Sports
Page 7 • Thursday, September 10, 1998
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BY JEFF SCHMIDT
The Battalion
u think you have it rough?
college students think rough
t being able to go out on a
night.
ristian Rodriguez. He knows
is. He also knows how to tri-
r it.
aez’s father abandoned his
and wife. Rodriguez’s moth
er | was imprisoned for a
drug conviction when
Rodriguez was in the
sixth grade. Even
tually Rodriguez
ended up with
his high school
coach, Mark
Elam.
“He put me
in his home
and took care
of me for the
last three
years,” Ro
driguez
said.
of Sports Information
“Whenever I needed a fatherly figure or
someone to talk to of that nature. Coach
Elam is pretty much where 1 go.
“At first people saw it as one of those
weird things like, ‘hey man, you’re a
football player living with your coach.
Does he make you watch film all the
time? Does he make you work out all
the time?’ We’re regular people. The
only time we’d ever talk about football
at home was when I brought it up, not
necessarily when he brought it up.”
Rodriguez could have given up. It
would have been so easy. But Elam
would not let Rodriguez quit.
“I really didn’t have any direction or
anywhere to go,” Rodriguez said. “He
told me, ‘son, I see something in you.
You can develop this god-given ability
that you have and if you just listen to
what I say and take the coaching that I
have to give you, you can be a great
player.’ I did what he said and I’m here
right now. ”
Rodriguez became a star player at
North Mesquite High School and was a
hot commodity on his No. 1 nationally-
ranked team. But it was not his 118
tackles and 11 sacks grabbing all the at
tention. It was academics that sent re
cruiters on whistle-stops to his high
school. Rodriguez served as class pres
ident for three years and graduated in
the top five percent of his high-school
class. He was heavily coveted by Stan
ford, Syracuse, UCLA, Notre Dame and
Texas A&M, among others.
But A&M won out, mainly because
of the recruiting job of former A&M run
ning backs coach Ken Rucker (now an
assistant at North Carolina).
“Coach Rucker really made me feel
at home,” Rodriguez said. “He made
me feel like this was the place to be.
Seeing him leave hurt, but it’s college
sports. You see a lot of guys come and
go. 1 really appreciated what he did for
me.”
Rucker’s leaving bothered Rodriguez
enough that he began to doubt if A&M
was the place for him.
“I really thought I made the wrong
choice for a while,” Rodriguez said.
Redshirting his first year did not help
matters.
“I really did feel I was going to come
in and play as a true freshman,” Ro
driguez said. “I was really discouraged
about being redshirted.”
But Rodriguez is not discouraged
anymore. Not after making three tack
les and causing a fumble with a blind-
side sack of Florida State quarterback
Chris Weinke.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but
I wasn’t really surprised, because I
knew I was physically and mentally
prepared for the challenge at hand and
I knew I was going to be able to perform
to the best of my ability,” Rodriguez
said.
Rodriguez said he knows how he
rose above his problems.
“First of all, my faith in God,” Ro
driguez said. “Second of all, I just have
this mentality where I want to be the
best at whatever I’m doing. The word
‘average’ and just being like everybody
else, I just can’t incorporate that in my
mind.”
Texas A&M Football coach R. C.
Slocum said he is amazed at Ro
driguez’s resiliency.
“I don’t think any of us can really ap
preciate [what Rodriguez has gone
through],” Slocum said. “He’s someone
your heart goes out to. ”
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
When Texas A&M took the
field in Giants Stadium against
the 2nd-ranked football team in
the nation, they were labeled as
underdogs, without being giv
en much chance to shut down
powerful Florida State.
Playing in front of a crowd
of over 59,000, the Kickoff
Classic marked a strong start
for A&M’s 1998 season.
The A&M defense gave up
only 23 points against a team
that scored 31 points in the
Sugar Bowl over top-ranked
File Photo/Thk. Battalion
Junior running back Dante Hall (pictured, diving) runs against
Sam Houston State.
Ohio State University.
Yet it was not enough, as
the Seminoles limited the Ag
gies to only 14 points.
“We went and played one of
the top teams in the country,”
A&M coach R.C. Slocum said.
“We volunteered to do it, and
went up there and played a very
competitive game, had some
chances to win the game in the
second half and didn’t get it
done. But we played with great
effort against a good team. It
made it a positive thing.”
The Aggies stumbled early
in the game, giving up 10
points in the first quarter.
They recovered in the sec
ond to take the lead by four
going into the half.
But the FSU defense proved
why they were ranked No. 2
last season, taking advantage
of their depth to use seven de
fensive linemen, six line back
ers and nine defensive backs.
see Football on Page 10.
Big 12 teams dominate national polls
O ur weekly glance at the Big 12 Confer
ence neighborhood uncovers a few new
faces and teams moving up some places
(in the polls, that is).
Half dozen one way ...
And six the other. Six Big 12 schools are
ranked in the top 25 of the USA Today/ESPN
Coaches’ Poll.
Nebraska (No. 3), Kansas State (No. 5), Col
orado (No. 16), Texas A&M (No. 19), Texas
(No. 22) and Missouri (No. 25) are dispelling
the early notion that the Big 12 was an all hype
and no substance football conference.
Nebraska, Kansas State and Texas A&M are
all ranked in the top 15 of the Associated
Press College Football Poll.
OSU is No. 1 ... in the Big 12?
That’s right. Oklahoma State is the other
OSU to have a top ranking attached to its name,
joining the national No. 1
Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Cowboys are 1-0 in
Big 12 competition, beating
Kansas 38-28 Saturday. The
Jayhawks squandered away
offensive opportunities with three tunrovers.
QXu
Moschetti Happens
Colorado mascot Ralphie III died last January
and his replacement, Ralphie IV, took the field be
fore the Colorado-Colorado State game Saturday.
see Moschetti on Page 10.
irated Since''
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of Christ
Ave.
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Win a trip for four to New York, to see the
Dallas Cowboys on Monday, September zist.
Drawing to be Held September llth.
See details at the Pepsi display.
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