Texas A&M
Monday, November 28,1983/The Battalion/Page 11
Battalion Sports
whip Aggies
Third-quarter offensive explosion
boosts Longhorns to 45-13 victory
bv lohn Waener t ' rlork ^nrl f^kp the \r'Ai\ inlr^ rtn
Dean Saito, Battalion staff
Texas A&M quarterback Kevin Murray (14)
is buried under Longhorn defenders John
clvor’s arm gives
-onghorns’ offense
omeback ability
Haines and Tony Degrate during the Aggies’
45-13 loss to Texas Saturday.
by John Wagner
Battalion Staff
The team of the present final
ly showed its stuff.
After four weeks of mediocre
offensive performances and
near-upsets, the No. 2-ranked
Texas Longhorns came alive
against perennial rival Texas
A&M Saturday and rolled to a
45-13 victory.
This was supposed to be one
of those see-saw affairs, with
enough nail-biting, nerve-
racking intensity to make Alka-
Seltzer an after-game necessity
for the record crowd of 76,751.
But while the Longhorns
were scoring plop-plop, the
Aggies were fizz-fizzing.
The 90th meeting of the two
teams was billed as a match be
tween the team of the present
(Texas) and the team of the fu
ture (A&M). Or, as A&M coach
Jackie Sherrill explained after
the game, “their seniors against
our freshmen.”
Score one for the seniors.
Third-string UT quarterback
Rick Mclvor, a senior from Fort
Stockton, mosyed in off the
bench late in the second quarter
and lit a fire under the Texas
offense that hasn’t been there all
season. Mclvor rallied the
Horns from a 13-0 deficit to a
14-13 halftime lead, and the
shellshocked Aggies never reco
vered.
Mclvor supplemented his two
first-half touchdown passes with
two more in the second half, and
equaled a UT record with his
four TD passes in one game.
Add to that the touchdown
scored on a double-reverse pass
from wide receiver Bill Boy
Bryant to Brent Duhon in the
Horns’ 31-point third quarter
explosion, and the five TD pas
ses in one game marked a school
record.
But for a time, it appeared the
team of the future would make
its mark several years early. Led
by freshmen Kevin Murray and
Roger Vick, the Aggies jumped
out to a 10-0 first-quarter lead
while holding the Longhorns’
once-anemic offense to only 24
total yards and no first downs.
For the Horns, forced to go
against a gusting, 35 mile-per-
* Texas QB Rick Mclvor
led Horns to 45-13 win
hour wind in the first quarter,
the situation looked as bleak as
the gray clouds that hovered
over Kyle Field most of the after-
noon. But, as most second-
ranked teams seem to do, Texas
found a silver lining in all that
bleakness.
And they found it in the sel
dom-used right arm of Mclvor.
After Jeff Fuller intercepted a
Rob Moerschell pass, Murray
and the Aggies drove to the Lon
ghorn 30 and Alan Smith kicked
a 46-yard field goal to make it
13-0.
But on the ensuing kickoff,
the 12th Man kickoff team was
penalized for piling on and the
Horns had good field position.
Enter Mclvor. Going with the
wind, Mclvor led the Lon
ghorns, aided by another 15-
yard penalty, to their first score.
“The biggest play of the
game,” Sherrill said, “came
when we scored to make it 13-0
and we kicked off and got called
for piling on. Then we had
another 15-yard penalty a cou
ple of plays later.”
With 2:10 left in the half,
Mclvor found Bryant — who
had beaten A&M defensive back
Tony Slaton — in the end zone
for a 12-yard touchdown pass to
cut the lead to 13-7.
All the Aggies needed was
one first down to run out the
clock and take the lead into the
dressing room. But two off-
tackle plays netted only 4 yards,
and when Murray tried to pass
on third down, he was sacked
back at the A&M 19. Kyle
Stuard’s punt traveled only 27
yards against the wind, and the
Longhorns rambled in for the
go-ahead touchdown three
plays later with a 13-yard pass to
Brent Duhon, who had beaten
Slaton again. '
“That last score (in the first
half) really took the breath out
’em,” UT linebacker Jeff Leid- ;
ing said. “It was just a matter of
time before (the Aggies) came ■
back down to earth and before I
we just settled down and played J
like we should.”
What the Aggies found when j
they did come down to earth >
wasn’t pretty. When the Lon- '
ghorns play like Leiding thinks
they should, its best to just step
out of the way. The Aggies wise-
ly did.
Texas scored on its first five (
possessions of the second half, '<>1
scoring at will and scoring with a '
vengeance. After the game, UT
coach Fred Akers answered alle
gations of running up the score
with an incredulous look and a
“Are you serious?”
Still, to the casual viewer it
might have appeared to be so.
With the score 24-13, Mclvor
passed 33 yards for one score, 60
yards for another and the trick
double-reverse pass went 41
yards for yet another. Not exact
ly the kind of conservative foot- “
ball Akers and his Longhorns
are famoqs for.
But to'drkers, it was simply a
case of a much-maligned
offense proving itself.
“This is the first time in a long
time we really showed we were a
whole football team. It seems
like people have been trying to
tell us we were two football \
teams (good defense, bad ^
offense), but thank goodness, ^
our players didn’t listen.”
“They made the big plays to-
day,” Sherrill said. “We hadn’t '
been giving up the big plays, but
we did today.”
For a team of the future,
however, it wasn’t exactly a bad
showing. Especially when the
team of the present plays like a
team of destiny.
|1 by Dave Scott
Battalion Reporter
Rick Mclvor quit the Univer-
ty of Texas football team last
iring.
Mclvor returned to the Lon-
torn squad this fall,
i Many Aggie fans are wishing
e had never come back.
— ;
* A&M DEFENSE/page 12
idvor completed 8 of 12 passes
>r 170 yards against Texas
&M Saturday and four —
Hint ’em — four touchdowns,
he strong-armed quarterback
tplaced starting quarterback
oh Moerschell in the second
darter and ignited an over
helming UT comeback,
the 6-4, 210-pound Mclvor
irew touchdown passes of 13,
2,33 and 60 yards to three dif-
; Bit receivers in the win. And
(though it appeared he rallied
le Longhorns with relative
ise. his performance Saturday
ipped a long, hard comeback
>r the former high school all-
merican from Fort Stockton.
In 1981, as a junior, Mclvor
as the starting signal caller, but
shoulder injury after seven
toes put him out for the sea-
^n. Mclvor came back the foi
ling fall ready to battle Robert
fewer for the starting position
| suffered a knee injury.
Mclvor was redshirted last
iason and left school and the
fotball team the following year
[work on a friend’s ranch in
fat Texas.
“I was frustrated and I just
leded to get away from
lings,” he said.
But he never had any inten
tions of quitting altogether.
Mclvor was ready to return this
fall.
“I was fired up about coming
back.” he said, “I was really ex
cited because I knew we could do
some things.” And those things
were exactly what Texas head
coach Fred Akers had in mind.
Akers said he knew before the
game the Longhorns might
need Mclvor because of his
strong arm.
“I thought we might be com
pelled to try to throw long on
them.” Akers said.
But because Mclvor hurt his
back early last week — added to
the fact Mclvor had thrown just
12 passes previously this year —
Akers said he was a little hesitant
about using him. After the 45-13
win sparked by Mclvor, though,
Akers had no regrets.
“I’ve never seen a guy re
spond better to a teams’ needs,”
he said. “It is a pretty good mea
sure of a man,” Akers said refer-
ing to Mclvor’s successful return
to the Longhorn squad.
“You don’t see many people
come back after some of the
things Rick has been through,”
he said. Akers said Mclvor
wasn’t ready at the beginning of
the season. In fact, Akers said he
was worried about Mclvor
trying to return.
“A player trying to come back
like that could be a distraction,
not an attraction,”- he said.
But Akers said Mclvor
learned a lot as the season prog
ressed. “He convinced me he
had a complete understanding
of what we were doing,” he said.
And Mclvor, no doubt, con
vinced the Aggies Saturday.
Momentum took a walk to UT’s side
Texas coach Fred Akers and A&M
coach Jackie Sherrill are all smiles
after the Longhorns’ 45-13 victory.
Dean Saito, Battalion staff
Both coaches said the second-quarter
switch in momentum was a key
factor in the Horns’ win.
by John P. Lopez
Battalion Staff
It’s called momentum, but
most people refer to it as
“Mo.”
And for almost two quar
ters Saturday at Kyle Field,
Mo was firmly in place on the
Texas A&M sideline.
The Aggies had jumped all
over the Texas Longhorns to
take a 13-0 lead with 2:10 left
in the first half. But seconds
before the end of the half, Mo
decided to take a stroll — to
the Longhorns’ sideline.
Led by the strong arm of
seldom-used senior quarter
back Rick Mclvor, the Lon
ghorns scored two late
second-quarter touchdowns
to silence a record crowd of
76,751 and head to the locker
room with Mo leading the
way.
“We needed those scores
near the end of the half real
bad,” Longhorns wide receiv
er Brent Duhon said. “Things
were looking pretty bleak un
til then. That really picked us
up at halftime and got us back
to our old selves.”
But while Mo was a wel
come guest in Texas’ locker
room, the Aggies were won
dering what happened.
“The momentum certainly
changed at the end of the first
half,” Texas A&M head coach
Jackie Sherrill said. “There’s
no question about that.”
Texas coach Fred Akers
didn’t question Sherrill’s
assesment.
“A&M had a lot of momen
tum to start with,” Akers said.
“We needed those
scores near the end of
the half real bad.
Things were looking
pretty bleak until
then. That really pick
ed us up at halftime
and got us back to our
old selves.” — Texas
receiver Brent Duhon
“I was thrilled when we got the
field a little quieter.”
And the field stayed quiet
throughout the second half.
Texas scored 31 points in the
third quarter to stop any
Aggie hopes of a comeback.
“They got a lot of breaks in
the third quarter and that was
it,” Aggie center Matt Darwin
said. “They had the momen
tum and we could never get it
back. We had the wind in the
fourth quarter, but when
you’re down by so much to
Texas, it’s hard to get any
thing going. They were just
sprinting downfield (on pass
rushes).”
And Mo was sitting on the
Longhorns’ bench.
“They (Aggies) had to be
thinking it was their day,”
Texas linebacker Jeff Leiding
said, “but you could sense the
difference at halftime. I think
we took the breath out of
them. And we kept things
going in the second half and
played like we should.”