Associated Press
The college football notebook …
ARLINGTON, Texas — For everybody who wondered how Texas A&M would do in the SEC, Johnny Football and the Aggies had an emphatic answer.
Led by their Heisman Trophy-winning freshman quarterback, the 10th-ranked Aggies won 11 games, and never even trailed while winning the last six.
They capped their SEC debut season with a 41-13 Cotton Bowl victory over No. 12 Oklahoma, a former Big 12 rival that had dominated them so often.
“It’s momentum for everything. It’s momentum for next year and all the people that are returning,” Johnny Manziel said. “We went to the Cotton Bowl this year. A BCS bowl and national championship is the goal next year.
“For people to see what we’re in the SEC and what we did this year and with the people that we have coming back it’s a big exclamation point,” he said.
Four weeks after becoming the first freshman to win college football’s highest individual award, Manziel was finally back on the field. He responded with a Heisman-worthy performance.
Manziel accounted for four touchdowns and had a Cotton Bowl-record 516 total yards, including an FBS bowl record for quarterbacks with his 229 yards rushing on 17 carries.
The redshirt freshman who wasn’t named the Aggies starter until two weeks before the season opener finished with 5,116 total yards, the most for a Heisman winner and the first SEC player over 5,000.
The Aggies (11-2), barely a .500 team in their final Big 12 season, were the first SEC team to gain more than 7,000 yards.
KELLY NOT LEAVING
MIAMI — Brian Kelly says leaving Notre Dame “isn’t an option.” Alabama’s Nick Saban says he has no “unfinished business” in the NFL.
While Oregon coach Chip Kelly ponders which NFL job — if any — he wants, the coaches getting ready to meet in the BCS championship said during media day at Sun Life Stadium that they have no interest in jumping to the pros.
Brian Kelly is in his third season with the top-ranked Fighting Irish and has led them to an undefeated season.
Notre Dame will try to win its first national championship since 1988 by beating No. 2 Alabama on Monday night.
The 51-year-old Kelly has steadily climbed the coaching ladder, from Grand Valley State to Central Michigan to Cincinnati to Notre Dame, winning big at every stop along the way.
The next logical step would be the NFL, but for now, he said he has no desire to give it a try.
“Leaving is not an option. I don’t even think about it,” he said Saturday.
GOING PRO
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers running back Jawan Jamison has elected to forego his final two years of eligibility and enter the NFL draft.
Jamison is the sixth player since 2008 to leave the school early for the draft. He rushed for 1,075 yards this season, averaging 4.2 yards per carry.
• EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State defensive end William Gholston is skipping his senior season to enter the NFL draft.
TODAY’S BOWL
MOBILE, Ala.— Arkansas State’s Ryan Aplin owns nearly every school passing record after four productive seasons for the Red Wolves.
For his final game, the quarterback will get quite a test from No. 25 Kent State’s gambling defense when the two teams meet today in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.