Texas A&M earns national award following upset win over Alabama

After pulling off the surprise upset of the week against the nation’s former top team in the Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M has been named the CheezIt Bowl National Team of the Week by The FWAA. On Saturday, the Aggies beat the Crimson Tide 41-38 on a last-play field goal and officially threw the college football playoffs into chaos.

Fisher called it

Heading into the game head coach Jimbo Fisher held on to his resolve coming into the season when he said that he would beat the Nick Saban lead Alabama.

“If we practice well and play well, and we will. We have to go get a good plan, we have to practice it, we have to perfect it during the week, and then we have to execute it on Saturday,” Fisher said while preparing to take on Alabama.

And the best way for this to happen in his mind was for his team to treat this game like any other game.

“Every game to us as a player should be the same. Your opponents are faceless,” said Fisher. “It’s great to be in a big game and all that but you can’t look at that. You have to play the same no matter. What you do, how you do it and how you prepare.”

How the game was won

It looks like the head coach’s words hit home because his team did not look like a team out of their league. Texas A&M went into halftime with a 24-10 lead. Alabama did its best to mount a second-half comeback. The Crimson Tide put up a 14-point third quarter. Then followed that with a 14-point fourth quarter. They capped it off with a seven-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Young to Jameson Williams and a two-point conversion. That gave Texas A&M the ball back with a seven-point deficit and five minutes remaining.

Texas A&M kept poised and drove the ball down the field. They capped off the drive by scoring a 25-yard touchdown pass from Zach Calzada to Ainias Smith. Alabama took over with the score 38-38 but was unable to build on their previous momentum. Instead, Texas A&M got the ball back with enough time to set up kicker Seth Small for the game-winner. And he did just that cementing this game in Texas A&M Aggie history.

Texas A&M started off the season ranked in the top 10. But after back-to-back conference losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State, they found themselves unranked and in the cellar of the SEC West. After this win, they are now back in the top 25 (at 21) and the national team of the week.