Monday, December 1, 1986AThe Battalion/Page 9
Sports
ggies Cotton-bound once again
$ A&M trips UT 3rd time
to win conference title
tO years [I
t|uein j: I
121 Iiv Ken Sur y
1 1 Sports Editor
ar 8 e «Bo the game didn’t have the excit-
P r mnli» n t of' the past two Texas A&M-
.l )e "* 8 B;is matchups. So the game didn’t
a high-scoring performance by
[he A&M offense. So the game
In’t a sellout.
inn,lll! TSo what?
just did was what was nec-
’""‘'' fesaiA to win its second consecutive
1 ^pit-Hthwest Conference crown and
KeriheliRm to the Cotton Bowl. And in
thedejlRg so, Coach Jackie Sherrill’s Ag-
[1 priniM became the first SWCi team since
ul infe-H ansas j n 1964 to 1966 to beat
turns ,m as three games in a row. On Sat-
ear 1,111 'Hay. Sherrill was named to coach
■West All-Stars in the Hula Bowl
'tote, Jan. 10, 1987.
m M ■he 16-3 victory also could have
m the final straw that cost Fred
Its his job as UT head coach.
Intni had called for his dismissal
B|mghout the season and about the
H thing that may have saved his
obu.tsa big victory over the Aggies.
But that didn’t happen either and
,kei s was fired Saturday.
. B&M, 9-2, now heads into a New
| B rs Day showdown with Ohio
■ B e > looking to defend last
jygft/tahCotton Bowl win.
For the first half, the game looked
i Biteningly similar to the A&M-
GC Vnsas contest. Both of fenses had
Bed the football fairly well, but
Ijust a 3-3 score to show for the
fffoi t.
cn dnJTexas fans thought they had the
rimu. Hings of an upset when Jeff Ward
?t m^Hed a 39-yat cl field goal with 2:01
with eft in the first half . Oranges were
I jin ossidonto the field to signify that if
idei'! B won ’ ^ wou l ( l send the Aggies to
BOrange Bowl.
tie for Jut that was the last of the scoring
ofn itBrexas that night and it was A&M
law ti B W0U ld taste the sweetness of the
fatalj Because the game was played
secuiKthanksgiving night, let’s count what
the Aggies had to be thankful for:
• The running of fullback Roger
Vick. Vick rolled up a career-best
167 yards on 41 carries and enabled
the Aggies to use a lot of time off the
clock and keep the ball away from
the Longhorns. As Sherrill said after
the game, “(Vick’s) our horse, and
we kept riding that horse and he
kept running.”
• A timely roughing-the-kicker
penalty on UT’s Tex Mercer.
Mercer knocked down punter Todd
Tschantz on A&M’s first possession
of the second half. The Aggies got
the ball back and marched into the
end zone for their only touchdown.
• Rod Harris’ diving catch for the
Aggies’ touchdown. Harris was wide
open as he cut across the middle of
the end zone. Quarterback Kevin
Murray’s throw was low and wide,
but Harris made a spectacular diving
catch. “I was kind of shocked about
getting open,” Harris said. “But I
knew I caught it.”
• The kicking of Scott Slater. Al
though Slater missed his first and
last 48-yard field goal tries, the ju
nior walkon made three field goals
and kicked the extra point to give
him a SWC record 100 total points
on the season.
Slater’s three field goals gave him
21 for the season, breaking the re
cord of 19 by Arkansas’ Bruce Lahay
and Steve Little and UT’s Ward.
“If we didn’t win, (getting the re
cord) wouldn’t have felt as good,”
Slater said. “I know someone else
will come and break the record. But
it’s something that’s nice to say I
had.”
Senior wide receiver Shea Walker,
who set a new A&M record in the
game with 1,411 yards in career re
ception yardage, summed up the
Aggies’ feelings about returning to
the Cotton Bowl.
“The Cotton Bowl goes to the No.
1 team in the conference,” Walker
said, “. . . and that’s us.”
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■
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'
. Photo by BUI Hughes
A&M fullback Roger Vick evades UT’s Tony Tillmon during on 41 carries as the Aggies clinched the Southwest Confer-
the Aggies’ 16-3 victory over the Longhorns on Thanksgiving ence championship and a berth in the Cotton Bowl for the
evening. Vick finished the game with a career-high 167 yards second consecutive year.
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