Monday, September 16, 1985/The Battalion/Page 11
Sports
Texas A&M running back Anthony Toney (with ball) takes one of
his 20 carries around guard Trace McGuire (#61) against Alabama
Photo by JOHN MAKELY
Saturday. Crimson Tide All-America linebacker Cornelius Bennett
(#97) closes in on Toney, who gained 58 yards rushing on the night.
Fans help ’Banna roll over A&M
Tide's Twelfth Man' causes problems for Ags
ByCHAREAN WILLIAMS
Assistant Sports Editor
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — At
11:15 p.m. Saturday, the lights at
Legion Field were turned off. Ex
cept for a cool breeze, the sta
dium stood empty and quiet.
This was quite a contrast to just
a few hours earlier when Ala
bama took the field to play Texas
A&M.
From 6:50 to 9:43, Legion
Field was a wave of crimson.
There were crimson pompons,
crimson T-shirts, crimson signs,
crimson hats and crimson what
ever else you could think of.
Of the 74,697 who made it to
the game, it was quite obvious
who the majority were rooting
for. That was the difference in
the game.
The final score was Alabama
23, A&M 10. But, you can credit
part of the victory to “Alabama’s
Twelfth Man,” as a Birmingham
newspaper referred to them.
The Bama fans were so vocal,
they dictated what A&M did on
the field.
The Aggies were penalized 10
times, losing them 63 yards. Nu
merous times inside the ’Bama
30-yard line, A&M was set back
with illegal procedure and delay
of game penalties, costing them
dearly on the scoreboard.
“We couldn’t hear with the
crowd noise so loud,” said A&M
quarterback Kevin Murray. “It
seemed the officials wouldn’t
oblige us by helping us quiet
them down. We tried several
times, but he forced us to go
ahead with the play. Those peo
ple were so loud down in that end
zone, we just couldn’t hear. As a
result, we ended up going back
ward instead of forward inside of
the 25-(yard line).”
Under the direction of quar
terbacks Murray and Craig
Stump, the Aggies moved the ball
up and down the field in their
first game of the season.
In fact, A&M had 298 yards of
offense, compared with ’Bama’s
272. But, the Aggies’ yardage just
wasn’t converted to points when it
counted.
“On the goaline it was hard to
hear what was going on,” said
A&M offensive tackle Doug Wil
liams. “But, that’s not an excuse. I
don’t know what the problem
was. We just worked too damn
hard to let this game go like this.
We beat them in the stats. The
only way we didn’t beat them was
on the scoreboard. But, that’s all
that counts.”
A&M fullback Anthony Toney
and tailback Roger Vick dispelled
rumors that the Aggies lacked
outside speed as they combined
for 94 yards. Flanker Jeff Nelson,
who had five catches for 75 yards,
and wide receiver Shea Walker,
who had three catches for 59
yards, proved they aren’t the
weak link of the team.
Which all added up to opti
mism for next week, but not
enough for this particular week.
“We should have won,” Toney
said. “We thought we were better
than Alabama. The penalties just
hurt us. (The penalties) backed us
up where we had first and 15 and
first and 20. That forced us to
change the plan we had design
ed.”
Besides the crowd, the Aggies
were also beaten by a pretty good
kicker, Van Tiffin, a pretty good
quarterback, Mike Simla, and a
pretty good team with fans who
scream “Roll, Roll, Roll Tide” at
the top of their lungs.
Before the opening kickoff, Al
abama Coach Ray Ray Perkins
walked up to Tiffin in the locker
room and told him, “I feel a re
cord coming on.”
At least that’s what Tiffin re
members of the conversation.
“I don’t remember the exact
words he told me,” Tiffin said.
“But, that’s pretty much what he
(Perkins) said. I remember it be
cause, well, it turned out to be
true.”
Tiffin did indeed break the
Crimson Tide’s record for the
longest field goal, when he
booted a 57-yarder with 21 sec
onds left before halftime to up
’Bama’s lead to 10-3.
“I felt comfortable,” Tiffin
said. “Everything was perfect —
the snap, the hold, the blocking
— everything.”
Tiffin also connected on field
goals of 40 and 51 yards in the
second half — both into an 18
mph wind.
As for the ’Bama quarterback,
Shula just did what he was sup
posed to do — and more.
Shula, who completed seven of
12 passes for 86 yards, had per
haps the biggest play of the game,
Alabama was guarding a slim
16-10 lead, with 1:48 left in the
game, and faced a cruicial third-
and-three from the A&M 44 yard
line.
If the Aggies held, it would be
time for a comeback try.
Shula faked a pitch right and
rolled left on a bootleg that gave
the Tide a first down and killed
any hopes A&M had of winning.
Two plays later, ’Bama run
ning back Craig Turner was off
on a 32-yard touchdown run,
leaving the Aggies 1:07 on the
clock and 13 points down.
“I’ve got belief in these guys,”
Perkins said. “They’re gonna find
a way to win. The offense did a
good job in the fourth quarter
when they needed to. We broke a
trap with Turner when they had
a blitz on and we put it away.”
Perkins, who has seen his sfuire
of alumni pressure after last sea
son’s 5-6 showing, saw his No. 20
ranked Tide do just what they
had to do to improve to 2-0 on
the season.
“We got beat by a fine football
team tonight in Alabama,” said
A&M Coach Jackie Sherrill, who
played at Alabama with Perkins
in 1964-65. “They are a good,
strong team, especially on de
fense. But, they showed some
things on offense, too, especially
there at the end.”
The crowd, for the most part,
enjoyed the ending just as much
or more than the beginning.
They left yelling “Roll Tide” just
as they had entered.
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