8B
Monday, August 26, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Unranked BYU tops No.13 A&M
Big 12 newcomer opens with a loss
The Associated Press
PROVO, Utah — Steve Sarkissian wrecked the "Wrecking Crew."
The Brigham Young quarterback threw six touchdown passes Saturday as the Cougars upset No. 13 Texas A&M 41-37 in the Pigskin Classic, the opening game of the college football season.
"One thing to remember is when BYU gets rolling on offense, it's kind of hard to stop the train."
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"Once we got in the groove and got people going we were all right," the senior quarterback said.
said Sarkisian, who completed a career-best 33-of-44 passes for 536 yards against A&M's vaunted "Wrecking Crew" defense.
Exploiting the Aggies' sophomore-laden secondary, Sarkisian threw the winning, 46-yard TD pass to K.O. Kealaluhi with 1:03 remaining.
Two of Sarkisian's TD tosses went to Kaipo McGuire, who finished with seven catches for 146 yards. Kealaluhi gained 151 yards on six catches.
"This was a great victory for us. But we've always stepped up for big games," said BYU coach LaVell Edwards.
The loss was the first in eight season-openers for A&M coach R.C. Slocum.
"We knew going into the ball game that we had a real vulnerability in the secondary," he said. "We lost three out of four of our starters. Also, we had a lot of respect for BYU's capability to exploit that."
The upset ruined Brandon Stewart's heralded debut as A&M quarterback. Before a national television audience, he finished with 232 yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-28 passing.
Trailing 37-34 after Kyle Bryant's third field goal for A&M — a 51-yarder with 1:31 left — Sarkisian needed only 24 seconds to complete the winning drive.
Starting at his 22-yard line, he moved the Cougars to the Aggies' 46
with quick down-and-out strikes of 11 and 21 yards to McGuire before throwing the TD pass to Kealaluhi.
The Aggies, who forged a 20-20 halftime tie after blowing an early two-touchdown lead, found the Cougars impossible to shake in the second half. Time and again, A&M scoring drives were countered by Sarkisian's passing.
Bernard's 40-yard TD run early in the third quarter was answered by Sarkisian's 51-yard pass to McGuire. After Stewart's 6-yard lob to Hardeman gave A&M a 34-26 lead late in the third period, Sarkisian threw a 12-yard TD pass to James Dye and added a 2-point pass to Dustin Johnson to tie it again at 34.
BYU struck first when Sarkisian threw a 5-yard scoring strike to Chad Lewis early in the first period. But A&M controlled the ball and the tempo for the rest of the opening quarter and half of the second, building a 20-6 lead.
Bryant's 45-yard field goal gave the Aggies their first score of the 1996 season with 7:29 left in the first quarter. More than four minutes later, Parker streaked 19 yards down the right sideline to cap a nine play, 67-yard touchdown drive to give A&M a 10-16 lead.
Another Bryant field goal, a 43-yarder early in the second quarter, and Stewart's 57-yard scoring pass on a post pattern to Aaron Oliver with 9:55 left in the half gave the Aggies a two-touchdown lead.
A&M's defense swarmed the Cougars on the next series, stopping two runs short before forcing a harried Sarkisian to throw incomplete on a third-and-4 at the BYU31.
But just as the Aggies seemed poised for an early blowout, disaster struck. The ensuing punt was fumbled by A&M's Michael Jennings, and BYU's Greg White recovered at A&M's 23.
With fourth-and-5 at the A&M 18, McGuire held on to Sarkisian's hard pass, even as hard-hitting Aggies linebacker Warrick Holdman leveled him, popping the Cougar receiver's helmet off.
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The 6-yard gain gave BYU a first down at the A&M 11, and two plays later Aggies cornerback Justin Lucas tipped Sarkisian's 9-yard pass into the arms of BYU's Itula Mili for a touchdown.
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