The Battalion
SPORTS
10
Friday, S<
Ann
Friday, September 14,1990
Sports Editor Nadja Sabawala 845-2
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USL not OK with RC
Ags worried about Ragin’ Cajun talent
By CLAY RASMUSSEN
Of The Battalion Staff
A&M coach R.C. Slocum says
USL will be just as fast, strong
and big as the Aggies are ...
Texas A&M head football coach R.C.
Slocum is not the type to throw caution to
the wind. He’ll be the first to tell you that
Southwestern Louisiana’s football team
worries him.
Slocum and the No. 12-ranked Aggies
open the home portion of their 1990 season
Saturday when they host the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p..m.
“You watch the scoreboard and every
week teams like Southwestern Louisiana
beat teams like A&M,” Slocum said. “It’s
not farfetched. It’s a legitimate concern that
anyone who understands the game of foot
ball has.”
Slocum said evidence of the underdog
upsetting the favored team is shown week
after week. The Aggies are 17-point favor
ites going into Saturday’s matchup.
“I see it happen all the time,” Slocum
said. “Can you believe Southern Miss beat
Alabama at Alabama? I can believe it be
cause I see it happen every week.
“Once you’re aware of that from a coach
ing standpoint, then every week you recog
nize that you have your hands full. Your
challenge is to make your players under
stand that.”
USL is 2-0 after crushing Tulane 48-6 in
its opener and squeaking past Nicholls State
last week, 24-21. And although the Cajuns
don’t have the national recognition that
A&M has, USL has gained Slocum’s re-
OAKVILI
sped.
“People want to know why (USL) is so tal
ented,” Slocum said. “In the last several
years they’ve taken a bunch of talented
Proposition 48 players.”
Proposition 48 is an NCAA entrance re
quirement that states if an athlete doesn’t
meet academic requirements, then he or
she must sit out a year and lose a year of eli
gibility.
“They have taken guys that would have
gone to Louisiana State or Tulane,” Slocum
said. “When you watch them play, they’ll be
as big and fast and strong as we are across
the board.
“Needless to say, I’m very concerned
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See Aggies/Page 10
... while USL’s Nelson Stokley
said he is plenty worried about
A&M’s Wrecking Crew defense.
.
A
BUNCH
ROBOTS
•>
Slocum: a fine
line ’tween show
and celebration
By RICHARD TIJERINA
Of The Battalion Staff
R.C. Slocum didn't even see the
play, but he took the referee's word for
it. And tight end Derek Ware took the
brunt of Slocum's anger.
At the time.
A&M quarterback Lance Pavlas,
evading a Hawaii blitz, rolled right
and threw to Ware in the back end of
the endzone. Ware's one-handed
touchdown grab —his first catch as an
Aggie — put A&M up 21-3 in the sec
ond quarter of their season opener
against Hawaii.
But the endzone official called Ware
for unsportsmanlike conduct for alleg
edly spiking the ball. The Aggies were
penalized 15 yards on the ensuing
kickoff. Slocum ran out onto the field
and had a few words with Ware on his
way to the A&M sideline.
But Slocum said Tuesday at his
weekly press conference that after
watching the game film, he believed
the official's call on Ware was wrong,
"If you watch the game film, then
you'd know that call was a bad one,”
Slocum said. "Here’s a guy who
catches his first college touchdown
pass in his first college gamO, and he
made a heck of a catch.
"And he's jumping up and down,
and as he is, he just throws the ball
away. The ball hits about five yards
away and the official calls it. What he
did was not spiking the ball. That is
not what I saw."
But that's where the problem begins,
Slocum said. The line between cele
bration and showing off is too thin.
"It's an emotional game," Slocum
said. "You watch the fans and sponta
neously you'll have 70,000 people jump
up and wave their arms and all that
stuff. But now a player jumps up and
does that, and he's showboating."
A&M's aggressive style of defense
might give players too many chances
Battalion file photo by J. Janner
Coach R.C. Slocum is worried that celebration, like above when Aaron Wal
lace sacked LSU’s Tom Hodson in 1989, gets confused with showing off.
to celebrate. Sack specialists William
Thomas and Quentin Coryatt and big
i Derrk
hitters Larry Horton and Derrick Fra
zier often have good reason to cele
brate.
In last season's 17-13 win over Hous
ton, linebackers Aaron Wallace and
Thomas leveled quarterback Andre
Ware. Ware's helmet popped off, and
Wallace picked it up and raised it
above his head.
"Grabbing Ware’s helmet relieved a
lot of frustration for me," Wallace said
after the game. "It was when I had his
helmet in my hand that I finally
sensed we were going to win."
The Kyle Field crowd of 66,423 may
have liked it, but Slocum said some
times a player can get caught up too
much after making a spectacular play.
Although Wallace wasn't called for
unsportsmanlike conduct, he could
have.
And that’s what Slocum wants to
See Robots/Page 11
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By SCOTT WUDEL
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M women’s volleyball
team won’t be welcomed with open arms
when it travels to Nebraska this weekend.
The Lady Aggies will face three of col
lege volleyball’s top teams in the Baden-Mi-
zuno Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Lady Aggies (2-3) will face the top-
ranked Cornhuskers tonight. They play
20th-ranked Wyoming Saturday before
meeting a tough Purdue team the same
day.
The team may have found a set of start
ers and the chemistry they were needing in
time to face their toughest competition.
The Aggies are coming off a 2-1 home-
stand they completed Tuesday night by de
feating Southwest Texas State versity Bob
cats in a long four-game match.
Coach A1 Givens says the tournament will
be a good confidence builder.
“Nebraska is ranked No. 1 in the coun
try, and that’s where we would like to be
ranked one day,” Givens says.
Nebraska is 4-0 and coming off victories
over former No. 1 UCLA and former sec
ond-ranked Hawaii in the Hawaiian Air
lines Wahine Classic last weekend.
The Cornhuskers return ten letterwin-
ners from last year’s team that compiled a
29-4 record and won their 14th straight Big
Eight championship. They finished run-
“Nebraska is ranked No. 1
in the country, and that’s
eds
where we would like to be
ranked one day.”
— Al Givens
A&M volleyball coach
Astr
ner-up to Long Beach State for the nationi
crown.
Givens says the Lady Aggies will haven
play unbelievabale defense and serve wd
just to be in the match with the perennii
powerhouse.
The Lady Aggies are 4-4 in the serie
against Nebraska, but the Huskers ha«
taken the last four matches, includingare
over the Aggies last year in College Station.
The Wyoming Cowgirls got their No.2(1
ranking by compiling a 4-1 record. Tki
reached the finals of .the NCAA West Re
gionals last year before falling to UCLA.
A&M and Wyoming have split the tw
matches they have played, but haven't seen
each other on the court since 1983.
The Lady Aggies’ last meeting with Pur
due was two years ago, when the Boib
makers downed A&M in a 2!/2-hourmar
athon match. The series between the two
teams is set at 1-2 before this weekend!
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LUBBOCK (AP) — David Klingler, pick
ing up where Heisman Trophy winner
Andre Ware left off, threw five touchdown
passes, carrying the 18th-ranked Houston
Cougars to a 51-35 Southwest Conference
victory over Texas Tech on Thursday
night.
Ware abandoned his senior year to play
for the Detroit Lions, and Klingler, a junior
from Houston, got his chance. He also
threw five scoring passes in a 37-9 opening
victory over Nevada-Las Vegas.
Klingler, operating a no-huddle run-
and-shoot offense, stunned the Red Raid
ers, who lost 17-10 to Ohio State in their
opener, with a 53-yard scoring strike on the
Cougars’ first possession. That got Houston
going towards 538 yards of offense.
The Red Raiders seldom managed to dis
rupt the Cougars’ wide-open passing attack,
and when they did, running back Chuck
Weatherspoon burned them with 121 yards
on 18 carries.
Klingler, who hit 29 of 54 passes for 435
yards, took Houston on three 80-yard scor
ing drives and another of 55 yards for a 28-
11 halftime lead as the Cougars celebrated
their first national television appearance
since the 1988 Aloha Bowl because of
NCAA probation.
A&M punished
for NCAA violation
A&M softball opens home season
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The
NCAA Thursday levied a $1,000 fine and a
public reprimand against Texas A&M Uni
versity for failing to report the ineligibility
of an athlete before the 1990 track cham
pionships.
The NCAA said Texas A&M notified its
own officials that the athlete was no longer
a student at Texas A&M, making him ineli
gible for competition. But the track coach
did not inform NCAA officials until one
day before the competition began, the
NCAA said.
The delay didn’t give championship
coordinators enough time to find another
eligible participant, said NCAA spokesman
Jim Marchiony.
David Walker, chairman of the NCAA’s
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Com
mittee, said the school is putting together
administrative controls to prevent similar
problems in the future.
By DOUGLAS PILS
Of The Battalion Staff
Under the limelight of the Texas A&M
football team’s home opener, Bob Brock
and his Lady Aggies are quietly embarking
on their 1990-91 softball season.
The team split a doubleheader in San
Marcos against Southwest Texas State
Wednesday night. A&M opens its home
season today at 5 p.m. against St. Edwards
at the Lady Aggie Softball Field next to Ol
sen field.
The Lady Aggies are also participating in
a round robin tournament, 10 a.m. Satur
day at College Station’s Central Park. Uni
versities such as Louisiana Tech, Sam
Houston State, Stephan F. Austin and
Southwest Texas State are scheduled to
play.
Wednesday, Dana Mitchell pitched the
Jfgies to an 8-2 victory in the first game,
itn both Bobcat runs being scored in the
Wit
first. In a shortened nightcap, A&M lost by
a 3-2 count with Missi Young taking the
loss.
Brock said he was pleased with his team’s
performance.
“We had a very positive outing,” Brock
said. “Right now we’re way ahead of where
we were last year.”
That could be good news as the Lady Ag
gies return 11 players from last year’s
NCAA Regional playoff team.
Leading the returnees are pitchers,
Mitchell and Young, outfielder Michelle
Mayfield and catcher Chris Wilfong. Young
and Mayfield were first-team All-Region se
lections last year and Mitchell and Wilfong
were second-team choices.
With all the old faces still on the team,
Brock needed to add just three new mem
bers. Jennifer McFalls, a shortstop from
Grand Prairie, Kim Halbrook, an outfielder
from Corpus Christi and Rhonda Halbert,
from Yukon, Okla., who returns from aca
demic difficulties.
Halbert, who will play third base, is actu
ally a veteran as she was a member of the
last NCAA College WorldSeries team in
1988. Halbert spent two years away from
A&M working to improve her academic
standing and, in Brock’s words, “to
straighten out her priorties.
“I’m really excited to have Rhonda back,”
Brock said. “She has always been a very fine
player, but now she’s a more mature play
er.”
Both Brock and Assistant Coach Butch
Edge were esctatic about Halbert’s perfor
mance Wednesday night.
“She’s better than she ever was,” Brock
said. “You couldn’t tell she’s been away
from the softball diamond for a year-and-a-
half.”
Brock said that since the fall is basically
an exhibition season, he wants to make sure
everybody gets a chance as he trys to find
the right players for the right positions.
Owner’s approve
NY general partner
in quarterly meeting
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Broadway
producer Robert Nederlander, prom
ising to bring front office stability and
fiscal sanity to the New York Yankees af-1 Run-and-Shoc
jhe University
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he Cajuns’ t
ter George Steinbrenner’s 17'/2 years,
was unanimously approved Thursday by
major league owners as the team’s new
general partner.
The owners ended their quarterly
meetings by extending American
League president Dr. Bobby Brown's
contract for two years and by more than
pound sophor
year, recordi
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guys. His inte
doubling the pension benefits of players and he’s good
who retired from 1947 through 1958
The two leagues failed to reach an
agreement on the American League’s
suggestion to share in the National
League’s $190 million franchise fees
prompting Commissioner Fay Vincent's
promise to intervene if necessary.
Nederlander backed off criticizing j
Steinbrenner’s free spending on free
agents and revolving-door hirings and
firings, but said the Yankees will rebuild j
their farm system and “will operate in a ]
fiscally responsible manner.”
Hinting he won’t be a headline-seek
ing, hands-on owner like Steinbrenner.
Nederlander said he won’t second-guess
general manager Gene Michael, player
personnel director George Bradley or
manager Stump Merrill.
“My own personal philosophy is you
have to give people a chance, and conti
nuity is important," he said. “If a rea
sonable decision has been made, you
should stick with it, and you shouldn'i
second guess people.”
Meanwhile, Vincent — marking his
first anniversary as commissioner —said
he is sympathetic to the financial plight
of small-market franchises such as Pitts
burgh, Milwaukee and Cleveland “but
there’s nothing that I nor anyone else in
baseball can hold out as a panacea in the
short term.”
One of baseball’s most fiscally conser
vative franchises, the Pirates likely will
pay Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilb
more money in 1991 than tneir total
1986 payroll.
“Some of these players may not be re
tainable” by small-market teams, Vin
cent said. “There will have to be some
very hard economic decisions made by
clubs like Pittsburgh. That’s inevitable,
but that’s the market.”
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