Bowl game: The Aggies (8-5) won their fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history with a 45-37 win over West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl. Freshman quarterback Kyle Allen was 22-of-35 for 294 yards while Tra Carson rushed for a career-high 133 yards on 25 carries.
Hires, fires and good-byers: A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was busy over the break tinkering with his staff. Shortly after the LSU loss, Sumlin’s defensive coordinator, Mark Snyder, was released from the team. Taking his place will be John Chavis, former conference foe and LSU Tigers DC. Wide receivers coach David Beaty departed for the head coaching job at Kansas. Additionally, offensive line coach B.J. Anderson received the boot. Dave Christensen of Utah was appointed the offensive line coach and running game coordinator while Aaron Moorehead from Virginia Tech will be the wide receivers coach. Still, the most notable move by Sumlin might have been his dismissal of his pool boy via Twitter.
RIP west side of Kyle Field: After a season featuring a new East end and video board, Kyle Field will endure one more year of renovations. The West end was imploded on Dec. 21, and the new-and-improved version is scheduled to be ready by the start of the 2015-16 season.
Basketball success for both teams: Since dropping its first two games of the break to Texas and Washington, the No. 10 women’s team has won five of its last six games to move to 16-3. Although the men remain unranked, they caught several eyes across the nation in their 70-64 double-overtime loss to No. 1 Kentucky. The 11-5 Aggies then won consecutive conference games and host the Missouri Tigers at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Tennis started back up: San Diego played host to the No. 10 Aggie men’s tennis team’s spring opener for the Morgan Run Tournament Jan. 9-10. They gathered eight wins, and will play LSU, San Diego and TCU Jan. 23-24 in the Mitchell Tennis Center for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The No. 10 women’s team opens dual meet play at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Jan. 24-25 along with TCU, Houston and North Texas.
Track is under way: Both track and field teams began their seasons on Dec. 13 in the Texas A&M Reveille Invitational. Last Saturday the women finished second while the men claimed first in the Texas A&M Team Invitational.