Several Aggies passed milestones in Saturday night's loss to the Sooners.
Tight end Martellus Bennett set a school record for consecutive games with at least one catch with four catches for 63 yards against the Sooners. The 6-foot-7 Bennett has made at least one grab in 27 straight games, which breaks the old record of 26 that he shared with Terrence Murphy (2001-04). The team’s leading receiver, Bennett has 36 catches for 430 yards in 2007.
Bennett increased his career receptions total to 92, which puts him just 13 away from matching the A&M record for career catches by a tight end, which is 105 by Rod Bernstine from 1983-86.
Return specialist Kerry Franks surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau in career kickoff return yardage with two returns for 60 yards against the Sooners. Franks now has 1,008 yards on 39 career returns. Franks is the fourth Aggie with more than 1,000 yards, joining Rod Harris (1,209 from 1985-88), Leeland McElroy (1,099 from 1993-95) and Carl Roaches (1,087 from 1972-75). Franks’ 60 yards pushed his season kickoff return total to 503, which ranks No. 3 in school history.
The Aggies continued their strong punt coverage against the Sooners. Aided by the long punts from Justin Brantly (44.3 average), the Aggies allowed held Oklahoma to minus-6 yards on two returns. For the season, A&M has allowed just 65 return yards on 22 returns (2.9 average).
The Aggies failed to produce a takeaway on defense for the second straight game, while giving up two fumbles on defense. In 2007, the Aggies are 6-0 in games with the turnover margin advantage and 0-4 in games with an even or minus turnover margin. During the Dennis Franchione era, the Aggies are 7-24 in games without the turnover advantage.
With two lost fumbles against the Sooners, the Aggies gave up more than one turnover in a game for just the second time in 2007. The other time was against Miami when they had three giveaways. The Aggies entered the game with fewest turnovers lost in the Big 12 Conference (nine prior to the game).
The loss moved quarterback Stephen McGee’s career road record against Big 12 foes to 5-2.
Game captains were Chris Alexander, Matt Szymanski, Chris Harrington and Red Bryant +++ The 12th Man was Nick LaMantia, a junior fullback from Mission, Texas. It was LaMantia’s 21st career 12th Man start, including all 10 this season (school record is 23 by John Ray from 2003-05).