Why They Play The Game

SMU At No. 9 Texas A&M: No Aggie Slam-Dunk

SMU's Ramon Flanigan rushed for two touchdowns and passed for another in the 1994 21-21 tie with No. 7 Texas A&M in San Antonio. Photo Credit: SMU Heritage Hall

DALLAS – Anyone thinking SMU might be driven into Kyle Field’s turf in its opener at Texas A&M on September 4 th should recall the last time the Mustangs faced a Top Ten-ranked Aggie squad.

The date was October 29, 1994. The place was San Antonio’s spanking new Alamodome.

Still struggling in its sixth season back from NCAA “death-penalty” hell, SMU met No. 7 A&M in a game expected to be one of the greatest mismatches since Adam laced up cleats.

The 1-7 Mustangs were coming off a 42-20 thumping at the hands of Texas. They’d been throttled by Baylor, 44-10, and Texas Tech, 35-7. The program had averaged two wins per season over the previous five years.

The Aggies entered as kings of the Southwest Conference, having ruled without a league loss for nearly four seasons, sporting back-to-back SWC titles.

Oh - the game? It ended in a 21-21 tie, shortly after SMU’s potential game-winning 43-yard field goal sailed just left as 50,000 Aggies flirted with strokes.

How’d this happen? How could it happen? More later.

Today’s Mustangs

For now, the current crop of Mustangs don’t seem to be in need of extra motivation for their upcoming battle in Aggieland.

Though this year’s game has nowhere near the David-Goliath flavor of ‘94, the Aggies will still be solid favorites at home. And an SMU win would still rank as a major upset - and give June Jones his first signature win as head coach of the Mustangs.

“It’s a big challenge for us,” said junior quarterback Kyle Padron. “Texas A&M is a good team. … They’re going to make us play to the best of our ability. We’ve got to go out and play our ‘A’ game.”

Padron set SMU school records last year for passing yards (3,828), total yards (4,072), touchdowns (31) and completions (302) while leading the team to Conference USA’s title game and a second-straight bowl appearance.

Senior wideout Cole Beasley is especially pumped. “I’ll tell you one thing,” he said. “My parents went to college at A&M and my sister went to A&M. I’ve been wanting to play there since I was itty-bitty.”

Beasley started all 14 games last year, finishing with 87 catches – the second-most in school history - and 1,060 yards, earning second-team all-conference honors.

“There’s going to be some fierce competitors out there and it’s just going to bring the best out in us,” Beasley said. “If you don’t want to play in a big game like that, you shouldn’t be here.”

Said senior cornerback Richard Crawford, “Last year, I opened at [Texas] Tech and didn’t have the best experience starting. This year, I’m a year older … and I just think ‘fun.’ I’m going against one of the best receivers in the nation, [A&M’s Jeff Fuller], so I’m taking it as an opportunity to get better.”

Crawford started 13 games for SMU last season, collecting four picks and 42 solo tackles.

SMU center Brannon Kidd

Remember The Alamodome

Back to ’94: “It was just like a home game for A&M,” said SMU’s dual-threat quarterback then, Ramon Flanigan. “It felt like we were playing at Kyle Field, just with a roof over the stadium.”

“You hear the adage all the time, any given Saturday? It was one of those Saturdays. Things went well for us, especially early. We got the momentum.”

Flanigan, who still holds SMU’s all-time career yardage record (7,437), added, “It seemed like everything we did, the ball bounced our way. And a lot of guys made a lot of big-time plays.”

When asked about when “SMU tied A&M,” center Brannon Kidd quickly corrects: “They tied us.”

Indeed - and not until the fourth quarter.

SMU was without injured All-SWC linebacker and leading tackler Chris Bordano. Ditto for future All-SWC/All-WAC linebacker Craig Swann. Second-leading tackler Troy Williams would be ejected in the first quarter for fighting.

Still, the Mustangs defense stoned the Aggies when it mattered, all day.

“We probably weren’t the most talented team,” Kidd said, “but we worked hard.”

Kidd said he noticed something different while listening to head coach Tom Rossley’s pre-game speech. “You could just feel that something special was happening.”

To better understand this thriller, it helps to know that these Mustangs, when clicking, had shown an ability to play with anyone.

They’d lost at No. 13 UCLA, 17-10, on September 10 th, after having the ball on the Bruins’ goal-line in the closing seconds. They’d led Mack Brown and No. 18 North Carolina late, before succumbing, 28-24, at home.

Though finishing 1-9-1 that year, they were four touchdowns shy of a winning record.

“It sounds weird, but we always thought we could win every weekend,” Flanigan said. “Coach Rossley and the coaching staff always had us so prepared so well, mentally and physically, we really thought we could win every game. Even when we knew we were out-manned and out-gunned.”

Another key to ’94’s craziness: all three SMU touchdowns came after Aggie fumbles in their own territory.

In the first quarter, one play after the Mustangs had forced turnover No. 1, Flanigan found All-SWC wideout Mick Rossley for a 26-yard touchdown completion.

“A&M back then, all they did was blitz and play man-to-man coverage,” Flanigan said. “That was one of our bread-and-butter routes, Mick singled-up on a strong safety. He made a great move to beat him to the post. … I got hit just as I threw and Mick made a great catch, which got our crowd super jacked-up.”

In the second quarter, Flanigan took it in himself from three yards out and SMU led, 14-0.

In the fourth quarter, A&M had closed the margin to 14-13, when Flanigan scored again after an Aggie fumble - right up the middle, again from three yards out.

Flanigan followed Kidd into the end zone.

Said Kidd, “I just remember lying there and seeing the official’s arms go up. … That is the most memorable moment of my entire college playing career.”

Aggies Come Back

A&M rallied to tie it at 21 with 6:48 left to play, setting the stage for SMU’s improbable final push.

“That last drive,” Flanigan said, “everything was set up for a storybook finish. We had a long drive, multiple plays. I probably had ten or eleven carries on that drive alone.”

The Mustangs made it the Aggie 26 before calling on Ben Crosland with 29 seconds left for the field goal attempt. It wasn’t to be – but A&M’s 26-game SWC win streak was over.

The Aggies finished 10-0-1.

Said Kidd, “We didn’t officially get the W, but as for our team’s sake, that was a win. And, probably, for the rest of the country it was a win because that was something that we weren’t ever expected to do.”

“Surely, for A&M, it felt like a loss.”

Flanigan doesn’t think the Aggies overlooked SMU or took a win for granted. “It was a Southwest Conference game,” he said. “It was an electric atmosphere. They were on probation that year so every weekend was like a bowl game.”

“Once we got on a roll,” Kidd said, “we just got more and more confident and good things happened. A lot of credit goes to Ramon and his leadership as well as our defense.”

Rick James, a senior back-up receiver and grad-student decathlete saw his first game action that day. A 4.3 sprinter, James recalls beating All-America cornerback Ray Mickens down the sideline numerous times, finally driving a cursing Mickens back to a nice cushion.

This allowed Flanigan a bit of room to run on that side. “That was my big contribution,” laughed James.

No OT Then

Overtime in Division I-A football did not begin until two years later. James said he would have liked to have had the game settled - one way or the other. “I think we could have [won] it,” he said. “I really do.”

“I don’t know,” said Flanigan, when asked about OT, win or lose, instead of the tie. “A tie was a lot better than a loss, because we played well enough not to lose, if that makes any sense.”

“We could have easily have gone away with a loss and nobody would be talking about it nearly as much 17 years later.”

At A&M the next year, SMU had the Aggies on the ropes again, before losing in the final 8 seconds, 20-17, on a questionable catch in the back of the end zone by Albert Connell. Mustang players will tell you today Connell’s foot was clearly out of bounds.

Flanigan’s take on this year’s tilt with highly-ranked Aggies?

“It’s very similar,” he said, “but the difference is now I think our talent level at SMU is a lot higher than it was back then. A&M has a lot of blue-chip recruits but, nowadays, so does SMU. Those guys have played in some big games and they have confidence that comes from winning.”

Said Kidd, “It’s just believing in yourself. This team that SMU’s got now, they’ve got so much potential.”

Check it out, Sunday, September 4th __ and be ready for anything.

Prediction: SMU 29 A&M 28 - SEC! SEC! SEC!

Notes

*Unranked Texas A&M beat SMU, 66-8, at College Station in 2005, the last time the two teams met.

*The 1974 Mustangs beat No. 5-ranked A&M, 18-14, in Dallas.

*SMU has played one other Top Ten-ranked team since ’94: No. 4 TCU, last year – a 41-24 Mustangs loss.

*Ramon Flanigan is in his second year as Offensive Coordinator at Mississippi Valley State. He was OC at North Texas from 2002-06.

*Brannon Kidd is Offensive Coordinator at Wichita Falls Hirschi High. Prior to that, he was AD/Head Coach at Emory-Rains High in East Texas.

*Tom Rossley is now Senior Assistant/Quarterbacks Coach at A&M.

*SMU lost to Central Florida, 17-7, in last year’s C-USA Championship game in Orlando. The Mustangs defeated Nevada, 45-10, in the 2009 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and lost to Army, 16-14, in last year’s Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas.