Starkel key to end struggles against Rebels
OXFORD, Miss. — Texas A&M senior receiver Damion Ratley pulled freshman quarterback Nick Starkel aside for a little advice a couple of weeks ago — for Ratley’s sake as much as that of the strongarmed Starkel.
“I’m going to be five yards away from you,” Ratley recalled telling Starkel during A&M’s home loss to Auburn. “You don’t have to throw a bullet.”
Not long after, Ratley hauled in a touchdown pass from Starkel.
“He listened to me, he threw it right in there and I was able to catch it and keep going,” Ratley said.
Now the Aggies (6-4, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) will see if their latest starting quarterback will have the right touch to lift A&M out of its rut against Mississippi (5-5, 2-4), as the SEC West foes collide 6 p.m. Saturday at VaughtHemingway Stadium.
Trying to end a trend
The Rebels have won three consecutive games against the Aggies, including when A&M was ranked eighth nationally last season in mid-November. The Aggies finished 8-5 for a third consecutive season, while otherwisewoeful Mississippi was 5-7 in what turned out to be coach Hugh Freeze’s final season.
A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, who’s expected to be fired at the end of the regular season based on the Aggies’ inability to climb over the eight-game hump late in his tenure, was brutally honest when asked why A&M has had so much trouble with the Rebels.
“I don’t know why we’ve struggled with Ole Miss,” Sumlin said. “More and more, it’s about matchups. Some people and styles of play can create issues for different people. I don’t know why that is. I treat every game as mutually exclusive.”
Starkel will be the Aggies’ fifth starting quarterback in six games against the Rebels since joining the SEC. Johnny Manziel, who won the 2012 Heisman Trophy, led A&M to victories at Mississippi in 2012 and 2013 as the Aggies played on the road in consecutive seasons.
Kenny Hill then failed to lead A&M to a home win in 2014, the next year Kyle Allen and the Aggies lost on the road, and last season, Jake Hubenak, subbing for an injured Trevor Knight, also couldn’t manage a victory.
Now it is Starkel’s turn after he broke his ankle in A&M’s season-opening 45-44 loss at UCLA and did not return as starter in place of a fading Kellen Mond until last week against New Mexico.
“We’re encouraged by last week,” Sumlin said. “And hopefully we can improve on that this week.”
Elevating their play
Starkel has seven touchdown passes and an interception in about six quarters of play this season — one TD pass shy of Mond, who has played in all 10 games. Starkel has completed 58 percent of his passes compared with 52 percent for Mond, one more reason Starkel regained the starting job after returning from the broken ankle sooner than many expected.
Sumlin routinely has insisted that Mond’s numbers aren’t all on the quarterback — that his receivers had failed to be competitive in pulling down contested passes. They got better against the Lobos.
“Damion Ratley had a one-handed touchdown catch (against New Mexico), and Christian Kirk wrestled a ball away and ran away,” Sumlin said. “There were plays made for him. To get those kinds of numbers, that stuff has to happen. The quarterback is the catalyst, but everyone has to play at that level.”
The Rebels, under interim coach Matt Luke, have been better than many anticipated after the summer firing of Freeze, whose phone records showed he’d called an escort service with his universityissued phone. That was after the NCAA already had
charged Mississippi with numerous recruiting violations, leading the Rebels to self-impose a bowl ban this year even before Freeze’s final straw.
Mississippi will honor its seniors before the game in what’s certain to be a rowdy environment Saturday night with the Aggies back in town.
“You’ve got to be careful,” Luke said of trying to keep emotion out of the equation. “I want the seniors to know how important they are to the program, but we’ve still got to go play football.”