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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1998)
ie Battalion Sports Page 7 • Monday, October 12, 1998 exas A&M-28 Nebraska-2 1 S(IUl\» lin'iiS jC. Slocum silences jitics with victory BY JEFF WEBB The Battalion 'exas A&M coach R.C. Slocum finally got of his back. Although it might have more ely resembled a full-grown ape than a key, it is gone. nd Slocum could not be happier. 1 don’t think there’s any question about it,” aid. “This is the biggest win of my career. It makes it more meaningful that we did it against a team that we have respect for.” Critics have always jabbed at Slocum and the rest of the A&M coaching staff for not being able to win the “big game.” No. 2 Nebraska went down in a blaze of maroon glory Saturday, and they don’t get any bigger than that. |So much has been said,” he said. “You je to take it as a coach. You just have to it and go about your business. I have to ut. 1 realize how things are until you win Imelike that.” iowever, despite what the critics claim, it is the coaches who win the games. Senior tend Dan Campbell said he understands Ipressure on the coaches because he felt it [member of the senior class. [This win was dearly needed around |e,” he said. “There’s been so much pres- that A&M can’t win the big one, that fchSlocum can’t coach the big game. Our Jors have been bearing this burden on our s for five years now. We did it. We did it, sall 1 can say.’ .&M had been so close against then-No. 2 [ida State University in the Kickoff Classic Tier this season and against No. 5 UCLA in potton Bowl last year. owever, the Aggies finally put together a plete game against NU, ending Slocum’s Jigstreak against top-10 opponents at nine les and beating the highest-ranked team la Wed|$ tool history, iospel ina Jet! cited ii )upe, wi name,:! ing: a Chris nakes to' ia]A& odder. men p.nv 30-im women e said, n ope i worn?! ‘/can tell you he has a left of stress off his Campbell said, “just to finally have peo- eave him alone about it. We deserve it. As work as we and the coaches have been ;, we deserve it.” Jince Slocum entered the Southwest Con- nce as a coach, people criticized A&M’s diule and record against top-ranked oppo- ts. Angry alumni sent letters criticizing the ball program, and Slocum could not answer nail — until now. It takes away some of the things you can [hammered with about the big one for the ;ram or how far away you are to being able iompete with some teams,” he said. “They lays said, ‘Yeah, but ...’ This takes some of arguments away. At least we’ve won one ■game, or one so-called big game.” jy Jam ;1 aaterfi® 3 in advl irsday. \CA we*: ac ram* Senior linebacker Dat Nguyen passed for- , Jr A&M player Ed Simonini for third place on the time tackles list with his eight stops Saturday, jyen only needs 29 more tackles to overtake mny Holland for the school record (455). The Last Time... '... A&M beat Nebraska was in 1955 when jAggies travelled to Lincoln and handed the nhuskers a 27-0 defeat. Nebraska lost a game was against the ■versity of Texas Longhorns in the inaugural ll2 Championship game in 1996. [Texas defeated the Huskers by converting a [tth-and-one play when quarterback James fWn hit tight end Derek Lewis on a play-ac- ipass for a first down. Nebraska lost 37-27. [‘... A&M had two running backs exceed the tyard mark was against the University of Ok- [oma last season when Sirr Parker (123 ids) and Dante Hall (139 yards) accom- shed the feat. [Hall and freshman Ja’Mar Toombs both [nt over the mark Saturday, rolling up 113 UlO yards, respectively. ' ... a Nebraska wide receiver had over [Oyards in a game was Dec. 4,1976, when |uck Malito had 166 against the University Hawaii. iMatt Davison had 10 catches for 167 Ikls on Saturday. “We’re on the flipside now. I can’t wait to see what you guys write now. I’m glad ya’II can’t ask those silly questions about beating top-10 teams.” — Dante Hall, junior running back, to a group of sportswriters “Don’t get me started or I’ll start tearing up again. I just can’t explain it.” — Dan Campbell, senior tight end “We were holding everybody in sus pense. We wanted everybody to show up today to see how we would play.” — Steve Kragthorpe, A&M offensive coordinator “It’s the biggest win that any of us here has been around or been a part of. It’s still setting in right now. That’s the No. 2 team in the country going back to Nebraska with an ‘L.’” — Cameron Spikes, senior offensive tackle “It will hurt later on. The win numbed it a little bit.” — Dat Nguyen, senior linebacker, on his thumb, which was injured on the first play of the game and required six stitches. “I was telling the guys this is why we put in all that hard work in the summer. — Randy McCown, senior quarterback MIKE PUENTES/rm-: Battalion Mike Kazmierski (No. 92), Ron Edwards (No. 96) and Cornelius Anthony (No. 46) swarm Nebraska fullback John Makovicka Saturday. With efficient offense and stifling defense, A&M cooked up the perfect recipe for. Creamed Corn-huskers BY JEFF SCHMIDT The Battalion Coming into Saturday’s game with the second- ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Texas A&M Foot ball Team’s motto could have been “Remember the Alamodome.” The Aggies lost to the Cornhuskers 54- 15 in last year’s Big 12 Championship game in the Alamodome in San Antonio. “We caught them last year when they were smelling the national championship,” A&M coach R. C. Slocum said at Tuesday’s press conference. “They had lost the year before in the conference championship game. Their coach was going to retire. They had everything going their direction, along with being a very talented football team. They were a good football team hitting on all cylin ders when we played them.” “I think last year was the first time we got a taste of what a team like Nebraska is all about,” senior tight end Daniel Campbell said. “The way they played last year in the Alamodome, we weren’t ready for them. We weren’t ready for their style of play.” What a difference a year can make; the Aggies de feated the defending national champion Cornhuskers 28-21 Saturday. “To beat a team like Nebraska is unbelievable,” junior quarterback Randy McCown said. “After the first big play, I knew we could win it.” “This is the biggest win any of us has ever been a part of,” senior offensive guard Cameron Spikes said. “The No. 2 team in the country is going back to Nebraska with an ‘L’. It’s got to be the biggest win ever at Kyle Field.” “We knew we could hang with them,” senior line backer Dat Nguyen said, “as long as we don’t give them the big play.” However, Slocum said he did not use last year’s game as motivation. “We really didn’t talk about it much,” Slocum said, “other than we did take the tapes and look through and try to show plays where we said. We had a good call here, but we just had to execute what we were doing. “So I think we used it more as a teacher. We didn’t say, ‘They beat us up last year.’ We didn’t talk about that at all.” The homework obviously paid off. The Aggies used big plays to defeat Nebraska at their own game. Instead of heroes like Crockett, Bowie and Travis, the Aggies got help from Taylor, Toombs and Curry. Sophomore wide receiver Chris Taylor caught an 81- yard touchdown pass to put A&M on the scoreboard first. Freshman fullback Ja’Mar Toombs rumbled for 71 yards to set up a junior running back Dante Hall touchdown. Junior cornerback Sedrick Curry got an intercep tion with 59 seconds left in the game to seal the deal on the A&M victory. “This win was dearly needed around here,” Camp bell said. “There’s been so much pressure that A&M can’t win the big one. Coach Slocum can’t coach the big game. Our seniors have been bearing this burden on our backs for five years now.” MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion Quarterback Randy McCown pitches the ball Saturday. Aggie defense wrecks NU’s celebrated option attack X x X X } XX XX oonooo \ >0 BRAD GRAEBER/ I mk Battalion The Nebraska option, mainly run out of the 1-Formation, leaves quarterback Bobby Newcombe with three running play options. BY JEFF WEBB The Battalion It was a performance that would leave former University of Texas coach Darrell Royal perplexed. The University of Nebraska option attack was shut down. Perhaps it was Royal, the coach who led Texas to three national ti tles after inventing the wishbone option, who tutored Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum on how the op tion works so he and defensive co ordinator Mike Hankwitz could devise a way to slow it down. “I was pleased with how soundly our defense executed the option play,” Slocum said. “Pretty much all day long we did a good job of executing our option assignments and we did a good job of tackling. Usually, the option offense gets you down where you have to make some good, clean tackles. I think we did that today.” Nebraska ran its option of fense primarily out of the I-For- mation, which consists of a full back and tailback lined up directly behind the quarterback. At the snap, the quarterback has four options on what to do with the ball: he can make a quick handoff to the fullback up the middle; he can pitch to the tailback trailing the play; he can keep the ball himself; or he can drop back to pass, an option rarely used unless a pass play is called. A&M held Nebraska’s offense without a first down until three minutes into the third quarter, and that was on a 13-yard pass to wide receiver Matt Davison. A&M rotated in eight differ ent defensive linemen and 10 linebackers to keep rested players on the field. The Corn huskers struggled all day try ing to sustain drives against fresh Aggie players with their complicated reaction offense. “We thought we had a good game plan, but we couldn’t run the ball,” quarterback Bobby Newcombe said. “They had great speed on defense which made it hard to run the option. But we just didn’t execute today.” A&M played relatively flaw less option defense, using their team speed to string out plays to the sidelines and shedding their blocks to square up and make tackles. Linebacker Warrick Holdman said before each play, each play er would be reminded of their as signments to prevent big gains. “On every down, we would say who had the pitchman or quarterback or whoever. It’s hus tle, assignment football,” Hold- man said. “You just have to make sure to take care of your assignments. You have to make sure you stay on the pitch so you don’t give up the big plays. see Option on Page 10.
