Texas A&M overwhelms South Carolina 30-6

COLLEGE STATION — Call it retro night at Kyle Field as Texas A&M closed its home schedule.

The Aggies leaned on a strong defense and a powerful fourth-quarter running game to seal their win against South Carolina 30-6 Saturday night.

The victory was A&M’s seventh of the season and fourth in a row. The Aggies will need all that momentum to finish November with road dates against No. 4 Georgia and top-ranked LSU.

Two Aggie running backs each gained more than 100 yards. It was the second time this season that A&M has done so but the first against a Power Five team.

And the Aggie defense, in turn, manhandled South Carolina’s tailbacks. The Gamecocks gained only 45 yards, with 10 of those coming on a meaningless fake punt with 15 seconds to go in the second quarter. South Carolina didn’t convert a third down until midway through the fourth quarter.

“I thought that was a very physical football game,’’ A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said. ”Thought the game truly was won in the trenches. ... The key in the game was our defensive front was outstanding.

“I thought our offense ... still didn’t play how we can play. Then in the fourth quarter we got going. That was the sign of our offense growing.”

The A&M ground game, which had been a question mark only a month ago, was impressive.

Freshman Isaiah Spiller was the workhorse, gaining 129 yards on 24 carries. Cordarrian Richardson, a transfer from Central Florida, was the fourth-quarter dazzle when the Aggies shifted to a two-back set to protect a lead and burn time off the clock.

Richardson’s 75-yard burst put the Aggies up 30-3 with six minutes to play. Richardson, who at 240 pounds is built more like a middle linebacker, ran for 130 yards on six carries. All but 9 of his yards came in the fourth quarter.

Overall, the Aggies gained 319 yards on the ground, their best outing against an SEC defense since running for 353 in a double-overtime win against Tennessee in 2016. A&M rolled to 540 yards, which also was its best in SEC action since the win over the Volunteers three years ago.

On defense, it was the fourth time this season that the Aggies have faced a freshman starting quarterback. The only one who has beaten them was Auburn’s Bo Nix.

Ryan Hilinski, who made the 10th start of his career Saturday, was never comfortable against the Aggie defense. Coming into the game, Hilinski ranked as the fourth-best quarterback in the SEC, behind LSU’s Joe Burrow, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and A&M’s Kellen Mond, all upperclassmen.

But Hilinski suffered through his worst outing in a month, completing only 16 of his 41 attempts for 175 yards.

The six points allowed — two field goals — proved to be A&M’s second-best defensive scoring performance in an SEC game since the Aggies made their league debut in 2012. The best was a road shutout against Vanderbilt in 2015.

“This was a huge performance for us,” A&M linebacker Anthony Hines said. “Defensively, we were sound on our assignments and true to our gaps. ... When there were plays to be made, we made those.”

Earlier in the week, Fisher spoke about his friendship with South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, a former defensive coordinator at Texas. Fisher and Muschamp were coordinators for Nick Saban at LSU.

So it probably hurt a bit that Fisher’s Aggies officially ended the Gamecocks’ hopes for a bowl invitation. The loss dropped them to 4-7 and will put more heat on Muschamp.

The game was competitive through the first three quarters, mainly because A&M struggled in the red zone, settling for field goals rather than touchdowns.

Seth Small’s third field goal of the game came with 12:40 to go, putting the Aggies ahead 16-3.

Then A&M put together consecutive touchdown drives. Mond scored on a 1-yard sneak, and the next drive produced Richardson’s dash.

Now, will such an old-school performance be good enough for the Aggies to be competitive against the top two teams in the SEC?

“This is huge for our team,” linebacker Buddy Johnson said. “It’s big momentum for us. ... If we can continue to practice like we’ve been doing, good things will happen for us.”

Texas A&M at No. 4 Georgia, 2:30 p.m., CBS, 1370

Saturday’s game