Wm
lie Battalion
Preview 99
\Fullback duo of Hardeman,
Toombs gives Aggies bruising
running attack.
mes and has ttifi
; percentage air,:®
when he finisMB
wins, Slocum It™
is after 10 yeaisfl
e football histom
this year, hei|'
ckest coach to■
ven with all tlii®
) until lastyeari
sing from hisi
see Slocum o'
File Photo/THE BATTALION
A In the Zone
Sophomore Ja’Mar
Toombs celebrates af
ter scoring a touch
down against Nebraska.
Toombs burst onto the
scene last year with
110 yards against the
Cornhuskers.
On the Run ^
•print PC
Senior D’Andre “Tiki”
Hardeman avoids a
tackle during A&M’s
game against. UT two
years ago. Hardeman
returns this year after
being academically in
eligible last year.
>r
File Photo/TEXAS A&M SPORTS INFORMATION
Movers
BY AL LAZARUS
The Battalion
T hey stood together outside of Cain Hall last week, nearly 500
pounds of smiles, horseplay and typical college athlete jocularity.
But there is nothing even close to typical about the on-the-field an
tics of Texas A&M’s fullback tandem of senior D’Andre “Tiki” Hardeman
and sophomore Ja’Mar Toombs.
Imposing? Sure. Scary? You bet. But not typical,.not these two. They
are bruising, run-it-up-the-gut players, but each is impossibly fast for
his size. They are the first guys looked to in goal-line situations, yet they
both have a 70-yard plus run to their credit. And at any given time, ei
ther one of them can play tailback for the Aggies and look perfectly com
fortable at the position.
Since he burst onto the scene in 1995 as a true freshman, Hardeman
has given opponents all they can handle. But just as Aggie foes breathed
a sigh of relief when he was declared academically ineligible two games
into the 1998 season, the true freshman Toombs came in and picked up
where Hardeman left off.
Now that the 5-foot-10, 232 pound Hardeman has regained his eligi
bility, and the 6-foot, 265 pound Toombs has a year under his belt, A&M’s
1999 opponents may be tempted to run for cover.
“There should be an intimidation factor this year,” Toombs said. “If I
ran the ball for five plays, and we’re just pounding somebody, and then
[Hardeman] comes in for five plays, and he pounds them, then we’ll nev
er back off.
“By the end of the game, they’re not going to want to take all those
licks no more.”
Whether it is Toombs or Hardeman that actually starts is not a con
cern, Hardeman said.
“We don’t really even care about who’s going to start,” he said. “We
just know that the better we both rah, the more we’ll play.”
That attitude carries over to practice, where Hardeman said the two
are always very competitive.
“We really help each other in practice by pushing each other,” he said.
“It’s real competitive between me and him because we just go out there
everyday and try to make each other better.”
After being declared ineligible last season, Hardeman still managed to
contribute to the Aggies by taking the young Toombs under his wing.
“With him being a freshman last year, I took time out to talk to him,”
Hardeman said. “We went over personal things and other things that
coaches can’t really teach you.”
Hardeman’s tutelage helped progress Toombs’ skills, as the freshman
exhibited last season in a game that will be remembered for years to come
as a breakthrough for A&M’s program.
When the Aggies welcomed No. 2 Nebraska to Kyle Field, few figured
Toombs, who had gained just 23 yards in limited action during A&M’s
first five games, would play a significant role in the outcome.
But with the game tied at seven late in the first half, Toombs took a
handoff from Aggie quarterback Randy McCown and rumbled 71 yards
to the Nebraska 1, setting up an A&M touchdown and giving the Aggies
a lead they would never relinquish.
Toombs finished that game with 110 rushing yards on only 10 carries.
He finished the season with 86 carries and 422 rushing yards, including
a 111-yard performance against Oklahoma State.
Having an experienced fullback like Hardeman as a personal tutor and
as a close friend has been beneficial, Toombs said.
“Since Tiki’s been in the system for four years now, he can coach me
on things like blocking schemes, the placement of plays, the timing and
stuff like that,” Toombs said. “Plus he just gives me that extra burst of
wanting to play because we’re really good friends.”
McCown said he will look for Hardeman and Toombs to play an ex
tra-large role in the Aggies’ ground attack this season, especially in big
games.
“It adds a different dimension to the backfield when you’ve got Ja’
Mar and Tiki back there,” McCown said. “Sometimes you play some big
teams where you need to just pound people, and with Ja’Mar and Tiki
you can do that.
“I’d like to see anybody that can stop those’guys.”
0
h
'ice of 0
ant Rek
if any
> VVirefc
Defensive players Anthony, Bradley stepup
to fill shoes of lost Wrecking Crew members
BY DOUG SHILLING
The Battalion
F or most defensive teams, losing players such
as Warrick Holdman, Rich Coady and Dat
Nguyen would be crippling — especially con
sidering those three players combined for almost
30 percent of the teams tackles and 40 percent of
its sacks last season.
Even more important than the production lost
is the leadership the three brought to the team as
a whole.
But as is the case in years past, the Wrecking
Crew doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.
Waiting in the wings to step up and take over
the place of the “Big Three” are two players who
started and played along side of the departed play
ers last year, junior inside linebacker Cornelius An
thony and junior outside linebacker Roylin
Bradley.
In their first season as starters, both started
a h 14 games the Aggies played with Anthony fin
ishing second to Nguyen on the team in tackles
with 100 while Bradley led the team in sacks
with nine.
Although overshadowed somewhat by their
counterparts last year, the two saw last year as a
’earning experience.
“Last year was very vital for me,” Anthony said.
It was my first year starting and I really didn’t
know what to expect and how to go about tackling
each game. But now that I’ve got that experience
underneath my belt, there’s a lot less thinking and
more playing off instinct.”
In addition to playing alongside great senior lead
ers, Anthony and Bradley both had the privilege of
playing on the first A&M team to ever defeat an op
ponent ranked second or higher in the polls — a feat
accomplished twice by last year’s team.
In those wins, the duo did more than get their
see Defense on Page 6.
File PikTo/TEXAS A&MSPORTS INFORMA™ON
File Photo/TEXAS A&M SPORTS INFORMATION
Junior linebackers Cornelius Anthony (top) and Roylin
Bradley (left) will attempt to fill the void on defense left
by the departed Dat Nguyen, Warrick Holdman and
Rich Coady.
Page 3B • Monday, August 30, 1999
File Photo/TEXAS A&M SPORTS INFORMATION
Senior All-America punter Shane Lechler has
seven 50-yard plus game averages to his credit.
Lechler’s
many talents
prove valuable
for Texas A&M
BY AL LAZARUS
The Battalion
S hane Lechler is proud of his versatility. But
the Aggies’ All-America punter, who also
takes care of kickoffs, long-range field
goals, and holding duties for the team,
knows his limits.
So if Lechler never again finds himself in a sit
uation similar to one he faced last year, when he
stood poised to enter the Big 12 Championship
game as the Aggies’ emergency quarterback, the
senior said that will be just fine with him.
“Hopefully that quarterback stuff is out of the
picture,” Lechler said. “But if something really
bad happens, I guess I could take a snap or two
and see what happens.”
Such is the attitude of the Texas A&M Football
team’s do-everything guy. A lot of players are de
scribed as willing to do whatever it takes to help
their team. But after watching him throughout his
career at A&M, one gets the feeling that Lechler is
not just willing, but also capable.
“The thing about Shane that’s really impres
sive,” A&M coach R.C. Slocum said, “is that over
the years when we’ve really needed a big play,
he’s come through in the clutch for us in great
fashion.”
Slocum’s confidence in Lechler was on full dis
play in last season’s game against Texas Tech. Al
though it had first been practiced by his team only
two days earlier, Slocum called for a fake field
goal. As the holder, Lechler took the snap, rolled
out and threw a touchdown pass to tight end
Daniel Campbell.
The fact that Lechler is successful at most
everything he tries has prompted Slocum to call
him the team’s most valuable player over the past
two seasons.
It’s a label Lechler admits to liking, but he still
tries to shrug it off.
“I really enjoy having that label, but I don’t see
how I could be the team’s MVP,” he said. “I only
average about five punts a game, and how could
somebody be an MVP if he’s only out there five
plays a game?”
Quarterback Randy McCown, who not surpris
ingly is one of Lechler’s biggest fans, will gladly
answer that question.
. “At any given time* he can bang it 70 yards,”
McCown said. “He’s a big weapon for us.”
McCown understands what a great punter can
do for a team, which explains why even during a
spring scrimmage, he made sure Lechler was on
his side.
“We were choosing teams, and before my
fourth pick I asked coach if we were punting in
the game,” McCown said. “He said, ‘yeah,’ so I
said, ‘alright. I’ll take Shane.’”
It’s no accident that Lechler commands so
much respect from his teammates. In his three
years with the Aggies, he has punted 208 times
for a total of 9,190 yards, putting his average
gross yards per punt right above 44 yards, an
A&M record.
He has had seven games in which he has aver
aged over 50 yards a punt, including a 1997 game
against Iowa State in which he averaged 54.7, an
other school record.
The impressive numbers have brought Lechler
his share of accolades. He earned first-team All-
America honors in 1998 and was named first team
All-Big 12 the last two seasons.
Lechler is also the only preseason All-Ameri
can on a team ranked seventh and eighth in the
nation’s two major polls, a situation that will like
ly raise the bar even higher for him during the Ag
gies’ 1999 campaign.
Lechler said any added expectations will not
bother him, since they cannot surpass the ones he
has set for himself.
“Right now I don’t feel any pressure at all,” he
said. “If I just go out there and do my job, I feel
that I’ll meet my expectations, and I’ve set them
pretty high this year.
“I’d like to average 50 yards a punt this year,
so I don’t think anybody else can put any more
pressure on me than 1 can put on myself.”