As bowl speculation mounted the past few weeks, most predictions pegged West Virginia as the Big 12 entry in the Liberty Bowl, played in Memphis, Tenn.
Arkansas and LSU received mention as possible opponents from the SEC, but bowl officials made no secret of their desire for Tennessee, which has a rabid following throughout the state.
Texas A&M, meanwhile, appeared on nobody’s radar. But in the end, the SEC, which had the final word, tabbed the Aggies to play the Mountaineers on Dec. 29. The teams never have met.
A&M (7-5) finished sixth out of seven teams in the tough West division of college football’s strongest conference. Making its 33rd bowl appearance, WVU finished sixth in the 10-team Big 12, also at 7-5.
Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen was recruiting Sunday and unavailable for comment. In a statement, he noted the five top-12 opponents his team played this season and called Texas A&M “yet another challenge.”
The game marks WVU’s return to the Liberty Bowl for the first time in 50 years. The Mountaineers will play outdoors this time, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, and hope for a better outcome. WVU lost to Utah, 32-6, in the 1964 Liberty Bowl at Atlantic City’s Convention Hall before 6,059 in the first indoor major bowl game. Ed Pastilong, who later became athletic director at WVU, was a quarterback on that Mountaineers’ team.
The game moved to Memphis the following year.
Both the Mountaineers and Aggies had harbored bigger bowl dreams. Following last season’s 4-8 debacle, WVU was 6-2, including a win over unbeaten and fourth-ranked Baylor. But a loss to No. 10 TCU in the final minute, followed by two more defeats, knocked the Mountaineers out of Big 12 title contention.
The Aggies, breaking in new quarterbacks after Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel left for the NFL, opened with a win over ninth-ranked South Carolina and won the next four games, climbing to a No. 7 ranking. But they lost their next three to highly-ranked SEC teams — Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Alabama — yielding a total of 142 points.
A&M broke the skid with a win over Louisiana-Monroe and then shocked No. 3 Auburn in a 41-38 road win, before losing to Missouri and LSU.
Yielding more than 27 points a game, the Aggies have issues on defense. But they can score. Behind quarterbacks Kyle Allen and Kenny Hill, Texas A&M was 12th nationally in passing yards per game.
Disciples of the so-called Air Raid offense, Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin and Holgorsen share many of the same offensive principles. As Houston’s coach in 2008, Sumlin hired Holgorsen as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
The Aggies’ offensive coordinator is Jake Spavital, a graduate assistant at Houston and Oklahoma State during Holgorsen’s tenures as assistant coach, and Holgorsen’s quarterbacks coach at WVU in 2011 and 2012.
