Switching quarterbacks has been a theme for the Texas A&M football team this season, providing an unfavorable result. However, on Saturday night, Kyle Allen was more than enough for the Aggies.
The sophomore quarterback threw for 336 yards on 18-for-36 passing and one touchdown to lead A&M over Vanderbilt 25-0.
“We moved the ball,” A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. “Kyle came out early and was accurate. Even when we didn’t score, we did move the ball and create long fields for Vanderbilt.”
The Aggie defense came to play as well, posting the team’s first shutout since 2004 against Wyoming. In total, the Commodores were limited to 148 yards of offense, and 41 in the second half.
Contributing to the goose egg score, Vanderbilt failed to break out a play longer than 16 yards. Also, the Commodores booted away nine punts and turned the ball over on downs twice along with an interception.
“We played with a lot of energy,” Sumlin said. “That was really from the start of the game to the end — we made some adjustments — but I thought our guys flew around and made plays.”
Speedy Noil recorded 80 yards on four catches in his best statistical performance of the year. But, it was Josh Reynolds that gave A&M the extra kick.
The Aggies (8-3, 4-3 SEC) came out of the gate slow, as did the Commodores. In fact, A&M’s inefficient play led to just six points on three red zone appearances in the first half.
Facing a 3^rd and 9 at the 5-yard line with a 6-0 lead in the second quarter, A&M appeared to be ready to punt. Instead, Allen went deep and connected with Reynolds for a 95-yard touchdown to ultimately blow the game open.
Following the lone touchdown of the night, Taylor Bertolet added four more field goals to his name. The senior notched 6-of-7 field goals, tying the Texas A&M and SEC record for makes in a game.
“He’s been solid all year,” Sumlin said. “I’ve said it before, and he missed one but the guy is kicking off, he’s done a really good job for us this year particularly in this type of game where you know you might be called upon because the red zone defense that we faced. Somebody called him ‘Bert-a-lot’ today.”
As usual, Vanderbilt (4-7, 2-5 SEC) threw out two quarterbacks, Kyle Shurmur and Johnny McCrary. The two combined for a mere 23 passing yards on five completions. Running back Ralph Webb, though, amassed 79 yards on the ground.
For A&M’s rushing attack, Tra Carson eclipsed 100 yards for the fourth consecutive contest. The senior rushed it 22 times for 126 yards, and 102 of them came in the second half.
The attendance at Vanderbilt Stadium was 32, 482 but seeing a good number of them were wearing maroon, Sumlin said he couldn’t thank the 12^th Man enough for the support. 
“I just want to say how much our team, our coaching staff appreciate our fans traveling,” Sumlin said. “You are not supposed to really pay attention to anything like that but to look up there at the start of the fourth quarter and see — I don’t know how many of our fans were there — that was really special.” 
Up next for A&M is a date with LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana next Saturday in the final game of the regular season.