Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1988)
The Battalion Sports ichardson ignites offense [Despite poor statistics, he finds a way to win Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1988 Page orsaicj rcanctj les." issues, i By Doug Walker Assista7it Sports Editor Football scouts and fans call it an |intangible. It’s something that can’t be de- Ifined or easily described. In fact, Richardson doesn’t lead [the Texas Aggies in any of the statis- [tical categories that ax e supposed to determine the most valuable mem ber of a football team. Yet, when the sophomore from Baton Rouge, Louis., is in at quar- iterback the Aggies almost always Ivin. When Richardson speaks it be- bomes clear why he is a successful at huarterback: He’s confident without being cocky, and he knows what he bas to do. In victories over Texas Tech and louston, Richardson has provided a kpark for the Aggie offense in seve ral different ways. Profile of the Week Bucky Richardson Prior to the Texas Tech game A&M Head Coach Jackie Sherrill said he needed to find a way to get Richardson involved in the game be cause of his attitude. “Bucky’s a winner, and we’ve got to think of a way to get him on the field,” Sherrill said. As Texas Tech can attest, they found a way. The Aggies shocked the Raiders by using Richardson as a quar terback in the wishbone formation and rolled up 420 yards rushing. A&M demolished a defense that had held Baylor to two yards rush ing the week before. He also ran for a two-point con version and for a first down on a fake punt to key a scoring drive. After the game, Richardson was typically calm. He displayed his unselfish atti tude as he explained his outlook for himself and his feelings about split ting time at quarterback with junior transfer Chris Osgood. “I want to help this team in any way possible,” Richardson said. The option attack that Richardson runs so effectively was vital in last week’s game against Houston. The Aggies needed to control the ball and score points to keep the explo sive Cougar offense off the field. Early in the game the offense was not sustaining drives, and the Hous ton offense drove for two early field goals to take a 6-0 lead. Enter Richardson. On his second series at quar terback, the Aggies drove 81 yards for a touchdown to take the lead. The drive took 18 plays and con sumed six minutes and 30 seconds to give the Aggie defensive unit a valu able rest. Richardson quarterbacked the Aggies on their other scoring drives and converted some big third-down plays all day against a Houston de fense that is vastly improved over last year. A&M converted 13 of 26 third down situations and compiled over five minutes more possession time than Houston in the 30-16 win. The most important third down conversion may have come in A&M’s last scoring drive. Houston had scored to draw within 23-16 with slightly under five minutes remaining. Cougar reserve quarterback Andre Ware seemed to have finally solved the weary Aggie See Richardson, page 8 it|Lewis, Roper get kudos from Sherrill IV! eall By Hal L. Hammons Sports Editor Texas A&M Head Coach Jackie Sherrill went |o Tuesday’s press luncheon planning to talk pout the Aggies’ upcoming game with Baylor. Mat he ended up talking about was Darren Le- iandjohn Roper. Sherrill said Lewis and Roper represent Heis- nan and Lombardi Trophy candidates who have few equals in the country. Lewis is coming off a 201-yard effort against louston Saturday that, with 168- and 177-yard tames against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, let an A&M record for rushing yardage in three tonsecutive games. The 546-yard total is the best in the Southwest Conference since the last three games of Earl Campbell’s senior year at Texas. Campbell fol lowed the 556-yard effort with a Heisman Tro phy. Sherrill said he doesn’t think it’s too late in the jeason or too early in Lewis’ career for the Aggie [wphomore to think about a Heisman of his own. “The two best running backs in the country berformance-wise are (OSU’s) Barry Sanders and Darren Lewis,” Sherrill said. “He’s a physical player. He’ll take licks and dish them out.” Lewis proved that Saturday. His 40 carxies was one shy of the school record held by Mark Green (against Southern Methodist in 1971) and Roger Vick (1986 against Texas). “There are very few running backs who can take the punishment Darren took Saturday night and give the effort he gave,” Sherrill said. Lewis is still not 100 percent. He has a sprained toe and a bruised shoulder, but the in juries don’t seem to have affected his perfor mance. Lewis now ranks fourth in the nation and leads the SWC in yards-per-game at 146.8. His 5.8 yards-per-carry average leads the conference too. Sherrill also praised Roper as being one of the top linebackers in the country. “He’s not only one of the best football players I’ve been around,” Sherrill said of Roper, “he’s a very unselfish player. There are a lot of others with his ability that don’t perform play after play. “There are not many others who will rush the passer, then turn around and make the tackle 60 yards downfield. There are not many'others who will drop down and play nose guard.” Sherrill referred to the first play of the Hous ton game, when Roper recovered from the pass rush in time to make the tackle after quarter back David Dacus completed a long pass to Jason Phil lips. Roper played as a down lineman for much of the game. Baylor is 0-2 in conference, and the losses were against Texas Tech and Houston — both of which A&M has already defeated this year. The Bears’ wins have come against Nevada-Las Ve gas, Kansas, Iowa State and Southwest Texas State — hardly Top 20 opponents like A&M has played. “That doesn’t make any difference,” Sherrill said about Baylor’s mediocre showings thus far. Sherxill said the Bears are a different team with Brad Goebel healthy. Baylor lost to Tech without the sophomore quarterback. He said he expects the Bears’ speed at defensive end and outside linebacker to give the Aggies trouble on outside Cone hurls Mats to win, 7th game LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Cone wrote a different story in Game 6 of the National League playoffs, pitching a five-hitter as the New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 Tuesday night to tie the best-of- seven series at three games apiece. The decisive seventh game will be played Wednesday at Dodger Sta dium. Orel Hershiser, a 23-game winner, will start for Los Angeles against Ron Darling, 17—9. Hershiser started Games 1 and 3 without getting a decision, and got a save in the Dodgers’ 12-inning, 5-4 victory in Game 4. Kevin McReynolds, with a two- run homer among his four hits in four at-bats, provided the offense against loser Tim Leary. McReynolds, who also had a sacri fice fly, drove in three of the five runs as New York provided the scoring Manager Davey Johnson had prom ised for the sixth game. The four hits tied an NL playoff re cord accomplished by eight players, the last Tito Landrum of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985. The Mets dominated the season se ries against the Dodgers, winning 10 of 11. But Los Angeles won two of three games at New York to take a 3-2 lead into Game 6 and the warmth of the swaying palm trees. After the Mets won the first game 3-2 with three runs in the ninth off Hershiser and Jay Howell, Cone wrote in a first-person article for the New York Daily News that Howell looked like a “high school pitcher” and Hershiser was “lucky” to throw eight shutout innings. The Dodgers, inspired by Cone’s prose, chased him after two innings of Game 2, scoring five runs on five hits en route to a 6-3 victory. It was Cone’s shortest outing as a starter this year, and his career as a columnist lasted only one more day. Cone then came back and got the last three outs of the Mets’ 8-4 vic tory in Game 3 on Saturday but still wanted a chance to prove his 20-3 season was not a fluke. After a shaky first inning, Cone shut the Dodgers out on one hit until two were out in the fifth when re liever Brian Holton singled, Steve Sax walked and Mickey Hatcher sin gled in a run to make it 4-1. Holton was 0-for-10 this season and 1-for-20 lifetime. Cone ended the threat by getting Kirk Gibson to pop to third. Cone, who didn’t make his first start until May 3, walked three and struck out six. The Dodgers’ 3-4-5 hitters were hitless in 16 at-bats. In each of the first five games the Dodgers took the lead, while during the regular season the Mets scored first in seven of the 11 games. This time, the Mets came out run ning — and scoring — against Leary. Leary, a former Met, was 17-11 during the season but lost three of his last five decisions. He was 0-2 against New York, al lowing nine runs and 13 hits in 12 in nings. After fouling off several pitches, leadoff hitter Len Dykstra hit a shot to first base that Hatcher hobbled for an error. Wally Backman, moved from eighth to second in the order, dropped a perfect hit-and-run single in front of a hobbling Gibson in left to send Dykstra to third. Keith Hernandez struck out and, after Darryl Strawberry walked to load the bases, McReynolds hit a sac rifice fly to right field. McReynolds had 19 game-winning RBI during the season and hit .309 with runners in scoring position. Strawberry, 9-for-26 in the series, and McReynolds led off the third in ning with singles and two outs later Kevin Elster hit an RBI double. Elster was 3-for-4 against Leary with two home runs in two games this sea son. Leary walked Strawberry leading off the fifth and McReynolds fol lowed with a home run over 370-foot sign in left field. Dosierro durine A repel in dial poking at the competition, the SWC doesn’t seem so bad Jerry Bolz Columnist jaceM rlier tta Was it me who not to long ago compared the ;covet! -Brength of the Southwest Conference football with long-time losers like North Texas and ■exas-El Paso? inform Maybe 1 needed to include almost the entire Vitiation in the classification of conferences on the 'fslidc. la.. Maybe it’s not a slide, but more of an equaliz- erstiL' jpg affect caused by a general mediocrity. i Ir , > Surprisingly, after six weeks of college foot ball, the SWC stands at 12-10 against non-con ference opponents. With just a quick glance at the SWC schedules so far this season, it looks like the local show has gone to town against no- namers, but has been the side show with the real big boys like Nebraska and Oklahoma. With an in-depth search and a sports writers imagination, however, the SWC squads look as shiny as the rest of the country’s teams. Take this for instance. This week’s AP Top 20 has Indiana ranked No. 18 with a 4-0-1 record. The tie was a 28-28 draw with Missouri. Yep, the same Missouri that Houston clobbered 31-7 the second week of the season. Indiana demo lished Ohio State this weekend 41-7. A few weeks ago, Ohio State beat LSU who whooped the Aggies three weeks before. Of course A&M beat Houston who beat Missouri who tied No. 18 Indiana. Are you still with me? In some strange back ward way all of this seems to qualify A&M for the Top Twenty, doesn’t it? How about those Homed Frogs. Sure, they were dewarted by an old Razorback two weeks ago 53-10. But the game before they beat Bos ton College handily. Of course BC beat Pitts burgh who thrashed Ohio State who beat Syra cuse, a winner over Rutgers. Who is Rutgers!? They’re the little team from somewhere that beat Michigan State and Penn State, both of which were in the Top 20 at the time. It looks like there are only a handful of teams that are standing above the mass of beatables this year. The top-dog again this season is Miami, prob ably the only college team that matches up evenly with the NFL teams. Running close be hind the Hurricanes are Pacific Ten Conference powers UCLA and Southern California, both 5- 0. The only other teams that have a shot at stay ing undefeated are West Virginia and Wyoming, now at 6-0. West Virginia is a possible national championship contender, but Wyoming can slip through in the Western Athletic Conference but probably wouldn’t compare well with a team like West Virginia. Notre Dame, at 5-0, should have a “1” in the “L” column after taking on Miami this week. Both Oklahoma and Nebraska, the two Big-8ers that usually never lose until they have to play each other, have each taken an early season loss. OU lost to No.3 Southern California while Ne braska dropped one to No.2 UCLA. Of course UCLA will have to face USC later in the season and that will clear out one more perfect record. Anyway, back to the ordinary guys. A deeper look at the SWC just isn’t as discouraging as lo cal fans expected. Even around Aggieland, the bleak picture of three straight losses, probation and no home games is much brighter a few weeks later. Now the scene is two wins in a row, the next three games at home and the Dec. 1 Hurricane Bowl at Kyle Field. In the remaining non-conference games for SWC teams, there are a few pseudo-forfeits (a team is there but the score doesn’t prove they were). For example, the last week of their sched ule Arkansas plays Miami in Florida and Texas Tech plays OSU in Stillwater. Then there is the game with the triple-digit margin of victory — Rice at Notre Dame, in early November. Two SWC vs. WAC showdowns may be the best determinant of just where the SWC stands. This weekend TCU visits 4-1 Brigham Young to try and recover the SWC bones left there by the Longhorns in their 47-6 loss to BYU. Later in the year Houston, who has played well and won big against non-conference teams, hosts Wyoming. These two games are in the toss-up category. No one in the SWC stands out this year. But the truth is, with the exception of those handful of unbeatables, most of which will be beat, the rest of the nation looks just as blurry. wot 11 leaton 1 ’ ilK#’ ;achjc |,; ' PIZZA SALE! 99 0 iwayi 1 Ma# 1 kol,^ PERSONAL PAN PIZZA pizza I'Hutl What’s important about OCTOBER 15th? It’s the last day to Buy One Get One Free for Halloween! Let POP-;il)ilities help you with your Halloween shopping. We have evetything you need from spiders and monsters to candy, costumes, cards and, of course, popcorn. Well scare up a flavor sensation just for you. Stop by today! 268-4001 or 776-0807 chase any s and receive a second bag ol equal or lesser value absoluu ls KRK1\! 3737 East 29th Street ♦ Bryan, Texas 77802 (5 blocks north of the College Station I lilton) rcofi^ dients'"' READY IN 5 MINUTES.GUARANTEED. Just For One • Just For Lunch Guaranteed 11:30 AM-1:00 PM. Personal Pan Pizza available ’til 4 PM B-mlnnte guarantee applies to our 3 selections on orders of B or less per table. 3 or less per csrryout customer. [^35^ Personal I Pan Pepperoni 1 Limit one | p<n fm jirlw! ptr vi.*. PwpooS P»n» i Mfarf _ torved MtvvMtn 1 lari'-4rvn lulon-Frl at ■* •