f The Battalion [Tuesday. November 27, 1990 Sports Editor NacUa Sabawaia 845-2688 fed by lent of K u ages, by Uni- isday with a m. to 5 Juniors 3 p.m,, r from 3 be ob- snt pro- ar Bets; A&M, Slocum not fretting over poll snubs By RICHARD TIJERINA Of The Battalion Staff assing mes, elopes, i week E 6-3755 plus lirsl-liil ico City Ci 11-1616. alityprint#i,;'- any, Cm! cturai, elwt- any McKitii chloiyou.Ci :TY conW mold, 'W, tl RB SERVCt 1931. M, PRECIS: ISA696« David McWilliams sits atop his throne in Austin, dreaming of na tional championships. Then there’s R.C. Slocum, just waiting for re spect. The Aggies (8-2-1) are riding a four-game winning streak as they head into their two biggest games of the season: Saturday’s showdown with No. 5 Texas (9-1) and a Dec. 29 iSea World Holiday Bowl matchup fwith No. 4 Brigham Young (10-1). A&M, the preseason favorite to Iwin the Southwest Conference, is I trying to rebound from an October I; slump. After blowing through its 1 first three games (in which the Ag- gies outscored its opponents 131- ■ 35), A&M ran into a month-long ■ brick wall. A 17-8 loss to Louisiana State. An i unimpressive 28-24 win over Texas I Tech. A 36-31 loss to Houston. A 20- | 20 tie with Baylor. The Aggies, once 1 No. 11 in The Associated Press Top I 25 College Football Poll, plum- I metted out of the national rankings. A&M was No. 25 before its Oct. 1 20 tie with Baylor. It dropped out of I the rankings the next week, and 1 hasn’t returned since. “A lot of it is timing when you get | beat and where you are at the time when you get into that top 25,” Slo- | cum said. “If you’re in there, you I reach a point where you shuffle a f place or two, but you hang in there. I If you don’t lose two or three games | in a row, you stay in. If you’re not in, | then it’s hard to get in there.” The Aggies came in at No. 26 in Monday’s poll. Ohio St., ranked No. 25, tallied 29 more votes than A&M. It is the second time in the last three weeks the Aggies have missed the Top 25 by one spot. But the Aggies have the chance to finish the season ranked high. With games left against two top five teams, A&M can make a good im pression in a hurry. Slocum said a win over the Longhorns would give the Aggies the boost they need to I 1. Colorado (1)41 1,468 10-1-1 2. Georgia Tech (3) 10 1,338 9-0-1 3. Miami, Fla. (2) 2 1,332 8-2-0 4. Brigham Young (4) 3 1,275 10-1-0 5. Texas (6) 3 1,260 9-1-0 6. Florida (5) 1 1,218 9-1-0 7. Notre Dame (7) 1,170 9-2-0 8. Florida St. (8) 1,060 8-2-0 9. Washington (9) 1,051 9-2-0 10. Penn St. (11) 1,026 9-2-0 11. Houston (12) 862 9-1-0 12. Tennessee (14) 856 7-2-2 13. Michigan (15) 793 8-3-0 14. Clemson (16) 707 9-2-0 15. Mississippi (21) 487 9-2-0 16. Illinois (22) 449 8-3-0 17. Louisville (20) 444 9-1-1 18. Iowa (13) 19. Nebraska (10) 20. Auburn (23) 21. Southern Cal (18) 22. Oklahoma (—) 23. Michigan St. (24) 24. Southern Miss. (25) 25. Ohio St. (19) Other receiving votes: Texas A&M 165, Virginia 106, San Jose St. || 27 1 /2, Oregon 23, Alabama 14, Ari zona 13, California 10, Colorado St. 4, Maryland 2, North Carolina 2,1 HI Temple 2, Virginia Tech 2, Baylor * 1, Central Michigan 1, Louisiana! Tech 1, Wyoming 1. * 402 8-3-0 MMMMMHNP 397 9-2-0 339 7-2-1 292 8-3-1 259 8-3-0 230 7-3-1 216 8-3-0 194 7-3-1 HUY THANH NGUYEN^The Battalion Since becoming the starting quarterback, Bucky Richardson has led the Aggies to a 5-1-1 record. take on BYU and Ty Detmer, a lead ing Heisman Trophy candidate. “It could be seven (wins over Texas) in a row for us,” Slocum said. “We could finish on a positive note for our season. That would give us nine wins. We would move up in the rankings. “If you-beat Texas and BYU, then you have a chance to finish pretty high. We’d be 10-2-1, and having won six in a row. We’d get some pre tty good recognition. There’s a lot of opportunity for our team.” On the other side of the coin is Texas. With a seven-point loss to No. 1 Colorado the only blemish on the Longhorns’ record, the Cotton Bowl game against No. 2 Miami might have national championship implica tions. But for that Jan. 1 game to have national importance, Texas must get by A&M. The Aggies have won the last six games against the Long horns, but Texas head coach McWil liams isn’t talking about revenge. “I don’t talk about payback,” Mc Williams said. “I’m not denying that certainly we want to beat A&M be cause they’ve beaten us in the past. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s something that’s not important be cause of that.” Slocum said playing the Long horns will be enough motivation to stay focused, not look ahead to Detmer and Co. “We’re sitting here with an 8-2-1 record, and there’s not a whole lot of teams in the country with a better one. If we beat Texas and go 9-2-1, I’d say anyone who doesn’t recog nize that as a pretty good season, I don’t know about them.” McWilliams: Aggie offense outshines Buffs AUSTIN (AP) — Coach David McWilliams of fifth-ranked Texas said Monday that the Southwest Conference championship victory over Baylor, which clinched a Cotton Bowl berth, was a game in which “ev ery yard was a tough yard.” And this week’s opponent, Texas A&M, has a better offense than No. 1 Colorado, he said. Texas’ 23-13 victory over Baylor may have been costly to the Long horns, as leading rusher Butch Had- not injured his ring finger and may miss the A&M game, set for Satur day on national television (CBS) with a 11:07 a.m., CST, kickoff. McWilliams said Texas, 9-1, won the SWC title game with great indi vidual performances by two kickers, goal line defense, and a 17-play drive into a wind that gusted as high as 35 mph, which was climaxed by Michael Poliak’s 38-yard field goal. That made the score 23-13 with 4:31 left in the game, and Baylor could get no closer. Poliak also kicked field goals of 56 and 43 yards. Baylor settled for a field goal and 10-0 lead when Texas held after the Bears had first-and-goal at the 2- yard-line in the first quarter. “That was a big turnaround. It slowed their offense down,” said Mc Williams, whose contract extension was announced by UT officials after Saturday’s game. “The 17-play drive into the wind was probably one of the biggest drives all year. When you talk about a championship drive, that was probably it right there,” McWilliams told his weekly news conference. The other individual play McWil liams singled out was by punter Alex Waits, who dodged a Baylor de fender and, on the run, kicked 66 yards to the Baylor 15. Owners say Astros may be up for sale HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Sports Association, own ers of the Houston Astros base ball team, announced Monday it would consider selling the team. Speculation that John McMul len, majority owner of HSA, has been planning to sell has been cir culating for more than a year, mostly because of McMullen’s ad vancing age and the increasing value of the team over the past two years. McMullen, 71, said Monday in a prepared statement, “Having beep so completely involved over 12 years witn HSA and the As tros, the time has come for me to devote more of my time and en ergies to my family and my many other interests.” Sources have said HSA’s cur rent value could be as high as $185 million to $200 million. Mc Mullen, a shipbuilder with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., controls more than 80 per cent of the sports association. HSA, founded by the late Roy Hofheinz, owns the Astros and holds the lease on the Astrodome and two other buildings in the same complex, the Astrohail and Astroarena. It also owns prop erties in Florida and various cable television interests. McMullen said he has notified the baseball commissioner’s office of HSA’s intent to sell the Astros. Major League Baseball must ap prove any change in ownership of one of its teams. Last week, HSA pullet! out of the Greater Houston Part nership, an economic devel opment group, because the part nership^ chairman, Robert Onstead, head of Randall’s Food Markets, speculated on the Astros sale, saying it should go to local interests. os,lroonS1.S IT.B2W. . I apartmem 3 RATEI Pta nent very rK' JOB, 846-68R S Ltd. 48 ible 73 j AccessW ’aik S215 litchon. :all696-® ireatloc*' ml delay »■ spiingsen*' ledidleS' S* dl ^ largain PH* I , iuarank ;: SJjjWj* y $14.95. a 911 YOUR ENGAGEMENT 0IAM0N0 SH0UL0 LAST FOR LIFE.... NOT COST FOR LIFE. Before you buy an engagement diamond, meet David Gardner. Because there's a lot more to making the commitment of a lifetime than just picking one off the shelf. The staff of professional gemologists at David Gardner's give you more than sales talk. 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