Texas A&M offense reminds everyone of potential in Liberty Bowl
It had been a few months, but Texas A&M reminded everyone how scary its offense can be in Monday’s 45-37 Liberty Bowl win over West Virginia.
Kevin Sumlin’s offensive machine was knocked off track in the second half of 2014. After hanging more than 50 points per game in the first month of the season, the wheels came off. Kenny Hill went from instant Heisman contender to riding the bench by the last month of the season, ceding his position to Kyle Allen.
While the true freshman quarterback flashed his potential a few times in his four regular season starts, his performance against West Virginia was the best indication yet that he’ll live up to his five-star recruiting rating from a year ago when he was the No. 1 quarterback in the country.
All afternoon, Allen spread the ball around to the Aggies’ wealth of talented receivers, finishing 22-for-35 with 294 yards and four touchdowns, adding on a rushing score. Perhaps more encouraging, the Aggies had one of their best rushing efforts of the season, with a runner going over 100 yards for the first time in more than two years.
If Allen was seeking to give himself a leg up in the quarterback competition for 2015, presumably against Hill and five-star incoming freshman Kyler Murray, he did a good job of it in Memphis.
After an early interception on a very poor decision, throwing into a crowd and missing his receiver, Allen and his receiving corps were money the rest of the way. Nine players caught passes, three scored and Allen mostly made good decisions with the ball, including the times he tucked it and ran. Allen had a few mistakes that ended with dropped interceptions, something he’ll have to clean up next year.
Breakout star Josh Reynolds had yet another big game with Allen at the helm. He had half of his four multi-touchdown games in Allen’s four regular season starts, and added five catches and 80 yards on Monday. He scored his team’s first touchdown of the day when he got himself open to haul in a 44-yard catch-and-run, setting a school record with his 13th touchdown of the season in the process.
Senior Malcome Kennedy went out with a bang as well, scoring twice and recording 7 catches for 82 yards, including a big one on third-and-short late in the fourth quarter to seal the game. While Kennedy will be gone next year, he gives way to talent successors in Speedy Noil, Ricky Seals-Jones and others.
Most encouraging, though, was Texas A&M’s determination and ability to run the ball. Even after falling behind by 10 points in the first quarter, the Aggies handed the ball off consistently and kept doing it as the game wore on. Juniors Tra Carson and Trey Williams were both stellar, with Carson going for 133 yards Williams tacking on another 86 and a score, adding a 40-yard touchdown reception on top of it.
The offensive line, a unit that struggled at times all season, looked solid for much of the day. It kept the pass rush off of Allen and cleared some big holes for the running game. The Aggies lose the left side of that line to graduation, but will move the talented Germain Ifedi to left tackle to anchor the line.
The Aggies, for the most part, didn’t look like a team down a wide receivers coach and an offensive line coach. Of course, Texas A&M was without both, after David Beaty and B.J. Anderson both left the program following the regular season finale. There were spurts when the Aggies offensive line looked a bit out of sorts, as well as a few miscommunications between Allen and his recievers. The Aggies also had trouble salting the game away when they had chances to late in the game, leading to WVU mounting a late charge.
Allen, Kennedy and the running game all came through on the final drive of the game, slamming the door shut after WVU made it a one-score game. The 45 points they put up were Texas A&M’s most since September, when the Aggies looked like a true contender in the SEC. The Liberty Bowl win put them at 8-5 for the season — not a bad mark for what was very much a rebuilding season.
The Aggies offense came back to life in Memphis. If the young, talented unit is that good come 2015, Texas A&M will be back to being the a scary, entertaining offensive juggernaut.