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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1977)
Page 12 THE BATTALION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1977 Time has passed the Ag football team and A celebrity Tony Franklin (No. 1) makes another field the SMU Mustangs tomorrow afternoon at goal against Rice. Franklin will be featured 1:30. on ABC News on Nov. 25. The Aggies host Battalion photo Jeff Berger By PAUL MCGRATH Time is the most effective clever agent of change. It can re duce a mountian range to rocky rubble and is able to steal youth without fear of penalty. Man can fight disease with a vac cine but there is no cure for the ad vance of time. Unconquerable and undefinable, time is all-reaching in its scope. For a closer look at the effects of time, take a glance at the Texas A&M football team. Time has done its job well. The Aggie defense was the best in the league and one of the best in the nation for the past four years. Pres ently, the Aggies are fourth — in the Southwest Conference. The A&M defenders have yielded an average of 159 yards a game rush ing. It wasn’t long ago that an A&M opponent felt fortunate to gain that amount in total offense. Safety Carl Grulich is leading the team in unassisted and total tackles with 59 and 78 respectively. Appar ently, there are either some leaks that need plugging or Grulich should be mentioned for all-World. How long has it been since an Aggie defensive back led the team in stops? Not since the days of Dave Elmendorf. One would have to go back to 1974 to find a running back who had gained 100 yards or more against Smith enjoys one-on-one By D. D. GRUBBS There aren’t many one-on-one confrontations left in college football nowadays, but one in particular that still exists is especially important for Texas A&M split end Darrell Smith. When the 5-8, 170-pound junior lines up wide and gets set for an of fensive play, he can’t wait to be chal lenged by the defensive back. “I really enjoy it out there. Play ing split end gives me a chance to do my job with one thing in mind —be better than the guy covering me. After playing halfback his first two years at A&M, Smith was moved to split end last spring after the Ags became blessed with a flurry of tal ented freshman running backs in 1976. “Darrell just had too much ability to be sitting on the bench, explains receivers coach Dean Campbell. “When Curtis Dickey and David Brothers became our starting halfbacks last year, we decided to move Darrell to split end. The posi tion was new to him but In* worked hard to learn it and is getting better every week. He has all the tools — speed, quickness and a great pair of hands. A broken collarbone kept Smith out of action for most of his freshman year, but last year he started the first three games at right halfback before Brothers stepped in and won that starting role. Smith continued as the Aggies top kick re turn specialist and finished the sea son with 259 yards in punt and kick off returns. Against TCU last year, he had what he considers his best indi vidual game as an Aggie, rushing for 147 yards on just four carries, in cluding a 90-yard touchdown run for A&M’s final tally in a 59-10 romp of the Horned Frogs at Kyle Field. The switch to split end from run ning back created no problem for Smith, who admits he has always wanted to play split end. “It gives me a better chance to use my natural abilities. There weren’t any difficult adjustments to make. I could always block and catch the ball, I guess learning to run a long pattern was the thing I had to work on the hardest.” Smith’s first big individual game at the new position came against Baylor a couple of weeks ago at a time when the Bears’ pass defense was nationally ranked. Smith caught two touchdown passes against them for a total of 69 yards. He has al ready set ten TD’s as his individual goal for 1977. Smith played his high school football at Fort Worth Wyatt where he made All-District and was named Offensive Player of the Year in Tar rant County in 1974. He was also a track star at Wyatt and turned a 9.4 hundred his senior year. Right now, however. Smith is concentrating on football and espe cially this week’s game with SMU which will be A&M’s first home game since the season opener against Kansas on September 10th. “We’ve been on the road for a long time. It’ll be good to get back home and play in Kyle Field for a change. SMU’s a good team and they’ll be tough — but they re all tough. Smith believes the Aggie offense has opened up quite a bit this year and is more balanced than ever since he’s been at A&M. “We’ve got the running backs, no doubt, but we can also throw the ball when we need to. David Walker is an excellent quarterback and is passing better this year than he ever has. We feel we have two good receivers in Russell Mikeska (tight end) and myself, so we defi nitely are a more well-balanced of fensive unit.” Smith is looking to earn his sec ond varsity letter in 1977 and at the same time help the Aggies earn a trip to the Cotton Bowl. He also wants to make all-SWC in his first season as a split end. Those are monumental challenges by anyone’s standards — but Darrell Smith thrives on challenges. Shield Shaped Diamonds for your Aggie Ring from: Carl Bussells ~iamond Room 3731 E. 29th 846-4708 Town & Country Center MANOR EAST 3 THEATRES MANOR EAST MALL sX-K: 7:20-9:30 : wyf Paramount Pictures Presents "Islands in the Stream' In Color A Paramount Picture PGfSS DOLBY 4-CHANNEL STEREO SOUND 7:30-9:55 A long time ago in a galaxy jar jaraway.. JSOBL. mask f*m/6!ON« PflJNTS BTDC LLWE® TBCHMCDlOft® [JPG I rini DOLBY SYSTEM f Skyway Twin STARSHIP INVASION plus FIRST SPACE SHIP ON VENUS A&M. That feat has been performed four times this Season. Virginia Tech's Roscoe Coles had 117 yards to snap the string. He was followed shortly afterwards by Michigan’s Russell Davis with 110 and Baylor’s Steve Howell (who?) with 125 yards on three carries. Column One Earl has already piled up the rushing yards against the Aggies, he being Rice’s Earl Cooper who had 130 yards last Saturday night. Aggie fans may relish the fact that A&M has yet to face the Southwest Conference’s two leading rushers; Earl Campbell of Texas and Ben Cowins of Arkansas. Of course, the Aggie defense has had to battle inexperience as well as the opponent. But the season is half gone and the players have yet to learn their lessons. The effects of time have not just been unkind to the Aggie defense, the offense has had its share of prob lems as well. Turnovers, long an Aggie nemisis, took a short vacation at the end of last year, but have become common occurrences this season. Seven interceptions and 17 fumbles, coupled with nearly 400 yards in penalties, have made the A&M of fense its own worst enemy. After six games last season, fullback George Woodard had ac cumulated 535 yards. He is ahead of that pace with 594 through half a dozen contests this year. But Woodard is not the of old. His 270 lbs. have slowtjj noticeably. While he still cau^ posing defenses to key the mi Woodard is not the tackle-inj gamebreaker he was ayearaij two previous games against | Woodard gained 355 yards rusk He was held to 69 yards lastS) day. Variety may be the spice of hut its a foreign word to AMf; fense. Too long has it beenpri® a righthanded team which | only as a final resort. Whether or not the Aggies smooth out the rough spotsasi prepare for the toughest their schedule is matter yet| decided. Only time will tell. Evert recovers from injur\ plans to play less next yea\ Vol. 71 Pages H K Thirty se’ gineering posted ;ster. T [erage Scl [am score ints this ) gher than admissio United Press International FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Chris Evert has been working out for just two days after a nearly three-week layoff from a leg injury, hut she expects to have her game back in shape for next week’s Colgate Series Championship tennis tournament. “My doctor told me to come hack slowly' and gradually,” she said. “I’m up to an hour and a half a day of playing tennis now. I didn’t think I should play any more the first two days. “I’ll get up to three hours a day before the tour nament and then I’ll be fine,” she said. She has been recovering from what her doctor describes as the “beginning of a stress fracture” in her left leg. “The leg so far has been been good, but I ve lost a little bit of touch. That happens when you take two and a half weeks oft,” she said. Evert, who disclosed she is planning to skip the Virginia Slims Circuit which begins in January, said she expects her strongest competition in the $250,000 event at Mission Hills, Calif ., from Viginia Wade and Martina Navratilova. “It’s being played on a hard surface and that fa vors the aggressive players like Virginia and Mar tina,” said Evert, who has played her best tennis on slower clay surfaces. “And 1 have to think Billie Jean (King) is plajJ^ ls "‘ ls really well right now,” she said. I She said she feels she should find a way to east pi schedule that has been growing more hectic evei year. “I’m tired — I haven’t had a real break in Hu years,” she said. "Other players like Evora Goolagong or Margaret Court have hadbreaks 1* . j cause of injuries or pregnancy. But I think I played the most intense schedule of anybodyiHll ^ last four years. >|J I “And this year I think I played rnybusisl • schedule of all, at least up until Forest Hills,’’sin ISome out said. fans of h “1 haven’t committed mvself to the Slims si ‘xas 0 what I tell people is that as of right now, intend to play, she said. She said, however, she intends to play Wwi I out °f s Team Tennis next year, although she doesn’tknu hnberoi which team she’ll he with. Her two-year contra |a reside with Phoenix ran out this year. _ The rest of this year also promises to remain bus Vantage ( “The week after the Colgate is the Wight™ Cup in San Francisco and Billie Jean and RosieC* als and I are on that team, she said. "AndtheiiTj thinking about going to Australia in Decemberal play some tournaments there. f-f£Y 3rd Annual Vm^free hallo- A-free ^/VeEN SHOW M D r . 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