10 memorable Aggie games from the SEC Network era

There have been a bunch of wild games that have gone to overtime or the last play in the A&M-Arkansas series in Arlington, but none were as crazy as this one. It had everything: a botched extra point, an 81-yard touchdown pass, a 90-yard touchdown run by Kellen Mond taken off the board due to a butchered call by a blind official, a 100-yard kickoff return by the same guy who had the 81-yard touchdown, and an overtime touchdown pass by the same guy who had the kickoff and the long touchdown.

And yes, that guy was Christian Kirk.

The Aggies were down 21-7 early in the second quarter but clawed their way back to take a 33-28 lead with 8:46 to go in the game. And that’s when it got nuts.

Arkansas took the lead back on a 44-yard touchdown pass with 5:23 to go, only to see Kirk return a kickoff and take the lead from them 10 seconds later. In just 1:30, Arkansas took the lead again, only for A&M to tie it with a Daniel LeCamera field goal with 4 seconds remaining. Mond and Kirk hooked up for a touchdown in the first overtime, then Armani Watts baited Austin Allen into a foolish pass into the end zone that was picked off to seal one of Kevin Sumlin’s last big wins as A&M’s coach.

The biggest win in A&M’s regular season SEC championship season, this one was tight throughout. Kentucky led by 1 at the half, A&M outscored Kentucky 36-35 after intermission and an offensive rebound and putback by center Tyler Davis at the overtime buzzer got the Aggies the win. Davis had a double-double, with 15 points and 12 rebounds — 9 offensive.

Yes, the Aggies lost this game and it STILL made the list because it was so good. Down 11 with 1:38 left against the nation’s No. 1 team, A&M cut the lead to 3 in just 54 seconds as Houston imploded. But the Cougars still had the lead with a second to go as Tyrese Radford’s inbounds pass landed at the feet of forward Andersson Garcia. The shot went up, and was still in the air as the light behind the backboard went red, and swished through. I was right there for the whole thing, and it was truly March Madness. The Aggies ran out of players and gas in overtime, but it was an incredible game.

You can pick nearly any game from the College World Series for this list, but A&M doesn’t get there without an offensive explosion that ended the Ducks in the College Station Super Regional. The Aggies lost start Shane Sdao to an elbow injury in the first inning, went down 4-1 and 7-2, then clawed their way back. Down 8-5 in the top of the seventh, the Aggies benefitted from a complete loss of control from Oregon’s fireballing reliever Brock Moore, who walked six A&M hitters and plunked another to erase the Ducks’ three-run lead. Oregon finally brought in Jaxon Jordan to get the final out of the inning, but he walked in a run to make it 9-8. When Jordan finally threw a strike to second baseman Kaeden Kent, Kent crushed it over the right centerfield wall to send Olsen Field into a frenzy and give the Aggies a 13-8 lead. A&M would add two more runs against the shellshocked Ducks, who could only muster a single run in 3 innings off of relief ace Evan Aschenbeck as A&M rolled to a 15-9 win and a memorable trip to Omaha.

This is the game where A&M found its identity (and I think was actually on SEC Network). Florida came into the game ranked fourth and the Aggies were coming off a 56-28 scalding by Alabama. A&M trailed 21-17 at the half and went down by 11 in the middle of the third quarter, but in what seemed to be a fit of frustration from coach Jimbo Fisher, started running the ball. A lot. And it worked. The Aggies, behind 174 yards and two touchdowns from Isaiah Spiller and an angry offensive line, the Aggies rallied to tie the game at 31. A porous secondary gave up a quick touchdown to put the Gators up 38-31 with 6:14 left, but Fisher pulled a play out of Joe Gibbs’ old Redskins playbook and had Kellen Mond (who threw for an outstanding 338 yards) find receiver Caleb Chapman for a 51-yard touchdown less than two minutes later. The Aggies forced a fumble, setting up Seth Small for his first game-winning kick and giving Fisher one of his biggest wins at A&M.

Possibly the last win before A&M started a tailspin that ended in Sumlin’s firing a year later, the Aggies tried extremely hard to give this one away too. In a game between two undefeated, top ten teams, A&M was up 28-14 in the fourth quarter — and then gave up 21 points in the last 7:06 to let Tennessee tie the game. Amazingly, during that span the Aggies had a 62-yard touchdown run from Trevor Knight, an 75-yard run by Trayvon Williams that was knocked out of the back of the end zone to prevent a game-clinching touchdowns, and STILL had a chance to win in regulation after Knight led a seven-play, 54-yard drive to get the Aggies into field goal range. After an exchange of field goals, Knight scored on a quarterback keeper to give A&M a 45-38 lead. Armani Watts picked off Joshua Dobbs to end Tennessee’s final effort and the Aggies moved to 6-0. Knight threw for 239 yards and ran for another 110, while Williams ran for 217 yards.

The first game ever broadcast on SEC Network, the Aggies went into a hostile heat bath in Columbia to face the then-No.5 Gamecocks and blew their doors off. Contrary to what people remember, this game was actually close at one point, with South Carolina only down 17-14 with 9:47 to go in the second quarter. The Aggie offense, led by Kenny “Trill” Hill, then went on a 28-7 scoring spree to bury the Gamecocks. Hill completed 44 of 60 passes for a school-record 511 yards and three touchdowns. It would be the highlight of the season and Hill’s career — and the look on the South Carolina fans’ faces remains priceless a decade later.

Northern Iowa advanced to the second round courtesy of a half court buzzer-beater against Texas, and probably thought that would be part of a memorable run in the 2016 NCAAs as they led 69-57 over the Aggies with 44 seconds left. And it would be memorable, just not for the way they wanted.

The Aggies, using a furious trapping defense, outscored UNI 14-2 over the final 44 seconds, capped with Admon Gilder’s reverse layup with 2 seconds left — appropriately, off a steal. UNI would rally to take the lead in the first overtime, but Alex Caruso tied the game again with 6 seconds remaining to keep things going. Jalen Jones gave the Aggies an 86-85 lead with 3:09 to go in the second overtime, and A&M never trailed after that. The game remains the most spectacular comeback in NCAA Tournament history.

The Aggies looked like anything but a team who could take out number one, sputtering offensively under erratic backup quarterback Zach Calzada and stumbling to a 3-2 record out of the gate. But magic was in the air at Kyle Field as a national audience watched A&M stun the Crimson Tide. Calzada had the game of his life, completing 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown and Mike Elko’s defense frustrated Heisman Winner Bryce Young as A&M jumped out to 24-10 and 31-17 leads. But Alabama took over in the fourth quarter, taking a 38-31 lead with 5 minutes left. Calzada got the Aggies back up off the mat and threw a perfect 25-yard touchdown pass with exactly 3 minutes remaining, but took a low blow that left him on the turf grabbing his knee. With a crowd of 106,815 chanting his name, Calzada was carried off the field and to the injury tent. While he was in there, the Aggies forced a 3 and out to give the offense a chance to get the win. Remarkably, Calzada was able to go — and engineered an eight play, 54-yard drive that an 11-yard scramble by the quarterback. Seth Small came on and hit another game-winner as time expired, one that is one of the most-remembered in Aggie football history.

How can it be anything else? It was wild. It lasted forever. It was on SEC Network.

It was revenge.

LSU hadn’t just won every matchup since A&M had joined the SEC, they’d beaten the Aggies like a drum every time except two. A see-saw affair throughout, the Aggies endured an overturned interception and a time review to give them one shot from 19 seconds away and 1 second on the clock to send the game to overtime. Kellen Mond was up to the challenge, hitting double-covered Quartney Davis on a deep cross in the end zone to tie things up.

And that’s when things got nuts.

Receiver Kendrick Rogers caught a one-handed touchdown while getting mugged, then made a spectacular 2-point conversion to tie the game at 49. LSU got a touchdown pass from running back Clyde Edwards-Hilaire. Rogers scored again on a 4th down completion from 6 yards out, and All-American Jace Sternberger was completely left alone for a 25-yard score that gave A&M a brief 66-58 lead.

Quarterback Joe Burrow, a year before he made history, tied things up again with a 4-yard run, then gave LSU the lead with a 10-yard run to start the next overtime. But defensive end Landis Durham deflected LSU’s 2-point conversion and the Aggies stopped the Tigers short, making the score 72-66.

The Aggies then ran essentially the same pattern to Davis that sent the game to overtime, and it worked again. They then, finally, hit the coup de grace as Rogers ran across the back of the end zone to catch a 2-point conversion from Mond to end a 4 hour, 53-minute game that will be remembered for decades.