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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 2002)
’' ::{iryt S«‘{;.!-u;:• 1%**:'j,!!;• i*.»•;i'M\-• ; "'■ AGGIE! ' HE BATT (j Sports The Battalion Page 5 • Tuesday, September 24, 2002 orked with m ■ s. 1 llst <-‘ningtoTj. feeling 0 f cret. L *‘ird is roujf fupse into y s most popt^ i he reworking Secret? t^ 131 the origi ’ on gs has alwj - r| cs. but on tat •come more zy” even hii ‘‘ting a uniijij; release. Noncv taunting Dt Here Cotnei can’t be he Respite jtte I ife of its ov Questions A&M offense needs still plentiful for Aggie offense to find an identity m w . : fn.od $ I TZ. 'XjKl ort, offKiafs ac pie swam ss n jed after the c ry or earh W:. Hubbard, sa; nan Diana te J woman va; and a 12-yw-: ng the mrss': , 6 and 15. s said. :h for the mss’ nday morw accident ar n manages J at some pc < house to ci Ihe Texas A&M defense lived up to its billing last Saturday against the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Hokies entered the game aver aging 283 yards per game. They left Kyle Field with only 129 yards. I "The Untouchables” were definitely touched up a bit by the Wrecking Crew as well. Virginia Tec h running backs Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones combined for only 99 rushing yards, well below the 11 season average. I The Aggie defense gave the offense a goal be nre the game Saturday. If the offense could get 14 points, the defense would make sure A&M would win the game. I The defense held its end of the bargain by only giv ing up 13 points, but the offense failed miser- ably by scoring three. ■ Fourteen points should be expected with any offense playing at home, especially when you are a top 25 team like Texas A&M and you play on K_|le Field. ■ ‘‘We need to find ways to move the football,” said A&M offensive coordinator Dino Babers. "V 'e've got to get the offense going. I "We have a very good defense and things only come around so often. You'd hate to let this oppor- tpmty pass you by. It's imperative to get (the off ense) started.” ■ A&M had better do something, because it has not started anything in its first three games. ■ So far this season, the Aggies are averaging 28o.67 yards per game. That’s good enough to be lObth in the nation. This Aggie offense was sup posed to be better than last year's 106th finish. ■ ‘‘Right now we feel like we're pretty close,” said sophomore quarterback Dustin Long. ‘We’re just doing a bunch of little things to ourselves. We just hale to put everything together.” ■ This offense is nowhere close to being produc tive, let alone cracking the top 100. The offensive line looks like turnstyles as it lets defenders through. The Aggies gave up five sacks and 10 tackles for losses against Virginia Tech. Two of those sacks came consecutively in the third quarter to kill the longest Aggie drive of the game. The running game has not produced a 100-yard rusher yet. In fact, the rushing game is not even averaging 100 yards a game. The passing game is even more horrendous. Senior Greg Porter is the only receiver that has shown he can consistently catch a ball while sen ior Bethel Johnson rarely gets thrown to. Everyone else looks as if they left their hands on the practice field. The quarterback controversy is also still alive in Aggieland. No clear-cut starter emerged in the Virginia Tech game. Sophomore Dustin Long began the game by going 5-5 in the first quarter. Long played with poise and the Aggies were in good position, tied 3-3 going into the second half. The tide turned when the Aggies inserted fresh man Reggie McNeal. McNeal is the future of this offense, but freshman mistakes are going to be made. The problem here was the point of the game when head coach R.C. Slocum inserted McNeal. Slocum gave McNeal to the wolves by giving him the offense at the A&M 4-yard line. In only his second drive of his young collegiate career, he threw an interception on a bad play call. All around Kyle Field the “Let Him Play” shirts began to come off and the “Real Deal McNeal” signs began to come down. Aggie fans knew that the offensive woes were no longer a quarterback problem. Slocum wanted McNeal to be the spark that ignited a dormant offense, but he did not know when to put that spark in the game. The spark turned into a dud. “Based on what I've seen right now Dustin (Long) would likely start,” Slocum said. “It's not anything set in stone. Dustin would likely start and Reggie (McNeal) would play.” So the merry-go-round that is the Aggie quar terback situation continues. No one knows exactly where this offense will go because no one knows who will lead it. JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION Junior wide receiver Jamaar Taylor gets drilled by a defender from Virginia Tech in A&M’s 13-3 loss to the Hokies on Saturday. What the Aggie offense needs is a heavy dose of confidence, something that has been non-exis tent this season. “We need to come out as a group and establish an identity for ourselves,” said junior receiver Jamaar Taylor. “Bring back some swagger to the offense. Right now we're just floating around and 1 think we need to get some swagger back.” How to get that swagger is the real question. The only way to do that is for the coaching staff to settle on one quarterback, whoever it is, and allow this offense to gel as a unit around that one leader. If this will ever happen, Aggie fans might see a talented offense sometime this season. The Aggies have four upcoming games against Louisiana Tech, Texas Tech, Baylor and Kansas to gain that "swagger" that the offense is looking for. Neither of these four teams have much of a defense to stop the Aggies. “All we need is 20 points,” said senior line backer Brian Gamble. “If we get that we can win every game this season.” Business Career Fair gmire September 24-26 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. yer 20 yea- injuries Neck InjuT >01 icenf ) Tuesday ■Accenture lAIM Funds ■Allegiance Healthcare ■ Banc of America Securities I BP Energy / 1ST North America ■ Bridgestone / Firestone ■ Career Center ■ Central Intelligence Agency IChubb Group of Insurance Companies ICintas ■ Consolidated Graphics I Dynegy Inc. I E&J Gallo Winery' I Enterprise Rent-A-Car I Ferguson Enterprises I General Accounting Office I Grainger I H.E.B. Grocery Company I Helzberg Diamonds II lershey Foods I Hope Lumber & Supply Company Iconixx I Internal Revenue Services I International Paint [ International Study Abroad Program [ J.D. Edwards & Company JC Penney KPMG, LLP Kroger Co. Kroger Co. Luby's, Inc. Marathon Oil National Instruments Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Office Depot Pricewaterhouse Coopers Randalls/ Tom Thumb Royce Homes, L.P. RSM McGladrey, Inc/ McGladrey & Pullen LLP Ryan & Company Sears, Roebuck and Company Sewell Automotive Company Sherwin-Williams Smith & Associates SourceNet Solutions Sprint PCS Standard & Poor's Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts The Expo Group TXU USAA Walgreens Wal-Mart Wednesday Allegis Group Kohls Amereda Hess Lucifer Lighting American National Mann Frankfort and Stein Army & Air Force Maxim Healthcare Services Bank One Corporation McKesson Corporation Black and Decker / Dewalt Mervyn's California Career Center Northwestern Mutual Cemex, Inc. Office Depot Cintas Pappas Restaraunts Citigroup Payless ShoeSource Compass PKF Texas Conoco Randalls Delloite & Touche Raytheon DHL Worldwide Express Royce Homes Entergy-Koch Sears, Roebuck & Company Ferguson Enterprises Shell Oil Company GE Capital Services Smith & Associates General Accounting Office SourceNet Solutions General Services Administration Study Abroad Guaranty Bank Texas Instruments Halliburton Toys R Us HEB UCS Homecomings Financial United States Gypsum Hope Lumber and Supply US Army Recruiting Battalion Houston Job Gusher USAA KBR Walgreens Wells Fargo Thursday Applied Materials Automatic Data Processing Boston Consulting Career Center Delloite Consulting Duke Energy Easley Endres Ernst & Young Exxon Mobile Corporation Farmers Insurance Fastenal General Services Administration Hertz Corporation Hewitt Associates Hewlitt Packard IMG Financial Group JP Morgan Chase Kinkos Neiman Marcus Newell Rubbermaid Pepsi Bottling Group Protiviti Saville, Dodgen & Company Southwest Bank Sterling Bank Study Abroad Target Stores Texas Youth Commission Toys R Us tics US Army Recruiting Battalion Houston Velocity VHA Wells Fargo Financial Receptions 7-9 p.m. @ (Sept 23) Cafe Eccell (Sept 24) Letterman Club (Sept 25) Clayton Williams BSC Texas A&M l.iwry Mays Cflllrjii’ at Rust Business Student Council 94
