SAN ANTONIO—With Texas A&M’s 24-17 loss to Penn State in the Valero Alamo Bowl, there came frustration and finality for all those associated with the maroon and white.
On the field, the Aggies came agonizingly close to beating the Nittany Lions before a record crowd of 66,166 at the Alamodome. Off the field, the reality of ushering in a new era with a new coaching staff came sharply into focus.
But for all of the emotions that spill out after a bowl game that punctuates a long season, it was evident that this 2007 Aggie football campaign brought out more than the usual feelings of a locker room about to be split up by graduation and the spin of the coaching carousel.
This season wore on, wore down and wore out the Aggies. The loss to Penn State finally spelled relief. The end of a tumultuous and tempestuous season was mercifully here.
“It’s been a battle,” a tearful Stephen McGee said. “I had to say good-bye to a lot of my best friends, and it’s not easy. All I know is we have to keep getting back up, keep moving ahead and keeping moving forward. I know God has a plan, and I wouldn’t trade this season for anything in the world.”
The emotional junior quarterback and his teammates—as well as a lame-duck coaching staff—should be commended for holding together during a difficult five weeks that began with the resignation of coach Dennis Franchione the night of the Texas game.
This season, which seemed to have so much promise in August, began to unravel after the pummeling at Miami and continued through all the controversy concerning Fran until his final farewell—a rousing, 38-30 victory over the Longhorns at Kyle Field.
But against the patriarch of college football—the ageless one in Joe Paterno—and a well-schooled Nittany Lion squad, the Aggies finally reached empty on the tank.
After running 15 plays and chewing up 97 yards of rubberized turf on an impressive fourth-quarter drive with PSU leading by seven, A&M faced one more hurdle, one last yard for a first down or two yards for a touchdown.
Just as the A&M coaching staff called an option play for a touchdown earlier in the game, the same play was relayed in and checked by McGee to the wide side of the field.
But Penn State defenders sniffed out the play immediately, and McGee slipped to the ground as he tried to cut upfield. Fourth-and-short, and coming up short…the play was a capsule of the ’07 season, if not the last five years in Aggieland.
“It’s tough, you know,” McGee said. “You need one yard, and you think you can get it in. They had one more extra guy than we had, and they adjusted well to it. They were ready for it. I have to give them credit that they made the stop and made the play.
“They flowed really hard after the snap. At pre-snap, we had the right check; it was just a matter of execution. They just got out there. The ’backers really flowed and (identified) the play.”
Gary Darnell had no problem with the play-call from offensive coordinator Les Koenning Jr., and the interim head coach even admitted the Aggies were going for two if they had scored.
Unfortunately, the Nittany Lions’ salty defense lived up to its advanced billing as one of the nation’s best against the run.
“It’s charted,” Darnell said of the play choice, which did not involve the bulldozing Jorvorskie Lane. “I promise you anyone in (the press conference) could take our game plan and call the game. Football is a categorical game. Generally, you have all those things pre-planned. It’s just a matter of choosing one or the other. We ran it twice, and it worked once and we slipped once. I certainly would do it again.
“We were going to go for it. We were going to have gusto in this game, and we already had our two-point play ready to go if we had scored. We were playing to win.”
Despite a 7-5 record heading into the bowl game, loyal A&M supporters flocked to the Alamodome for a game pitting two of the most spirited fan bases in the country. Unlike the 24-0 whitewashing between the two schools in 1999, the Aggies took control of the game early, bolting to a 14-0 lead.
It appeared the building that had haunted A&M so many times before was about to showcase a special night for the Aggies, who were searching for their third bowl victory since 1995.
But Penn State reeled off 17 unanswered points and a final dagger of a run up the gut of the Aggie defense when Evan Royster sprinted 38 yards for a touchdown with 19 seconds left in the third quarter.
“I have played Coach Paterno twice, and he has come back to beat me twice in the second half,” Darnell said. “I never, ever feel comfortable with any point margin with him until the game is over. And it was because of how we got the 14 points. One we earned, and one they kind of gave it to us.
“I knew we were having to battle our heads off trying to stop the run on the inside. At day’s end, I knew it was going to be a close football game. When it got right down to it, they beat us on an inside running play.”
The stats in this game were fairly even, and A&M showed good balance with 164 yards rushing and 164 through the air. But the A&M defense never solved the inside running of Rodney Kinlaw or the draw play of utility quarterback Daryll Clark.
The repair work for Aggie football is now handed off to a new coaching staff under Mike Sherman, who reported to his office in the Bright Football Complex on New Year’s Eve.
Sherman will have some talent to work with in 2008, although replacing key players along the offensive and defensive lines will be difficult. New schemes and terminology will make for the always-challenging transition.
“It’s tough to say,” said senior center Cody Wallace about what kind of shape the program remains in heading into next season. “I think Mike Sherman is going to come in and do a good job. We’ve only met him a handful of times. He seems like he is going to come in and try and right the ship.”
Despite all the bumps the 2007 Aggies endured, Darnell didn’t hesitate in assessing the team’s chances for recovery next fall. Perhaps the purging started with McGee’s final expulsion of emotion.
“The highs were high, and the lows were low,” Darnell said. “But the character of this team will prove that everything will work out OK.”
