|
PRINT
THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE
Wednesday, November 25, 1998
Texas A&M focused on winning, not stopping
UT's Williams
By Al Carter
The Dallas Morning News
(KRT)
Even for the immovable object, it promises to be a moving moment.
When the force is as irresistible as Texas running back Ricky
Williams, it really can't be helped.
Even for one of the best defenses Texas A&M has ever put
on the field.
"I know it's going to come up in conversations this week,"
said Bill Johnson, A&M's defensive line coach. "That
record. What about that record?' Well, when you get right down
to it Ricky Williams deserves that record."
Never before in the storied 104-game history of the A&M-Texas
series has there been quite such a confrontation. When the Longhorns
and Aggies collide Friday morning at Royal Memorial Stadium in
Austin, no championship will be at stake. But championships come
and go.
To reign as the leading rusher in the history of major college
football is to invest in sports immortality. And with just 63
yards against Texas A&M, Williams will pass Tony Dorsett's
22-year-old Division I-A standard of 6,082 career yards. Because
it's the final regular-season game of Williams' career, it's his
last shot.
What stands between Williams and college football's Ruthian
record the final obstacle, it appears, to Williams winning the
Heisman Trophy is A&M's defense.
A defense that ranks as the fourth-best in the nation. A defense
that represents nothing less than the command and control center
for the Aggies' repeat claim as the Big 12 South champions.
A defense now just two years removed from a crisis of confidence
that Ricky Williams helped create.
Speculation about Williams' prospects for gaining 63 yards
is so hot, the Aggies have no desire to engage in it.
"A good running back is going to get that many yards in
a game," A&M safety Rich Coady said. "We're not
going to lay down for him. You don't want to be the team that
gives it up. But he definitely deserves to get it."
"I'd say there's a good chance he'll probably get his
63," A&M coach R.C. Slocum said.
"We're not putting a lot of stock in that. We'll come
up with the best plan we can to win. But we're not going to do
anything to jeopardize the outcome just to gang up to try to stop
Ricky."
A&M's priorities are well placed. At stake for the sixth-ranked
Aggies is a 10-game winning streak, a part in the national championship
debate and a one-year extension on state football supremacy. Still,
there's a degree of graciousness in A&M's conceding the coronation
of Ricky, King of Rushers.
Five of A&M's 11 previous opponents this season failed
to get a runner to 63 yards against the Aggies' defense. Only
three times all season have the Aggies allowed a run of more than
20 yards.
Williams has been held below 63 yards just once this season
a 43-yard effort in a 48-7 loss to Kansas State.
"But if it's going to happen again," Williams said,
"A&M's defense is the one to do it."
Three of Williams' biggest games have come against the Aggies.
As a freshman, he ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns in a 16-6
Longhorn victory at Kyle Field. Texas used the victory to win
the final Southwest Conference title and snap A&M's 31-game
home winning streak.
That game, Williams says, "put me on the map."
He ran for 145 yards and another TD in 1996 as the Longhorns
rolled, 51-15, a rock-bottom finish for what remains the worst
A&M team in Slocum's 10-year tenure. The Aggies rebounded
last season for a 27-16 victory over the Longhorns. Even so, Williams
piled up 183 yards and two more TDs on a rain-soaked field.
What wasn't apparent then, even as the Aggies were salting
away their first Big 12 division title, was the imminent rehabilitation
of A&M's famed "Wrecking Crew" defense.
In 1996, the Aggies gave up 257 points, the school's most generous
showing in 14 years. A&M's plunge from national defensive
prominence was dramatic. The defense made a modest recovery in
1997 only to lose all three defensive line starters to graduations.
With only sophomore replacements in stock, defensive dominance
seemed beyond the Aggies' reach this season.
But A&M's defense has dominated. No team has tapped the
Aggies for more than 21 points since Florida State pinned a 23-14
loss on A&M to open the season. None of A&M's past five
opponents has garnered more than 14 points.
"Have we had a bad game?" cornerback Sedrick Curry
said. "Yeah, we lost one."
"This defense," Slocum said, "has really been
about as consistent as any we've had in a long time."
A&M's most redeeming moment came in an Oct. 10 victory
over Nebraska, then No. 2 in the nation and the highest-ranked
team ever to fall to the Aggies. After surrendering 54 points
to the Cornhuskers in the 1997 Big 12 title game, A&M gave
up only 21 in the rematch.
"I heard some of their players say on TV how they expected
to run the ball on us," A&M defensive end Rocky Bernard
said. "I think they were shocked that they weren't able to
do it."
Other than linebacker Dat Nguyen who may mirror Williams' offensive
heroics by winning the Lombardi and Butkus awards A&M has
few defensive stars. That doesn't bother Johnson, who recalls
the compliment of one visiting NFL scout.
Mike Hagen of the Atlanta Falcons was closing his notebook
after reviewing A&M game films.
"You know," he told Johnson, "it's easier to
count your players who aren't around the ball than it is to count
the ones who are."
Mike Hankwitz, hired as defensive coordinator two years ago,
deserves all the credit for the Aggies' defensive turnaround,
A&M players say.
"Our guys bought into what we were trying to tell them,"
Hankwitz said. "That is, that if we just executed and worked
as hard as we could to always be in the right position, the percentages
would always be on our side."
Nguyen, a fifth-year senior, said other A&M defenses have
been blessed with more talent.
"But effort-wise," he said, "this is the best
team I've been around. We joke around a lot. But when it's business,
it's business."
Williams knows how serious the Aggies are about defense.
"When I first got here, everyone talked about A&M
like they were scared of them, like they were superhuman,"
Williams said. "But since I've been here, our team has raised
the bar. Now we're on the same level they are."
Will the Aggies load up to stop Williams? Williams doesn't
think so.
"A&M is so good," he said, "they don't need
to."
The Aggies would gladly hand over a record no matter how big
in exchange for a victory Friday. For A&M's defense, only
a victory over Texas stands in the way of complete redemption.
"We wanted to be great," Bernard said. "Now
it's becoming a reality."
(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
|
