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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1997)
Z661 '5 Jaqiuaidas • Aepuj Friday • September 5 ; 1997 D The Battalion EFENSE Dat’s Incredible! Linebacker Nguyen has humble view on football, life By Jamie Burch Staff writer C onsider these credentials — six-foot, one- inch, 213 pounds, a team leading 240 tackles over two seasons, Southwest Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year, all-Big 12, and a Butkus Award nominee. If you’re an NFL scout, your ears perk up and plane tickets are in hand. If this is your resume, you solicit all the offers and sit back as a first-round pick falls in your lap. Not so if you happen to be modest Texas A&M junior line backer Dat Nguyen. “I can’t play football for the rest of my life,” Nguyen said. “I’m just concentrating on my final Nguyen two years of eligibility. I want to enjoy them. If it goes beyond that, if I have a chance to play in the NFL, I’ll play. But I’m not really set on it. “You never know what’s going to happen. I could go out there tomorrow, get hurt and never play again.” Nguyen’s brutally harsh view on life stems from his youth. The linebacker spent the majority of his days as an adolescent hanging around the wrong crowd on the streets of Rockport, Texas. Late nights and mischievous deeds became the daily routine. If not for his mother, Tammy, Nguyen’s life could have ended there. "My mom was going to send me to boarding school in Missouri,” Nguyen said as he grimaced. “When I was in seventh grade I did a lot of stupid stuff. She was fed up. She didn’t want me to stay out so late where I would get into trouble.” Fortunately for Nguyen, football presented itself as a ticket out of Missouri and off the streets. “Football came around and since my brother was playing, I decided to take up the sport.” Nguyen said. “I fell in love with the game and I’ve played it ever since. I was lucky. I could have ended up in jail with my friends or dead on the streets.” While his parents were happy to have their son off the streets, the Nguyen’s were not too keen on football. “In the Vietnamese culture there is no football,” Nguyen said. “So it was hard for my parents to understand football because they never sat around and watched it. It was hard for them to watch because of the contact. “Not many Vietnamese- Americans play sports; especially football or anoth er contact sports.” Please see Nguyen on Page 12. FILE PHOTO/The Battalion Junior linebacker Dat Nguyen takes Oklahoma State All-American David Thompson last year at Kyle Field. FILE PHOTO/The Battalion A&M strong safety Rich Coady tries to pull down Colorado’s Herchell Troutman last season. A Uttle older and wiser Secondary emerging from under microscope By Jamie Burch StaffWriter The next time you are overwhelmed by the urge to walk in the shoes of a defensive back just head down to the local aquarium and climb inside the shark tank instead. All the spectators will critically examine your every move. It is as though you live your life under a microscope. Such is the life of the few brave souls Horn who are proud mem bers of the Texas A&M secondary. Defensive backs coach Larry Slade admits that it takes a special individual to handle the pressure of the position. “We are responsible for stopping the big plays; the run and pass,” Slade said. “Some people can’t handle the pressure. We are in a fish bowl. If a defensive back makes a mistake everyone in the stands can see what happened.” When that mistake happens it often results in six points for the opposition. For that reason, Slade likes to think of his play ers as “touchdown savers”. “Teams don’t throw deep often, but when they do we have to be right 100 per cent of the time,” Slade said. “The good players bounce back. They forget the last play and move on.” Please see Secondary on Page 12. Defensive depth chart LE— 94 Zerick Rollins, 6-3, 297, Sr-2L 95 Rocky Bernard, 6-3, 264 Fr-HS NT— 90 Stephen Young 6-0, 264, Fr-RS 97 Marcus Heard, 6-2, 292, Sr-3L RE— 45 Brad Crowley, 6-5, 270, Sr-3L 92 Mike Kazmierski, 6-4, 260, So-SQ OLB— 51 Phillip Meyers, 6-0, 222, Sr-3L 40 Roylin Bradley, 6-1, 220, Fr-HS ILB— 28 Trent Driver, 6-2, 235, Sr-3L 44 Sean Coryatt, 6-0, 218, So-1 L ILB— 9 Dat Nguyen, 6-0, 216, jr-2L 29 Quinton Brown 6-1, 221, Sr-2L OLB— 43 Warrick Holdman , 6-2, 234, jr-2L 46 Cornelius Anthony, 6-0, 210 Fr-RS CB— 21 Shun Horn, 5-11, 187, Jr-2L 18 Sedrick Curry, 6-2, 193, So-IL CB— 39 jason Webster, 5-10, 177, So-1 L 1 Michael Jameson, 5-11, 175, So-IL FS— 5 Toya Jones, 6-2, 204, jr-2L 30 Brandon Jennings, 6-1, 192, So-1L SS— 48 Rich Coady, 6-1, 205, Jr-2L 36 Ronald Patton, 5-10, 187 Fr-RS ^ Aggie 10% Discount ^ Se. 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