Johnny Manziel was the most exciting player in college football this season, so it's no surprise that his Texas A&M team is playing in the last "big" college football game before the national championship on Monday.
The Heisman winner will lead the Aggies in his home state of Texas in the Cotton Bowl against the Big 12 co-champion Oklahoma Sooners on Friday night.
Both team finished ranked in the top 10 of the BCS this year, but were left out of the at-large bids for other teams. Northern Illinois likely took a spot after finishing 15th and receiving an automatic bid, while the Aggies were on the outside looking in from the beginning because three teams from the same conference can't be selected (Alabama in the national championship, Florida in the Sugar Bowl).
Instead, the Cotton Bowl will host a game that has the pedigree and the teams for a BCS matchup, just not the moniker.
"We hit a home run," Cotton Bowl chairman Tommy Bain said to the Associated Press. "When our team selection committee met for the first time a few weeks ago, we circled this matchup as the one we most wanted, and the cards fell in our favor."
The biggest draw of the game of course will be Johnny Manziel, who became the first freshman to win the award after beating out Notre Dame's Manti Te'o and Kansas State's Collin Klein in december. Manziel has led the Aggies to a 10-2 record in their first season in the SEC and has become a national sensation with the nickname "Johnny Football".
Manziel put up some amazing statistics this year and broke Cam Newton's SEC record with 4,600 total yards. He threw for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns while also leading Texas A7M in rushing with 1,181 yards and 19 touchdowns. According to the Associated Press, he is "the first freshman, first SEC player and fifth player overall to throw for 3,000 yards and run for 1,000 in a season."
Manziel and the Aggies will likely be a favorite for the national championship next season, but the redshirt freshman is focused on the task at hand.
"First and foremost, there's the Cotton Bowl," Manziel said. "From there, I have to be the guy who starts the motor for a run at the national title next year."
The Aggies were one of the most explosive teams in the nation due to the play of Manziel, ranking fourth in the nation in scoring with 44 points per game. The team gained over 550 total yards per game and had a solid defense to go with it, allowing just 22 points per contest. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kinsbury will not be coaching the game after taking the head coaching job at Texas Tech, but his presence will be felt by Manziel.
"You look at what our offense did this year. People didn't really think that we were going to have much success in the SEC," said Manziel, who will be the first Heisman winner to play in the Cotton Bowl since Texas' Ricky Williams following the 1998 season. "They said these smashmouth, hard-nose defenses and this gimmick offense ... won't work.
Texas A&M opened the year with a loss to the Florida Gators in their first SEC matchup, but quickly rebounded to win its next five games, including a 59-57 thriller against Louisiana Tech that was mentioned in Sports World Report's list of Best College Games of 2012. Manziel had the game of a lifetime, throwing for 395 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 181 yards and three touchdowns with a 9.5 yards per carry average. The rush yards were the most for Manziel all year, as were the six combined touchdowns.
Following a tight 24-19 loss to LSU, the Aggies pulled things together to win the final five games of the season, including a 29-24 victory over previously undefeated Alabama. Manziel finished with 253 yards passing and two touchdowns on 24-of-31 completions while also rushing for 92 yards. He single-handedly ended Alabama's undefeated season and their national title hopes (but only for a little while).
"For us to come into Alabama and some of the other games and really stress tempo, tempo, tempo. We want to move fast. We want to make people uncomfortable. That was our main goal this year. Our offense with coach Sumlin and what coach Kingsbury did, I love it. I love everything about it. It's definitely something that can work if you have the right people in place for it," Manziel said.
The Aggies have been solid on defense this season, giving up 389.3 total yards and 22.5 points, but Texas A&M will be facing an Oklahoma offense that can produce nearly as well as they can. The Sooners average over 505 total yards per game and are ranked fourth in nation in scoring with 40 points per contest.
Texas A&M will focus in on senior quarterback Landry Jones, who has had a stellar season, throwing for 3,989 yards and 29 touchdowns while completing over 65 percent of his passes. He is now the Sooners' career leader in passing yards, TD passes, wins (39), completions (1,353) and attempts (2,135) and is also the first FBS quarterback to throw for at least 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns in four seasons, according to the Associated Press.
Jones was excellent for the Sooners down the stretch, throwing for 17 touchdowns and six interceptions over the final five games. He had a school-record 554 passing yards against West Virginia in a 50-49 win on Nov. 17 and the threw for 500 yards again in an overtime win over Oklahoma State the next week.
Oklahoma opened the year with two straight wins, but then lost 24-19 to Kansas State, the team they finished tied with for the Big 12. The Sooners won their next three games before falling to undefeated Notre Dame 30-13, and then finished off the year with five straight wins, including a 24-17 victory in the season-finale against TCU.
"Did we want to go to a BCS game? Absolutely, who doesn't want to go to a BCS game? But that's not the way it turned out for us," Jones said. "But if you look at all the other BCS games and, because of automatic qualifiers and those sorts of things, this might be one of the top two or three games in the country."
Oklahoma is going for its fourth straight bowl win, which would be a school record. The Sooners last played in the Cotton Bowl after the 2001 season, while the Aggies are playing in it for the 13th time, but have lost six straight games at the event. The two teams have some connections, with Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin having been part of Sooner coach Bob Stoops' staff from 2003 to 2007.
"Kevin and I are great friends, our wives are great friends," Stoops said. "In the end, once you get to playing, you're playing. ... He's bright, he's got a good offensive mind. ... He's competitive. Kevin has all the great qualities you need."
Prediction: Texas A&M 38, Oklahoma 35. This game is likely to be an offensive explosion, with both teams gaining about the same amount of yards on offense and allowing the same amount on defernse. Both teams have excellent quarterbacks, so the game may hinge on who protects the ball better and who makes more "explosive" or "big-yardage" plays. The score could go either way, but the bet will be on Manziel to make more plays than Jones, including with his legs. The Sooners haven't seen a player quite like Manziel and his speed will take some getting used to. Jones has had an excellent season and will put up some good numbers on a vulnerable Aggies defense, but it won't be enough for the victory.
