A&M will have its ‘work cut out’ against N.C. State
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M is headed back to Florida for a bowl game for the first time since 1957 — and Jimbo Fisher is headed back to the Sunshine State to coach a football game for the first time in a little more than a year.
The Aggies (8-4) of the SEC will take on North Carolina State (9-3) of the ACC in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Jacksonville, Fla., with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.
“We’ll have our work cut out for us,” Fisher said.
The Wolfpack, led by NFL prospect Ryan Finley at quarterback, are ninth nationally in passing offense with 319 yards per game. Receivers Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers, like Finley, made firstteam All-ACC. A&M’s secondary was its weakest link this season.
“Florida is a big focus for us in recruiting, and we have a strong alumni base in the state,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said.
Doeren, in his sixth season in Raleigh, N.C., led the Wolfpack to at least nine wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 199192 and for the third time in program history.
A&M is playing in a bowl for a 10th consecutive season, tied for the 11th longest streak in the nation and fourth in the SEC behind Georgia (22), LSU (18) and Alabama (15). It’s also the longest streak in the state among the 11 FBS programs in Texas.
In their first season under Fisher, hired a year ago from Florida State, the Aggies are trying to reach nine wins for the first time since 2013, and also will attempt to snap a three-game losing streak in bowl games. A&M and North Carolina State have never played in football.
The Aggies wrapped up their regular season with a 74-72, sevenovertime victory over LSU on Nov. 24, the most points scored in a college football game in history, and tying with four other games for the longest ever by overtimes.
A&M on Sunday was ranked No. 19 in the final College Football Playoff tally, the first time the Aggies have finished in the top 25 of the CFP in its five seasons of existence. Fisher was 4-1 against Doeren when both coached in the ACC.
A&M fans typically travel well for bowl games regardless of the regular-season record, but this year they’re buoyed by the Aggies closing the regular season with three consecutive victories for the first time since 2012, their first year in the SEC.
“This is one of college football’s most prestigious postseason games, and (it’s) run by an experienced, first-class organization,” A&M athletic director Scott Woodward said of the Gator Bowl. “NC State has an excellent football team, and the game should be an exciting challenge … in a great setting.”
Jacksonville is about 165 miles from Fisher’s previous stop of FSU, where he won a national title in 2013. The last and only time the Aggies played in the Gator Bowl to cap the 1957 season, that November reports surfaced then-A&M coach Paul “Bear” Bryant would leave College Station for his alma mater of Alabama.
The Aggies, stunned by the news, closed out the season with three consecutive losses — including a 3-0 setback to Tennessee in the Gator — after opening the year with eight consecutive victories to earn the nation’s No. 1 ranking for much of that November.
Running back John David Crow won the program’s first Heisman Trophy in 1957, after Bryant told reporters they ought to “do away with the thing” if Crow didn’t take home college football’s top individual honor. Quarterback Johnny Manziel won A&M’s second Heisman in 2012.
Crow, who died in June of 2015, once said, “I’d like to say coach Bryant’s leaving was the reason we went from being the No. 1 team in the nation to third in the (Southwest) conference. But those were all good teams that beat us, as well.”