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Texas A&.M
The Battalion Sports
Wednesday, October 19,1983/The Battalion/Page 11
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Id. He wa Nkw YORK — The Southwest Conference
ars in priso'lphave other ideas, but Nebraska is No. 1.
charged inBhe Cornhuskers showed Missouri a thing or
Bver the weekend with a 34-13 romp over the
jgrs. As a result, the Big Eight power picked up
~ a possible 42 first-place votes and 626 total
is Monday from the UPI Board of Coaches to
tain its top ranking.
owever, there are dissenting voices in Texas
rkansas following the Longhorns’ 31-3 gor-
f the Razorbacks.
think we should be voted No. 1,” said Texas
i Fred Akers, whose team remained No. 2
the other four first-place votes and 590 total
ts.
Bfexas is not the second best team in the coun-
Arkansas coach Lou Holtz said. “They are
est team in the country.”
[o. 3 North Carolina and No. 4 West Virginia
ned their positions, while Auburn jumped
spots after a 31-13 victory over Georgia
i to crack the top five.
Bounding out the Top 20 are No. 6 Florida, No.
leorgia, No. 8 Southern Methodist, No. 9
i, No. 10 Michigan, No. 11 Illinois, No. 12
,No. 13 Maryland, No. 14 Arizona State, No.
Washington, No. 16 Brigham Young, No. 17
homa, No. 18 Ohio State, No. 19 Pittsburgh
id co-No. 20 Alabama and Boston College.
in A&M’s defensive turnaround,
defensive coordinator and line
backer coach R.C. Slocum says.
jr
Auburn’s jump dropped fellow Southeastern
Conference schools Florida and Georgia one
notch each. Florida was idle and Georgia downed
Vanderbilt 20-13.
Miami, Illinois, Washington and Brigham
Young all won and ascended three spots. Miami
won its sixth straight, a 31-7 decision over Missis
sippi State. Illinois scored an important 17-13 Big
Ten victory over Ohio State. Washington topped
Stanford 32-15 and BYU clobbered New Mexico
66-21 for its fifth straight victory.
Maryland, with a 36-33 decision over Wake
Forest, and Arizona State, a 34-14 winner over
Southern California, each gained two spots.
Ohio State plunged 11 spots after losing to Illinios
while Alabama dropped 10 positions after its
second straight loss — a 41-34 beating by Ten
nessee.
SMU, 5-0 with a 21-game unbeaten streak —
longest in the nation, was idle and climbed one
spot. Also moving up a rung was Michigan, a 35-0
winner over Northwest3rn, and Iowa, a 31-14
victor over Purdue.
Oklahoma remained No. 17 after a 21-20
triumph over Oklahoma State, previously ranked
No. 20.
Pittsburgh and Boston College re-entered the
ratings after falling out in recent weeks. Pitt
sburgh crushed Louisville 55-10 and Boston Col
lege was idle.
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Defensive turnaround pleases Aggie coaches
by John Wagner
Battalion Staff
There’s no escaping the truth.
The year 1982 wasn’t a good one
for the Texas Aggies, especially
when it came to stopping the
other team. Quite simply, the
Aggies didn’t.
A&M’s defense was an li
man disaster area — as solid as
Swiss cheese, as sturdy as wet
toilet paper. Opponents ran up
400 yards of offense without
breaking a sweat. Words like
lame, limp and just plain bad be
came everyday adjectives used
to describe the Aggies when they
didn’t have the football.
That, however, was the old
days.
These are the new days.
This Aggie defense stops the
Houston Cougars three times on
fourth-and-one, holds the
Baylor Bears to 246 yards of tot
al offense and turns in seven
quarters of shutout football in
the last three games, giving up
only two touchdowns in that
same span.
This defense is currently
ranked No. 3 in the nation
against the pass and has given up
just one touchdown pass and 76
total points since the season be
gan six games ago.
That’s the kind of defense
needed to be successful in the
Southwest Conference — head-
knocking, bone-breaking, earth-
shaking defense. R.C. Slocum
knows that, and he says the
Aggie defensive unit is not too
far from being where it needs to
be.
Slocum is A&M’s defensive
coordinator and linebacker
coach. As could be expected, last
season wasn’t a particularly spe
cial time for him. Attitude prob
lems and a lack of speed at cru
cial positions hurt the Aggies
again and again, and Slocum
and A&M coach Jackie Sherrill
were determined to put an end
to the bloodbath.
Enter the 3-4 defense. And
Billy Cannon at linebacker. And
the play of a rejuvenated Keith
Guthrie. And Ray Childress
back at end. And a more-
experienced Jerry Bullitt. And
Greg Berry. And Jeff Paine.
And freshman Rod Saddler.
Get the picture? A&M’s de
fensive success has been a team
effort.
“We’ve got a group of guys
who play together and play
hard”, Slocum says. “There
seems to be a better chemistry
between these players than we
had last year.
“There’s a bond there, and
they don’t fall apart when things
get rough.”
The Aggies gave up 403 yards
per game in 1982, placing them
last in the SWC in total defense.
A&M’s opponents weren’t picky
— they piled up yardage both
through the air and on the
ground, averaging 204.6 yards
per game passing and 198.4
yards per game rushing. The
reason, A&M coaches believed,
was a lack of quickness. Their
defense was simply too slow.
The 3-4 has helped, Slocum
says, to get speed and quickness
where it is needed most — closer
to the line of scrimmage. Instead
of relying on safeties and cor-
nerbacks to make tackles,
they’re being made by linemen
and linebackers. Against Baylor
Saturday, the Aggies made 13
tackles behind the line of scrim
mage.
“I think they’re (the defensive
players) starting to see them
selves as good players, and as a
good unit,” Slocum said. “That’s
why we’re seeing week-to-week
improvement, because they’re
realizing ‘hey, we played so-and-
so and didn’t get blown away,
and we played so-and-so and
didn’t get blown away.
“Attitude is the single-most
important aspect of football, but
it’s especially so when you play
defense.”
The Aggies opened this sea
son with a performance almost
identical to last year’s Boston
College blowout. California
scored on its first possession,
and the first half ended with
A&M behind 17-0. But the
Aggies got tough, and shut out
the Golden Bears in the second
half.
The only poor defensive out
ing the Aggies have had this sea
son was on regional television
against Oklahoma State. Cow
boy tailback Shawn Jones
burned the Aggies for 203
yards, and the OSU offense
picked up 412 yards total. But
Slocum says that game was a
learning experience for a de
fense that had some things to
learn.
“We made a lot of mental mis
takes,” he says of the letdown.
“Oklahoma State’s touchdowns
were the kind of plays where the
players realize it they had made
the right move or been in the
right coverage it wouldn’t have
happened.
“You look back and say ‘We
haven’t had a situation where a
team took the ball and drove it
down our throats to score. The
things they did they did because
of our lack of execution.’”
With the toughest part of
A&M’s schedule coming up (the
Aggies still have Arkansas, SMU
and Texas left to play) and the
offense having trouble putting
points on the board, things
aren’t exactly looking up for
A&M.
But Slocum says the defense is
right on schedule.
“We started the season with
two goals,” he says. “We didn’t
have any yardage goals or any
thing like that. We just wanted to
play hard, and we wanted to play
smart. The only area we can im
prove on is playing smart.
“Because we can’t play any
harder.”
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