Currently: Texas A&M believes it is having a magical season. The Aggies last game confirmed it.
After pulling out an overtime victory to stay unbeaten in conference play, the 16th-ranked Aggies (6-1, 4-0) look to maintain a share of the Big 12 South by winning their seventh in a row against Baylor (2-5, 0-4) on Saturday.
The Aggies, who finished second-to-last in league play the last two seasons with 3-5 and 2-6 records, respectively, improved to 4-0 with last Saturday’s 29-26 overtime home win over Colorado. Junior quarterback Reggie McNeal led Texas A&M on an 80-yard drive to set up Todd Pegram’s 20-yard field goal as time expired, forcing the extra period.
“To have a magical season, you have to have a game like this somewhere along the way,” A&M coach Dennis Franchione said.
The Aggies had a season-high 532 yards of total offense as they won their sixth consecutive game overall. It’s their longest win streak since 1998, when they won their only Big 12 championship.
Texas A&M, which became eligible for its first bowl berth since going to the 2001 Galleryfurniture.com bowl, is tied atop the Big 12 South with No. 2 Oklahoma (4-0), which will also be in action on Saturday against No. 20 Oklahoma State.
Texas A&M hosts the Sooners on Nov. 6.
“I’m not going to talk about any games that are two weeks from now,” said Franchione, whose team lead the nation with only one turnover this season. “I know that’s not what you all want to hear about—one at a time—but you can’t play any of those others before you play the next one.”
McNeal set a Big 12 record with 195 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, breaking Kliff Kingsbury’s mark of 179 in 2002 for Texas Tech.
Pegram, who shared Big 12 player of the week honors on Monday with Texas’ Vince Young and Iowa State’s Brandon Brown, is a perfect 9-of-9 for the season and has made 13 straight field goal attempts going back to last season.
Despite a season-high 450 yards of total offense last Saturday, Baylor fell to 0-4 in conference play with a 26-25 home decision to the Cyclones.
The Bears have committed 21 turnovers this season that have led to 72 points for the opposition. They have have gone 18 consecutive quarters without forcing one.
Baylor is 1-26 against ranked teams since a 33-30 win over then-No. 20 North Carolina State in 1998.
The Aggies have won 13 in a row against the Bears and have gone 17-0-1 in the series since a 20-15 road loss in 1985.