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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Las Vegas holds an annual bowl game in December.
But you get the sense that college football should have something a little bigger than the Las Vegas Bowl in this snazzy domed stadium not too far from the Strip.
Like how about the Las Vegas Bowl hosting one of the four national quarterfinal playoff games?
Or even better, how about Las Vegas hosting a national championship game?
I’m sure Steve “Man of Many Hats” Hill is hot on the case. When he’s not working on making sure the A’s get their stadium built on the Strip a the stadium board’s top guy, the LVCVA CEO is hopefully on the horn lobbying the Lords of College Football Playoffs to get one of the playoff games at Allegiant Stadium.
Unfortunately, Las Vegas is left with bowl games like the Oregon State 30-3 triumph two years ago over a bored-to-be-in-Vegas Florida Gators squad that didn’t even bring their quarterback, Anthony Richardson.
And last year’s Northwestern 14-7 win over Utah was a yawner.
Tonight’s game was a fourth quarter barnburner, as they say, between two big-name football programs — the Southern California Trojans and Texas A&M, with its enrollment of 79,105. This bowl game’s naming rights sponsor, Texas-based SRS Distribution, has a CEO who is a Texas A&M grad. And he sure was happy that John Saccenti and his crew at the Las Vegas Bowl picked the Aggies to play in Vegas.
But there were no fans even in the upper bowl.
And attendance was announced at 26,671.
Too bad more people weren’t here to saw a wild ending.
After a ho-hum 7-7 tie at halftime, Texas A&M exploded for 17 straight points to take a 24-7.
USC responded with 21 straight to take a 28-24 lead before the Aggies scored late in the fourth quarter for a 31-28 lead.
But the Trojans, led by former UNLV quarterback and local Vegas product Jayden Maiava, rallied for a TD strike with eight seconds left and USC came away with a heart-stopping 35-31 win.
Texas A&M led, 7-0, after one quarter. And it could have been more of the Aggies’ quarterback, Marcel Reed, did not throw two interceptions.
The USC band sure was a peppy group, cranking out those Trojans marching hits after just about every play.
Maiava tossed a short throw that was run for a TD before also throwing an interception.
A USC missed field goal right before the first half preceded both teams heading to their locker rooms tied at seven apiece.
Texas A&M blitzed USC with 17 points before Maiava threw a TD pass to cut the Aggies lead to 24-14.
Four hours after the game began at 7:35 PM, the USC team gathered at the 30-yard line for a postgame championship trophy.