Uniden
Monday • December 1, 1997
S The Battalion
PORTS
parents,
)niputer
varsity's horns are sawed off
L 7 • -jnv • -* j 7 j * 7 4 • > T r-r -» • rri
Dirx’ 1 ') ^ T # 7-^*7 /nr//7 + r i ir Tin J / /A 7 # »7 7/7 S^7 1/77* I /7AT/7 r*
sd with j
gg/ps c/fl/'m Big 12 South outright with 27-16 win over Texas
-j j§ 1
By Chris Ferrell
Sports editor
It was as if the gods up above had in-
rened to help shed a little light on
lat the Texas A&M Football Team had
lomplished.
Fain had drenched everything and
jitning had filled the skies for hours Fri-
morning making conditions almost
fcearable for the Texas A&M-Texas foot-
Pgame, but as coach R.C. Slocum and
fcior kicker Kyle Bryant climbed to the
jof a podium on the fifty yard line of
|e Field to accept the team’s Big 12
pith championship trophy, there was
t a drop to be felt.
Ifhere would be no rain on the Aggie’s
Big 12 tickets on sale
l Student tickets for the Big 12 Cham-
lonshp game between Texas A&M and
Nebraska will go on sale today at 7 a.m.
tG. Rollie White.
Student tickets will be sold for $10 and
|15. The $10 seat are located in the upper
leek endzone. They can be purchased in
Endows one thru three. The $15 seats are
kated along the sideline in the upper deck
lithe Alomodome. They will be sold at win-
|ows four thru eight.
Students are limited to purchasing six
tekets each and must have a sports card
preach ticket they are buying.
The game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on
paturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
lampionship parade on this day as the
jth ranked Aggies trudged their way
ttough a saturated field and a porous
foghorn run defense to claim the South
might with a 27-16 win over Texas.
| It marked a complete turnaround from
eason ago.
[Last season at Memorial Stadium, it
Is the Longhorns who romped the Ag
es to claim the division title. A&M had
lien from the ranks of college football’s
]ite to a mediocre 6-6, and Slocum was
le coach rumored to be on the hot seat.
It was Texas who had a date in the Big 12
title game with Nebraska and was one of
the nation’s up and coming programs.
But in the aftermath of A&M’s victory,
it was evident how much difference a year
can make.
Now it was the Aggies who were on
their way to San Antonio to battle the
Cornhuskers. Slocum accepted a ball
commemorating the victory, the 83rd of
his career making him the winningest
coach in school history. His counterpart
John Mackovic was now the coach whose
job was in danger with his Longhorns fin
ishing the season at a disappointing 4-7
only a season after winning their second
consecutive conference title (Bigl2 and
Southwest). Mackovic was removed as
head football coach on Saturday. And the
Longhorn’s were now the ones whose pro
gram was surrounded with questions.
This day belonged to the Aggies, and
not the weather, or even Texas All-Ameri
can Ricky Williams could change that.
With the horrid conditions, it became
evident early that the 104th meeting be
tween these two rivals would be settled
on the ground. It would come down to
Williams, who surpassed former Heis-
man Trophy winner Earl Campbell’s
school single season rushing record and
A&M’s three man tandem of juniors Sirr
Parker and D’Andre Hardeman and
sophomore Dante Hall.
After Williams put the Longhorns on
the board first, the Aggies used a “Tiki
torch” to help lead the way through the
dark, cloud covered afternoon. D’Andre
“Tiki” Hardeman’s straight ahead power
running softened the Texas interior and
helped free the way for Hall and Parker.
“Ricky Williams is a great running back,
but he’s only one running back,” Hall said.
We knew we were going to get our share of
carries, and with all the backs we have, we
just kept fresh ones in the game.”
The A&M backs combined to rush for
278 yards compared to William’s 183.
Hardeman carried 19 times for 121 yards
and a touchdown. Hall went for 118 on
19 carries and Parked found the end
zone twice.
, AfiS:,
■pill
* m'A il mm ^
48it IMf
* m. fT s s ‘^1 i nq > .m
. •%
i ■ n|
m ' ~ ' 7'
-X iMs*: - Mm
s mm
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
Junior linebacker Dat Nguyen drags down Texas’ Ricky Williams during A&M’s 27-16 victory over the Longhorns. Williams ran for 183
yards on 33 carries for Texas despite injuring his ankle on his first carry of the second half.
The Aggies were also effective in the
passing game despite being limited to sev
en attempts because of the rain.
Junior quarterback Branndon Stewart
stretched his streak of consecutive passes
without an interception to 121 as he went
four of seven for 84 yards on the day. His
biggest weapons were his junior tight
ends, Derrick Spiller and Dan Campbell,
both of whom found openings in the Texas
secondary when called upon.
A&M’s defense had their hands full
with the Longhorn offense, but came up
big when they had to limiting Texas to 16
points. They also forced a key turnover
late in the game to halt a Texas drive and
preserve the victory.
With the Longhorns down by eight
points and driving late in the fourth quar
ter, junior linebacker Dat Nguyen and ju
nior safety Rich Coady sandwiched UT’s
Kwame Cavil to force the game’s only
turnover, a fumble which was recovered
by sophomore cornerback Jason Webster.
A&M would add another Bryant field
goal to secure the victory and wrap up the
Southern Division title.
And for a while Friday, despite the
clouds and rain, the sun shined a little
brighter on the Texas A&M Aggies.
& r *
'
t ; ^
Three proves to be better than
one as A&M wins ground battle
, >■
. ,>• & V
c«'
[JZ3
A 1 ' ' —
cate'. *
: TP ■
Jm—
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
fexas cornerback Quinton Wallace saves a touchdown by knocking sopho-
lore tailback Dante Hall out of bounds at the end of his 52-yard third quar-
irrun. Hall finished the day with 118 yards rushing.
' ;
’ W:
By Jamie Burch
Stajf writer
It was the best of times. It was the worst of
times. In the muck and mire of monsoon-like
conditions on Friday at Kyle Field, Texas A&M
outran the University of Texas in a 27-16 win.
The only viable option on offense was the
ground game. Attempting to to pass the ball was
like drinking coffee with a fork. So the bulk of the
work was thrown onto the shoulders of the two
teams’ backfields.
A&M quarterback Branndon Stewart said the
Aggies realized the effect the rain would have on
the game plan.
“Adjusting to the weather was the biggest
thing,” Stewart said. “Obviously, we had to stick
with the running game. We had to be very con
scientious of ball control, protecting the football
and just remember the ball is more important
than the yards.”
And stick with the running game they did. Us
ing a three man rotation, A&M rushed for 278
yards on 54 carries and put the ball in the air a
mere seven times.
One of those three backs, Dante Hall, who
rushed for 118 yards on 19 carries, said the
weather conditions were ideal for football.
“As a running back you live for rainy days,”
Hall said. “At first, I was happy there was rain. But
after one point it got to pouring a little too hard.”
The Longhorn’s subscribed to a similar game
plan. Calling on Heisman Trophy Candidate
Ricky Williams to carry the offense, Texas cov
ered 222 yards on the ground on 44 attempts.
Williams alone ran for 183 yards on 33 carries on
the swampy turf.
A&M defensive back Rich Coady said the
secondary was prepared for a steady dose of
“Little Earl.”
“Once it started storming out there,” Coady
said, “we knew he was going to run the ball. As a
defense you just love that. It gives us a chance to
go up there and play smash
mouth football. And that’s
what we did.”
Williams seemed to give
the Aggie defense fits for
much of the first half. Shed
ding blockers at will, the
back amassed 110 yards on
23 carries in the first half and
scored from two yards out to
give Texas an early 6-0 lead.
Aggie defensive end Brad
Crowley said Williams was
the defense’s main concern.
“Ricky Williams is hard to stop,” Crowley said.
“He’s about 90 percent of their offense. He had a
great day today. He runs the ball well. Their of
fensive line executed well. He was breaking a lot
of tackles. We came into the game trying to stop
him... our No. 1 objective. He did get away from
us for a little while.”
But on Texas’ first play from scrimmage in the
second half, Williams appeared to come up lame.
After getting to the outside and scampering for
a five-yard gain to the Longhorns 35-yard line,
Williams was dragged down by Aggie defensive
back Shun Horn. Grabbing his right leg, Williams
Hardeman
Cookman
limped to the Texas bench.
Williams number was called again three plays
later. Shaking off the injury, the relentless back
broke free for 23 yards to the A&M 14-yard line.
But he was slow to get up, once again grabbing
the right leg.
The injury, a high ankle sprain, hampered
Williams for the rest of the game. Aside from a
three-yard touchdown run that brought Texas
within eight points at 21-13 in the third quarter
and an inconsequential 25-yard run, Williams
was limited to 13 yards on five carries.
A disappointed Williams said he thought he
was on the way to a record setting day before he
hurt the ankle.
“When it first happened, I thought I was
done,” Williams said. “But, I was able to get
back up and continue paying. I felt like I was
on the way to having one of my best perfor
mances until I got hurt. I never felt better run
ning the ball.”
After the ankle sprain, Williams never could
turn the corner or break tackles like he did so
well for much of the game. And on a day when
the local radar consumed more space on the
scoreboard than the the score itself, an effective
ground game was imperative.
“Ricky Williams is a great running back, but
he’s only one running back,” Coady said. “We
came at them with three different styles of run
ning backs. Dante, Sirr and Tikki all have their
own styles, and all ran extremely hard today.
When you have three guys with fresh legs, that
beats one guy any day.”
7-53 blowout
By Chris Ferrell
Sports editor
Little League baseball invokes a ten
fun mercy rule. A boxer’s corner can
throw in the towel if he is being beaten to
a bloody pulp. Even the Republican
Guard was able to waive white flags dur
ing Desert Storm. But the Bethune-Cook-
fianWildcats had to agonize until the bit
ter end as the A&M Men’s Basketball Team
cruised to a 97-53 victory at G. Rollie
^hite Coliseum Saturday night.
The 44-point victory marked the second
time in as many games that the Aggies have
bleated an opponent by more than 40
Points, but it was never that close.
"We played them pretty well for about
J v ° or three minutes and then things start-
f( ito fall apart,” BCG coach Horace Broad-
"nxsaid. “You can definitely see the differ
ence in the programs are night and day as
far as recruiting budgets, as far as meal
plans, as far as facilities.”
Senior center Larry Thompson con
trolled the boards, finishing with 12 re
bounds. He also scored 11 points to com-
get them to understand today.”
The Aggies could have probably won by
100 points, much less score 100. The lead
—— —
-i A&M, which has gone
plete the double-double
BEKftt jupn
to an aggressive, press
ing style of play this sea
son overpowered the
Wildcats from the open
ing tip. They came into
the game planning to
press for the entire game,
j The Aggie press re-
J suited in easy baskets
all night as the game got
But it was the defensive pressure which
made the difference.
The Aggies held Bethune-Cookman
scoreless for eight minutes and 17 seconds
at one point during the first half as their
lead grew to 32 points late in the first half.
The second half was just as ugly until
Barone called off the press and played
more zone defense than the Aggies had
been in all season.
“We played them pretty well for
about two or three minutes and
then things started to fall apart.”
HORACE BROADNAX
BETHUNE-COOKMAN COACH
out of hand early. Junior
forwards Shanne Jones
and Calvin Davis dominated the inside in
the first half scoring 11 and 12 points re
spectively. Jones finished with 17 and
Davis ad 16 with each playing only five
minutes in the second half.
“You never want to put another team in
an embarrassing situation,” coach Tony
Barone said. “I refuse to do that. I don’t
care if we score a 100 points. If we’re
breaking school records. All I care about is
playing the game with class and being
honest with yourself. That’s what I tried to
grew to as much as 54 points in the second
half, mostly on the strength of A&M’s
bench as Barone kept most of his starters
off the court for significant chunks of the
game. Ten different Aggies played at least
14 minutes, and five of them scored in
double figures.
“Coach said we were going to press the
whole game when we started,” Jones said.
“Then, of course, we got up by a few points
and he wanted to lay off the press and work
on the defense a little.”
Despite the lopsided victory, Barone
said that he felt the team still got some
good out of the game. The Aggies were
able to get playing time for many of their
young players and worked on their zone
defense. Barone said the team also had to
work hard to keep their focus and not let
up with the lack of competition.
“I think we wanted to do tonight simply
was come out and not destroy our effort
mentality,” Barone said. “I think you play a
game like this your players have to under
stand how hard you have to play. You kind
of play against yourself. For the most part I
think we showed good intensity.”
id
to
es,
ic-
ng
St
by
ne
ise
;m
r eb
ine
me
to
vay
996
:, in
ren
In-
the
jrn-
on-
phy
has
ef-
tra-
afer