Saturday November 1st, 2003
posted 10/31/03 @ 7:03pm
Survival Saturday
That doesn't even have the #9 Nebraska v. #16 texas game included....
Preview: Texas A&M v. Kansas
Well Ags, this game is going to be an important one for us. Considering that Kansas is not a very good football team, we need to win this game to save our dignity as an upper-echelon football school.
Looking ahead in our schedule after today, we have #1 Oklahoma (away), #24 Missouri (away), and #16 texas (at home).
We're currently 3-5 overall and saying we go 2-2 over these last 4 games we would finish with a 5-7 record. Nothing to cheer about...but its reality.
If we lose this Kansas game, I don't know if we will be able to bounce back and win one of those next two games. That would mean we would be 5-10 going into the Turkey Day Classic against texas.
I'm not going to claim victory against texas this far in advance, but I will say one thing....In rivalry games, just about anything can happen.
Anyways, this leads me back to where I started....the Kansas game is huge for the Aggies.
What to Watch For: Kansas
Music to my ears.....Kansas's starting QB, Bill Whittemore, will not be playing against us! Whittemore transferred into KU before this season and is currently #5 in the nation in passing effiency. This absence should help out the Ag's defense quite a bit since Whittemore has thrown 194 of the Jayhawk's total of 219 pass attempts.KU's receiving corps seems pretty good statistically, but I don't know how much of that is due to Whittemore. They have 4 receivers with 24 or more receptions, with Clark Greene leading the way with 29. Yardage wise they have 2 guys with +300 yards, one with +400 and one with 635 (Mark Simmons).
Their running game is also led by Clark Greene who has 681 yards on 135 carries (4.8 yds/carry). Second on the list is none other than Bill Whittemore, so we don't need to worry about him. John Randle comes in 3rd with 367 yards on 59 attempts (5.9 yds/carry).
Basically if we can contain Clark Greene, then we should be in great shape....
What to Watch For: Aggies
For the Ags, I'm seeing another big day out of my boy, T-Murph. He's a true playmaker and over the last couple seasons it appears we need big plays to win. Courtney Lewis is going to push it close to 100 yards just like always (it seems) and I think Reggie will settle down a bit after a couple crazy games.Defensively, we just need to stop that Greene character and I think we will win.
The Bottom Line
I think we will win somewhat comfortably as long as we come into the game ready to play. Last season against Mizzou, we were so flat (the team and the crowd) that we just played sloppy ball. Same situation this game. B.T.H.O. KU!
Small Subtle Change
Most of you probably noticed that I've changed up the Navigation Bar that runs down the left side of the page here. I don't know if I like it yet, so it may go back to the old way. The more words I type to go into the scroll-down menu the wider it gets and I can't figure out how to start a new line (ex. I wanted to write "Baseball & Texas A&M Books I've Read", but it was too long and it made the menu really wide which then made the tool bar wider, cutting into the area I usually type in, ie. the area you're reading right now becomes more and more narrow).
If anyone understands what I'm saying and knows how to fix the problem, please let me know.....also, does anyone know how to change the color of the scroll-down, I'd like it to be the same color as the rest of the page....
Thursday October 30th, 2003
3:06am
It's Great to be Back...
I can't tell you how naked I felt without my computer the last few days. It still amazes me how far technology has come and how dependent upon it we've become. I can't even fathom not having my cell phone...when I forget it or the batteries die, part of me feels like the world is just passing me by.
Anyways, I've got my computer back and its virus free. Let me be the 200th person to tell you that if you don't have any anti-virus software on your computer, then you're being very risky. After the trouble I've been through over the last month or so with viruses, I'd advise you to get some.....
A Nice Little Surprise
Like I mentioned earlier this week, I have another great Steve Stanley story to tell you guys.
Last week I was checking my emails when I saw one titled "Great Site!"....obviously I knew it couldn't be junk mail. Ha-Ha. So I opened it up and to my surprise (and delight) it was an email from Steve! He said that he stumbled across the site and saw his picture, read my bio and put together that I was the guy who kept coming out to see him play and kept giving him photos I took previously. He thanked me for the pictures, congratulated me on my engagement, and told me he was honored to be on my site.
What a compliment! Here's a guy who I enjoy following and watching play tell me that he's honored that I have a tiny little website out in cyberspace that talks about him. I can't tell you how cool that feels....
I really hope that Steve makes it big in baseball because someone who is so cool and so sincere deserves to be in the spotlight so kids can see him and look up to him as their role model.
Thanks a lot Steve for making my day!
Why College Football Rules the Land
Obviously, I'm a baseball guy, but man oh man is college football creeping in slowly year-by-year. As I've mentioned many times before, I didn't watch or follow football at all until I came to school here at A&M, so I really have been learning what I now know over the last 3 1/2 years.
Two years ago, I was completely stumped why Miami faced Nebraska in the National Championship. I understood that Nebraska was ranked second in the BCS poll, but I just couldn't get over the fact that they didn't even play for the Big XII Championship (Colorado played and beat t.u.). Not only did they not play in the Conference Championship, they were destroyed by a very strong Colorado team, 62-36, in their last game prior to the Rose Bowl. I felt that Colorado was hands down the second best team in the nation and I felt that they should have been facing Miami. I knew that CU had two losses, but I thought that if the NCAA would have a play-off system, then things would be much more fair.
What I didn't know was what a great game college football really is. ESPN's Rece Davis said it best, "In college football the regular season IS the playoffs." I couldn't agree with you more Rece. I have read a couple articles over the last few weeks that touch on this topic and I'd like to share them with you. The problem with that is the links to the articles I wanted to share with you require a subscription to Sports Illustrated. Luckily for you, I can cut and paste....
This first article was written by Austin Murphy for the October 20th issue of SI and it's titled "Clarifying the College Football Title Picture". It was written for the issue that followed the weekend of October 11th, which I documented somewhat.
The second article was written by John Walters and is called "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" and it is out of Sports Illustrated On Campus from the October 28th issue.
Both are great articles and I totally agree with them both....
Ty Warren
For those of you who didn't notice, Ty Warren (former Aggie DLman, 1st round pick last year's draft) was pictured in this past week's SI "Leading Off" section (you know, the section that has the full 2-page pictures from various sporting events)....just thought I'd let yall know....
Tuesday October 28th, 2003
10:21am
The Latest...
Well, I took the 'ole computer to Best Buy and when the guy took a look at it he kinda chuckled and said, "Yeah, you've got quite a few viruses." I took that to be a very bad sign. Anyways, I should get it back Wednesday afternoon, but right now I'm on a computer on-campus.
I don't really have too much time to write because I just spent the last hour or so editing my Steve Stanley stats. Turns out I was missing a game (the July 18th game for those curious minds) and that's what threw everything off. I'm planning on completing the "Statistical Breakdown" worksheet the next time I get to a computer. Until then you're just going to have to wait....
I'd like to throw a thanks out to Dave from Eisenberg Sports
for name dropping the last two days....every little bit helps....and for those of you who are visiting from Dave's site, please bare with me until I get my computer back. I promise it's not always this short and boring....
Til next time....
Monday October 27th, 2003
3:20pm
--Warning--
I have to take my computer into Best Buy because I have some sort of hardcore virus that my anti-virus software can't handle, so I can't promise any great posts until I get it back. I'll try to get to the computer lab on campus to make some posts, but that may or may not fit into my schedule very well.
I have a great Steve Stanley story to tell you when I get back, but until then check out his personal website.
Also, our Webmaster for Iron Spikes, Benny, has updated a ton of picture over the last couple of weeks so you can check those out on our website. Some are pretty funny. Click here or use the picture link I have on the left hand side of the page. If it asks for a password, just click cancel.
Here's a good article comparing Josh Beckett to Mark Prior...my $ still goes on Prior any day of the week....
Here's the Dowd Report, in case anyone wants to read the whole Pete Rose case....
That's about all I've got for now....hopefully these computer "geniuses" can get this little problem taken care of quite quickly.....
Sunday October 26th, 2003
12:38pm
Way to Go Marlins!
I know that I said that I didn't really care about the World Series this year, but I actually did want the Yankees to lose.
I'm glad that Pudge will finally get a ring, especially after everyone (including myself) thought it was crazy for Florida to give him a 1-year $10 mil. contract. I'm also glad that Beckett established himself in the national spotlight. He sure is a cocky guy, but he's going to be really good for a few years, barring injuries.
A&M 10 vs. #19 Oklahoma St. 38
Another game, another collapse somewhere. I thought we had a shot at the Cowboys but they came right out of the box and smoked us...and I was wrong. Saterday's biggest problems were penalties (9 for 71 yards), and not stopping the blitz (5 for -39 yards).
I'm not sure if you remember at the beginning of the year I became infuriated at our losses (I remember the Pitt & the V-Tech games most vividly) and I promised to try to view the games more from a spectator's view rather than someone who's life is on the line with every possession. I'd like to say that I'm almost there. Each game I seem to be a little less hard on myself and the team and more realistic about the outcomes. I will always go into the games thinking that we've got a shot to win, but I realize that when we play a #19 ranked team and we're somewhere in the mid-50s in the rankings that we're really the underdog. We're a very young team learning a new program and I myself even knew going into the year it wasn't our year, but in 2005 everyone else needs to watch out. Anyways, here's my recap of the game:
Offense
I'm going to repeat something that I overheard from a frustrated Ag during the Nebraska game, "Why don't they (Nebraska) just give us the ball? They're going to end up with better field position that way." Sad to say, that's almost true. After the first 3 quarters yesterday, we had not scored an offensive TD since the 4th quarter vs. Baylor. #16 Reggie played another subpar game after coming on strong up through the Baylor game. He was 13-of-27 for 183 yards and 1 INT, but 86 of those yards came in the 4th quarter. #16 Reggie was sacked 5 times (I'm not sure if that's a high for him or not, but it's got to be close) and he could have thrown the ball away on at least 3 of those. A couple times a sack ended our drive and one was a sack/fumble that took us from 3rd and goal on the 2 yard line to 4th and goal on the 17 yardline. Overall I just didn't feel good about his performance.
My boy #5 T-Murph, did step up like I thought he would. Going into the game Terrence was #2 in the nation averaging __ yards per/kick return but he only handled one kick and brought it back for 21 yards. The Cowboys did a great job keeping the ball out of #5 Murphy and #7 Carter's hands on kick-off by kicking the ball out of the endzone 6 or 7 times. Regardless, T-Murph had a season high 98 yards receiving on 6 receptions to go with his 38 rushing yards on 3 carries.
#7 Jason Carter didn't have the game I thought he would (just like all the other times I thought the same). It's really not his fault...he was only able to return one kick (for 16 yards) and he only had one reception for 16 yards. That was it.
The bright spot of our offense was redshirt RB #25 Courtney Lewis. C-Lew had a career best 171 yards on 26 carries and 1 TD. He averaged 6.6 yards/carry which brought his season average to 6.3. He has moved into 2nd place on the A&M All-Time Freshman rushing list with 779 yards needing to eclipse Gred Hill's 1991 total of 1,216 to be the leader. C-Lew also leads the team in TDs with 10, one in every game exept the Nebraska game.
Bottom line is we need to score some points to just compete, let alone win in these games.
Defense
It just doesn't seem to be there this year. We just look so slow we can't get to these fast and strong Big XII RBs.We gave up 235 yards rushing and 208 yards receiving to OSU, with Tatum Bell leading the way with 196 yards and 3 TDs.
I noticed about 1/2 through the second quarter that their Heisman candidate, Rahaun Woods, had only 3 passes his direction (one a 21-yard TD, one pass interference was called, and another comletion for 34 yards). That scared me. He finished the day with 4 receptions for 103 yards and 2 TDs. It was like they weren't even trying to get him the ball and he scores twice and eclipses the century mark. Phew...at least they didn't throw to him like they did against SMU when he had 7 TDs.
Our tackle leader was #41 Archie McDaniel with 10 and for possibly the first time all year #19 Jaxon Appel didn't finish in the top 3 (he had 6 tackles).
Whoop! For Aggie Volleyball
I'd just like to congratulate the #21 Aggie Volleyball Ladies for their sweep over t.u. on Friday night. No one ever goes to their games, but they are actually fun to watch and we've got a pretty good team year in and year out.......
