ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher may have gotten his first SEC win Saturday, but he was in no mood to celebrate after his three-touchdown favorite Aggies had to hold on in the Southwest Classic.
In fact, his team’s 24-17 win over Arkansas before 55,338 at AT&T Stadium came in what the former Florida State coach termed probably his team’s “worst football game of the year by far.”
Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC) jumped ahead in its seventh straight win in the series when Jashaun Corbin ran the opening kickoff back 100 yards. The Aggies were up 17-0 early in the second quarter before Arkansas (1-4, 0-2) began to fight back.
“First, I am happy that we were able to win the football game,” Fisher said. “The team did enough things to win the football game. I thought Arkansas played extremely hard. Great job by Chad (Morris) and his crew.
“But other than that, that is about it. I didn’t think we played real well. I thought we played in spurts. I thought we came out and started well, had some great things off the beginning and then lost control of the game, had control of the game, let guys hang in the game up three scores and let them back in the game.”
Fisher reserved most of his criticism for his offense, which had 15 yards of total offense in the third quarter and scored on only one its final eight possessions.
“On offense, we should have put the game away on different drives, should have run the ball better. Too many inconsistencies, too many silly penalties kept us behind the sticks late,” Fisher said. “(We had) third and long all day, had some critical drops early in the game when we could have really put pressure on them."
The Razorbacks had a chance to tie late in the game when the defense held and gave the offense the ball back at the Arkansas 26 with 1:51 remaining.
Razorback quarterback Ty Storey, who hit freshman wide receiver Mike Woods with a 29-yard touchdown pass with 3:31 left to cut it to 24-17, began the drive by throwing to Jordan Jones for 8 yards, Rakeem Boyd for 11 and then threw an incomplete pass.
With a second down at the Arkansas 45, Storey’s pass intended for De'Vion Warren was intercepted by Donovan Wilson at the Texas A&M 26 to seal the deal.
“Big,” Fisher said of the play. “Any time you can, like, drive and…win a game with a drive or score in the last possession like that or get off the field on defense, that's critical because you've done it, you know how to do it, you've got the confidence to do it.
“…That was huge and that was a great play by (Wilson) to get over the top and make that play because they had a double move and had a little space right there to make a play. And that was a big-time play.”
Wilson came over from safety to make the play on a ball that was slightly under thrown.
“I was the deep safety,” Wilson said. “The quarterback kind of rolled toward where he was throwing and put a lot of air on it. That gave me a chance to make a play.”
Fisher was upset that Texas A&M didn’t put the game away after going up 17-0 early in the second quarter.
“You got to take the air out of people,” Fisher said. “You’ve got to take their hope away. As long as there's hope, that gives momentum and that changes games. It’s not the defense's fault.
“On offense, we had plenty of opportunities to miss, whether it was (two) missed kicks, finishing drives, silly penalties in the red zone, get backed up, turn it over with a pick - I mean, all kind of things. So both sides did enough, and we made some nice things at times. But we didn't play intelligently enough as a football team to understand how to win and play at a championship level.”
Fisher’s frustration boiled over in the third quarter when he grabbed the face mask of linebacker Tyrel Dodson and lit into him.
“I don't need that guy out there pushing and shoving, getting in a fight in the game,” Fisher said of his reaction. “Lose one of our best players on defense and our team leader, that's great. Learn to put your pride away and go on the sideline. There ain't no sense to go out there and push and shove and do dumb things out there when you're locked in on the game.
“He plays great. He's a heck of a player for us. I've had enough. We've had Dono (Wilson) going for a game or two (due to targeting penalties). We had that. In a game like that to lose (Dodson) just trying to make a point, I don’t want you out there fighting. Make the play, shut your mouth, go on.”
The Aggies said they have seen that fire from Fisher in practice.
“I guess that would be the most animated that he’s been in a game,” defensive tackle Daylon Mack said. “But we’ve seen more.”
The Arkansas defense was led by linebackers De’Jon Harris (16 tackles) and Dre Greenlaw (13 tackles, two interceptions) and safety Santos Ramirez (10 tackles).
They led a unit that gave up 242 yards total offense in the first half, but just 135 in the second half.
Greenlaw picked off two of Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond’s passes on a day when he went 17-of-26 for 201 yards and rushed 11 times for 14 yards.
“It’s on him (Mond),” Fisher said of the interceptions. “The defense always gets credit. The first one, he threw behind him. The second was a third-and-10. We said we have a field goal. If we don’t have it, we are going to throw it away. Tries to force it.”
He was pleased with Corbin’s 100-yard dash on the kickoff and noted the Aggies had been close to doing that and it wasn’t something he saw off of film of the Razorbacks.
“He’d been working on it,” Fisher said. “We’ve been working it hard. And that was a big play in the run. It was huge. You can see his talent level. The guy is a good player. We have to keep him on the field and get him playing.”