New kid on the block
A little more than a year after his historic touchdown in the Gator Bowl, Gillaspia is making big plays again
Cullen Gillaspia, wearing a sports coat and a Gator Bowl champion hat, leaned back on a bench in the bowels of TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla., and teasingly declared a resolution on New Year’s Eve of 2018.
“I’m officially entering the 2019 NFL draft,” said the Texas A&M fullback and designated 12th Man.
He quickly added with a grin, “I ran out of eligibility, so I really didn’t have any other options.”
The Texans love his collegiate timing — especially after Gillaspia dropped a key block in their 22-19 overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills last weekend in NRG Stadium in an AFC wild card game.
Gillaspia, a Katy Taylor graduate and former walk-on at A&M, might be called upon again on Sunday in an AFC divisionalround playoff game at Kansas City, too, based on his early playoff success in helping pave the way for quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Gillaspia’s hot pursuit and blocks of Bills safety Micah Hyde and cornerback Tre’Davious White helped spring Watson on a 20-yard touchdown run, kickstarting the Texans’ comeback from a 16-0 deficit late in the third quarter.
The only thing an exuberant Gillaspia did wrong was interfere with Watson’s touchdown salutation in the end zone.
“Sorry for messing up your celebration @deshaunwatson,” a good-humored Gillaspia tweeted the day after the game.
The play marked the seventh time this season the Texans have been in a “20” personnel package, with two running backs and no tight ends.
Gillaspia, a seventh-round selection last April and the Texans’ final pick, played 13 snaps on offense in the regular season.
But he was ready to plow when called upon.
“We had some injuries during the week, and this is a guy who is in that tough, smart, dependable category,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said of why he inserted
Gillaspia and turned to the 20 package. “He’s done a lot of good things for us on special teams, and we’ve worked (it) during the week at times. We just hadn’t been able to use it that much.
“Cullen made a great block. He did some good things in the game.”
When Watson sprang loose and ran right on the keeper, Gillaspia led the pack and chased down Hyde, delivering a block from the side and shoving him into White, taking both defenders out of the equation.
“Just doing my job,” Gillaspia said. “I’m happy I got the opportunity to come out there and play fullback a little. I just did what I could. Deshaun is a great runner. I got on the (first) guy, and Deshaun did the rest. I think he dragged three guys, all the credit to him on the play.”
It was two, but it would have been three if Hyde hadn’t been knocked out of the scene. Receiver DeAndre Hopkins provided the other key block on the play.
A little more than a year earlier, Gillaspia turned in his most memorable play with the Aggies — on his final play representing A&M in the Gator Bowl. On the prior play, Gillaspia received a handoff for no gain.
Undaunted, Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher called for Gillaspia to receive another carry. This time he bulled 13 yards for a touchdown with 22 seconds remaining, capping the Aggies’ 52-13 victory over North Carolina State in Fisher’s first season at A&M and Gillaspia’s last.
It marked the only touchdown by a 12th Man in the program’s history.
“I knew that was it — it was now or never,” an elated Gillaspia said in a TIAA Bank Field corridor that New Year’s Eve night. “I had (earlier) texted a couple of buddies and said, ‘If they give me the ball, I’m not stopping.’ I wasn’t going to be denied.”