ptember 8,
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Monday • September 8, 1997
S The Battalion
.PORTS
Aggies rout Bearkats in season-opener
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By Chris Ferrell
Sports editor
The huge sigh of relief you heard late Sat
urday afternoon came courtesy of Dante Hall.
Just as the Aggie natives began to rumble
‘here we go again,’ the sophomore tail back
scored from five yards out to break open a 7-
6 game and the Texas A&M Football Team
never looked back, cruising to a 59-6 victory
over Sam Houston State
^ University Saturday at
I Kyle Field.
It was A&M’s eighth
I opening day victory in
i the past nine years.
. r Hall finished the day
1 with 221 yards of total of-
fense including 169 rush-
M ing on 11 carries and two
touchdowns.
“Dante always has a
good day,” junior quar
terback Banndon Stew
art said. “It seems like he can always turn
something bad into something good. That’s
what we count on Dante to do, make big plays
for us. That’s what he did today.”
The Aggies started off slow and for the first
quarter at least, it appeared that so many of
the ghosts of 1996 which the team had worked
hard to chase away had returned to haunt
them again.
Sam Houston took the opening kick off
and proceeded to march 67 yards on 17 play
chewing 7:09 off the clock before settling for a
James Dummer field goal to take a 3-0 lead.
“That first drive really killed a lot of us,” se
nior defensive end Brad Crowley said. “It did
n’t give us a chance to really catch our wind.
They had a couple of drives in the first half that
were long and after that some of the guys
picked it up and we started playing with the
Wrecking Crew style.”
On A&M’s first play of scrimmage, Hall
raced through a huge hole for a 52-yard gain
before being drug down at the Bearkat 28.
Four plays later the bad luck returned
when junior Sirr Parker’s 28-yard touchdown
mn was called back on a penalty. On the next
play, Hall fumbled and the Bearkats regained
possession.
Then the luck shifted.
Sam Houston quarterback Chad Shramek
hit receiver Matt Dominguez who fumbled.
The ball was recovered by A&M sophomore
New Stewart takes
stage in A&M victory
RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
Freshman Safety Ronald Patton tackles Sam Houston State running back Elmore Arm
strong Saturday during the Aggies 59-6 win at Kyle Field.
Kristina
Buffin
Staff writer
cornerback Sedrick Curry. Curry also had an
interception on the day.
Four plays later, Parker scored the Aggies
first touchdown of the season to give A&M a
7-3 lead.
A&M was forced to punt on their next dri
ve and then proceeded to score on their next
eight possessions. They finished with 567
yards of total offense.
A&M running backs rushed for seven
touchdowns on the day including three by
Parker. Hall had two touchdowns and juniors
D’Andre Hardeman and Michael Williams
and freshman Burnest Rhodes each scored.
As was the plan going into the game, A&M
rotated Stewart and sophomore Randy Mc-
Cown throughout the game. Stewart finished
the day with 110 yards on 8 of 12 passing and
McCown was 7-14 for 148 yards. Neither
threw an interception.
The defense setded down and held the
Bearkats to three points the rest of the way.
The Wrecking Crew limited the Bearkats to
238 yards of total offense.
Freshman linebacker Roylin Bradley had
two sacks and a fumble recovery in his debut.
Please see Aggies on Page 10
Game Notes
•Junior linebacker Dat Nguyen left the game in the first half with cramps and did not
return. He was still able to finish with nine tackles, second most on the team.
• Freshman linebacker Roylin Braley was as good as advertised Saturday totaling four
unassisted tackles, two sacks and a fumble recovery.
•Sophomore cornerback Sedrick Curry, playing for the injured Shun Horn, provided a
spark for the defense, intercepting a pass and recovering a fumble.
•The coaching staff said it will continue to rotate quarterbacks Branndon Stewart and
Randy McCown. The two looked comfortable in the new system, combining for 258 yards.
O kay what did they do with the old
Branndon Stewart? Because the
new and improved Stewart
emerged Saturday against Sam Houston
State University
and showed the
promise that
everyone was
looking for last
season.
Stewart did
not fumble a
snap, fumble
while being
sacked, throw a
bad pass to one
of the other guys,
throw it away un
der pressure or
even step out of bounds before getting
a first down. It seemed as if Stewart
shrugged off the pressure of being the
Aggie’s savior and has gone back to the
basics, playing football. It is about time.
Stewart was 8-for-12 for 110 yards
and most importantly, he had no inter
ceptions. He looked comfortable and
made good reads of the defense. Al
though he split time with sophomore
quarterback Randy McCown, there is
no quarterback controversy, Stewart
came in and did his job.
Stewart did not throw for a touch
down but he was instrumental in set
ting up the drives which led to eight
A&M rushing touchdowns. In the Ag
gies second drive, Stewart threw a 41-
yard pass to Leroy Hodge which moved
the Aggies down to the Sam Houston
eight-yard line. Two plays later Sirr
Parker scored a touchdown.
“We drove the ball well,” Stewart
said. “We played a good football game
and we did what we had to do.”
Stewart was repeatedly put through
the ringer and raked over the coals last
season. Critics constantly pointed out
that he was not the ‘Peyton’ of Texas A&M
like he was made out to be. It was also a
media blitz from the beginning in 1996.
Stewart was inundated by requests and
constandy under the critical microscope
of sportswriters around the nation.
A&M Head Coach R.C. Slocum has
admitted that the blitz got out of con
trol thus, this summer, he kept Stewart
out of the glaring media spotlight. At
the Big 12 media day in July, Slocum
opted to take Dat Nguyen and Steve
McKinney as his player representatives
rather than Stewart.
But it was not only the media pressure,
Stewart had to overcome in ’96, he was
also subjected to fan pressure. In 1995
when Stewart had to sit out following his
transfer from Tennessee, Aggie fans con
standy chanted ‘Branndon’ when former
quarterback Corey Pullig was performing
below par. Fans were ready for a fresh
quarterback but were highly critical when
Stewart was not perfect.
Like in all sports, practice has its
merits but it is game experience
which makes a player improve. Stew
art practiced and was on the squad
team, but he had to sit on the bench
during the 1995 season. No amount of
watching games, tapes and reading
playbooks was going to give him the
experience to compete in the highly-
competitive Big 12 Conference.
Although he was a junior last year,
Stewart’s experience amounted to that of
a freshman’s. This is not an excuse that
Stewart uses for his performance howev
er. He instead accepts his mistakes and is
looking forward to learning from them
and improving.
Saturday’s game illustrated that. Stew
art looked cool, comfortable and calm.
Please see Buffin on Page 10
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