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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1993)
SPECIAL PULLOUT Texas A&M vs. Louisville Friday, November 12,1993 The Battalion Page 5 Crash course with Cardinals A&M detractors can be answered on the gridiron I n case you have not heard, here it is: Sports- writers across the country think that the Southwest Conference is lousy. The latest AP football poll has Texas A&M ranked 11th, one spot lower than the previous week. What's unusu al is the fact that not one but two teams - West Virginia and UCLA - jumped ahead of the Aggies in a week when A&M did not play a game. What's not unusual is that this has happened more than once this sea son. But why? Is Texas A&M's ranking a product of the conference in which they play, or is it reflective of the team's actual performance? And just how good is the Southwest Conference in 1993? To this point, the SWC's com bined non-conference record is 10-17- 2. Against teams currently ranked in the AP top 25, the SWC is a stagger ing 0-9. The non-conference wins have come against the likes of Sam Hous ton State, Pacific, Utah State and Tu- lane (twice). These are sobering statistics for a conference that likes to think of itself as a big-time operation. What's even more discouraging is the performance of recent league champions in the Cotton Bowl. The previous ten years have seen the SWC post a 2-8 record in the New Year's Day game. In the last five Cot ton Bowls, all SWC dosses, the aver age score has been 26-8. No current conference team has scored a touchdown in the Cotton Bowl since 1988. Granted, these games have been against very good teams, but that's the point. The Cotton Bowl is a chance for the SWC champion to prove that it can beat a quality team, and lately the conference has laid a big goose egg. There are a couple of factors that could account for the overall medioc rity that dominates the SWC. It's clear that Arkansas' departure after the 1991 season hurt the conference. The athletic program at Arkansas was one of the best in the SWC. The Razorback basketball team was the one team in the league that could sell out every SWC arena. Although the football team has struggled in recent years, they did win the conference in 1988 and 1989. The program's departure left a void that has not yet been filled. Another hindrance for the confer ence is that four of the eight schools are private and have more stringent admissions requirements than do the public schools. Texas Christian, Southern Methodist and Rice have a difficult time fielding consistently good foot ball teams not because the will to win is any less, but because they're caught in a numbers game. These schools simply will not get the best players year in and year out because a significant proportion of great prep athletes are either average or indifferent students who have little chance of being admitted. For more evidence, just check out the national graduation rates for college football players. It is worth noting that in the five years A&M's R.C. Slocum has been head football coach, the Aggies have signed just one Proposition 48 foot ball player. This reflects well on both the coaching staff and the type of stu dent-athletes they recruit. As far as the Aggies' performance to date this season, it could best be described as cold, icy and efficient. To a man, the players admit that they have not always played up to their capabilities. Having won 20 straight conference games, it's possible that the team is suffering from boredom. Beating up on suspect teams every week proves nothing and does not prepare A&M for the Florida States and Notre Dames of the world. Saturday's game will provide an excellent measuring stick for the Ag gies. The 7-2 Louisville Cardinals are a See Corrington/Page 8 By Michael Plumer The Battalion Last week, the llth-ranked Texas A&M football team (7-1) had an open date and dropped a position in the As sociated Press polls. The Aggies can not afford to take to morrow night off, too, when the 20th- ranked Louisville Cardinals fly into Kyle Field along with a national television audience courtesy of ESPN for a 6:30 kickoff. A&M has taken control of the South west Conference race with a 5-0 record end are on pace for a third consecutive Cotton Bowl. But A&M senior outside linebacker Steve Solari said that while this game has no direct bearing on the SWC, it is important for the Aggies to have a good showing. "Being on television gives us a chance to show people we are a good team and we can win the big game," Solari said. "We can't forget what happened against Oklahoma. That game has kept us focused. "Playing Louisville will be tough, but it tunes us up for the next two confer ence games." A&M senior cen ter Chris D a u s i n agreed. "This is a very critical game be- cause Louisville can embarrass us like Okla homa did (44-14)," Dausin said. "If we win this one it could soothe that loss a little bit. We want to make the best of the situation and whoop up on them pretty good." Louisville (7-2) suffered that fate last Saturday against the Tennessee Volunteers who wal loped them 45-10. Solari said reading into that game too much could be a dangerous proposition for the Ag gies. "They are a hard-nosed team and they are going to come at us," Solari said. "Just like they did last year, they will try to exploit our weaknesses. Right now, I think Louisville is better than Oklahoma. "Tennessee beat them pretty good, but that is in the past. We have to worry about this week." One major headache for Solari and the rest of the defense will be Louisville's senior quarterback, Jeff Brohm, who has thrown for 2,462 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. Brohm usually lines up in shotgun formation giving him the option to throw or run. Solari said Brohm's running ability reminds him of a fleet-footed Rice quar terback. "He is like Bert Emanuel because he can move and he is a scrambler," Solari said. "He can really throw the ball. The problem we will have is containing him See A&M/Page 8 Pullig pulls his end of the offense Pullig Aggies' signal caller excels, improves form during '93 By Nick Georgandis The Battalion It seems like it was only yester day. After filling in nicely when start ing quarterback Jeff Granger went down with a concussion against Southern Methodist, freshman Corey Pullig received his first colle giate start against Louisville one year ago. Pullig proceeded to lead the Ag gies to a 40-18 drubbing of the Cardinals, and the of fense averaged 38 points per game in the Aggies' last four regular season contests of 1992. After a tumble at Oklahoma early in the season, the offense has again shown its dominance, putting up at least 31 points in every game since. But as the 20th-ranked Cardinals make a return visit to Kyle Field Saturday, Pullig is still not satis fied. "I still don't think our offense has played up.to its full potential," Pullig said. "I would love to show the country what this of fense can do since we have so many weapons. If we can utilize them all in one game, we can be pretty dangerous." Despite watching Louisville's 45-10 shellacking at the hands of Tennessee last weekend, Pullig said he believes it will take a total effort to beat the Cardinals this time around. "Louisville has got a whole bunch of talent. Obvi ously they played a real tough team last week, so I ex pect them to come out and play hard," Pullig said. Texas A&M offensive coordinator Bob Toledo said he agrees with his quarterback that any offensive slip ups could be fatal for the Aggies. "Last year we didn't make many mistakes against them, and that will be the key for us again," Toledo said. "We will feature the running game, and run some play-action passes off our best runs, but most See Pullig/Page 8 A&M sophomore quarterback Corey Pullig (4) eludes a blitzing Rice senior free safety Nathan Bennett to deliver a pass in the Aggies' 38-10 victory over the Owls on Kyle Burnctl/The Battalion Oct. 23 at Rice. Pullig's totals on the season are 112 completions on 187 attempts for 1,258 yards. Pullig has thrown 11 touchdowns against 8 interceptions in '93. Q and A with coach R. C. Slocum — Selected questions and answers from A&M head coach R.C. Slocum's Tuesday press conference: Is this a better Louisville team than the one you beat last year, 40-18? They are because they are more experienced. You start with their quarterback, (senior Jeff .Brahm). He's got another year under his belt, and he's a great player. He's a talented guy who I think has NFL potential. He can run,a nd he's got a great arm. You're leaving right after the game for Kansas |City and the NCAA hearing. Will it be a relief to get that over with? I won't feel any relief until we get the whole thing resolved and we get the information .back from them. One of the positive things that will come out of this is that people will see how hard we have worked to do things the right way. That will be the case in this particular instance, too. It may not be now, it may be six months from now. But time and history will vindicate myself and Texas A&M on this particular thing. It's frustrating to me that it's not now, but we will stand the test of time. The Cardinals utilize their tight ends more [than any team you have faced. Will you change your defense accordingly? Not really. In this league, we see a lot of three-wide receiver and four-wide receiver of- .fenses. When they add the tight end, you just look at it as if they've got a running threat and three good wide receivers, and one of them just happens to be a tight end. What can this weekend's game do for you [team's recognition and level of respect nation ally? I think if you go back to the (Jan. 1, 1991) Fies ta Bowl when Louisville played Alabama and .did so well, since then, they have been on a roll. Even a year ago, the way they played around the country was impressive. They played teams like Ohio State, Syracuse, Arizona State and Florida and had some success. They have got most of the guys back from last year and that has led to them being a solid football team. They played at (No. 9) West Virginia this year and lost by two points (36-34) to a team that is 8-0 now. They have earned some respect around the country, and this game will be nationally televised (on ESPN). So it is a great opportunity for us. The Aggies have lost just one game in five [years at home. Does that give you a big ad vantage? Some teams, it will probably make a bigger difference to than others. Like I said, .Louisville for the last several years has played at Florida, at Tennessee, at Ohio State, at Syracuse and at Arizona State. I don't think they will come in here and be in awe of playing in a big stadium in front of a big crowd. They have been in a lot of those places and won in some of those games. Thee have been a lot of negative comments in [the local and national media about the lack of respect for the Southwest Conference. A&M droppe^Ta spot in the poll this week despite being off. What do you think of that? A I talked to (Rice head coach) Fred Goldsmith, and we agreed that we probably have spent too much time worrying about that and talk ing about that. There are people who have drawn con clusions about the Southwest Conference. I do not know if you can change those and it does not make try ing to change them.. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. ose gam< Q oppecra WILLIE CORRINGTON Sportswriter o: \ - ' ■ #11 Texas A&M versus #20 Louisville Saturday, Nov. 13, 1993 Kickoff - 6:35 p.m. Television - ESPN, Cable channel 32