Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel served his first-half suspension and made his season debut on Saturday against Rice. After entering the game in the third quarter, Manziel was later benched for drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Rice trailed by seven points at the end of the first half. When Manziel took the field in the third quarter, it became a blowout. "Johnny Football" completed 6-of-8 passes for 94 yards and three touchdowns. The Aggies went on to win, 52-31.
He looked sharp, but his opening-day performance was overshadowed by a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty for taunting.
During the first half, Rice players teased Manziel on the sidelines by mimicking the signing of autographs. After his touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, Manziel jawed with two Rice defenders and pointed to the scoreboard.
Officials threw the flag.
A&M coach Kevin Sumlin was visibly upset and chewed out Manziel as the quarterback returned to the sidelines. Manziel didn't step onto the field again.
"That wasn't very smart and that's why he didn't go back in the game," Sumlin told ESPN after the game.
Sumlin said he didn't intend to sit Manziel in the fourth quarter until the reigning Heisman winner earned the team a penalty. Despite the many things the team discussed, Sumlin admitted he didn't specifically warn Manziel prior to the game about taunting.
"We talk about a lot of different things, not specifically about what's going to happen during a game," Sumlin said. "And we had another young man who was thrown out of the game who is a freshman [Daeshon Hall]. And I didn't see what happened there, but the officials told me what happened. And we've got to grow as a team and mature as a team. Individual acts like that hurt your football team. We talk about that in general, all the time. I don't talk to individual players all the time about those things before the game because you can't (foresee) everything. But what you can do is have a plan for it."
A&M next plays Sam Houston State on Saturday, Sept. 7.