NCAA Football Recap (Texas A&M-UCLA)
Posted: Thur January 1, 1998 at 8:48 p.m. EST
Backup tight end Ryan Neufeld scored on a five-yard reverse with
7:05 remaining as UCLA rallied from a 16-point
first-half deficit to defeat Texas A&M, 29-23, in
the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The comeback win capped a remarkable turnaround for UCLA (10-2),
which tied a school record with its 10th straight win following
season-opening losses to Washington State and Tennessee -- a
pair of schools playing in bowls with national championship
implications.
"It's one the biggest thrills of my life," said UCLA coach Bob
Toledo, who was an assistant at Texas A&M from 1989 to 1993.
"This is my first bowl game as a head coach. I'm going to miss a
lot of young men on this team. It gives them an opportunity to
go out as winners and it closes a chapter in my book."
The Bruins, who were victimized by Texas A&M's big-play defense
in the first half, fell into a 16-0 hole when the Aggies' Donte
Hall ripped off a 74-yard TD run with 5:54 left in the second
quarter. Hall rushed for 93 yards on seven carries, but was
held to only five yards on two carries in the second half.
Cade McNown, who broke Tom Ramsey's single-season school passing
record, rallied the Bruins by passing for two touchdowns and
running for a third score. McNown was 16-of-29 for 239 yards
and finished the season with 3,116 yards, surpassing Ramsey's
mark of 2,986.
"I don't think we ran out of gas," Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum
said. "We just made too many mistakes. We pretty much gave them
14 points on touchdowns by mistakes. You can't afford to do that
against a team like this."
The Bruins drove 71 yards in eight plays following a punt by
Texas A&M for the winning score. Wichita Falls, Texas native
Skip Hicks, who rushed for 140 yards on 31 carries, ripped off
consecutive gains of 16 and 24 yards to give the Bruins a
1st-and-goal at the 5.
On the next play, Newfeld ran around right end to give the
Bruins the lead and McNown tacked on the conversion run.
"The whole A&M defense was expecting the ball to go to Skip,"
Neufeld said. "The flow was going to the left and I came around
to the right side and the A&M defense reacted to Skip."
UCLA completed the second-greatest comeback in Cotton Bowl
history. Notre Dame erased a 34-12 deficit to beat Houston,
35-34, in 1979.
"We're a confident football team," McNown said. "We don't get
down on ourselves. We were stopping ourselves with penalties,
dropped passes, you name it, we were doing it. We just had to
iron out those things and get it going."
The Bruins have won 10 straight games for just the third time in
school history. They won all 10 regular-season games in 1946
before losing in the Rose Bowl. In 1954, UCLA went 9-0 to
capture a share of the natonal championship and won its opener
the following season.
UCLA also reached 10 wins for only the fifth time in school
history and improved its bowl record to 11-9-1. The Bruins last
won 10 games in 1988.
"As I told the seniors, they will always remember their last
football game," Toledo said. "It was a real big win over a real
good football team. I can't be prouder of the way the came back
and won the football game. That shows be a lot of character and
a lot of pride."
Texas A&M (9-4), which was coming off a 54-15 loss to Nebraska
in the Big 12 Championship, has lost four of its last five bowl
games and fell to 12-11 in the postseason.
"We bult momentum with our defense and really came out fired
up," Hall said. "It's hard, us losing, but we proved we could
hang with one of the best teams in the country."
McNown started the comeback when he tossed a 22-yard TD pass to
Jim McElroy with just two seconds remaining in the first half.
UCLA drove 45 yards in only three plays on its first possession
of the second half to cut the deficit to 16-14 on McNown's
41-yard TD pass to Hicks.
"UCLA demonstrated all year that they're a very explosive
offensive football team," Slocum said. "I'm sure that their
abilities had something to do with that. I was very disappointed
with the play at the end. It was an error on our part."
Texas A&M restored its nine-point lead when Chris Cole rambled
43 yards on a reverse with 8:37 left in the third quarter, but
UCLA closed within 23-21 on McNown's 20-yard TD run with 2:44 to
go in the period.
After Texas A&M's Kyle Bryant missed a 38-yard field goal midway
through the first quarter, Hicks' 31-yard run and McNown's
19-yard pass to Mike Grieb gave the Bruins a 1st-and-goal at the
9.
The drive stalled as Hicks lost five yards on first down. On the
next play, Linebacker Dat Nguyen intercepted McNown's pass at
the Aggies 17 and returned it 19 yards, before lateraling to
safety Brandon Jennings, who went the remaining 64 yards to give
the Aggies a 7-0 lead with 4:35 left in the first quarter.
Texas A&M's defense struck again when Zerrick Rollins tackled
McNown in the end zone for a safety with 10:18 left in the first
half.
The Aggies nearly recorded their second safety when Hicks was
tackled inside the 1 on 2nd-and-31 from the Bruins 2 early in
the fourth quarter. But UCLA got out of the shadow of its
goalposts when McNown hit Brian Poli-Dixon for a 26 yard gain.
UCLA had to punt but held Texas A&M without a first down and got
back the ball at the 29 to begin its winning drive.
"It feels really great to come back home and to win here in
front of a lot of family and friends, especially to win the bowl
that I used to watch growing up," Hicks said. "I just glad that
I could win the game for coach Toledo and the youngs guys coming
up."
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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