Aggies avoid further embarrassment
COLLEGE STATION -- If this had been a baseball game, Jake Hubenak would have gotten the win and Kendall Bussey the save.
Unfortunately, it was the football version of a major league franchise struggling to put away a AA team, as Texas A&M squeaked past FCS Nicholls State 24-14 Saturday night.
"There’s no such thing as a bad win at this level. We learned more about our team tonight than we did if we won by five or six touchdowns," head coach Kevin Sumlin said.
If the win wasn't "bad", it certainly wasn't satisfying. It was a game that saw the Aggies lose their top two running backs to injuries and a 37-point underdog tie the game at 14 with 12:05 remaining in the game. It also saw the Aggies make yet another quarterback change, with redshirt senior Jake Hubenak taking over for true freshman Kellen Mond in the third quarter.
Early on, it looked like Mond (12-21, 105 yards, 1 TD) had everything under control, as he completed his first first three passes and capped off A&M's opening drive with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk. Two possessions later, the Aggies capped an 8-play, 81-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown run by Trayveon Williams (11 carries, 53 yards, 1 TD). A&M was up 14-0 and looked like they were in cruise control.
But then the offense went on vacation, punting on five straight possessions and picking up only 13 yards in the second quarter. Nicholls State, on the other hand, began pecking away behind quarterback Chase Fourcade (13-25, 264 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), who was happy to go bombs away to favorite target Damion Jeanpierre (5 catches, 174 yards). By halftime, the lead was down to 14-6 and the crowd -- well below the announced 102,261 -- was restless.
"We had issues in the middle part of the game, which weren’t all the quarterbacks fault. We had some protection issues. We weren’t able to run the football. He missed a couple things, but he didn’t really have the time to do a lot and some of the adjustments that they made and we made with their blitzes and things like that," Sumlin said of Mond. "We weren’t able to do things that we needed to do offensively from a protection standpoint and really being able to help him with running the ball the way we needed to."
After the offense continued to sputter to start the third quarter, Sumlin turned the reigns over to Hubenak, who would end up 12-15 for 92 yards through the air. There wasn't much in terms of melodrama when the change was made; Hubeank said Sumlin looked at him and said, "Go warm up. Get ready to go."
“Sometimes you need a change of pace. The guys did a great job responding to me,” Hubenak said. “I’ve been put in a couple of situations the past couple of years. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, I’m ready to go.”
Another change came to the Aggie backfield at about the same time, though not by choice. With both Williams and Keith Ford (6 carries, 20 yards) injured shortly after halftime, Bussey (15 carries, 95 yards, 1 TD) became A&M's featured back. The two kickstarted the Aggie offense, but were unable to put any points on the board in the third quarter.
The Colonels, on the other hand, continued to go for broke. Fourcade hit Jeanpierre on a 54-yard bomb, then tossed a quick 5-yard pass to TE Stephen LeBouef to pull Nicholls to within 14-12 with 12:05 left. After a two point conversion, the Aggies found themselves tied with a massive underdog at home.
Instead of folding for a second straight week, however, the offense took over. The Aggies went on an 11-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by Bussey's first career touchdown run from 2 yards out. After forcing a Nicholls punt, A&M put together a 15-play, 64-yard drive that took more than 6 minutes and resulted in a field goal by Daniel LaCamera.
"The biggest takeaway from this game is we finished. We could have easily have said, ‘it’s happening again,’ but we locked in and finished," Kirk said.
Game notes
Mond's touchdown pass to Kirk was the first of his career.
During a drive in the first quarter, Mond completed consecutive passes to Clyde Chriss, Aaron Hansford and Kendrick Rogers. For all three, it was the first reception of their careers.
Colton Prater started the game at right tackle and struggled against Nicholls DE Kenny Dotson. He moved inside to left guard after right guard Connor Lanfear left the game. Koda Martin replaced Prater at right tackle and Ryan McCollum moved from left guard to right guard.
Landis Durham's sack in the third quarter was the first of his career.
After completing passes to only three receivers at UCLA, the Aggies completed passes to 11 Saturday.
The Aggies outgained Nicholls 393-338, but were outpassed 264-198.
A&M forced two turnovers and didn't give the ball up. They're +5 on the season now in turnover ratio.
Tyrel Dodson had the second sack and first interception of his career.
Freshman CB Debione Renfro recovered a fumble in his first prolonged action.
Nicholls averaged 2.4 yards per carry (74 yards, 31 carries); the Aggies averaged 4.1 (47 carries, 229 yards)
Daylon Mack had half of A&M's 4 tackles for loss.
