Quotes, Notes & Video: Texas A&M 35, Arkansas 28 (OT)

Kevin Sumlin

"What a heck of a game. Like I said after the game, I'm extremely proud of the effort of our older guys. I think a lot of our -- we get categorized as a young football team with a quarterback that's young, but our older guys led us. They were in and out of a real football game, a physical game. Deshazor Everett leaves the game with shoulder, ends up making critical plays at the end. Howard Matthews, same thing. Guys went back in the game. And Malcolm Kennedy, I thought he was done. As a matter of fact, they said he was done, and I look up and he goes just running right back out on the field and catches a winning touchdown.

"So, you know, those guys kind of epitomize what today's effort was about, and that's the kind of senior leadership that it's going to take in a league like this because it was a very, very physical football game. You know, we made enough plays at the end to win."

On what he learned about the defense today...

"I think when you're down 14 with, I don't know, what, 8 minutes to go in the game, in order to win a game like that, it takes a complete team. And, you know, we — every phase — had their poor moments in the first half. Offensively, we were a beat off; defensively, we gave up some big plays; and then special teams, we gave up the fake.

"But I tell you, the talk at halftime was extremely positive from our team. There wasn't a lot of panic. There wasn't a lot of finger-pointing. Coaches did a great job of keeping guys calm. And I think as coaches, you can see that sometimes. But as players, there was a confidence during the game. And I think that showed at the end, just how the older guys — that's what I get back to — the older guys are guys that have been through things like that. We have a bunch of young guys out there that were a little wide-eyed, but the older guys kind of calmed everybody down. There was a lot of positive talk.

On Kenny Hill...

"This game is good for us as a team; it's also good for him. It's the first time this year we've really been in that situation. We were off a little bit. Things here, there; we turned it over. But to come through and play the way he did at the end of the game is a big confidence boost for him. Not that he needs it. He is a pretty confident guy. But for our team, too.

"I looked over there right before the overtime, and all the receivers got together and put their hands in there. They believe in themselves, and the team believes in themselves. So I think it is a confidence boost for a lot of different people. And there's a lot of things we can learn from. I said before the week, you know, that's a good football team, and they're vastly improved from a year ago. We knew it would be a heck of a game. And, you know, from a confidence standpoint, across the board, I think there's things that we can draw from this week."

On whether the offense's failures were A&M-bad or Arkansas-good...

No, it's a little bit of everything. We had penalties put us behind the chains, put us in some long yardage situations. They did a good job, defensively, mixing it up early with some two-deep looks and then changing to man-to-man, not letting us get behind them early in the game. And we had some success running the ball early because of those looks. And then, you know, you get behind and the clock becomes a factor in the run game. So I thought we did a nice job in the second half — really, in the fourth quarter — of finding something and mixing it up with the clock the way it was.

"They got defense — a defense and coaches, too. So we're going to be in games like that. I think the key is that you have to have a personality as a football team that allows yourself to think that you're going to win. And I think our offense lends itself to that. We're never out of the game. I think it helps our defense. It helps everybody's confidence. And we made enough plays — I keep saying it — at the end to win. Was it perfect? No. But it was a heck of a football game. And, you know, there's a lot of things we can learn from today."

On winning that kind of game...

"Like I said before, I think a lot is said about our young guys, the talented guys. But you look at the critical plays at the end of the game, they were the old guys that had been taken or carted off the field a couple times. Like I said, I use those three guys as examples. Howard Matthews makes a hit over there on the sideline on a tight end, which was a critical play, given in the fourth quarter. Deshazor is making critical plays. And, of course, Malcome Kennedy. Those are guys that have played a lot of football here and have been in a lot of these types of situations and really led us.

"In a game like that, it gets down to the end. You got to make plays, and people are there; and, fortunately, we've got a good blend of those older guys that didn't panic and were steady. And I think it's not just how they were playing, but it's also the conversations on the sideline that were pretty even-keel, not chewing each other out, just saying, 'Hey, look, here's what we got to do. Let's just keep playing.' That, to me, is something that we didn't have last year. And I think that's something that we can build on from here on out."

On Edward Pope...

"People have kind of forgotten about him. He was a high school All-American as a free safety at Carthage. He was one of the few guys that we redshirted with that class. So he is a guy that just keeps popping up. I think he has made big plays every week, starting at South Carolina with a touchdown. A lot of those other guys get a lot of credit, you know, Speedy and Ricky and Malcome, but Ed Pope just seems to keep on playing. He's a tough guy. He doesn't look very tough. What is he? About 155 pounds or something like that. We gave him a hard time.

"But he loves to play. He's got a lot of courage and a lot of toughness. Like I said, he's really come a long ways from a guy who was one of the few redshirts that we had to a guy that's now playing big in big ball games."

QB Kenny Hill

On coming back despite playing poorly for much of the game...

"It was tough kind of mentally because we faced a little adversity that we hadn't faced yet. I thought we responded well. The game for me, I mean, it was up and down and up and down the whole time. I need to make that a little bit better, just be one level the whole time."

On the game-winning touchdown pass...

"Just saw him running wide open and said I need to put it on him. He was actually, I feel like, more open the first time than that time. I mean, we just made that connection on that one. It was big time. They had the defender getting there late and I got to fit it in there to him and he took care of the rest."

On Johnny Manziel's presence on the sidelines...

"He came around and talked a couple times. He talked right before half and just — he was just trying to get us pumped. He came in at the end and was doing the same thing and telling me I got — like, 'You got this. You got this. Go lead this team down there.' And then right after the game, he was just saying, 'Great game. Love you, bro,' all that kind of thing.

On what A&M proved as a team today...

"That we can compete with people in the SEC. I mean, we didn't play our best today. But we still competed and came out with a win. Shoot, for me, I think that just shows us, more than anything, like, we can come back from a deficit like that and we can still come out with a win. We just got to keep fighting."

On Sumlin's halftime message...

"That we're fine. We're doing everything fine. Defense is playing well. Offense, we just had to — we just had to make a couple more plays. I mean, we were executing for the most part. We just had a couple miscues here and there. But he was just kind of like, 'Y'all just keep doing what you are doing. Just execute a little bit more.'

WR Malcome Kennedy

On the A&M defense keeping them in the game...

"It was great watching those guys play. We knew before the game a lot of people had kind of slammed them and kind of said how they wouldn't play and things that would happen to them. Man, those guys played so great tonight. They pushed us. We went out there and, as the offense, we didn't play the best game. But they kept having our backs. We feed off each other and they kept making stops. And we just owed it to them to come out and score."

On the game-winning touchdown reception in overtime...

You know, Coach Spav called that play numerous times throughout the course of the game, and one time it was open; I got a hand on it, couldn't really reel it in. A few other times they covered it well and had me bracketed. I don't know why it worked that particular time. Kenny was patient in the pocket. I saw him; he looked me down. I wasn't sure if anybody was behind me, but I caught it. Looked up field and just ran in.

"Throughout the game on offense, I feel like we just progressed. We got better. We had a few drops. Coach Spav just coached us through it and everybody was positive."

On Kenny Hill rebounding to win the game late...

"As the offense, that's just how we work. We know we can score like that. We know it is gasoline to a fire. We can explode just like that. So we were just waiting for that moment. We were confident in ourselves. We practice this. We do this. We have been doing this for three years. Throughout the game, I was just thinking about last year's Chick-fil-A Bowl, how we came back and made a great win and everybody stayed positive, and we eventually woke up.

"Kenny kept his poise like always. I never saw him walking around with his head down. He didn't sulk. He never pointed fingers at anybody. If anything, he was like, 'My fault, my bad.' That's what a leader has to do. Johnny was down there with Kenny talking him through everything. And Coach Spav was down there. We are all in his corner. He knew we would wake up and start playing like we were supposed to."

On winning despite playing poorly...

"Arkansas, first of all, they were a great team. We knew it would be a smash-mouth game. We knew what kind of game it would be. We didn't play our best game. But we trained all summer. We trained all year. Coach Jackson trained us for moments like this. Coach Sumlin told us what type of game it would be. We knew they would run some misdirections. They got us on a few of them. But we came out and we persevered."

OL Mike Matthews

On Arkansas' D-line play and adjustments...

"They came out and started the game with high energy. They were exploding off the ball, and they were twisting us pretty good. We just had make a few adjustments on the sideline. Coach Anderson got us riding toward the end of this game, and we started picking up a lot better."

On the touchdown pass to Ed Pope to make it 28-21...

"We always knew that we had a chance to come back in the game. But that was kind of like the kick-start. That was the touchdown that we needed, kind of bring the momentum back on our side. We were stalling out every drive. And he made a big play and kind of just brought a lot of energy back to the sideline. Momentum kind of switched over to our way, and the rest is history."

On getting the ball late in a tie game...

"The defense just kept on stopping them. There were the few drives that we stalled out and we didn't put points on the board when we really needed to. But as the game kept going on to the final crunch minutes, the defense kept on stopping them; we kept getting the ball back, we just knew. In the back of our heads, we knew we're very capable of putting points on the board, and we just had the confidence behind us."

On taking this momentum into Starkville...

"We've got to come back. We will celebrate this, but, you know, once it starts next week, it's time for us to start focusing on Mississippi State. And we've just got to turn the page. And we are going to take this season one game at a time, and we are going to celebrate this one right here, but once Monday comes around, it's time to start focusing on the next game.

DE Julien Obioha

On the defense's effort and late stops...

"You know, we didn't really change up our game plan. We know we were giving up — first half we gave up some plays we shouldn't have — then we got to the second half, we started making adjustments. When we got to the fourth quarter, we were just rolling. We had so many stops. It was great week of preparation. And the last play, I wouldn't do anything different. The running back bounced to my side; I did what my coaches taught me to do. I cross-face and made a play. It was a play that ended the game and gave us a W. It was just a great play."

On the defense being the story of the game...

"It is a team. Coach Sumlin said there is three parts of the team: Special teams, defense, and offense. The coaches say it all the time. When one of your buddies is sick or somebody in your family is sick, it is the job of everybody else in the family to keep that person up, you know. There's times when we didn't have — we, as a defense — didn't have a good game; the offense carried us; where the special teams wasn't really doing that good, and defense and offense carried special teams.

"And there is times when our great offense isn't going to do as good as we expect them to do and defense and special teams has to carry them. We are a team. Whenever somebody is down, the other parts of the team has to pick them up."

On whether the last three games didn't have them ready...

"Arkansas is a great rushing attack. Arkansas is going to rush for a lot of yards against a lot of teams. Once we were all on the same page, it didn't really matter. We prep the same for Alabama as we do for Lamar University. That might be hard for people to understand, but we prep the same. You know what I mean? So when the bullets started flying, we were resilient and held in there."

LB Justin Bass

On the fake punt ran in for a touchdown...

"Just got to bounce back from the next play. You can only control what you control. Since I'm on defense, you just got to bounce back. That's about it."

On the defense's performance...

"Pleased. Obviously, there's still stuff we need to work on, just being smart as a defense. But overall, since we got the win, we are always pleased with that. We just take this with a grain of salt and know there's still stuff we need to work on and get better at it."

On the biggest problems Arkansas' run game presented...

"I guess as a team we always focus on us. So it's not really what they're doing; it's more what we're doing. And I don't think we were staying in our gaps enough. It's just being smart on defense and know what you're supposed to do and executing."

On when the momentum shifted...

"I guess just after getting that stop on third down when we were on the 30 or something in the fourth quarter, around 2:00. Right there. We were like, 'Alright, we need to, I guess, pick it back up.'"

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Post-game notes

About the win

• The Aggies improved to 5-0 (2-0 SEC). The win marked the first 5-0 start for A&M since the 2001 season, head coach Kevin Sumlin was the Texas A&M staff on the R.C. Slocum’s staff in 2001.

• It was the 60th win of Sumlin’s head coaching career.

• Texas A&M improved to 13-2 in games away from Kyle Field under head coach Kevin Sumlin (since 2012).

• A&M improved to 2-4 in games at AT&T Stadium.

• The Aggies rallied from a 14-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to force overtime. It was the largest comeback since a 21-point rally against Duke in the 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Randoms...

• The 86-yard touchdown catch by sophomore WR Edward Pope from sophomore QB Kenny Hill was the eighth-longest pass play in school history. It was the longest pass play by the Aggies since QB Johnny Manziel and WR Mike Evans connected on a 95-yarder vs. Alabama in 2013.

• The 86-yard catch highlighted a career-best day from Pope, who reeled in career highs of two touchdowns and 151 receiving yards (on four catches). His 151 yards surpassed the previous individual season high of 137 by Malcome Kennedy in the season-opener vs. South Carolina.

• When Arkansas took a 14-7 leads at the 9:06 mark of the first quarter, it marked the first time that A&M had trailed at any point in a game since the 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl against Duke.

• The Aggies improved to 2-4 in games when they trailed at halftime, and after three quarters. In the other comeback victory, the Aggies rallied from 21 points down against Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

• Texas A&M scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, while shutting out the Razorbacks in the final stanza. It continued a season-long trend for the Aggies who have out-scored their opponents 62-3 in the fourth quarter.

• The Aggies came into the game ranked in the top 10 nationally in quarterback sacks, but were held without a sack for the first time this season.

Starting lineup notes

• True freshman DE Myles Garrett earned the first start of his career. He is the fifth true freshman to earn a start in 2014.

• Returning to the starting lineup after missing the SMU game was true freshman WR Speedy Noil.

• Junior CB De’Vante Harris earned his first start of the season after seeing his first action of the season last week (He missed the first three games due to a fall camp injury). It was the 19th start of his career.

• Senior DT Ivan Robinson, who missed last week’s game, saw his first start of 2014 (sixth of his career).

• Junior OC Mike Matthews earned his first start since the Lamar game. He missed the Rice game and played sparingly last week vs. SMU.

• Starting SLB Donnie Baggs made his first start of the season. The Aggies had started the four previous games in nickel.

20th opening-series TD

• After winning the toss and taking the ball, as is their custom, the Aggies made quick work of their opening offensive series with a touchdown in just 1:05 (4 plays, 49 yards). The touchdown was the 20th of the Kevin Sumlin era on first half opening series (31 games), and it was the 21st time A&M has scored on the opening drive.

• The Razorbacks returned the favor with an opening series TD of their own. It was the first score given up by the Aggies on the opening series of either half this season.

• The Aggies have scored first in 28 of 31 games under Sumlin.

The last time ... until today

• Kenny Hill (386) had 300+ passing yards. The most recent 300 yard passer was Kenny Hill against Rice on Sept. 13

• Josh Reynolds’ 59 yard touchdown reception followed Edward Pope’s 86 yard touchdown reception. The most recent 50-yard+ reception was Josh Reynolds (70 yards) last week against SMU (9/20)

• Kenny Hill’s 41 attempts marked the first time an A&M passer reached 40 attempts since the season opener against South Carolina (August 28)

• Kenny Hill’s four touchdown passes was the third game this season with four touchdowns or more (Lamar, Rice, Arkansas) for the A&M sophomore.

• Pope’s 100+ yard day was the first for an A&M receiver since the season-opener against South Carolina (August 28)

Defensive notes

• Senior cornerback Deshazor Everett led the game with a career-high 16 tackles (7 solo, 9 assisted) including 1.5 tackles for loss. The previous high for an A&M defender this season was Howard Matthews (14) against Rice.

• Sophomore LB Shaan Washington had the second fumble recovery of his career when he fell on a loose ball in first quarter.

Game captains, 12th Man

• Game captains were seniors Deshazor Everett and Malcome Kennedy and juniors Julien Obioha and Drew Kaser. The Aggies won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff.

• Junior Sam Moeller was the Aggies’ 12th Man for the 18th straight game.

Aggies in overtime

• Texas A&M improved to 8-6 all-time in overtime and 3-3 away from Kyle Field.

• Today’s ovetime win was the first away from Kyle Field since 2006 against Oklahoma State (34-33, 1OT)