2010-2011
College Football Season
Cotton Bowl
Post-Game

Game Recap

by CFP Staff
January 8, 2011

LSU downed Texas A&M 41-24 in the 75th Cotton Bowl to hand the Aggies their 5th straight bowl loss.

Four turnovers were the eventual undoing of A&M which jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but was outscored 41-14 the rest of the way. The Tigers were up 28-17 by halftime and 35-17 entering the final frame.

LSU QB Jordan Jefferson threw 3 TD passes and rushed for another score. Uzoma Nwachukwu caught 2 passes, both for touchdowns.

Aggie QB Ryan Tannehill's interception just before halftime set up a 1st-and-goal for LSU at the Texas A&M 2-yard line and Jefferson's pass to Terrence Toliver three plays later opened up an 11-point lead at the break for the Bayou Bengals.

The Aggies have lost 9 of their last 10 bowl games and 12 of their last 14. Conversely, LSU has won 5 of its last 6 and 11 of its last 14.

LSU was 11th in the final BCS Standings and No. 14 in CollegeFootballPoll.com's Congrove Computer Rankings (a.k.a. CCR 120). Texas A&M was 17th in the final BCS Standings and 20th in the CCR Top 120. The computer rankings favored LSU by 2.42 points.

SEC teams have won 3 straight Cotton Bowls and 7 of the last 12, all of which have been SEC-Big 12 matchups. The Aggies fell to 4-8 in Cotton Bowls and have lost all six appearances since 1992. LSU's Cotton Bowl record is now 3-1-1.

The Tigers finished the season at 11-2 while Texas A&M concluded its 2010 campaign at 9-4.

Texas A&M head coach Mike Sherman is 0-2 in bowl games while Les Miles' bowl record improved to 6-3 overall and 5-1 with LSU (he was 1-2 with Oklahoma State).

Texas A&M brought a six-game winning streak to Dallas that included victories over both of the Big 12 Championship game participants, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The Aggies opened the year with three wins over a weak nonconference group that featured Stephen F. Austin (FCS), Louisiana Tech and FIU. Three consecutive losses followed to Oklahoma State, Arkansas and Missouri. The Aggies have had just one other 9-win season (2006) in the last 12 years.

LSU won its first seven games before falling 24-17 at Auburn. The Bayou Bengals bounced right back to down Alabama in their very next game and didn't drop another contest until the season finale against Arkansas in Little Rock. It was LSU's first double-digit win season since 2007.

LSU now holds a 27-20-3 advantage in the series which is being renewed for the first time since 1995. The Aggies won five consecutive games over the Tigers from 1991-1995.

In the past, these teams often opened the season against each other. They did so annually from 1992-1995, 1986-1989, 1968-1970 and 1962-1965.

This was the first meeting between LSU and Texas A&M in a bowl game since the 1944 Orange Bowl which was won 19-14 by the Tigers.