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
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