Howell said he gained confidence in his pass rush after the first two and was hoping Utah State would attempt to pass again.

“I was like, man, if they pass it, who knows,” he said. “I was just in like a at that point. So yeah, they threw it and the rest is history for real.”

Utah State had the ball on its 25 early in the second quarter when the defensive end muscled past left tackle Jake Eichorn and dropped Barnes for a loss of 6 yards for 19th-ranked Texas A&M. On the next play, Howell got past Eichorn again to take Barnes down for a loss of 7 yards.

Bullying past Eichorn one more time, Howell sacked Barnes for a loss of 8 yards to bring up fourth-and-31 and single-handedly force a punt.

Even Howell was a bit stunned after he took Barnes down for the third time.

“I don’t wanna say I didn’t believe it, but it was like dang, like, I really just did that,” he said. “It was definitely a good feeling for sure though.”

Asked to pick his favorite of the three, Howell didn’t hesitate.

“The second one,” he said. “I feel like I just fried him.”

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said he’d never seen anything like what Howell did Saturday and lauded his team’s pass rush.

“That will be something that will be hard to beat,” he said.

Howell, a fifth-year senior, entered the game with 15 1/2 career sacks and had just four last season. His career best came in 2023 when he had 9 1/2 for Bowling Green.

It’s the first time a player has had sacks on three straight plays since Jack Cichy did it for Wisconsin against Southern California in the 2015 Holiday Bowl, according to research by the Texas A&M communications staff.

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