Texas-sized beatdown

Hill, Aggies rout Carolina 52-28 to snap Gamecocks' home winning streak at 18

Posted

COLUMBIA — No Johnny Manziel, no problem for Texas A&M.

In fact, his successor, sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill, topped Johnny Football in the Aggies record book on Thursday in the season-opening game against No. 9 South Carolina.

Hill broke Manziel’s school record for passing yards in a game, completing 44 of 60 for 511 yards and three touchdowns, as No. 21 A&M halted the nation’s longest home winning streak with a 52-28 rout of ninth-ranked South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“It was obvious the odds makers don’t know what they’re talking about. That team was so much better than us it wasn’t funny,” USC head football coach Steve Spurrier said of his worst loss since taking over at USC. “They outcoached us, outplayed us, they were better prepared and they knew what they were doing. We had to throw the ball way too much to try to make some yards.”

Hill, who got his first career start, accounted for the most passing yards a USC opponent has ever allowed, while running back Tra Carson had three scores and Trey Williams rushed for two as the Aggies made it look too easy against the helpless Carolina defense.

Hill became the first Aggie QB to attempt more than 50 passes in a game and emerge as a victor. His 40 completions matched Jerrod Johnson’s school record set against Oklahoma State in 2010.

No Jadeveon Clowney equaled a big problem for the Carolina defense, which only returned four starters, and allowed 680 yards of offense. The loss marked the most points USC has allowed in Williams-Brice since giving up 63 to rival Clemson in 2003, and it was the most points allowed since Spurrier took over the program.

 “We have to take responsibility as coaches and as a coach we just didn’t have them prepared tonight,” Carolina defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward said of the loss, which marked the fifth time in program history USC has given up more than 600 yards of total offense. “We missed a lot of tackles in open field, and they did a good job of getting our guys in 1-on-1 situations and beating us. “We (as coaches) put them out there so they should be ready to play.”

Hill and the Aggies offense showed no signs of intimidation, accounting for nearly 700 yards on offense on 99 plays, including 169 yards rushing on 39 totes. The 21st-ranked Aggies had scoring drives of 67, 75, 85, 75, 80, 66, 42 and 83 yards.

Malcome Kennedy led the Aggies in receiving with 14 catches for 137 yards. Josh Reynolds had six catches for 76 yards and a score.

Carolina senior quarterback Dylan Thompson threw for 366 yards and four scores with one interception on 20 of 40 passing. The four scores set a new career high for Thompson and his 40 pass attempts were the most since his winning start at Clemson on Nov. 24, 2012.

“It doesn’t matter how well I played,” he said of the loss. “We’ll have to be better next week and get ready to come back to work.

“I have to do a better job managing the offense and we weren’t good tonight,” the Gamecocks QB added. “Our job on offense is to get the ball in the end zone and we didn’t do that enough.”

Things looked good for USC early as Thompson threw his second TD pass to wide Damiere Byrd at the 9:47 mark of the second quarter to make it a 17-14 game in favor of A&M. Things went south in a hurry though as Texas A&M rolled off three straight scores. Hill threw two TD passes, a 14-yarder to Edward Pope and a 5-yarder to Reynolds in between a 2-yard TD run to Carson.

Thompson led an 8-yard, 81-yard drive capped by a 5-yard pass to Pharoh Cooper to cut the deficit to 38-21 at the 7:33 mark of the third quarter. Carolina went for an onside kick and almost recovered, but the Aggies were set up at the Carolina 42.

That set up a Carson 2-yard rushing touchdown, which made it a 45-21 advantage at the 5:06 mark.

USC kept it a 3-score game as Thompson hit wide receiver Nick Jones with a 5-yard TD pass at the 2:38 mark to make it a 45-28 deficit. After getting a three and out, Carolina found some life, but an interception by defensive back Armani Watts killed any comeback hopes.

Carolina could’ve been hurt by the fact that running back Mike Davis didn’t play much. He had six carries for 15 yards before leaving in the third quarter with a rib injury. Brandon Wilds led the team in rushing with 46 yards on nine carries. Jones led the team in receiving with 113 yards on five catches and two scores.

A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin appeared to know what he was doing when he tabbed Hill as his starter. Hill came out firing from under center and was 27 of 35 for 299 yards including two scores in the first half. The Aggies accounted for 393 total yards on 53 plays in the first half as they led 31-14 at the break.

Thompson was 8 for 18 for 188 yards and two scores in the first half with touchdown tosses of 69 to Jones and 46 to Byrd.

The Aggies used 3 minutes, 33 seconds, on their opening offensive drive to open the scoring. Carson scored on a 1-yard TD run.

After punting on its first drive, Carolina responded on its second possession of the game as Thompson hit Jones on a 69-yard touchdown pass.
A&M pushed the lead to 17-7 before Thompson went to Byrd for the 46-yard TD pass to make it 17-14. The Aggies scored two more times before the half to make it 31-14.

USC attempted to cut the deficit before the half, but placekicker Elliot Fry missed a 54-yard field goal attempt. That came after Jones dropped what would have been a 25-yard TD catch due to a jarring hit.