history. Even better, Manziel said, was doing so against Oklahoma _ the Big 12 co-champion _ in A&M’s first season after moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. A&M capped the season with six consecutive victories in which the Aggies did not trail, including victories over then-No. 1 Alabama, then-No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 11 Oklahoma.

“To come in and go against a Big 12 rival and do everything we wanted as a team, and send these seniors out with a win, we couldn’t feel any better,” Manziel said.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M routs Oklahoma in Cotton Bowl to cap memorable debut season in SEC #TAMU, #JohnnyFootball

ARLINGTON _ The first wave of celebratory “SEC! SEC!” chants began in the third quarter, long before No. 9 Texas A&M killed the waning seconds to put an exclamation point on a season marked by memorable moments.

But make no mistake: The Aggies took No. 11 Oklahoma out of the contest tonight and paved their way to a 41-13 triumph in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic with a third-quarter salvo that included a game-turning, 20-0 stretch in which A&M dictated play in Cowboys Stadium.

The Aggies (11-2) capped their surge with a 33-yard, fourth-down touchdown pass from quarterback Johnny Manziel to receiver Ryan Swope that underscored the game’s decisive momentum swing in front of an announced crowd of 87,025, second-largest in the history of the post-season contest.

The Aggies, who broke a six-game losing streak in the Cotton Bowl and won for the first time in four career appearances at Cowboys Stadium, outgained Oklahoma (10-3) by a 268-63 margin in total yards in the third quarter. A&M punctuated its first season as an SEC member by taking down the Big 12 co-champion in a bowl game during the same season that the school won its first Heisman Trophy in 55 years (Manziel) and earned its first-ever Outland Trophy (left tackle Luke Joeckel, an Arlington High School graduate).

For A&M, the triumph validated last year’s decision to leave the Big 12 in favor of the SEC and allowed the Aggies to defeat the Sooners for only the second time in the teams’ last 10 meetings. SEC teams have now won the last five Cotton Bowls, as well as nine of the last 10, in their annual matchups against Big 12 foes.

Behind the elusive running of Manziel, who set a Cotton Bowl and FBS bowl record for rushing yards by a quarterback (229), the Aggies became the first team in school or SEC history to top the 7,000-yard mark in total offense. A&M finished the season with 7,261 yards and set a Cotton Bowl record with 633 yards against OU, breaking the mark of 578 set by Southern California in a 55-14 rout of Texas Tech in 1995.

Manziel, a redshirt freshman, finished with 516 yards of total offense (229 rushing, 287 passing) and accounted for four touchdowns: two rushing and two passing.

“This is the first team to win 11 games in a long time at Texas A&M,” said Aggies’ coach Kevin Sumlin, adding that Manziel “did get better” as the contest and the season unfolded.  “You can put those numbers up against anybody.”

The Aggies, who last won 11 games during the 1998 season _ when the school won its lone Big 12 championship _ broke open a 14-13 contest in which the Sooners were not forced to punt in the first half by dominating both lines of scrimmage in the third quarter.

Oklahoma began the second half with three consecutive three-and-out possessions. A&M countered with Manziel-led scoring drives of 91, 89 and 71 yards.

On the first touchdown march, Manziel completed three consecutive passes, covering a combined 61 yards, before Ben Malena capped the seven-play journey with a 7-yard burst on an option play. Manziel went 5-for-5 as a passer on the Aggies’ next TD drive, which ended with Trey Williams’ 30-yard scoring sprint, and capped the Aggies’ 71-yard scoring march with a 33-yard strike to Swope on a fourth-and-5 play.

Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, who threw for 175 yards and completed 23 passes in the first half, struggled to find the range after intermission as the Sooners lost for the sixth time in their last 10 bowl appearances.

A game projected to be one of the most entertaining matchups of the post-season did not disappoint in the first half. The two teams combined for 507 yards and 27 points, with A&M taking a 14-13 lead into intermission.

As has been their custom, the Aggies struck quickly. Manziel capped the game’s first possession with a 23-yard touchdown scramble, assuring that A&M scored first in every game it played during the 2012 season.

Oklahoma answered with a pair of time-consuming drives for field goals on its first two possessions _ one covering 16 plays, the other 18 _ and added a 13-play touchdown march in the second quarter. But the Aggies broke open the contest in the second half on a night when Manziel’s 5-yard scoring run in the second quarter gave him his 20^th rushing TD of the season and made him the fourth player in FBS history to rush and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in the same season.

Manziel joined current NFL quarterbacks Tim Tebow, Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton on the elite list. And A&M capped a breakthrough debut season in the SEC with a decisive victory in the Cotton Bowl.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called Manziel one of the most challenging quarterbacks he’s ever tried to defense in his coaching career.

“Absolutely,” Stoops said. “Not only what he does with his feet, but he way he throws the football. He’s awfully hard to handle.”

 Twitter: @Jimmy_Burch

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M helping Manziel deal with emerging celebrity status #TAMU

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said school officials are attempting to help freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, handle his emerging profile during Cotton Bowl week while still allowing him to have fun with teammates. But it’s been a balancing act.

“Winning the Heisman should not be a punishment,” Sumlin said. “It is a completely different situation than anybody has ever had. Usually, you are looking at a player’s last game (during a Heisman winner’s bowl week). This is a redshirt freshman, a 20-year-old kid. You have to be careful heaping on too much of what the expectations are for a young man. We have to be very, very cognizant of what is going on. I think he understands that.”

Asked about his award, Manziel said other Heisman winners have told him his life “will never be the same” now that he is a recipient and he is beginning to understand what they mean.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M DE Moore excited by chance to be first-round NFL pick #TAMU

Texas A&M defensive end Damontre Moore said announcing his plan to enter the 2013 NFL Draft before Friday’s Cotton Bowl matchup against Oklahoma “might give me a little edge knowing this will be the last time I play in a Texas A&M uniform.”

Moore, who announced his draft plans Sunday, said during a Monday news conference that the opportunity to be a first-round pick _ he’s surfaced as high as No. 2 overall in one mock draft _ was too enticing an opportunity to bypass.

“It would be a huge honor and a tremendous blessing if I’m privileged enough to go in that round,” Moore said.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M defensive coordinator says players look faster in bowl workouts #TAMU

Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mark Snyder said he’s noticed a significant difference in his troops during bowl workouts than at the conclusion of the regular season, when the Aggies played 12 consecutive weeks without a bye.

“We look fast. You can see it,” Snyder said during a Monday news conference. “There’s a complete difference in their legs. They’ve got them back. And we’ll need that trying to stop Oklahoma.”

A&M was forced to play 12 consecutive games without a bye after its season opener against Louisiana Tech was postponed until Oct. 13 because of Hurricane Isaac. Linebacker Sean Porter said the scheduling tweak “was horrible for us” because players wore down physically during the latter stages of the regular season.

“We were all getting smaller and weaker,” Porter said. “Everybody’s moving a lot faster now. It hadn’t been like that for a while because we were so exhausted. ”

The physical change could be key in Friday’s AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium, when No. 9 A&M (10-2) meets No. 11 Oklahoma (10-2). The Sooners average 40.3 points and 505.9 yards per game, a pace unmatched by any of A&M’s regular-season opponents other than Louisiana Tech, which led the nation in scoring (51.5) and total offense (577.9).

Louisiana Tech gained 615 yards in a 59-57 loss to A&M, the highest yardage total allowed this season by the Aggies’ defense.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M DE Moore declares himself available for 2013 NFL Draft #TAMU, #NFL

Texas A&M defensive end Damontre Moore, an All-America performer who leads the team in tackles (80), sacks (12.5) and tackles for losses (20), has decided to bypass his senior season and enter the 2013 NFL Draft.

Moore, a junior from Rowlett and finalist for the Ted Hendricks Award, is projected as a potential first-round pick. His final game for No. 9 A&M (10-2) will be in Friday's AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic against No. 11 Oklahoma (10-2) at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

In a statement issued Sunday by school officials, Moore called his decision “a sad moment and a happy moment.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the NFL,” Moore said. “But I’ve loved my time representing the 12^th Man and with my teammates at Texas A&M.”

A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said he “couldn’t be happier for Damontre as he pursues his professional dreams in the NFL. He’s been a great representative of Texas A&M.”

  _ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M's Manziel adds AP Player of Year award in unprecedented freshman season

Add another precedent-setting honor to the collection for Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, who became the first freshman selected as The Associated Press Player of the Year in college football.

The honor, announced today, allowed Manziel to collect the AP award in the same season he also became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy and the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.

Manziel, a redshirt freshman, set a Southeastern Conference record with 4,600 yards of total offense and accounted for 43 touchdowns in leading No. 9 Texas A&M (10-2) to a Jan. 4 matchup against No. 11 Oklahoma (10-2) in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium.

 Manziel received 31 of 60 available votes from AP voters, more than twice the total of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, the second-place finisher. Manziel became the third consecutive Heisman-winning quarterback to receive the award, following former Baylor standout Robert Griffin III (2011) and Auburn’s Cam Newton (2010).

_ Jimmy Burch

Joeckel, an Arlington HS grad, heads trio of A&M players selected as consensus All-Americans #TAMU

For the first time in school history, three Texas A&M football players have been named consensus All-Americans in the same season by the NCAA, with offensive tackle Luke Joeckel earning unanimous All-America acclaim.

Joeckel, the 2012 Outland Trophy winner and an Arlington High School graduate, was listed as a first-team All-American by all five organizations used to compile the consensus All-America squad, which was released today. To be named a consensus All-American, a player had to a first-team honoree by at least two of the five organizations.

A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, and defensive end Damontre Moore joined Joeckel on the consensus All-America squad. Baylor receiver Terrance Williams was the only other player from a college in Texas to receive consensus All-America acclaim.

Prior to this season, A&M had multiple consensus All-Americans in 1993 (DE Sam Adams, DB Aaron Glenn), 1976 (K Tony Franklin, LB Robert Jackson), 1975 (LB Ed Simonini, DB Pat Thomas) and 1940 (RB John Kimbrough, OL Marshall Robnett).

 

Below is a look at the 2012 consensus All-America team:

 

Offense
WR—*Marqise Lee, Southern California, 6-0, 195, So.
WR—*Terrance Williams, Baylor, 6-2, 205, Sr.
TE—*Zach Ertz, Stanford, 6-6, 252, Sr.
OL—*Jonathan Cooper, North Carolina, 6-3, 295, Sr.
OL—*Luke Joeckel, Texas A&M, 6-6, 310, Jr.
OL—*Chance Warmack, Alabama, 6-3, 320, Sr.
OL—David Yankey, Stanford, 6-5, 301, Jr.
C—Barrett Jones, Alabama, 6-5, 302, Sr.
QB—Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M, 6-1, 200, Fr.
RB—Montee Ball, Wisconsin, 5-11, 215, Sr.
RB—Kenjon Barner, Oregon, 5-11, 192, Sr.
RB—Ka'Deem Carey, Arizona, 5-10, 197, So.
PK—Cairo Santos, Tulane, 5-8, 160, Jr.
Returner/All-Purpose—Dri Archer, Kent St., 5-8, 175, Sr.

 

Defense
DL—*Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina, 6-6, 256, So.
DL—*Bjoern Werner, Florida St., 6-4, 255, Jr.
DL—Damontre Moore, Texas A&M, 6-4, 250, Jr.
DL—Will Sutton, Arizona St., 6-1, 267, Jr.
LB—*Jarvis Jones, Georgia, 6-3, 241, Jr.
LB—*Manti Te’o, Notre Dame, 6-2, 255, Sr.
LB—C.J. Mosley, Alabama, 6-2, 232, Jr.
DB—*Dee Milliner, Alabama, 6-1, 199, Jr.
DB—*Phillip Thomas, Fresno St., 6-1, 215, Sr.
DB—Jordan Poyer, Oregon St., 6-0, 190, Sr.
DB—Eric Reid, LSU, 6-2, 212, Jr.
P—*Ryan Allen, Louisiana Tech, 6-2, 215, Sr.

 

* Indicates unanimous first team selection

 _ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M QB Manziel, the 2012 Heisman winner, to be Monday guest on Tonight Show #TAMU, #JohnnyFootball

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, is a scheduled guest on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A&M officials accompanied Manziel to the Los Angeles area Sunday to prepare for the show. Manziel, a redshirt freshman, became the first freshman in the award’s 77-year history to win the Heisman on Dec. 8.

For information about tickets to the show, a link is provided below:

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/tickets/

 

_ Jimmy Burch