This time, in 2009, George Foreman got up off the mat.

Prior to the Texas Tech-Texas A&M game Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium, the Aggies as a team watched the movie “Rumble in the Jungle,” chronicling the bout between heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. Twenty years later, after losing to Ali in an eight-round knockout, Foreman won back the title, but always regretted not getting up in that eight round against Ali.
The Aggies found themselves in Foreman’s position after last week’s 62-14 loss at Kansas State, and during the week head coach Mike Sherman said he challenged his team as men as much as players, and Saturday’s 52-30 upset of the Red Raiders was essentially the move Foreman never made.

Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson, left, scrambles away from Texas Tech's Bradley Hicks, right. during the first half of their game Saturday, Oct, 24, 2009 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas A&M's Jerrod Johnson runs into the endzone Saturday night against Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium. Texas A&M beat Tech 52-30. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas A&M's Uzoma Nwachukwu pulls in a 41-yard pass in front of Texas Tech's Jamar Wall Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium. Texas A&M scored a touchdown on the next play. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“I’m proud of them both as men and as players,” Sherman said. “I thought our guys handled the adversity of last week. We had our a great meeting last night and talked about this game and the challenges of this game and what our expectations were going to be, an they did it. This is the players’ game. It’s all about the players and their performance and how they handled themselves and the adversity.”

The Aggies (4-3, 1-2 in the big 12) handled it by playing sound, fundamental football. Running backs Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael combined for 253 rushing yards and five touchdowns, A&M outgained Tech 559-520 in total yardage, and the defense kept the Red Raiders (5-3, 2-2) from ever finding any rhythm offensively.

A&M kept Tech from running the ball effectively, holding the Red Raiders to 87 yards on 22 carries, and frustrated starting quarterback Taylor Potts into two interceptions that helped lead Tech coach Mike Leach to benching Potts midway through the third quarter for backup Seth Doege, who threw for 146 yards and a touchdown.

By that time, however, the Aggies had raced out to a 38-14 lead thanks to 31 straight points from the 6:50 mark of the second quarter, thanks mostly to an offensive line that blew the Tech defense off the line of scrimmage time and again.

“(The movie) was an inspiration for us and we just had to bring it on the field,” said Michael, who rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. “That’s how we had to come out here and handle this. (The offensive line) played strong from the first quarter to the last.”

Defensively the Aggies were able to overcome some early struggles that allowed Tech to take a 14-7 lead. From the early second quarter to the fourth, the Red Raiders had five drives that ended in three punts, one on downs and one on a Potts fumble when he was sacked by Tony Jerod-Edie, the final play that Potts saw in the game.

“One of the things we talked about was if they made a big play to just turn around and play the next play,” linebacker Kyle Mangan said. “Their offense had a lot of penalties that helped us out early on in the first quarter. We played smart football, penalty free and that helped us out a lot.”

Doege came in and sparked the Red Raiders, but he too found the same frustration. He helped pull Tech to within 38-22 on a drive capped by an Eric Stephens 7-yard touchdown run, and later got the Red Raiders to within 45-30 when Baron Batch scored from a yard out.

But the Tech defense did nothing to stop the Aggie offense and allow Tech to complete another miracle comeback.

“Any win at home or away is a big win for us,” Sherman said. “We take the same approach every ball game and we play every game to win. We didn’t do that very well last week, obviously. I told our guys we should always expect to win. We are Texas A&M and we have high expectations.”

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