A&M explodes after first quarter to bash Tennessee State
NASHVILLE - Perhaps Alabama A&M coach Anthony Jones should call his carpenter. After all, he's going to need a little more room in his trophy case after the way his team has beaten Tennessee State in recent years.
Quarterback Kelcy Luke completed 18-of-29 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another one and and the Bulldogs' defense was brilliant the last three quarters as A&M whipped the Tigers 49-23 in the ninth annual John Merritt Classic Saturday night at LP Field in the season opener for both teams.
An announced crowd of 23,440 looked as A&M beat TSU for the third straight year and the fifth time in the last six years.
"We've been blessed," said Jones, who ran his record to 5-1 against the Tigers. "We made a few mistakes early tonight, but our guys settled down, got used to the speed of the game and made plays.
"We had some great plays. Our kids executed and I'm proud of the way they played."
The win lifted A&M to 1-0 on the season. TSU is 0-1.
Six Bulldogs scored touchdowns and A&M finished with 450 yards in total offense.Trailing 7-0 and deep in his own territory, Jones went into his bag of tricks to get the Bulldogs' offense untracked.
Wide receiver Gerald Stockdale, on a reverse pass, found wide receiver Thomas Harris for a 42-yard gain down to the TSU 44. One play later, Luke found Harris with a 44-yard touchdown pass and Jeremy Licea kicked the first of his seven extra points to make it 7-all.
"We worked on that play for about two weeks," said Stockdale, who played quarterback at Talladega County Central High School. "We needed to make a play to spark the team. I knew Thomas going to make the play."
The Bulldogs took a lead they would never relinquish with just less than five minutes left before halftime when redshirt freshman Anthony Green scored his first career touchdown on a 1-yard run to cap a nine-play, 53-yard drive to make it 14-7.
After the Tigers pulled to within 14-13 early in the third quarter on Antonio Heffner's 12-yard touchdown pass to Chris Johnson, the Bulldogs answered with back-to-back touchdowns within a two-minute span to break it open.
Luke found tailback Ulysses Banks on a beautifully executed screen pass for a 33-yard touchdown and followed that with a 34-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Smith with just more than seven minutes left in the third quarter to make it 28-13. Smith's touchdown was set up when freshman defensive tackle Frank Kearse recovered Heffner's fumble on the TSU 34.
The Bulldogs forced four turnovers and scored 21 points off of them.
"I saw the quarterback drop the ball and I tried to get it and take it to the house, but I stumbled on some grass," Kearse said. "I know I'm going to hear about that when we watch the film."
Eric Benson's 29-yard field goal pulled TSU within 28-16 late in the third quarter, but Luke scored on a 9-yard run and Anthony Green raced 25 yards for his second touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it 42-16 as A&M broke it open.
"We had some first-game jitters early, but after that we settled down, got things going and executed our game plan," Luke said. "I didn't expect to score as many points as we did, but I knew we had some playmakers on offense and we did what we had to do."
Jones praised Luke's leadership.
"He started off a little rough, but I pulled him to the side and told him had had to make the rest of the guys better," Jones said. "My hat's off to him. He stepped up his game and you saw the results."
Freshman fullback Generion McWhorter scored A&M's last touchdown on a 12-yard run as he dragged at least five people into the end zone with him with just less than four minutes remaining.
Jones was worried coming into the game about his team's youth and inexperience. After Saturday night's win, he felt pretty good about his young squad.
"I don't know how good we can be," he said. "We beat a good football team tonight. We've got a chance to be pretty good.
"I'm just happy for our kids."
No comments:
Post a Comment