TEXAS SPORTS NATION
QB racks up 422 total yards, four touchdowns
Texas A&M and Texas roll to easy victories in their second games of the year.
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M senior quarterback Trevor Knight is passionate by nature, and his passion has radiated early in the Aggies’ first two games with low passes and with high passes. Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin assumes the law of averages will help A&M on Saturday at Auburn.
“We got off to kind of a sluggish start, and Trevor was a little excited again,” Sumlin said following the Aggies’ 67-0 defeat of Prairie View A&Mon Saturday at Kyle Field. “This week he was a little high early, and last week (against UCLA) he threw some in the dirt.
“So next week he’ll be right on target, I guess.”
Sumlin and the No. 20 Aggies can only hope, considering they’ve put their non-conference schedule behind them for the next five games, starting with Auburn. Sumlin said he must remind himself and others that Knight hasn’t started a game in a couple of seasons, following his transfer from Oklahoma in January.
“The guy hasn’t played in 19 months until the last two weeks,” Sumlin said of Saturday’s win and a 31-24 overtime victory against UCLA a week prior. “So he’s nervous a little bit, even for an old guy. We’re learning more about him, and he’s learning more about us.”
Skittish start
That’s why establishing a running game behind Keith Ford and Trayveon Williams also is important to Knight’s fortunes, the coach added.
“The ability to be able to run the ball is really not just helping our offense, but helping (Knight) settle down, too,” Sumlin said. “We’ve got to be able to continue to do that.”
The Aggies (2-0) did so on Saturday in what amounted to a puffed-up scrimmage against the Panthers (1-1) of the Foot- ball Championship Subdivision, in emptying the bench at all positions after leading 38-0 at halftime.
No one would know by the final score, but the Aggies started slowly on Saturday before grabbing a 10-0 lead with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter, on a rugged 11-yard touchdown run by Ford.
It was all downhill from there for the Panthers, who were coming off a 29-25 comeback victory against Texas Southern in PVAMU’s new stadium last Sunday. A&M and PVAMU, the state’s two oldest public universities, played for the first time in their respective 140-year histories, and A&Mscheduled PVAMU to “keep it in the A&Msystem,” as A&M chancellor John Sharp said.
“We gave them our best punch,” second-year PVAMU coach Willie Simmons said, “and that’s all you can ask for.”
Following his skittish start, Knight settled in and completed 21 of 37 passes for 344 yards, with three touchdown passes and an interception. He also scrambled for another 78 yards and a touchdown. Knight was replaced by junior Jake Hubenak in the third quarter with mediocre results, as Hubenak finished 5 of 11 for 50 yards.
“I figure out who I am at the beginning of the ball game, and settle in,” Knight said when asked about his nerves early in games. “I am kind of an amped-up type of player with the run and pass type of stuff that I do, but a focus for this past week was footwork in the pocket. Sitting in there and being able to deliver the ball. I think I did a pretty good job of that.”
Auburn up next
A&M notched its first shutout since last season at Vanderbilt (25-0), but prior to that, the Aggies hadn’t held an opponent scoreless since 2004, 31-0 over Wyoming.
“It’s always good to get a shutout, no matter who you’re playing,” A&Msafety Justin Evans said.
The two recent shutouts have come under secondyear defensive coordinator John Chavis. Now the Aggies have a couple of polar opposite non-conference contests out of the way against decidedly different foes, to set up a showdown with a familiar SEC opponent.
Last season, Auburn rolled into Kyle Field and prevailed 26-10, and the Aggies have waited at their chance at payback since.
“Conference play is a little different,” A&M senior defensive end Daeshon Hall said of the competition level increasing, in this case dramatically from Saturday’s blowout. “We just have to keep playing the way that helped us get this shutout.”
A&M linebacker Richard Moore and cornerback Priest Willis sat out with minor injuries, and Sumlin said they should be ready to play at Auburn.