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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1992)
Thursday, September 10,1992 Texas A&M SPORTS The Battalion Page 11 “ Rader, Tulsa try to repeat 'miracle' of 1991 Tulsa head coach Dave Rader has taken his squad from a 4-7 record in his first season to a 10-2 record and a national ranking last season. By DON NORWOOD Sports Writer for THE BATTALION The images of Sept. 21, 1991, are ingrained firmly into the minds of Texas A&M fans. Tulsa quarterback T.J. Rubley drops back with less than three minutes to play and coolly lobs a pass to receiver Chris Penn, who pro ceeds to tiptoe through possibly the best college secondary in the nation on his way to a 63-yard score. That fateful play turned out to be the winning touchdown for the Golden Hurricane, providing the Aggies' only regular season loss in a game that was a heartbreaker in College Station, but is now re ferred to as "The Miracle on 11th Street" on the Oklahoma plains. The way that last season turned out for Tulsa might have reduced the upset talk over A&M somewhat, as the Hurricane capped off its 10-2 year with a 28- 17 Freedom Bowl win over San Diego State and a spot in the As sociated Press' Top 25. This year, the beat goes on for Tulsa. Last week, the Hurricane made its first strides towards stripping away the fluke label from a year ago, opening their 1992 campaign by defeating an other Southwest Conference foe, the Houston Cougars, 28-25 in Tulsa's Skelly Stadium. With all the newfound success that Tulsans are enjoying. Hurri cane head coach Dave Rader re mains realistic about Saturday's rematch with the Aggies in Kyle Field, a contest in which he said last year's result means nothing. "It's ancient history," Rader said in no uncertain terms Wednesday about the '91 game. "It's long gone. We're preparing for this one." Rader's preparation has been fairly simple this week, he said, because of the visibility of A&M's first two games. And with that visibility has come a realization that even though Bucky Richard son, Quentin Coryatt and Kevin Smith are gone, the Aggies' Top 10 status this year has been earned mainly through bushels of talent. "It doesn't take very much to get across to our players how good Texas A&M is," Rader said. "They realize they're a tough team. Just watching the video tape is all they need." Rader was candid about the personnel A&M will be putting on the field against his team, gushing praise over the SWC's defending champs. "The marquee players down there are great," the fifth-year Tulsa boss said. "The running backs are good, and (Jeff) Granger's a good quarterback. Their receivers are faster than our defensive backs, and their offen sive line is strong. "Defensively, they seem to ral ly around (Marcus) Buckley, (Ja son) Atkinson and (Patrick) Bates, Yount gets THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MILWAUKEE - Robin Yount, who began his career of quiet con sistency as a shy 18-year-old shortstop, became a player for the ages when he got his 3,000th hit Wednesday night. Yount, hitless in his first three at-bats, singled to right center off Jose Mesa in the seventh inning against the Cleveland Indians. He became the 17th player to reach -3,000, and the first to do it since Rod Carew in 1985. After lining a 0-1 pitch to right center, Yount turned first and was hugged by first base coach Tim Foli. Longtime teammate Paul Molitor, who was in the on-deck circle, ran onto the field and hugged Yount. Then the Brewers charged the field from their perch atop the dugout steps and hoisted Yount into the air near first base, as a crowd of about 40,000 stood and roared. Yount shook hands with his teammates while thousands of cameras flashed throughout the stands as fans recorded the mo ment. The ball was saved for posteri ty by Foli, who took it to the dugout, and the first base bag was also taken. The scoreboard video screen as well as Sam Adams and Der rick Frazier. The 'Wrecking Crew' is a pretty good description of that defense." Although he did not speak in such glowing terms about it, Rad er's Tulsa squad is not bereft of talent either. Gus Frerotte brings substantial starting experience with him as he replaces Rubley under center, and tailback Ron Jackson, last year's Freedom Bowl Most Valuable Player, might be even better than Chris Hughley, who left in search of greener pas tures in the National Football League during the off-season. On the other side of the ball, linebacker Barry Minter leads a defense that sustained only a few glancing blows from last year's crop of graduating seniors. That deep group of defenders took a bold step forward last week by holding Houston's run-and-shoot carnival to 25 points, a total team performance that Rader said is nothing but beneficial to start the season. "It's a tremendous boost," Rad er said. "Houston is a talented team. Any time you have a victo ry like that, it can't help but help you. "(Linebacker) Chris Bratcher played extremely well. We were very excited about the way he played. Everything else pretty well went as we expected." Rader's expectations for this week remain a mystery, but the expectations out of Las Vegas are not pretty. Oddsmakers had the Hurricane listed as 22-point un derdogs against the Aggies Wednesday, despite the fact that Tulsa finished 1991 ranked 21st in the country. 3000th hit flashed ''3,000" and then began showing a retrospective of Yount's career while he stood at first, hands on knees. He then waved to the crowd, drawing another roar, and there was another cheer when the names of the 16 others with 3,000 hits were flashed on the score- board. Every other player with 3,000 hits, except career leader Pete Rose, is in the Hall of Fame. Rose is banned from baseball and has not been eligible for election. Yount, 37 next week, is the third-youngest to reach 3,000. Only Ty Cobb, who was 34, and Hank Aaron, who was 36 years and 4 months, got there at an ear lier age. All of Yount's hits have come for Milwaukee. He broke in with the Brewers in 1974 and has won two American League MVP awards, as a shortstop in 1982 and a center fielder in 1989. Yount, a career .288 hitter, be gan the season needing 122 hits to reach 3,000. Yount joined the exclusive 3,000 club along with Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Tris Speaker, Honus Wagner, Carl Yastrzemski, Eddie Collins, Willie Mays, Nap Lajoie, Paul Waner, Cap Anson, Lou Brock, A1 Kaline, Roberto Clemente and Carew. Foster Continued From Page 9 the '92 season with their eighth straight win, a 28-25 victory over A&M's SWC foe Houston. But, according to voters, Tul sa still should not have even come CLOSE to beating A&M. The albatross still hangs. Yet, they say revenge is not on their minds. "You can't do anything about what happened last season," Buckley said. "We can't be thinking about revenge, we've just got to come out and win." "Disappointment is the main thing I remember," Granger added. "If you talk about re venge, that just motivates the opponent, so we're not saying anything about it." Even Bates, the 225-pound kamikaze safety who is capable of removing a receiver's head from his torso with surgical pre cision, downplayed the desire of the Aggies to pay Tulsa back. "I'm not looking at Tulsa as if the entire game is a payback," Bates said. "The main thing is you always want to do the best you can at everything you do, and I don't think we played up to our capability in that game, so we just want to come out and play the best we possibly can against them this year. "It's not a payback, it's main ly a pride thing, and we want to show that we are capable of playing better than we did last season." Now, it's not that I don't be lieve Bates, Buckley or Granger. I just wonder if they are hiding how they truly feel. I mean, we're talking about a team that could have been 11-0 entering the Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic. Or could they have? Bates himself has said losing to Tulsa could actually have been a good thing for the Aggies. "Sometimes I look back and think maybe it was a blessing in disguise," Bates said. "Losing a game like that, the rest of the season you are either going to respond in a positive way or in a negative way, and I think we re sponded very well. "After that game, we made our minds up that couldn't hap pen to us again. Sometimes, good things come from disap pointments." So, the Aggies should thank Tulsa for last season's loss? They will. It will probably be the most physical thanks ever given. And after the Aggies give thanks, the Golden Hurricane will never want to do anyone else a favor again. That's be cause no matter what they say, revenge is on their minds. HEWLETT PACKARD From Inexpensive Financial to The Most Advanced Programmable Scientific HEWLETT PACKARD 8c UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE Team up to bring you the best calculator for your coursework. Who knows your books & courses better than University Bookstores? LIST SALE LIST SALE HP 10B $39.95 $30.00 HP 32S $69.95 $53.00 HP 17BII $110.00 $80.00 HP42S $120.00 $92.00 HP19BII $175.00 $130.00 HP48S $199.00 $149.00 HP 20S $39.95 $30.00 HP 48SX $350.00 $255.00 Bring in this ad for a FREE 2nd year warranty. (Up to a $50.00 value for FREE.) 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