I went looking for a blog entry I made about that SMU game and found it as well as a picture of the catch. Realize this is pretty old and the grammar might not be up to par or it may be a little too maroon-tinted or whatever...a bit embarassingly homerish, but it is what it is.
quote:
Conn 'ell Freeze Over and Aggies Lose at Home?...Not with Albert around.
College Station...Here in College Station, winds reached near gale force at roughly 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon. The cause? A collective gasp and sigh of relief from the Aggie faithful, who came out in force to support an Aggie team that has lost back to back games for the first time in R.C. Slocum's reign.
The Aggie faithful flocked to Kyle Field to stand as the fabled 12th Man and show their undying spirit. It had been a long month in Aggieland and a loss would have ended the Aggie hopes for the final Southwest Conference Championship...not to mention broken the home winning streak at 28 games.
Still, the Aggie football team brought a rather lackluster performance with few bright spots into this huge game. That said, the vaunted Wrecking Crew defense stood tall, holding the SMU attack to 189 total yards and keeping the team in the game. Add that to the number of penalties the Aggies racked up and it's a surprise the Aggies won at all. Put it this way...if penalties were considered yardage for the opposition, the SMU offense would have had more like 350 yards. Not the normal recipe for success. Then again, the Aggies had a few new ingredients to add to the recipe.
The two-pronged freshman backfield attack that stepped in to fill the rather large shoes of Heisman hopeful Leeland McElroy was an impressive glimpse into the future of the Aggie offense. The official word is that McElroy should be back next week...I would too after the performances by Sirr Parker and D'Andre Hardeman...I'd be fearing for my job. The duo electrified the crowd, putting on a show on how to baffle a defense with Hardeman pounding his way to 130 yards and a touchdown and Parker dancing and darting to 80 yards rushing. Add Parker's touchdown on a 56 yard screen pass and that pretty much covered the entire Aggie offense during the first 59 minutes of the game. Adding these two to a team that will already debut as the youngest in the newly formed Big XII Conference next year is a comforting thought if you're an Aggie...it's a bit scary if not...
The offense and the Aggies were a bit more impressive in the 1 minute. A&M held the lead at 13-10 and a little more than a minute to go when the Mustangs scored a go-ahead touchdown on a 25 yard pass from standout freshman Derek Canine. With the extra point added, Southern Methodist led the Aggies 17-13 with a minute left to play and the Aggie hopes didn't look so good.
Following the kickoff, the Aggies held the ball on their own twenty-one yard line with 56 seconds left to play...thus began the Corey Pullig Redemption Show. No one saw it, but Pullig, a senior and the single winningest quarterback in A&M history, must have had a gleam in his eye. Having been haunted by a near month long storm of criticism and hype from both media and fans, Pullig had just the opportunity he wanted.
The Aggie offense marched down the field playing old-fashioned smashmouth football. After forty-four seconds, clutch play after clutch play and an SMU penalty, A&M found themselves on the SMU twenty-four yard line. With 12 ticks left in what might possibly be the Aggie season, Pullig took the snap from center and four step drop, looking for salvation. Despite intense pressure, the heavily-criticized leader stood tall and poised in the pocket, lofting a perfect spiral to far corner of the endzone. The announcers were quick to talk of the desperation of such a pass...the fans were quick to agree.
As the ball floated on the wind, so did the hopes of the Aggie faithful. Albert Connell, a junior college transfer and relatively untested receiver, took to the air as the ball descended. With a 41 inch vertical leap and a well-timed jump, Connell squeezed the hopes and hearts of Aggies the nation over. With a slight contortion of his body, he just managed to come down with a hand and shoulder in bounds. The SMU defenders stood up, looking around bewildered. What had happened? Pullig happened.
It's a terrible thing to be a highly criticized, terribly scrutinized WINNER.
Keep on plugging, Corey...Oh...and throw to Albert a little more.
