The Battalion
2, 1997
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\&M looking for second Big 12 win in Austin
By Stephen Boudreau
Staff writer
The Texas A&M Soccer team (9-0) heads
oAustin tonight to duel the University of
exas (6-3) in a battle of ranked opponents.
“Texas had a great win over Nebraska
arlier this season, they are ranked in the
»p25, they’re playing witn a lot of confi-
lence...they’re hot. So there will be a lot on
heline,” coach G. Guerrieri said.
Texas claimed the 25th spot in the nation
fer two impressive victories overOklahoma
ndOklahoma State, outscoring them 17-0
two games last week. The previously un
ranked Longhorns have been winners in four
consecutive conference games.
“The games that I worry about are con
ference games that sometimes look like they
don’t mean anything. Those are the games
that are hard to get up for,” Guerrieri said.
“Texas is not a tough game to get up for
because they are the biggest rival of this
university. Also, they are the only team in
the conference, except for us, that has less
than two losses in the conference.”
Earlier this season the Longhorns were
steamrolled by Missouri 4-1 in their only
conference loss. Last month the Aggies
crushed the Tigers 5-2 in Columbia.
“We know if we can go into this game
and win then we have really set ourselves
up for a great run through the rest of the
-conference race,” Guerrieri said. “The im
portance of the game is that they stand be
tween us and winning the outright Big 12
championship.”
If the Aggies hope to take the conference
championship and then make a run for the
national title, they will have to do it without
sophomore defender Ashley Fendley.
The Houston native tore her anterior
cruciate ligament late in the second half
in Sunday’s game against top ranked
North Carolina.
“Losing Ashley is huge, but this team has
a lot of depth. Elizabeth Pavlas will step into
her place. So that means that we have six
freshman now starting for us. Binky (Pavlas)
is very athletic and very capable of playing
the position,” Guerrieri said. “Really, all this
really does is speeds up her development.
She’s had some good performances all sea
son, so it’s not like she’s coming in without
any experience.”
Prior to the injury, Fendley had started
each game and was having the best de
fensive season on of her college career.
Fendley also contributed one goal on the
offensive end of the game.
A&M is in the midst of what Guerrieri
called their “tour of Texas.” Following
their two games in Houston this past
weekend and tonight’s clash in Austin,
the Aggies will be on the road playing
games against Southern Methodist, Texas
Tech and Baylor.
“Being on the road makes it that much
more difficult for us, but we are always
looking to challenge ourselves,” Guerrieri
said. “Actually, this team rises to chal
lenges much more than it does to lesser
opponents. We definitely have our work
cut out for us, but we’ve had some of our
best results on the road.”
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Sieves in
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\thletic Spiller
Mngs speed,
pwer to Aggies
By Jeff Webb
Staff writer
N r ormally when someone
touts a football player as a
“tremendous athlete” and
laims that “you’ve got to get him the
all," running backs or wide re-
elvers come to mind. However,
hen Randy McCown says these
tings about Derek Spiller, he’s talk-
tgabouta tight end.
“This year, we’ve tried to get the
[all more to our tight ends, and
lerek has done a good job of catch-
ng the ball better. He’s got all the
ther tools, he just needs to work on
atching the ball,” McCown said.
“I pride myself on my pass-catch-
g ability and my ability to make big
lays when I get the ball,” said Spiller.
Itry to play a big part in every game,
bpefully in Colorado, we’ll be able to
leak it open.”
The LaMarque, Texas native has
een able to break it open so far this
ason, grabbing four receptions for
yards and a whopping 22.8 aver-
f. While that’s a gaudy average for
Campbell helping to expand tight end position
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
Junior tight end Derek Spiller breaks free of a North Texas defender in the
Aggies’ 36-10 victory over the Mean Green.
By Jamie Burch
Staff writer
P laying the tight end position
does not usually garnish
recognition or glory. The posi
tion is similar to a fullback because
tight ends are often used as block
ers against blitzes and on runs. Even
less attention is given to the unsung
heroes when the offense is domi
nated by a run-style orientation.
But none of this seems to dis
courage junior Dan Campbell.
He said he came to
Texas A&M because
of the Aggies’ past
offen-
most tight ends, his speed allows
him to stretch most opposing de
fenses. Spiller has split much play
ing time this year with tight end Dan
Campbell. In fact, playing time was
the main reason he chose to attend
Texas A&M.
“When I came out of high school,
they had one tight end who was a ju
nior [Heyward Clay], so I looked at it
basically as an opportunity to play
early,” Spiller said.
He did get many opportunities to
play, starting his Sophomore season,
only rnissing the North Texas game
due to injury. While improving many
facets of his game, Spiller has fo
cused on his conditioning. In the Ag
gies’ off-season conditioning pro
gram, Spiller ranked third overall and
added much needed upper body
strength. Tight ends coach Tam
Hollingshead said Spiller has made
significant progress physically.
“He’s an all-around good football
player. He brings tremendous
speed to the table,” he said. “Derek
has gotten bigger and stronger in
the weight room. He’s up ten to fif
teen pounds from the weighed he
actually came in at. He’s always
working on his hands and catching
the ball.”
Please see Spiller on Page 8.
sive
schemes in which
the tight end played an in
tricate roll.
“I came to A&M for sev
eral reasons,” Campbell
said, “but one of them was
because I watched Greg
Shorpe on TV He was catching
all kinds of balls and doing dif
ferent things. I think that’s
what were trying to get back ®
to, where the tight end is going i|i
to be part of the offense.”
With new offensive coordi
nator Steve Marshall at the
helm, the offensive scheme
has undergone a metamorphosis in
the young season. Dante Hall twice
received the call for a halfback pass
last week against the University of
North Texas. The second attempt
was caught for a touchdown that
was called back on an infraction.
And, against the Ragin’ Cajuns of
Southwestern Louisiana, tight end
Derrick Spiller ran a rare tight end
reverse for nine yards.
Having caught four passes for
25-yards through three games
while sharing time with
Spiller, Campbell said
he enjoys the new
found
offensive philosophy.
“We’ve both worked
on the reverse,” Camp
bell said. “But, we’ve
been splitting se
ries and he just
happened to be in
on that series. I
think the coaches
felt comfortable with
me running it. But let’s
face it, Spiller is faster
than I am. So, it proba
bly is better that he ran
it. It’s fine with me.”
The tight end is not the only one
who is impressed with the new sys
tem. Coach R.C. Slocum said he’s
thrilled to have the versatility of a
dual tight end position.
“It really helps us just to have two
tight ends,” Slocum said. “We’re
running a lot of two tight end of
fenses. So, it really helps us to have
a second tight end who I consider as
good as a starter.”
But Campbell’s future did not al
ways appeared so bright. After be
ing red-shirted his first year at A&M
(1994), Campbell saw some action
his freshman season (1995) on spe
cial teams. But during practice in
the bi-week following the Colorado
game, Campbell suffered a broken
leg, causing him to miss the re
mainder of the season.
The tight end said this setback
was difficult for him to handle.
“It’s the toughest thing I think
I’ve ever gone through,” Campbell
said with a tear in his eye. “It was a
battle. That first year I was Hayward
Clay’s back-up. I still needed to im
prove and I felt like I was doing just
that. Then the injury came along
and it almost crushed me.”
Fortunately for Campbell, this was
not the first obstacle he has had to
overcome.
Please see Campbell on Page 8.
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