Aggies Roll to 41-13 Cotton Bowl Victory
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Johnny Manziel tiptoed the sideline for a 23-yard touchdown on Texas A&M's first drive of the game.
The
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback known as Johnny Football and the
10th-ranked Aggies were just getting warmed up in the Cotton Bowl.
There were plenty more highlights after that nifty run.
In his
first game since becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman,
Manziel set a Cotton Bowl-record with 516 total yards and accounted for
four TDs as the Aggies capped their first SEC season with a 41-13 win
over 12th-ranked Oklahoma on Friday night.
With first-year coach
Kevin Sumlin and their young star quarterback, the Aggies (11-2) fit
right in with the SEC after leaving the Big 12. They broke the SEC
record with their 7.261 total yards this season (the first over 7,000
after 633 in Cowboys Stadium). They also averaged more than 40 points a
game.
And they capped their debut season with an overwhelming
victory in the only postseason game matching teams from those power
conferences. It is the Aggies' first 11-win season since 1998, when
they won their only Big 12 title.
The chants of "S-E-C!, S-E-C!"
began after Manziel's 33-yard TD pass to Ryan Swope with 4 minutes left
in the third quarter for a 34-13 lead. They got louder and longer after
that.
Texas A&M led by only a point at halftime, but scored
on its first three drives of the second half -- on drives of 91 and 89
yards before Swope's score on a fourth-and-5 play.
Oklahoma
(10-3), which like the Aggies entered the game with a five-game winning
streak, went three-and-out on its first three drives after halftime.
SEC
teams have won the last five Cotton Bowls, all against Big 12 teams,
and nine out of 10. That included Texas A&M's loss to LSU only two
years ago.
Manziel set an FBS bowl record with his 229 yards rushing on 17 carries, and completed 22 of 34 passes for 287 yards.
Oklahoma, led by quarterback Landry Jones in his 50th career start, had only 312 total yards as a team.
Jones
completed 35 of 48 passes for 278 yards with a touchdown and an
interception. He won 39 games and three bowls for the Sooners, in a
career that started on the same field in the 2009 season opener when he
replaced injured Heisman winner Sam Bradford in the first college game
played at Cowboys Stadium.
Already with a 24-yard gain on an
earlier third down, the Aggies had third-and-9 on their opening drive
when Manziel rolled to his left and took off. When he juked around a
defender and got near the sideline, he tiptoed to stay in bounds and
punctuated his score with a high-step over the pylon for a quick lead.
Officials
reviewed the touchdown play, but it was clear by the replay shown on
the huge video screen above the Cowboys Stadium field that Manziel
stayed in bounds.
Manziel added a 5-yard TD run on a bootleg
play in the second quarter, and capped the scoring with a 34-yard pass
to Uzoma Nwachukwu with 9 minutes left in the game.
The first TD
run was Manziel's school-record 20th of the season. He became only the
fourth FBS quarterback with 20 TDs rushing and 20 passing in the same
season.
The other 20-20 quarterbacks were Auburn's Cam Newton
and Florida's Tim Tebow, who like Manziel are Heisman winners from the
SEC, and Nevada's Colin Kaepernick.
Manziel set an SEC record with 4,600 yards in the regular season, and just added to that in his 13th career game.
Oklahoma
needed drives of 16 and 18 plays to get a pair of field goals by
Michael Hunnicutt (23 and 24 yards). Jones threw a 6-yard TD pass to
Justin Brown just before halftime to make it 14-13.
Jones set Cotton Bowl records when he had 23 completions and 30 attempts (for 175 yards) by halftime.
Ben
Malena (7 yards) and Trey Williams (30 yards) had the TD runs to cap
the long scoring drives in the third quarter for the Aggies.
Manziel
was picked off in the second quarter after his bootleg move and a throw
that hit Malcome Kennedy in the hands in the end zone and deflected
into the air. Javon Harris grabbed the interception.
The Sooners then crossed midfield before Jones had a pass intercepted by Dustin Harris and returned to the Oklahoma 48.
That
A&M drive started with a little trickery, Manziel holding the ball
down in his left hand while faking a throw with his right hand. He then
pitched to Kenric McNeal, who threw a 20-yard pass to Mike Evans.
Malena then had a 23-yard run before Manziel's bootleg run for a 5-yard TD.
Oklahoma
was in the Cotton Bowl for only the second time. It was the first bowl
matchup between the former Big 12 rivals, but the 17th consecutive
season they have played each other.
The Sooners had won 11 of 13
since Bob Stoops became their coach. That included a 77-0 Oklahoma win
in 2003 that was the most-lopsided loss in Texas A&M history.
Sumlin
was the A&M offensive coordinator in 2002 when the Aggies upset the
top-ranked Sooners. The next year, Sumlin was hired by Stoops as an
assistant, and he stayed there five seasons before going to Houston as
head coach and then the Aggies.
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