‘We Weren’t Loud Enough!’ Texas A&M Proves That ‘Talking Down’ Kyle Field is Personal

COLLEGE STATION, Tx. — Standing along the back end zone as the Missouri Tigers attempted offense at Kyle Field, Texas A&M Aggies yell leader Kyler Fife kept it simple.

“Oh hell yeah,” he said when asked if the crowd at Texas A&M took Missouri’s challenge personally. “Oh hell yeah. I thought we weren’t loud enough!”

His arms outstretched for the latter statement, it was clear that Fife was among the crowd who did take it personally. And the aforementioned challenge?

Kyle Field was not as loud as the Tigers’ practice sessions.

“At some point it can only get so loud,” Missouri quarterback Brady Cook said during the week. “In my opinion, the noise at practice is actually louder. They put these big speakers pretty much two feet right behind me. You can’t hear anything.”

Evidently, The 12th Man made sure such was the case for Cook and company throughout the contest. By the end of the game, the Tigers were forced into a delay of game penalty, two false starts — back to back, no less — and a snap that came too early on a fourth-and-long they certainly needed.

Interestingly enough, the fans didn’t need much help getting pumped up, but they got some anyway. On a critical possession that would have given Missouri some momentum to chip away at the early 17-point lead the Aggies crafted, all it took for the student section to make a difference was a Sheck Wes song.

“Mo Bamba” rang through the speakers three times in a row on three straight plays. And the result was exactly what Texas A&M hoped for. Another failed offensive possession.

“It was kind of like playing the NCAA game,” Aggies edge rusher Nic Scourton said. “Going out there, having fun. Kyle Field’s rocking. We got them backed up. It’s something you dream of as a kid. Like, it’s crazy. It’s just this place is so special to play.”

With how special it’s seen, it made sense that the Maroon & White didn’t take kindly to any outsiders talking down on it, as Scourton explained. Especially not the noise factor.

“It has been interesting that we’ve had people call out Kyle Field a little bit,” Aggies coach Mike Elko said on The Aggie Football Hour. “I heard their quarterback say today that it’s louder in practice than it is at Kyle Field. To me, that’s a challenge to the 12th Man.”

“They kind of lit a fire on us,” Aggies edge rusher Nic Scourton added. “Coming into our place … talking down on Kyle Field. I think guys were really motivated to go out there and be dominant.”

That’s what happened. Texas A&M out-gained Missouri through the air, on the ground, in time of possession and everything else in-between. In the books, the win goes down as a complete domination. To the fans, it was a lesson taught to the Tigers.

And to the players? It was a personal statement.

One they felt good about making.

“What I took personally (was) them saying that their practice would be louder than our stadium,” Aggies leading rusher Le’Veon Moss said. “I took that personal because our 12th Man supports us to the end, no matter what happens.”