12th Man Magazine

Editor
Homer Jacobs

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Rusty Burson
Jim Molony

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Kevin Bartram
Glen Johnson

Inside the Aggies | In The Zone. | Gushing Derrick

Inside the Aggies.

By Homer Jacobs

The Aggies are not where they want to go, but they are light years from where they have been.

With a 5-0 record heading into a pivotal game at Kansas State, all signs - no matter how the Aggies finish the rest of the season - point to this program being on a major upswing.

Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum is the first to point out the deficiencies of his team, and they are there. The passing game needs nurturing, while the receivers and defense need maturing.

But at least this team doesn't need a good spanking as did the one a year ago. The 6-6 Aggies were guilty of poor team leadership, bad scheming and hot-potato ball-carrying.

Slocum admitted that the defense was so bad that "there were times when I looked out there and couldn't believe what I was seeing."

And he has tempered the excitement of the big win over Colorado by reminding his team and its fans that too many obstacles - some from within - remain to begin thinking of grandiose postseason plans.

Yet, with each passing practice, Slocum's hedges more and more. What he sees makes him that much more of a believer.

"I am pleased with our team," he said at an Oct. 8 news conference, officially kicking of 'The Zone at Kyle Field' marketing campaign. "I thought the key in the game against Colorado was our team really played hard and was able to overcome some mistakes by doing that. I like our team right now. We've got a long way to go, and we need some work before I'd call us a real good football team. But if we keeping working like we are, we may get there."

So how has A&M gone from back there at 6-6 to right here as a contender, if not the favorite, for the Big 12's South Division crown?

The list for now includes five examples, some major and others subtle:

* No to deer hunting.

Slocum began his tireless quest to rebuild the program the day after the 51-15 loss to Texas. He canceled his usual Thanksgiving deer hunting trip with his sons to hit the recruiting trail.

It was a sign that Slocum was determined to dive head first into the meat of the problems that beset his program. Recruiting like a hurricane could cure the first problem, by unclogging the talent pipeline that had existed before.

Slocum was dogged in his pursuit of recruits, putting together a travel schedule that even those close to his recruiting efforts were amazed by.

The result was an early positive spin on the offseason, capped off by a solid recruiting class that was the result of hard work and A&M's uncanny ability to sell itself in times of 51-15 in 1996 or 42-10 in 1985.

* Yes to peer hunting.

When Slocum evaluated his program after the season, it was quite evident some coaching moves had to be made. Schemes were off-kilter. Relationships between players and coaches, not to mention between coaches and coaches, were strained.

And, despite the fact that he would be roasted by some for firing another set of coordinators, they were moves that had to be made.

The hiring process would hinge on one stipulation: Be on the same page. It was the motto of the winter for Slocum, who had been successful running a 3-4 defense; who wanted a strong running attack with an effective passing game; and who was visibly upset that his players no longer enjoyed the game.

Basically, Slocum wanted to run the program how he had run it up until 1995. And if he had to duck egg flying at his face, so be it.

* The Marshall Plan.

Steve Marshall came to A&M with the least publicized credentials as an offensive coordinator. That there was even a job for him to pursue at A&M was somewhat a stroke of luck.

Mike Sherman had been promoted from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator, while Marshall was the offensive line coach under Bob Toledo at UCLA.

Yet, fate intervened, sending Sherman to the Green Bay Packers. Meanwhile Marshall refused to listen to any remarks said by Toledo about A&M and Slocum, and interviewed instead for the job many considered a cursed position.

But from the first time Marshall sat down with 12th Man Magazine for a spring interview, it was obvious the former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator could care less about what people had said about the job.

He really didn't care about last year, its schemes or personnel. This was a new year, and a new, talented offensive staff had been assembled.

And when the first day of two-a-day practices ended, and the offensive line looked to be in mid-season form, it was obvious where one of the strengths of this team would reside - in the offensive line with Marshall calling the shots.

* The forgotten ones.

The Big 12 media days in Irving in July had little to do with discussing how all 12 of the teams would fare this fall. It was simply a coronation of Roll Left and James Brown's feel good times as the architect behind that 8-5 season that was highlighted with mighty Nebraska falling to the Longhorns in the memorable Big 12 title game.

When Slocum took the stage, he was besieged with questions about how far his program had sunk. And when A&M players Steve McKinney and Dat Nguyen took their time to answer questions, you almost could see the smoke filtering out of McKinney's ears.

The Aggies were the forgotten ones, the guys who had lost to USL and Texas by 36 points. Despite beating Texas 10 out of 11 times during one stretch, posting a 66-17-2 record in the 1990s and taking Notre Dame and Florida State - two national title contenders - to the brink of defeat - they were still the 6-6 Aggies, supposedly deplete of talent and rocked by instability.

While the Aggies had plenty of questions in the lineup, and perhaps still do, a close analysis of how the Aggies lost those games last year seemed to be missing among the media types.

Even when Texas kicker Phil Dawson admitted it was "scary" that no one was mentioning A&M has a challenger to the Longhorns, one Austin-based reporter ignored the comment and quickly asked Dawson: "Are you surprised by how far the Aggies have slipped, because they have slipped a lot?"

The Aggies were completely disregarded, and they took it to heart.

* The goal-line stand.

This wasn't Bo Jackson up the middle four times, and the Wrecking Crew pushing him back four straight times, as was the case in the memorable 1986 Cotton Bowl against Auburn. In fact, that's the most famous goal-line stand in A&M history.

But Dat Nguyen and his teammates' stop of Colorado running back Herchell Troutman on fourth-and-goal may pack the same importance when the program is measured five or 10 years from now.

Had Troutman scored and Colorado had led, 10-0, A&M may have sulked its way to another loss to the Buffaloes.

But Nguyen knifed through, and as Slocum demonstrated in his weekly Tuesday press conference, there was plenty of help for Nguyen after the original stop. The Wrecking Crew, though not all the way back, was off the respirator and ready for a hospital discharge.

"The one thing that was a trademark (of past A&M defenses) was that we played hard," Slocum said. "The other day we were watching the tape, and I told Hank (Mike Hankwitz) what was impressive about the goal-line stop was that we hit him and hit him, like a bunch of piranhas. Six or seven guys clawing and jumping over the top, and that's the way it's supposed to look. We've taken pride in having that type of intensity, so it's good seeing that come back."

The play eventually shattered the confidence of an already shaky Colorado offensive unit, and the Aggies basked with bravado as they controlled the line of scrimmage en route to the 16-10 victory.

The Aggies may lose to Kansas State and may not win the South Division title. But they are stirring memories of what this team used to look like.

And if the Aggies do earn a spot opposite Nebraska in the Big 12 title game, the reasons for the turnaround can be counted on one hand... which balled up becomes a champion's raised fist.

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