Few college football rivalries can match the excitement of Texas A&M and Arkansas in the Southwest Classic, and the game’s final installment at AT&T Stadium Saturday was a testament to that. The Aggies beat the Razorbacks, 21-17, for their 12th win in the programs’ last 13 meetings.
Here are five takeaways from A&M’s victory:
A fitting end to the Southwest Classic in Arlington
In the Southwest Classic’s final season before returning to campus sites, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate ending to a 13-year run at the home of the Dallas Cowboys. The game was neck-and-neck throughout, and it came down to a flurry in the fourth quarter.
“Arkansas, Texas A&M and AT&T Stadium, how else would you expect it to go?” coach Mike Elko said. “All the way down to the stretch. Needed to make plays in the fourth quarter to win it.”
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Marcel Reed’s five-yard touchdown keeper with nine minutes left in the second quarter knotted the score at 14 until a 45-yard field goal by Arkansas redshirt senior kicker Kyle Ramsey with 13:24 remaining in the game.
“Nobody blinked on our sideline,” Elko said. “I think that’s a testament to where we are as a program from a culture standpoint. We know we’re still building. We know we’re still a work in progress. We know there’s going to be moments where it doesn’t look exactly the way we want it to, but we just kept going. The story should be more about what they did at the end to win us the football game and less about the middle when we struggled.”
Fresno State transfer tight end Tre Watson’s first score as an Aggie couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment as he reeled in a five-yard touchdown with nine minutes left. A&M’s defense tightened from there on out, peaking with Purdue transfer defensive end Nic Scourton’s strip-sack of Boise State transfer QB Taylen Green to put the victory to bed.
“Any game with a trophy is a game I want to win,” Scourton said. “It’s a rich history behind this game. You know, Arkansas is a good team. Arkansas is always going to play us really well. I didn’t take that lightly. I wanted to be a part of it. The first time playing in this game, I needed to make a play.”
Here’s hoping the rivalry’s excitement makes the trip to College Station and Fayetteville, Ark.
Le’Veon Moss breathed life into the Aggies’ offense
A&M’s offensive attack looked stale through most of the second quarter and throughout the third quarter, with the Aggies’ five complete drives ending in punts each time. Donning voltage green cleats, junior running back Le’Veon Moss was the Energizer Bunny for A&M as he put a spark into the scoring drive.
With just under 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Moss broke off three consecutive runs of 23, 8 and 15 yards before Reed found Watson for the go-ahead touchdown. Moss continued his fourth-quarter surge on the Aggies’ next possession, charging 30 yards down the sideline before a facemask penalty added 15 more yards.
“I don’t remember much,” Moss said. “I just be balling, really. I’m ain’t gonna lie. ... I feel like I play better when I feel different from everyone else. I had the white cleats on at the beginning of the game, as y’all seen. I changed them out midquarter. I needed to do something. That’s how I express myself, through my cleats and changing colors and stuff, really.”
Two additional 7-yard gains raised Moss’ total to a season-high 117 yards and an average of nine yards per carry. His performance came against the SEC’s fourth-best rush defense, with the Razorbacks allowing just 82.3 yards on the ground entering Saturday.
“I just want to be a leader,” Moss said. “I want to show that I can do what I need to do andsupport my team. ... Everybody was uplifting everybody to keep their head up. It’s just a brotherhood that we stand strong with each other.”
Moss has just three touchdowns this season, but his offensive impact with over 100 yards in each conference matchup is undeniable.
A&M’s turnover prowess was on display
Elko has discussed the conduciveness of winning the turnover battle in games to success in the SEC. That gameplan worked for A&M in Sept. 14′s win over Florida, when the Aggies reeled in three interceptions while committing no turnovers themselves.
A&M again came out on top in the turnover battle by a 3-0 margin. Florida transfer linebacker Scooby Williams recovered a fumble and Alabama transfer cornerback Dezz Ricks intercepted a pass in the first half, while the Aggies held on to the ball themselves with no turnovers.
Yet, no turnover was bigger than Scourton’s strip-sack of Green with a minute and a half remaining. Florida transfer nickel back Jaydon Hill flew in for the recovery, effectively sealing an A&M victory as the Aggies took over in Razorback territory.
“Coming off the bench, I’m like, ‘I got to make a play,’” Scourton said. “It’s a tight game, somebody needs to make a play. I was thinking, ‘just get a good getoff.’ I know he loves to roll out to that throwing hand. When I see him get stuck in his read, I knew he was going to run. That’s when the instinct just kicked in, you know, ‘get the ball out.’”
Junior defensive end Shemar Stewart forced the second-quarter fumble by breaking up a handoff from Green to Jackson, paving the way for a 5-yard score two plays later. A&M didn’t get points off of Ricks’ pick, but it prevented Arkansas from scoring before halftime in a tightly-contested game.
“Oh, man, to have so many guys go out there and rush well and play good run defense, it’s exciting,” Scourton said. “Every time I came here, man, it felt like a brotherhood. We’re going to go, we’re going to watch the tape, have some fun, joke around. We got to get back to work, man. But it does so much, you know? The more and more we play with each other, the more comfortable we are, the more we just build that camaraderie, and it’s special.”
Tyler White was the Aggies’ most valuable player
It was one of those games where A&M’s most impactful performer was the punter, and why not? White booted the ball nine times for 388 yards, an average of 43.1 yards per kick. That’s not an eye-popping statistic, but the redshirt freshman from Southlake seven punts inside the Arkansas 20-yard line ensured the Razorbacks were never gifted easy field position.
“Tyler has got a big leg, and Tyler can punt the ball a mile if he wanted to every single punt,” Elko said. “But I thought he did a really good job today, hitting with great hang. They weren’t able to get the return game going at all. When he had to pin down inside the 20 [-yard line], we kept them in play and kept the field position flipped that way we wanted to. Not only was he effective as a punter, but he punted the right way for us to control field position.”
White’s stats won’t be as sexy as those of Moss, Scourton and junior wide receiver Noah Thomas, but his performance played just as big a role, if not bigger, in the Aggies escaping Arlington with a victory. Elko’s emphasis on special teams success is already paying dividends.
A&M’s run defense continues to show improvement
The Aggies held their third opponent in a row to 100 rushing yards or less, and the Razorbacks’ 100 yards looks even more impressive with Arkansas previously averaging 240 rushing yards per game. The dual-threat Green was limited to 12 yards on 12 carries, while Utah transfer RB Ja’Quinden Jackson managed just 37 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
“Obviously, [Green’s] an extremely talented kid,” Elko said. “Even when you pressure him, you don’t really pressure him because he just escapes and creates more time for himself. Those kids are obviously a challenge. We’ve got one too, and he creates some of the similar problems. I think we were able to at least force them the way we wanted to force them. Force them to people in coverage, force them to people that were spying them and at least be able to kind of corral him. I don’t think he got going with his feet at all, which was a huge focus in the game for us.”
A&M’s run defense looks better with each week after surrendering 198 and 180 rushing yards to Notre Dame and McNeese State, respectively, through the first two weeks of the season. Scourton and Hill each came up with sacks, with Scourton accounting for three of the Aggies’ nine tackles for loss.
“From that perspective, really, really proud of our defensive effort today,” Elko siad. “It’s really hard when you’re not putting drives together to keep going out there and making stops, and they were able to do it today.”
Elko and defensive coordinator Jay Batman won’t be fans of the 279 yards and a touchdown allowed through the air, but it’s a testament to A&M’s elimination of the run game for Arkansas.
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