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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1993)
SPECIAL PULLOUT rr» aTm a ips ys and avoid- sltould jus| >e said, neone does luring the I important t down and emergency vailable to ve first aid ‘ Field, e found at i trance, on leeks of the the second alumni sec- ipped with le, and will to six care will also be end zone aergencies, II also be m expects weekend at the LSD :h in the orga- iource, and e thought, ooks are a in his life, n the word ill it out to o People" 'ell as sem- at his mes- ssic Chris- md is cur- des. i Texas A&M vs. Missouri Page 3 The Bati align Friday, September 17,1993 A&M bound to rebound against Big 8, Missouri By Matthew J. Rush )N Fering tment I a.m. tcross : East The Battalion After receiving a 44-14 wake-up call last Saturday against the Oklahoma Soon- ers, the 16th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies will try to regroup as they take on the University of Missouri on Saturday. The A&M-Missouri series is not deep in tradition, but what the series has historically shown is good news for the Aggies. In three games against the Tigers, A&M owns a per fect 3-0 record, in- duding a 26-13 vic tory last season. The Aggies have only played host to Missouri once, heating the Tigers 12-0 in 1958. Mis souri has not won a non-league road game since 1981. The biggest question that has come out of the Aggies' 1-1 start is concerning Corey Pullig's play. A&M head coach R.C. Slocum quick ly silenced any sus picions that there might be competi- 1 tion for the quar- | teiback job. "There will nev- I erbe a quarterback controversy as long as I'm here, Slocum said. "I make the decisions and he (Corey) is the one I've cho sen. Slocum also said that he thinks Pul- lig may be feeling the pressure from the fans and the coaching staff. editor ditor :s editor ntlik, Carrie alay and |oe Leih in Scroggs, ja and ig semesters periods), a' /[ University, Division o< I McDonald ertising, call day through To charge died with errors on both offense and de fense. Senior defensive tackle Eric England said the players would use these mistakes and try to make the team stronger for fu ture games. "We know the mistakes we made and we know the corrections we'll have to make," England said. "I think it has made us more focused to win the South west Conference and has made us realize we need to be better prepared for each game." "The loss won't hurt us because we've matured as a team. In order to be a great winner, you have to be a great loser, too." Junior tailback Rodney Thomas, who rushed for 106 yards on 22 carries against Ok lahoma, said he agrees with Eng land and sees two ways of dealing with the recent loss. "There are two kinds of teams, winning teams and championship teams," Thomas said. "A winning lipSij team i ust . wants J t0 iramimtmxrauMmBnra wm a g ain anc } a championship team is able to bounce back and regain its focus. I think we're a championship team." Despite Thomas' perfor mance in Satur day's loss, the Ag gies only gained 172 yards total, Darrin HUI/The Battalion p, rea ] < i n o the , V1U1 A&M quarterback Corey Pullig (4) could team's seven-game "We need to get not get on track against Oklahoma last streak of rushing him to relax. I get week and will feel the heat again this week for over 200 yards, the impression against Missouri s eight-man front, from talking to him that he's feeling the pressure and I may have put some pressure on him myself." Pullig will not have an easy time against Missouri as he w T ill have to stare at the Tigers' eight-man defensive front. The eight man front uses four down linemen, two inside linebackers and a "Rover" and "Whip," which are defen sive back-type players positioned at the outside linebacker slots. This front gives the defense added quickness for pass- rushing and covering running plays around the corners, but exposes the sec ondary which has two cornerbacks and only one safety. Last year, Pullig saw no action against the Tigers since starting quarterback Jeff Granger played the entire game. Pullig and the Aggies will be coming off the game with Oklahoma that was rid- Missouri head coach Bob Stull, who, along with Slocum, got his start in coaching Kansas State in 1970, said that regardless of A&M's loss, he is preparing for a very fired-up team. "A&M has a tremendous team and a tremendous defense," Stull said. "We re alize that we’re going to have to play ex tremely well, especially playing at A&M. "They are, in my mind, still one of the top 10 teams in the country and they're not going to play the way they did against Oklahoma every game." The Tigers are still considered to be a young team and Stull said he knows that the Missouri offense needs to keep the Aggies guessing on defense, which they were successful with a year ago. "We're always trying to keep the de fense off balance," Stull said. "We need to See Missouri/Page 6 Kyle Burnrlt/lHL Battalion Texas A&M senior center Chris Dausin listens intently as offensive line coach Mike Sherman makes his point at a recent practice. Dausin and the rest of the offensive line hope to get the Aggies' running game going against Missouri. Dausin holds down line at center Byjulie Chelkowski The Battauon When center Chris Dausin came to play football at Texas A&M, he wasn't offensive line material. He was undersized for a line that averages about 280 pounds. But now, in his senior year, Dausin carries a lot of weight. "When 1 came here, 1 was about 220 pounds and it was kind of a joke," Dausin said. "I was an offensive lineman and everyone was like 'Oh my God, that is unheard of/ "So they put me on the scout team and my first goal was to just fight my ass off, basically, and go into the. weight room. "And put on some weight." But "some" do.es not quite describe Dausin's accomplish ments in the weight room. Now, at 285 pounds, Dausin is no joke. "I came a long way doing that (working out)," he said. "I'll keep wanting to get better, and I'll keep that attitude." Dausin, a senior, has earned A&M's starting center position for the third year and has collected numerous honors such as All-Southwest Conference recognition and is currently an All- American and Outland Trophy candidate. In the past four years that Dausin has been with A&M, he has had to adjust to the changes of offensive schemes with dif ferent quarterbacks Bucky Richardson, Jeff Granger, and cur rently, Corey Pullig. But learning the different offenses has done him nothing but good, Dausin said. "1 think this makes me a well-rounded player when (we) have this type of offense - where you can both run and pass in both situations," he said. "In the past spring I really worked on my passing situation. "I think I got a lot better, and I really focused and worked on it - and I still have my running game." Offensive line coach Mike Sherman said Dausin has ex ceeded all of his expectations and gone beyond the call of duty, developing into a solid lineman and a team leader. "He's worked hard in the weight room - gotten a lot stronger and became a tremendous leader of not only our of fense, hut of our football team," he said. "He's a vocal leader and he leads by example. "He's not just one who's saying it; (he's) doing it." Sherman said that part of Dausin's key to success is his to tal absorption in the game. "He's an emotional kid who puts everything into the game that he possibly can" he said. "You see that by the way he plays and by how he acts." Dausin, however, said he believes there is room for See Dausin/Page 5 Q and A with A&M head coach R.C. Slocum Selected questions and answers from A&M head coach R.C. Slocum's Tuesday press confer ence. Q How will your team react to losing? A We don't have much experience deal ing with it. Last year, we didn't lose a game in the regular season. The year be fore that, you have to go back to the first of the (1991 season). But we won all those games because we had character. Character allows you to bounce back when something goes wrong and get over it. I have no questions about the character of this team and our ability to get over it. Q How do you feel about your quar terback situation given Corey Pul- lig's recent performances? A 1 talked to Corey, and he's very much aware he's not playing well. I get the impression from talking to him that Slocum he's feeling the pressure, i may have (pres sured) him some myself. I've talked a lot about Corey, and I've talked a lot about our need to be better in the passing game. negative outcomes. You've got to go out there expecting positive outcomes and free wheeling it a little bit. 1 told him, "We have confidence in you. You don't have to win the world champi onship by yourself. We have got other play ers on this team. We just need you to exe cute the plays that you can execute." QA How did the defense play against Oklahoma? By and large, our defense came to play. At the critical stages of the game, if we could have kept the ball on some drives and gone back and fourth with the football, we could have played well enough on defense to have a chance to win. QA Did the timing of Friday's NCAA announcement affect your team? I'm not a complainer or excuse-mak er. Who knows how much it affected the players. That's a hypothetical thing. I would guess it affected different people in different ways. What can he do to improve? I think he's gotten on a track where he's short-circuit ed his ability some by being overly concerned about Q How did the team react? A - 1 would say with extreme disappointment, thought we had a fair, equitable punishment. NCAA saw it differently than what we did ' not say anything more than that. We The i probably should Adams presents huge obstacle for Missouri By David Winder The Battalion When Sam Adams signed a letter of in tent to play at Texas A&M, he was touted as possibly the best defensive lineman to ever come to College Station. Now, after two years as a starting defensive end, the po tential of Adams seems to be catching up with him. Critics are starting to say that Adams will always be the perenni al underachiever. From the claims that he takes "plays off" to "he's just biding his time till the National Football League". But what do the critics really know about Sam Adams? "Sam has always had to fight expecta tion but he’has always been a fine football player for us," defensive line coach Bill Johnson said. "Sam is not a failure. "He always plays hard; lie never takes Adams a series off. I think his critics are being harsh." Adams does not know if his naysayers are justified in their bashing, but he has never paid any attention to them. "They all expected me to be Super man," Adams said. "All I can do is eval uate my performance and correct my mis takes for the next game." Adams father, Sam Sr., also helps his son critique himself. The older Adams played college football at Prairie View A&M and went on to star with the New England Patriots in the NFL. "My father makes me be my worst critic," Adams said. "He makes me real ize that if I know I didn't do my best how can I expect other people to know it. If I'm not satisfied with my play, I can't ex pect other people to be." Adams did satisfy enough people to be named a consensus first-team All-South- west Conference performance. As a freshman, he earned SWC Defensive Newcomer of the Year and was named to several freshman All-American teams. See Adams/Page 5