Volume 6, No. 7

IN THE SHADOWS Out of the limelight for now, the Aggies insist their time in the sun will come By Homer Jacobs

From the overkill in Norman to the over-hyped in Austin, some have declared the 2001 college football season already over before it actually begins.

But flying under the radar all summer long – and unranked and perhaps underappreciated – are the Aggies.

"We are so underrated," said Texas A&M junior quarterback Mark Farris, shaking his head at the notion that one preseason magazine had the Aggies ranked 53rd. "We’ve won a lot of games at Texas A&M, so I don’t think anybody will see A&M on their schedule and say, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got A&M… that’ll be great.’ At least I hope not. If they do say that, that’s fine.

"The bottom line is when you suit up and kick the ball off, it doesn’t matter what that team is ranked or this team is ranked. You have to go out and play football. If we were ranked last in the nation, I would still feel the same about my team than if we were ranked first in the nation."

Quarterback Mark Farris heads into the season confident the Aggies can be in the Big 12 South Division race in November.

Even with the Aggies’ absence in the preseason polls, interest in A&M football seems at an all-time high. Season ticket sales have pushed past the 35,000 mark, and combined with the 25,000 student ticket sales that will fill up the east side of Kyle Field, a record 60,000 seats in Kyle Field have already been accounted for heading into the season.

And with home games with Notre Dame and Texas expected to draw crowds in excess of 87,000 – not to mention ESPN cameras chronicling Aggieland’s every move in 13 episodes of the highly-anticipated "Sidelines" docu-drama – well, it’s hard not to think 2001 could be a very intriguing year for the maroon and white.

A&M also will introduce three new coaches to its offensive staff with Dino Babers (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks), Kevin Sumlin (assistant head coach/receivers) and Ken Rucker (running backs), play its first Thursday night game in six years and have to navigate its most imposing road schedule in decades.

The Aggies’ first road game of the year – Sept. 6 at Wyoming – will transpire at 7,200 feet and on ESPN2, but it’s the four-game minefield that begins on Oct. 13 that has skeptics downgrading A&M’s chances for a sparkling season.

The unforgiving march through the Big 12 begins with back-to-back road games at Colorado and Kansas State, and a November double-dip includes trips to Texas Tech and defending national champion Oklahoma.

It’s a schedule that could break most teams, although the Aggies refuse to buy into the patterns of their past.

"I’m not worried about the road schedule at all," said Farris, who completed nearly 60 percent of his passes for 2,551 yards as a sophomore last fall. "I think it’s a good challenge for us. We’ll have plenty of chances to show how good we are. That’s how you gain respect. If we were playing all of our games at home and we won at home, they’d say, ‘Oh, it’s just Kyle Field.’ When you win on the road, they can’t say that.

"People will be talking about the Lubbock jinx, but I’ve never started a football game out there, so to me, that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t believe in stuff like that."

What the Aggies do believe in is the necessity to close out games when holding leads in the second half. A&M lost four games last year after being tied or leading at the half en route to a 7-5 season.

"We have to be a better running team and short-yardage team," said coach R.C. Slocum. "We have to be better in those situations. Those are two (CU and OU) games right there that we could have won. The interception against Oklahoma, without a doubt, came at a very bad time. We had a lead going into the fourth quarter, and we gave them an easy touchdown. And we had one at a bad time in the bowl game. But we were playing with a sophomore quarterback. And we wouldn’t have been that close to Oklahoma or been in a bowl game if it hadn’t been for the play of Mark Farris.

"You hope that this year some of those plays are eliminated by his adding a little more experience under his belt. That’s the biggest thing I see in terms of our offensive team–  being a little bit better running team, particularly in short-yardage situations, and being a more physical offense."

The problem for A&M as it hopes to become a more physical offense is that two of its most physical players from 2000 are gone. Wide receiver Robert Ferguson, last year’s leading receiver in the Big 12, and short-yardage specialist Ja’Mar Toombs elected to forego their senior seasons to begin pro football careers.

With Ferguson no longer terrorizing defenses and Toombs no longer pounding them, finding go-to players for Farris will be paramount during two-a-day practices and the early September schedule.

Junior receiver Dwain Goynes tore up the Aggie defense in the spring, and senior wideout Bethel Johnson is finally the lead receiver of a deep, but young unit.

"If you look at Bethel and Dwain, if you could find two faster receivers in the country, I don’t think you could," Farris added. "I think it will be a little by committee, but Bethel had a good pretty year last year. He needs to be the guy to kind of lead them. But our receiving corps will be so much deeper than it was last year. And Dwain Goynes, if you had to pick somebody for who had the best spring of anybody, it had to be him."

There’s also serious talk that even two or three freshman wide receivers could help the Aggies right away. Much like the spark Roy Williams and B.J. Johnson provided Texas a year ago, players like Bay City’s John Roberson, Tyler Chapel Hill’s Terrence Murphy or Houston Washington’s Terrence Thomas could give the Aggies a huge lift.

"If you look at all the guys coming in, I look at a couple of offensive linemen who could help us," Slocum said. "We signed five wide receivers, and I’d be surprised if one or two of those guys didn’t help us in some capacity this year. I look last year, and there’s no question the freshman receivers at Texas made a difference on their football team.

"I think we’ve got a couple who are capable of doing that. If some of those guys are what we think they are, the likelihood of them spending five years at Texas A&M is not very high."

As the Aggies try to adapt to a new offensive scheme under Babers, the Wrecking Crew should be called on quickly to keep A&M in the Big 12 mix.

The A&M defense struggled with injuries and snowstorms down the stretch last season and subsequently gave up over 35 points in its last three games, all losses.

While questions exist at outside linebacker where departed seniors Jason Glenn and Roylin Bradley were entrenched starters, a salty secondary and potentially dominant defensive line should ease many of the Aggies’ concerns.

Junior Ty Warren will move his All-America credentials into the middle of the defensive line as the starting nose guard, and with the return of Rocky Bernard from a knee injury, A&M could field its most unyielding line since the Sam Adams era of the early 1990s.

The defensive backfield lost only free safety Michael Jameson to graduation, but his longtime companion, fifth-year senior Jay Brooks, will now move into that starting role. Can the Aggies’ punt blocking specialist flourish at free safety?

"I think I’m very comfortable back there because of what I can bring to the field," said Brooks, who blocked four punts last year on special teams. "I rush, I can cover and I can tackle real well. If I’m going to play free safety, it gives me a chance to run from sideline to sideline."

Indeed, in a season that will be documented on "Sidelines," some outsiders think the Aggies will be stuck on the sidelines when the action heats up in the Big 12 in November.

A&M players, however, have dedicated themselves during a long, hot summer to being anything but spectators on the national scene this fall.

"It really wasn’t fun for us to pick up these magazines and say, Oh, great, we’re No. 45," said All-America center Seth McKinney. "Not that I pay any attention to that, because I’m not going to let that dictate anything. It’s just that we have a lot to prove, and I think our team can prove it a lot this year."

The headhunting Brooks already has two teams in his sights as another season of Aggie football kicks off.

"Right now, we’re the sleeper in the Big 12," he said. "Oklahoma and Texas have the targets on their chests. They have all the pressure on them."

Table of Contents