Aggies come up short in Belk Bowl shootout
Defensive stops too few to preserve leads for promising offense
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Kevin Sumlin Era at Texas A&M wrapped up in fitting fashion on Friday afternoon. Plenty of points, flash and potential, but in the end an unfulfilling finish for a fan base hungry for firmness over flair.
It’s why Sumlin wasn’t around for the finale, after he was fired in late November for too many showings that mirrored the Belk Bowl outcome, a 55-52 Wake Forest victory in a halfempty Bank of America Stadium.
“We knew this was going to be a high-scoring game, a shootout,” A&M receiver Damion Ratley said. “They took over the momentum at the right time, and never let it go.”
The Aggies lost their third consecutive bowl, this time under interim coach Jeff Banks. A&M quickly built a 14-0 lead, only to aimlessly watch the Demon Deacons score the next 31 points — all by early in the second quarter.
“It would have been easy to fold,” A&M junior defensive end Landis Durham said. “It was 31-14 in the second quarter, and the scoreboard was looking pretty ugly, but we kept fighting and clawing our way back.”
The Aggies even twice snagged the lead late in the third quarter and late in the fourth quarter. But as it has been since beginning in the second year of Sumlin’s tenure in 2013, defense was a problem for the Aggies.
Wake Forest coolly marched 69 yards on 13 plays for its final score with 2:18 remaining, a 1-yard Matt Colburn burst around the right side after A&M cobbled together a couple of goal-line stops.
“If you’re going to play that kind of shootout, then you’ve got to get a stop late in that game or you’ve got to keep scoring, and we just came up a little bit short,” Banks said.
Going out with a bang
The Aggies had one final drive, but on its eighth play a Nick Starkel pass intended for Ratley fell incomplete on fourth down, and Wake Forest of the ACC improved its record to 8-5 while A&M dropped to 7-6.
The Aggies failed to win at least nine games for a fourth straight season, with the three previous winding up 8-5. Sumlin’s inability to climb over that eight-win hump while competing in the SEC West ultimately led to his dismissal following the Aggies’ 45-21 loss at LSU on Nov. 25.
“Coach Sumlin brought me to A&M, he brought everybody on the team here,” Ratley said, his voice softening. “It was tough for us not to get this win for him. But I hope he was happy with our performance, and I hope he knows we played for him.”
New A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, hired from Florida State, attended the game but kept his hands off the program until the current staff had rounded out its season. Fisher spent part of Friday’s first half in the ESPN broadcast booth, and at times sounded as if he wanted to hustle down to the sideline and take over the duties.
He didn’t, and A&M began its fight back primarily through the heroics of junior receiver Christian Kirk and the passing of Starkel. Kirk set A&M bowl records with 13 catches for 189 yards. In what was likely his final performance at A&M, he snagged three touchdown catches in a game for the first time in his career.
Kirk, a junior, is expected to declare for the NFL draft in the coming days, but he bucked the budding trend of potential first- or second-round draft selections skipping bowls. A&M got a scare in the third quarter when Kirk hurt his ankle and was tended to on the sideline, but he quickly returned in trying to lead the Aggies to a big-time comeback.
“He was hurt bad,” Banks said of Kirk lying on the field after rolling his ankle. “You could hear him underneath his helmet moaning. It was awesome and fitting to see him bounce back and make the plays that he did.”
A passing frenzy
While Kirk, who declined a postgame interview because he didn’t want to field questions about the NFL, is likely moving on to the next level, the Aggies have at least two more seasons to see Starkel, a redshirt freshman, continue to grow.
Starkel’s 499 passing yards were second only to Kenny Hill’s school-record 511 in 2014 for a game. Starkel’s 42 completions (in 63 attempts) also set an A&M bowl record.
“He has so much ahead of him,” Ratley said. “He still has a lot to work on, but he had a great day.”
Smashing records and 52 points were all fine with Banks, but in the end he wanted something else: a win.
“There are no moral victories in football,” Banks said. “Evidenced by being 7-5 and losing our head coach. Everything is about winning, and that’s what we signed up for.”