Quotes, Notes & Video: Texas A&M 45, Arkansas 33

Texas A&M Head Coach Kevin Sumlin

“We were prepared for whoever showed up. I’ve known Jim Chaney a long time, and I worked with him at Purdue. I  thought they had an excellent plan. They kept us off balance, wheel routes, reverses. You name it. We got the kitchen sink tonight. There were balls all over the place and just a really diversified attack. I wasn’t surprised.

"I thought that they protected him. The change in protection was good and gave him one or two receiver routes when they needed to and got him comfortable early. Like I said, I thought their plan was excellent and free-wheeling and something I really thought would happen coming from Jim.”

DB Deshazor Everett

On defending the Arkansas offense...

“They definitely schemed a lot of things. They had a couple wheel routes that we weren’t expecting and we really couldn’t see, because they hid it deep in the offensive line. They definitely schemed a lot of things that confused us and play action passes and all that. We just had to keep playing defense, which we did, and that’s how we pulled off the win.”

On the physicality of the game...

“The physicality was the most difficult part. They were physical, but we knew we had to get down there and play physical also. We knew we could do that. We can do that with any team. Once you’ve stopped the run, you’ve got to look for the play-action pass. They threw the ball a lot more than you’d think they would. That really slowed us down, but we had to keep playing ball and we just trusted in the front and linebackers and did our job in the second half.”

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Arkansas Head Coach Bret Bielema

Opening statement...

“We knew it was going to be a four quarter game. We knew it was going to be an offense, defense and special teams effort to win it. I thought they had a
lot of good ideas and game plan on offense, defense and special teams. They took some things away from us, made some adjustments. A critical point for us was we knew we needed to score every time we had it and had to monopolize the football.

"I thought Brandon Allen was outstanding. To come in the way he did, with a limited amount of practice, was impressive. I thought Alex Collins provided a spark. He and Jonathan Williams did some good things. Defensively, against the rush attack we kept rotating the guys. In the third and fourth quarter we just ran out of steam.

"I give a lot of credit to A&M. Johnny Manziel is a great player, a great competitor. He makes things happen out of nothing. I’m excited about this group. If they continue to give me
the effort they gave me this week during practice and then the way they played today we’ll be able to win some games. Obviously the schedule doesn’t get any easier with Florida coming up but I think they understand how much they have to give.”

On the return of Brandon Allen as starting quarterback...

“What basically happened was on Tuesday, Brandon Allen did no throwing whatsoever. We wanted to see if he could hand the ball off, move around and function as a quarterback. He had no issues Wednesday, he practiced about half the practice like he was a normal quarterback. We needed to see how it reacted, the doctors were really concerned that, after he did all the things a normal quarterback does, how he’d feel the next day.

"He was a little bit sore on Thursday, but felt better on Friday. He was cleared and I was going to take it all the way to game time but someone told me, ‘You should announce B.A., you might get the crowd jacked up’. I didn’t know it had that kind of power. I give credit to this good news. The crowd was awesome. I thank everybody for showing up today. It was an absolutely unbelievable environment and our kids responded very, very well to it.”

On the attitude and play of the defense...

“I think Rohan Gaines was back and Alan Turner continues to create plays, breaking on the ball. Eric Bennett was doing a nice job aligning and making the correct calls on fast, technical plays, being lined up and being in the right position.”

On RB Korliss Marshall...

“There was a point where we were going to play him, but he got a little bit banged up and had some things going on outside of football so we backed off a little bit. He just continued to impress us on scout team as a kickoff return guy. He made a couple nice breaks last week as a defensive player. We thought, ‘What are we doing with this guy? Can he help us win games?’ I had another conversation with him and he said he was all in.

"We were going to keep him at safety except the offensive coaches, when Nate Holmes went down, they suggested he play as a running back and obviously he did an outstanding job. He’s very explosive, a powerful runner and an SEC type of athlete.”

QB Brandon Allen

On responding after the interception return for a touchdown...

“We have responded well to adversity all year. We knew we could come back and we needed a big drive there.”

C Travis Swanson

On the game...

“I think we fought, that is the biggest thing. Obviously that is a good football team, give credit to them, the result just didn’t work in our favor.”

"I thought Brandon played great,especially after having a hurt shoulder and coming back from that and having the week off.”

DE Chris Smith

On the Texas A&M offense...

“Their offense is very good and Johnny Manziel, no matter what anybody says about him, he is a great player.  He made plays and created some plays at times. As far as our effort, we had effort and it was there, but we made a couple of mistakes and you can’t do that against a great team.”

S Alan Turner

On the defense getting 3-and-outs against the Texas A&M offense...

“I felt like we competed the whole time.  We played as a whole and on those three and outs the D-line got a good rush on them.”

LB Jarrett Lake

On what Coach Shannon told the linebackers...

“Coach (Randy) Shannon emphasized that our eyes were getting us in trouble. We were so worried about Johnny (Manziel) escaping the pocket and doing what he does, that we were allowing their receivers to get open.”

On the Texas A&M running game in the second half...

"I feel like we just were not hitting our gaps and staying consistent.  People were popping out of their gaps and trying to make a play so I feel like this is something for us to learn from. When you go into the fourth quarter and they start pound, pound, pound, you have to stay disciplined and fill your gaps.”

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About the win...
• Tonight’s win was the 50th of Kevin Sumlin’s six-year career (35-17 at Houston, 15-3 at Texas A&M).

• The Aggies notched their first SEC win of 2013 with a 45-33 win over the Razorbacks.

• It was A&M’s second straight win over Arkansas and fourth straight win over the Hogs as members of the same conference.

Road warriors
• It was Texas A&M’s ninth straight win away from Kyle Field, which is second-longest road streak in school history. Only a 10-game streak from 1939-40 is longer.

• Head coach Kevin Sumlin’s personal road winning streak improved to 14 straight games, dating back to a loss to Texas Tech in the regular season finale in 2010.

Another 40+ game
• Tonight’s 45-point scoring outburst was the Aggies’ eighth-straight game with 40 or more points, which is easily a school record and is the most in the FBS. A&M has scored 40+ in every game in 2013 and the last three games of 2012.

• Tonight’s 523-yard total marked A&M’s 17th straight game with 400 or more total yards, which is easily a school record and is the second-longest streak in FBS. It was A&M’s fourth straight 500+ effort.

Notables
• A&M scored TDs on its first two possessions for the third straight game. A&M scored on the first drive of the game for the fourth straight contest.

• Johnny Manziel became the eighth Aggie to pass for 5,000 career yards.

• Manziel generated 320 total yards, marking the 15th 300-yard plus game of his career and the fourth straight.

• A&M has scored first in 17-of-18 games under Kevin Sumlin.

• A&M has scored on its first drive 15 times in 18 games under Sumlin, with 14 TDs

• Derel Walker established a new career high in catches and receiving yards with 6 for 72

• Manziel’s second TD pass of the first half was the 40th of his career (18 games)…He is the seventh Aggie to throw 40 TDs or more.

• Sophomore WR Mike Evans had six catches for 116 yards and two TDs, marking his third 100-yard game of 2013 and the sixth of his career. On the first play of the game, he reeled in a 49-yard catch, which was the 10th 30-yard plus catch for Evans in 2013. It also means that he now has at least one catch on the first drive of the game in 10 of 18 career games.

• Evans’ final catch of the night was the 110 of his career, which puts him in a tie for No. 7 in school history with Keith Woodside.

• On a scoring drive by the Aggies in the third quarter, all nine plays were rushes by running backs (no passes, no rushes by Manziel).

• With eight tackles, true freshman Darian Claiborne became the first Aggie to lead the team in tackles twice in 2013.

• Junior DB Deshazor Everett’s 34-yard pick-six TD was the third defensive score of his career, and marked the second straight game that he reached paydirt. Last week, Everett had a 12-yard TD fumble return against SMU.

12th Man, polo, game captains
• For the fifth straight game, sophomore defensive back Sam Moeller was the 12th Man.

• Wearing the #90 jersey in memory of fallen teammate Polo Manukainiu was sophmore DE Gavin Stansbury (normally wears #72). Manukainiu died in a tragic car accident last summer.

• The Aggies’ team captain representatives at the coin toss were seniors Ben Malena, Toney Hurd Jr. and Jake Matthews. A&M won the toss and elected to receive.