COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Shea Patterson threw for 338 yards and two touchdowns in his debut and Gary Wunderlich made a 39-yard field goal with 37 seconds left to lift the Ole Miss football team past No. 10 Texas A&M 29-28 on Saturday night.
The Rebels pulled the redshirt off Patterson, the highly regarded recruit, to start in place of Chad Kelly, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.
“I’ve recruited this kid since he was a ninth-grader and I’ve kind of always known that he has that “it” quality,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “The guy just makes plays. He doesn’t get rattled a lot.”
Mississippi (5-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) trailed by 15 entering the fourth quarter before Patterson got going.
A 13-yard touchdown reception by Josh Reynolds put A&M up 28-19. Patterson then connected with Van Jefferson on a 32-yard reception for his second touchdown pass of the quarter to cut the lead to 28-26 with 5 minutes, 17 seconds remaining.
Texas A&M (7-3, 4-3) had to punt and Patterson moved the offense into position for Wunderlich’s winner.
The Aggies had a chance to win it late, but Jake Hubenak was intercepted by Deontay Anderson to secure the victory. Hubenak was making his first start this season in place of Trevor Knight, who injured his shoulder last week.
“I put it on me,” Hubenak said. “I think it didn’t do a good enough job in the second half.”
Early in the fourth quarter Patterson looked like he was channeling Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel when he scrambled to one side, avoided the rush and ran the other way before launching a 6-yard touchdown pass to Damore’ea Stringfellow to get Ole Miss within 21-13.
On their next drive Stringfellow reached out with his right hand and tipped the ball with his fingertips before reeling it in with one hand for an eye-popping 40-yard reception. Akeem Judd’s 21-yard run made it 21-19, but the two-point conversion failed.
The Aggies led 21-6 at halftime thanks to two touchdown runs by Keith Ford.
The Rebels had turnovers on their first two possessions of the second half, but Texas A&M couldn’t convert either of them into points. Patterson threw an interception on the first one and Jason Pellerin was sacked and fumbled after that.
“They just made some great plays at crucial times and they got one over on us,” Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett said.
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