Johnny Manziel sure didn’t play like a freshman Saturday night. In front of nearly 102,000 people at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Manziel silenced the crowd early with three straight touchdown drives to start the game.
But the 20-0 score didn’t just take the crowd out of the game. It also gave the Aggies belief that they could win the game.
Even when Alabama scored 17 unanswered points, Manziel and the Aggies refused to get rattled. With his team up 23-17 in the fourth quarter, the freshman responded with perhaps his best throw of the season, a 42-yard strike down the right sideline to Ryan Swope. He followed it up with an equally brilliant throw to Malcome Kennedy for a touchdown. Kennedy faced great coverage on the play, but Manziel placed it where only Kennedy could grab it.
The Tide did its best to claw their way back in, but a late defensive stand in the closing minutes gave A&M a 29-24 win and a (https://www.lindyssports.com/college-football/sec/alabama/column/am-manziel-provide-painful-reality-dose-in-tuscaloosa/53779) painful dose of reality for Alabama in a landscape-changing college football game.
“It’s a tribute to those guys, how they’ve bought in to what we’ve asked them to do. And then to go out and execute and play our football, I’m happiest for them,” Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said after the game.
“Because they’ve been through a lot, with coaching changes and close football games, to go on the road and win like that, for those guys it’ll be a moment that they’ll never forget.”
Manziel isn’t the only newcomer to College Station. Sumlin is in his first year at the helm, as is offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. Some may remember Kingsbury as the Texas Tech quarterback who tossed for more than 12,000 yards about a decade ago, but since that time he’s made quite a nice name for himself as a coach.
At the University of Houston, Kingsbury and Sumlin guided the Cougars to an undefeated regular season. Quarterback Case Keenum passed for 5,631 yards last season, but Sumlin and Kingsbury might have an even bigger threat at quarterback in Manziel.
Time and again Saturday, Manziel played well beyond his age. On his team’s second touchdown drive, Manziel looked like he was going to take a certain sack when he was smothered by three Alabama linemen. But Manziel ducked underneath the pressure, backpedaled, and delivered a soft lob to Swope for the 14-0 score. By the time Manziel had led the Aggies on another touchdown drive, A&M had outgained Alabama 187-26.
But Manziel actually played his best when his back was against the wall. He was 11 of 18 on third down, and did not throw an interception, even when Alabama was putting on the pressure in the second half. In addition to his 253 passing yards, Manziel added 92 on the ground for a total of 345 yards.
Johnny Football has done enough to earn the nickname — and his family is now trademarking the name.
But credit also must go the A&M’s defense. The Aggies not only shut down Alabama in the most important possession of the game, they also turned the Tide over three times. Sean Porter’s first-quarter interception of AJ McCarron marked the first time in 291 passes that the Alabama quarterback had thrown a pick. But the Aggies didn’t stop there, as Deshazor Everett intercepted McCarron again on the game’s final defensive play to seal the deal.
With a win in Tuscaloosa, ESPN has projected Texas A&M to make the Fiesta Bowl. That would be quite an accomplishment for a team that was supposed to receive an unpleasant welcome to the SEC. The Aggies now have a nearly-certain win coming up against Sam Houston State, and if they can knock off Missouri a week later, they will have earned their first 10-win season in 14 years.