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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1998)
lie Battalion orts Page 7 • Monday, December 7, 1998 -E CENTER, 'eavour and it$l in Sunday to wp i^ce of the Intel station, the Ru;c: 'ontrol module tin lected to theUivl the shuttle, king the two git 10 miles aboveH isidered thei.... he mission. Thei Currie, the r who had deftltll ositioned Unityi an Saturday, wo station pieces ?t from the tip oft te other with at 70,000 pounds-a er crewmateswe rely on a compwa ;tem and camenl an direct line of so ” docking hadti^ d before, an Control gave! ?nty of timeforti main thing I'ver >t two yeare wotfe' lake sure we have rgin on everyth::; 5ob Castle said. ? beginning theirs o Zarya - Russ - the shuttle’s': 1 ; i to steer clearci. ret launched las fornia. m Control ordetd e the shuttle tel ;tra three m ir and the spa(:| 'ndeavour a 'in the orbiting! ler gap wouldtui] y a little toocla Mission Conird censuj ' 81 questions ’t get it. He si: 7 nd. eared thepresiuj the House, Sers Drrin Hatch, n." Since president,” Committee’s Sit| vyers m Stewart, Parker jump from bench to lead Aggies to first Big 12 title 0m ■vW' M w£ < f m m m 4 % suIbHBr iHi I senior JAKE SCHRICKLING/Tiik Battalion running back Sirr Parker runs for the game-winning touchdown in overtime against KSU Saturday. BY JEFF SCHMIDT The Battalion ST. LOUIS — For a while, Texas A&M players and coaches talked about getting one win to put the pro gram over the hump and into national prominence. Top-ranked Kansas State University (according to the USA Today/ESPN Poll) proved to be more than a hump, but A&M was able to climb it anyway. The Aggies stunned the Wildcats 36-33 in double overtime Saturday to claim their first Big 12 Cham pionship. The victory was A&M’s first ever against a No. 1-ranked team. The 36 points A&M scored were the most the team has scored all season. With the win, A&M earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State University and a No. 8 rank ing in The Associated Press poll. “I’ve said all year that this team is a special team,” A&M coach R. C. Slocum said. “Ever since early in the season, we have had lots of adversity. We lost some guys and we had trouble getting started. “The players never wavered and they got closer together. This has been one of the easiest teams I have ever coached in terms of managing them and them managing themselves. It has been a very un selfish team.” A&M’s victory hopes looked dim when KSU quar terback Michael Bishop scored on a five-yard run with 40 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Wildcats a 27-12 lead. A&M rebounded quickly as senior quarterback Branndon Stewart, replacing junior Randy McCown who was out with a broken collarbone, hit junior wide receiver Leroy Hodge for a 13-yard touch down on third down and 10 yards to go with 9:20 left in the game. Sophomore placekicker Russell Bynum tacked on the extra point to bring the score to 27-19. K-State stopped another A&M possession and took the ball over on downs. Trying to run out the clock. Bishop tried to keep the KSU drive alive by scrambling, but A&M senior line backer Warrick Holdman jarred the ball loose and sophomore linebacker Cornelius Anthony recovered it at the KSU 35-yard line. A pass interference penalty on A&M moved the ball back to the 50, but on the next play junior wide re ceiver Matt Bumgardner made a diving 36-yard catch to the KSU 14-yard line. Three plays later, Stewart fired a pass to senior run ning back Sirr Parker for a nine-yard touchdown, pulling the score to 27-25. On the two-point conversion attempt, Stewart rolled right and lofted a pass to Parker for the score as the unlikely heroes hooked up again. “I couldn’t be more proud of them and proud of this team,” Slocum said. “I said before the game that we wanted to play every play, we wanted to play the next play, and that we would never, never, never give up regardless of what happened.” The 12th Man was in full effect for A&M, but it al most cost the Aggies the game. A 15-yard illegal participation penalty (12 men on the field) put KSU within field goal range, but the penalty was switched to a five-yarder because the ex tra player was attempting to leave the field. A false start pushed KSU back farther, and Bish op threw a Hail Mary that bounced around and end ed up being caught by wide receiver Everett Burnett on the A&M two-yard line. A&M senior safety Toya Jones made a game-sav ing hit to keep Burnett out of the end zone and the win column. A&M started its first possession in the overtime period with a Bynum field goal, giving A&M a 30-27 lead, its first of the game. KSU countered with back-to-back Martin Gramati- ca field goals, but led by a Herculean effort by Parker, A&M scored the winning touchdown. On a third and 17 from the KSU 32-yard line, the Aggies were just trying to get into position to kick a field goal. see Football on Page 9. nttee’s Suita * V VCIO willgeU (: ® T - LOUIS — The Houston Rockets qp TiesdavandW cl sa Ving when they marched to the staff Thonns V N B/\ Finals and ounselCharlesFlfjn their second Duldgetane* "'Shtt'lle: “Nev jThis motto can |w apply to the as A&M Foot- i2BA#iel lTeam ’ be ‘ lT|nQS) a,:Sethat 's what ft AgRies are- rh Affairs | rs put on unmatched show of heart in win JEFF SCHMIDT „ are: champions. J“1 told some of the young guys af- | e [ the game to remember what this ftls like and what it took to win all ft games we played this year,” se- enb Dan Campbell said. “I IOIIOwJ ffink this year was a pretty good fth towards a dynasty. 1 think this Uthertrf dent AffaiiCf was a really special team and a really special group.” A&M came from 15 points down to tie the game, take it to overtime and unlike last week, the Aggies sealed the deal. “When we were in overtime, I said to the other guys, don’t let this one slip away,” senior linebacker Dat Nguyen said. “We let the game against Texas slip away, but we did not let it happen.” A&M has had a never-say-die atti tude all season, senior safety Rich Coady said. He said the Aggies somehow always find a way to win. This will to survive is what has made this A&M team great. And to do so through the attrition that the Aggies faced is truly remarkable. A&M lost senior fullback Marc Broyles, junior running back Eric Bernard and junior fullback Jason Bragg to injuries. Then there was the “Tiki” Case. The ineligibility of A&M’s toughest runner, D’Andre “Tiki” Harde man, cost the Aggies a win. So what makes this team better than previous teams that had more going for them? Two words: chemistry and character. Coach R. C. Slocum said this team does not have any one superstar, aside from Nguyen, but the team plays well as a group and feeds off of Nguyen’s in tensity. Slocum also said this team has some of the most character of any team he has ever coached. He talked about players who kept their egos in check for the good of the team. “We have had two quarterbacks who have competed for the starting job all year, but both have had a very un selfish attitude,” he said. “They have been in the background of this team’s success all year, but they have definite ly contributed to the success.” “This is a team that could have been a 6-5 team, if it wasn’t for their charac ter,” Slocum said at a weekly media luncheon. “Just playing on ability, this team isn’t going to win 10 games. But the team really played together. “We’ve had as solid of chemistry on this team as we’ve had on any team here in a long time. I think that’s a trib ute to the coaches and I really think it’s a tribute to the caliber of the young men that we have.” Jeff Schmidt is a senior journalism major. l X X X -W K m K ? ys. j a s ewart shines in victory BY JEFF SCHMIDT The Battalion i hOlTtf'niifl' b °LHS — Another chapter in senior " ■ r erbac k Branndon Stewart’s up-and- Bt n ri career at Texas A&M came to a close I u , raa y — in a way most fans probably idderTo^f aicl not have believed. 'IT t i art ’ starting for the injured junior I nerb^k Randy McCown, passed for 324 I s, the third-highest total in A&M histo- les r tbree tou chdowns, leading the Ag- tl. ° a 36-33 upset over top-ranked Kansas | a | e University. I For some reason, I thought Branndon was !Lk n° bave ^ good game tonight,” A&M 10t D6 ft h R. c. Slocum said. “He had confidence I- mailed ft I “, Week an h had been relaxed in practice. ' Jan 1111 ex t re mely pleased with his perfor- maiW- Ccrep 6 ')^ 6 some U P S an d downs in his r mo hie but be has never been selfish and he 845-26L | sal ways showed class.” he beginning however, it did not look 1st n eWart s ba y- Stewart did not complete his ftm un hl A&M’s second possession of the l c ond quarter. ieff bl ?* s hed two-of-seven for 39 yards in ii ee rSt la * b Stewart also hyperextended his IntPrQK 1116 first quarter, forcing junior ftp D ane Uechler, a former quarterback Sernard High School, to begin warm- pajjj tewart re turned and played through . rdl^ 38 .^ to come out of the game, re- Histh- Stewart said. com C i uar t er wa s not so impressive as te fir t u te d onl y two more passes to finish st three periods four of 11 for 89 yards. pm H 011 dlmgfc After that, Stewart got into a rhythm. He hit sophomore wide receiver Chris Taylor twice for big gains and found junior wide receiver Leroy Hodge open for a 13-yard scoring strike. “He had a splendid day,” KSU coach Bill Snyder said. “He was very proficient and played ... with a great deal of character.” Stewart threw a perfect pass to diving ju nior wide receiver Matt Bumgardner, then completed a pass to senior running back Sirr Parker to close the score even more. But coming out of high school, playing for the Aggies was the farthest thing from Stew art’s mind. He originally signed with the Uni versity of Tennessee out of Stephenville High School in 1994. He said he signed with the Vols because he wanted to help them win a national title and, indirectly, he may have. “I think we kind of did that today,” he said. Stewart said he did not know whether or not he would start again because of the way McCown was playing. But when he got the call to play he said he could not wait. “I can’t recall being this excited about a game prior to a game,” Stewart said. “I could n’t wait till Saturday. I’m normally excited, but not this excited.” Perhaps Stewart never became Peyton Man ning, the name he will forever be linked with. However, he has created his own leg endary status at A&M, not because he won, but because he is a winner. “I’m just proud to play for a university where I can say I’m proud of our student body and proud of our alumni, and not be ashamed to say that.” •Texas A&M’s 36-33 victory over Kansas State University Saturday was the first time A&M had beaten a No. 1-ranked team (KSU was ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll and No. 2 in The Associated Press poll). A&M’s previous highest-ranked victim was then-No. 2 University of Nebraska earlier this season. •A&M’s win gave the Aggies their first confer ence crown since 1993 when they won the Southwest Conference title. •A&M rallied from 15 points down, 27-12, to tie and eventually win the game. It ties the school record for largest comeback victory, set last year against Oklahoma State University (28-25 Aggie victory at Kyle Field). Ironically, A&M scored a late touchdown against the Cowboys and made a two- point conversion on virtually the same play to Sirr Parker that the Aggies used on KSU Saturday to tie the game. •With 113 yards rushing, junior running back Dante Hall went over the 1,000-yard plateau for the first time in his career. He is A&M’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Leeland McElroy rushed for 1,122 yards in 1995. For the season, Hall has 1,090 yards. JAKE SCHRICKLING/Thf. Battalion Senior quarterback Branndon Stewart is helped off the field in the first quarter after a knee injury. He returned and directed A&M to the win. “This may be the most difficult thing to happen in their young lives.” — KSU coach Bill Snyder on the loss to Texas A&M. “We let the game against Texas slip away, but we did not let it happen to us again.” — A&M senior linebacker Dat Nguyen. “I think this year was a pretty good start towards a dynasty.” — A&M senior tight end Dan Campbell.