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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1987)
Thursday, November 12, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 11 Sports <e Amedee: Successful seasons lead to strong recruiting 1U:30 a.m„ es said, the Tokyo- '.o. e coast of navy heli- *'ed a mine ' path of an rab leaders i President and Presi- ria report- ig-standing nain Arab vith Iraq. ed 77 diplomatic tas. igh Nicara- of steps to der the re- he signed States has y sending ipment on e country's i’s charge, :y elements al amnesty a lifting of Nicaragua an interna- rifles that Contra re- By Hal L. Hammons Assistant Sports Editor Editors note: In the second part of a two-part interview with Texas A&M Offensive Coordinator Lynn Amedee, the coach discusses the fu ture needs of A&M and the advan tages of recruiting for the Aggies. Q: What kind of holes do you see that need filling in your offense? A: If we’re talking about future, I think we need some more linemen. Big linemen, because all of us like big linemen. Our quarterbacks need to come on and become a little better in the throwing game. And I think we have some receivers here that are not playing this year that are going to help us. The four guys on Propo sition 48 are all receivers, . . . and that will give us the outside speed that we really need. And with ... all of our receivers coming back next year, I think our receiver corps is going to be that much better. Our running game is going to be very, very fine with (Randy) Simmons and (Darren) Lewds and (Larry) Horton. I think we still need, probably, a big fullback, but I hope that Simmons will fill that bill. . . . Q: And you went off this weekend on a recruiting trip to try to fix those holes. A: Oh yeah. It was the first time out of here and boy, . . . you know we flew out of here Thursday. 1 think it was something that the new rule had set us all back. Q: What new rule? A: The NCAA recruiting rule where . . . you can’t go out until Nov. 1 now. That’s set us back in recruiting to the point where we knew who to look at, but we hadn’t had a chance to look at them. And now we try to catch up and decide on who we’re going to re cruit. But we’re trying to fill in some needs, and one of our big needs of fensively. is big linemen. Q: You think that’s the most impor tant thing you need to fill? A: I think so. I think thai is a big area.... Q: Describe recruiting in Texas. Is is a lot tougher than it is, for in stance, at Vanderbilt? A: Well, I think that the recruiting part of Texas is the fact that every body is recruiting the same guy. So you have seven schools or eight schools within the same vicinity re cruiting the same person, and that makes it tougher to the point that those guys can get there as fast as you can. Recruiting at Vanderbilt, for ex ample, we recruited nationwide. I mean, we’d fly to Chicago, to Flor ida, to go after a different kind of person, a guy who, first of all, was academically above that scale of a 2.0. I mean, it was really strong, and so you had to go further to find those kind of guys that have had for eign language in high school, and it made it a little different for us. So that’s the kind of difference in re cruiting. Q: Do you think A&M ought to put more emphasis on academics? A: I think Coach (Jackie Sherrill) has done that. . . We abide by the NCAA rules of the 2.0 (grade point ratio) but our admission people have put our structure a little higher than a lot of places. I think Coach has done a great job. . . . You will notice that in the three years I have been here we haven’t lost any guys acade mically because they’ve all been in that scale where they could hang with the student body. I think that’s part of it. And our graduation guys have helped us. I’ve seen us grad uate more people here than at a lot of places. Q: Could you assess the last two or three years of recruiting at Texas A&M? It seems like everybody has been really crazy about A&M’s re cruiting classes. A: I think we’ve been good. I think we’ve had good recruiting years. I think we’ve been very fortunate that we’ve filled in some areas in the two years or three years. Like last year — running backs was a great need for us. We recruited five of the best, which has shown this year already. The year before we needed some help on defense, and we recruited some help. And so it’s been a positive thing that we’ve been able to recruit our needs. And it goes back to a lot of things. It goes back to, we as a staff have not changed. I think that helps us, because we know what we’ve needed and we go out and we look for those same guys. ... I know what R.C. (Slocum, A&M’s defensive coordinator) wants in a linebacker, because I’ve got two of them playing for him that I’ve recruited — Adam Bob and Basil Jackson. He knows what I want as a quarterback or a running back because he recruited tw'o of them — Darren Lewis and Randy Simmons. ... I think we know what Jackie wants academi cally because our guys stay in school here. And all that has helped, and I think that’s w'hy we’ve had great re cruiting years here. Our alumni has been tremendous because of that same thing, alsq. ’ Q: About the running backs: can you imagine what your running back corps would be like if you had gotten Anthony Ray (a blue-chipper out of Wharton who went to Baylor) and Harvey Williams (the cele brated Hempstead back who went to Louisiana State) like a lot of peo ple thought you would? A: laughing) Well, I think some of them would be ready to leave if it had gotten to that point! Because running backs are a rare breed. Running backs are like quarterbacks — they want to play every snap of every play. I mean, they want to run the ball every time. And it doesn’t happen that way. It just doesn’t hap pen. Everybody’s here to play. You'» try to play your people where you-* think they fit in best for what you do. So everybody has a role, and as long as they fill that role, then they will be OK. I don’t care if it’s Harvey Wil liams or Randy Simmons or Joint* David Crow, you know, who was a l great running back, what I’m saying l is all three of those guys have' got a * special role, and all three of those guys have got to play for you. And ; sometimes they’re not all happy, and ; that’s when they start leaving. Q: So you end up with role players like Larry Horton, who could be ( starting for a lot of people. A: A lot of people. That’s exactly right. But the bottom line is. they’re ’ gonna get an opportunity to do what * they do to help us win to get where we want to go. And that’s what it’s all about. 'r Q: Does the recent success the team has had help in recruiting? A: Oh, I think it does. I think it-«.-» makes it a lot easier for us People ] know who Texas A&M is, especially See Amedee, page 12 Boston’s Clemens wins 2nd Cy Young award ?lls ord on - Vincent e famous den at an entered litted sui- for a re- lyer, who ot imme- d for a ither van flowers," llion ear- ■se insur- NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Clem ens of the Boston Red Sox became the first American League pitcher in more than a decade to win two straight Cy Young awards, capturing the 1987 trophy Wednesday despite a spring training holdout and 4-6 start. Now, he says he can aim for the record books. “It’s an individual award. It gives me something to shoot for, some thing that no one has done before, win a third time in a row,” Clemens said at a Houston news conference. “I beat the jinx. Now, I guess I have to do it again.” Clemens, who lives in Katy, had 256 strikeouts in 281% innings this year. He received 21 of 28 first-place votes and 124 points in balloting by a panel of Baseball Writers Associa tion of America members. Jimmy Key of Toronto, 17-8 with a league-leading earned-run average of 2.76, had four first-place votes and 64 points to finish a distant sec ond. Dave Stewart of Oakland, at 20- 13 the only other 20-game winner in the AL, was third with two first-place votes 32 points. “At the end of the year, I was very confident and very strong,” Clemens said. “I think I may have been throwing the ball even better than I did at the end of 1986.” Clemens, who had the league’s third-best ERA of 2.97, was the only pitcher in either league whose name appeared on each ballot cast. Steve Bedrosian, the Philadelphia Phillies reliever, won the National League Cy Young award in a close battle with Rick Sutcliffe of Chicago and Rick Reuschel of San Francisco. The last American League pitcher to win consecutive Cy Youngs was Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles in 1975-76. Denny McLain won the AL Cy Young in 1968 and shared it with Mike Cuellar the following year. Clemens became only the third American League pitcher to win a Cy Young for a team placed as low as fifth. Dean Chance with the 1964 California Angels and Gaylord Perry with the 1972 Cleveland Indians also won the award with fifth-place teams. Following Key in the balloting were Dave Stewart of Oakland, 32 points; Doyle Alexander of Detroit, 8; Mark Langston of Seattle, 7; Ted Higuera of Milwaukee and Frank Viola of Minnesota, 5 each; Jeff Reardon of Minnesota, 4, and Jack Morris of Detroit, 3. Stewart, at 20-13 the only other 20-game winner in the league be sides Clemens, had two first-place votes, and Alexander had the other. Balloting is done by a panel com prised of two BBWAA members from each league city. They are asked to name their top three candi dates with five points awarded for a first-place vote, three for second and one for third. Clemens earned $150,000 for winning the Cy Young. In addition, $150,000 will be tacked onto his 1988 salary of $1.2 million as a result of his contract negotiated last April. ! Volleyball team defeats UH for third consecutive victory The Texas A&M Volleyball team defeated the University of Houston in four games Wednes day evening for its third confer ence victory and its first road vic tory of the year. The Lady Aggies, who im proved their overall record to 13- 19, continued their strong show ing in the second half of the sea son by downing the Cougars 14- 16, 15-9, 16-14 and 15-5. The vic tory is the third straight win for A&M. Cheri Steensma paced the team with 16 kills, followed by Kelli Kellen and Michelle Whit- well who had 11 apiece. Kellen also had 13 digs and seven blocked shots. A&M Coach Al Givens said his team might have finally put it all together. “We’re not losing to anybody in the second half (of the confer ence season),” Givens predicted. “I’m very pleased with the play tonight, particularly ... with the play off the bench.” Givens also said winning is a product of good team play. The Lady Aggies play South ern Illinois in G. Rollie White Coliseum Friday evening at 7 p.m. before hosting Texas Tech Sunday at 2 p.m. FREE PT77H pisxa hffutl DELIVERY n if milk de- ng habitSi 1 become heart dis- fterenson, medical CARRY OUT SPECIAL FOR A LIMITED TIME Buy 1 Medium Pizza at Regular Price and Get The Second with equal or fewer toppings FREE Call 693-9393 Offer good on carryout only. Available at all B/CS Pizza Hut Locations NO COUPON NECESSARY Please Mention special when ordering. Not valid with any other Pizza Hut offer. 1/200 cash value. ARE YOU HAVING GOOD SEX? See Dr. Ruth Westheimer Live And Find Out How f ,4 Sexually Speaking Dr. with RUTH KKYS^ FMIOS Friday, November 13th, 1987 Rudder Auditorium 2:00 p.m Advance Ticket Price: TAMU Students: $4.00 Public: $5.00 Add $1.00 Day of Program *• % . 1- ! * s f L * A » * r '■ *■, \