SEC 2013

SEC The Eagle • AggieSports.com • MyAggieNation.com

LEGENDARY PLAYERS & SEASON PREVIEWS

2013

SEC COVER

RUNNING DOWN A DREAM

KEVIN SUMLIN AND THE AGGIES TAKE ON YEAR TWO IN THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE

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2013 The Eagle

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14 44 Stuart Villanueva

INDEX 6

Robert Cessna gives his take on Texas A&M’s highly anticipated season

44 Tennessee: Running back (and coach) Johnny Majors

8

Offseason circus continues into fall for Heisman winner Johnny Manziel

46 Vanderbilt: Offensive lineman Will Wolford

14

Kevin Sumlin leads A&M into year two in the Southeastern Conference

48 Where Johnny Manziel’s record-breaking 2012 season ranks in SEC history

16

SEC Past & Present: Legendary players and season previews

50 The preseason All-SEC team 52

The ABCs of Johnny Manziel

18

Alabama: Lee Roy Jordan

54

20

Arkansas: Bill Montgomery

The SEC All-Name Team, from Mister Cobble to Taz Zettergren

22

Auburn: Safety Buddy McClinton

57

24

LSU: Running back Charles Alexander

Predictions on A&M’s season by Kirk Bohls, Ivan Maisel, Ralph Russo, George Schroeder and Andre Ware

26

Mississippi State: Linebacker D.D. Lewis

58

28

Ole Miss: Deuce McAllister

An SEC mix tape: Songs for some of the conference’s players, coaches and personalities

30 Texas A&M: Charlie Krueger 34

Florida: Wide receiver Carlos Alvarez

36

Georgia: Quarterback Eric Zeier

60 Fun With Flow Charts: How to drink the Kool-Aid and believe A&M will win the national title

38

Kentucky: Quarterback Tim Couch

61

40 Missouri: Brock Olivo 42

South Carolina: George Rogers

Catch Him If You Can: A comic take on Nick Saban plotting to stop Johnny Manziel

Editor’s note: SEC 2013, a magazine produced by The Eagle and AggieSports.com, went to print the same week allegations were made public against Johnny Manziel. The claims — that he took money for autographs — initiated an NCAA investigation that at press time remained ongoing. Log on to theeagle.com or AggieSports.com for updates.

4

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

Publisher Crystal Dupré Editor Kelly Brown Managing editor Darren Benson Projects editor Rob Clark Executive sports editor Robert Cessna Designer Kim White Manziel A to Z Designer Josh Siegel Reporters Larry Bowen David Campbell Richard Croome David Harris Advertising director Ron Prince Display advertising manager Joanne R. Patranella Creative services manager Jim Bob McKown

ON THE RADIO

Join The Eagle sports crew — Robert Cessna, Robert Premeaux, David Harris, Larry Bowen and David Campbell — each weekday for Aggie Nation. We talk all things A&M, and also national sports issues, along with the daily High School Report. And The Eagle newsroom brings us news and entertainment as well. It’s Monday through Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. on SportsRadio 1150 The Zone.

Check out MyAggieNation.com, our new website dedicated to Texas A&M. You can read all about Aggie traditions and personalities, explore the campus evolution and learn what professors and former students are up to. And you can explore Aggie sports history, including year-by-year analysis of the football team, going all the way back to 1894.

Cover: Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

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2013

Expectations high for A&M’s encore Editor’s note: SEC 2013, a magazine produced by The Eagle and AggieSports.com, went to print the same week allegations were made public against Johnny Manziel. The claims — that he took money for autographs — initiated an NCAA investigation that at press time remained ongoing. Log on to theeagle.com or AggieSports.com for updates.

A

s good as last year was, Aggies are hopeful it was just the beginning.

Texas A&M has a chance to have the best season in school history. If A&M beats Alabama on Sept. 14, a national championship becomes a distinct possibility.

Just beating Alabama a ROBERT second straight year would CESSNA be gigantic. Some think A&M caught Alabama and the rest of the Southeastern Conference by surprise last season. The stars aligned for the Aggies and quarterback Johnny Manziel, who went from an unknown redshirt freshman to the Heisman Trophy winner.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart have had time to prepare for Manziel. But if the Aggies wake up Sept. 15 at 3-0, to quote former announcer Keith Jackson, “Whoa, Nellie.”

There still would be plenty of work to do.

A&M has four SEC road games, including a return trip to Ole Miss on Sept. 12. That’s where this bandwagon got rolling last year, when the Aggies overcame six turnovers and rallied from a 27-17 fourth-quarter deficit to squeak out a win.

The Aggies have to play at LSU on Nov. 23. By then, all the young talent Les Miles has to rely on will be experienced enough to stand as a major roadblock. And if the Aggies are lucky enough to win the SEC West, there’s still the SEC title game with Georgia, Florida or South Carolina.

You can get giddy thinking about what’s ahead. But caution is in order.

A&M has had more heartache than joy

6

Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

Johnny Manziel and his teammates had plenty of reason to smile in the 2012 season, as they did after beating SMU on the road, 48-3. The Aggies were undefeated on the road and at neutral locations.

when flirting with national championships.

It was just two years ago that A&M, ranked eighth in the country, blew a 17-point halftime lead at home to Oklahoma State, which started a downward spiral to 7-6. And in 1995, coming off a 10-0-1 season, the Aggies were ranked third. Coach R.C. Slocum put a framed picture of Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium, the site of the national title game, up in the locker room. That dream turned into a nightmare in the third game of the season in an ugly 29-21 loss at Colorado.

Even worse was 1975, when A&M was ranked No. 2 after beating Texas, then got steamrolled by Arkansas in the last week of the regular season.

There have been other disappointments.

So Aggies of all ages can remember a possible national championship slipping away.

Only the most senior among us have experienced a national championship run.

It’s hard not to think about past failures.

But this team has something the others didn’t: Manziel. He is the nation’s best player. He proved it last season, play after play, game after game. He helped to beat the game’s best coach with the best team on

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

the road. He led a team into the country’s best conference and won 11 games, roughly twice as many as predicted. He was the best thing to happen to A&M since the university admitted women.

Kevin Sumlin was good enough in his first season as head coach to earn a $1.1 million raise. The best thing Sumlin did was change the program’s demeanor. He expected to win, so much that he was downright cocky. His attitude has been contagious, extending outside the locker room.

A&M has designs on being the best in the nation’s best conference. The Aggies expect to have double-digit win seasons with regularity and prove that last year was not an anomaly. It is what’s expected to be the norm.

This year can be a huge step in that process. A&M has the talent. The schedule is manageable. College football is here for the Aggies’ taking like never before.

The season, particularly the game on Sept.

14, can’t get here fast enough.

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2013

Circus continues for Manziel

By LARRY BOWEN | larry.bowen@theeagle.com

M

‘Time to get ready’ On the field last season, Manziel roared, earning the coolest nickname and the biggest award in college football. Johnny Football led the Aggies to a stunning 11-2 record in their first season as members of the mighty Southeastern Conference.

8

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

edia Day at Texas A&M was supposed to be a time for head football coach Kevin Sumlin to showcase the 31 recruits he lured to Aggieland, not to put the floodlights on Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel — the star quarterback whom many predict will head to the NFL after the upcoming season.

The focus, however, instead sharpened on the confident 20-yearold Manziel, whose off-the-field exploits in the spring and summer months captured national and local headlines.

Those adventures all were rated PG and didn’t threaten Manziel’s eligibility to play college football. That’s a distinct change from a sobering accusation made by ESPN on the eve of fall practice, citing three unnamed sources who suggested Manziel took money for signing autographs and putting his signature on football paraphernalia.

With an NCAA inquiry into the matter underway and no deadline offered, A&M’s first game against Rice can’t come soon enough.

Just a month earlier, Manziel was telling the press corps at SEC Media Days in Alabama that even when he’s in front of 80,000 fans and a national television audience, the field is a sanctuary for him. “[When] football season comes around, you just put your head down and you work with your teammates,” Manziel told the media in July. “You’re on such a different schedule than being able to go places on the weekend or anything like that. You’re grinding. It’s 14 weeks of really working your butt off and being with your teammates and continuing to get better. That’s what you have to do. Offthe-field stuff goes away. You talk with what you do on Saturdays.”

2013 Unprecedented success brought unprecedented attention, and Manziel fanned the flames of public interest through the offseason with a flashy lifestyle and a fondness for social media. Since winning the Heisman, the 20-year-old Manziel has been pictured showing off cash at a casino, holding a bottle of champagne at a nightclub, sitting courtside at an NBA game and partying in various spots. He has done guest shots with Letterman and Leno, and become friends with NBA star LeBron James and rapper Drake.

Manziel’s midsummer tweet about being in a hurry to leave College Station caused national headlines, as did his appearance at a fraternity party in Austin two weeks before the start of preseason camp.

There has never been anything quite like the frenzy involving Manziel. Even the Aggie fans who say “Let Johnny be Johnny” must wonder whether the whirlwind will leave Manziel dizzied as he begins his sophomore season.

Manziel is often compared to former Alabama and New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath because of his swagger. Ask Manziel if he’ll be affected by what’s happened off the field, and he channels Broadway Joe, who guaranteed the Jets’ shocking victory over Baltimore in Super Bowl III. “All this stuff that’s gone on will have no effect on me going into the season,” Manziel said in July. “I guarantee y’all when August comes, when it’s time to get ready to go and it’s football time, I will be absolutely 115 percent prepared to go.”

Associated Press

The media crowded around Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel during SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., in July.

Manziel’s teammates backed their man publicly at SEC Media Days.

“First and foremost, I’d like to say Johnny’s a great guy,” defensive back Toney Hurd said. “He’s a humble guy. When the season starts, he’ll be ready to go.”

Offensive tackle Jake Matthews said he wasn’t bothered by Manziel’s offseason adventures.

Continued on Page 11

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

9

2013 Continued from Page 9 “I don’t concern myself with those things,” Matthews said. “I know Johnny’s a great competitor, and I know he’ll be ready when the season comes around.”

‘Out of nowhere’ It’s hard to believe there were questions about whether Manziel was the man for the job going into last season. He competed with the more-experienced Jameill Showers during spring training in 2012 and many observers considered Showers the favorite.

Manziel was named the starter during twoa-days.

“He came out of nowhere and took over as one of the leaders of the team,” Matthews said.

Manziel’s debut season was stunning.

He broke the SEC record for total offense with 5,116 yards, smashing the mark set by 2010 Heisman winner Cam Newton, who gained 4,327 at Auburn. Manziel completed 295 of 434 passes for 3,706 yards and 26

touchdowns with nine interceptions.

Electrifying outside the pocket, Manziel ran for 1,410 yards to become the first player in NCAA history to surpass 5,000 yards in total offense and 1,000 yards rushing.

The Aggies lost their opener against Florida and fell to Louisiana State in October, but finished strong by winning their final six games. That sizzling stretch included a 29-24 road upset of top-ranked Alabama and a 41-13 thrashing of former Big 12 foe Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.

Manziel was terrific in both games.

Against Alabama, he completed 24 of 31 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns, including his “Heisman moment” when he bobbled the ball, recovered and found Ryan Swope open in the end zone for a score. Manziel shattered the Cotton Bowl total offense record by running for 229 yards and throwing for 287.

The Cotton Bowl performance should encourage Aggie fans wondering whether Manziel can return to form after his tumultuous offseason. There were similar

doubts before he lowered the boom on the Sooners, questions about whether his post-Heisman activities would prevent him from focusing on football.

Manziel and A&M beat an Oklahoma team coached by noted defensive mind Bob Stoops, whose staff had extra time to prepare. Consider it a crack in the foundation of the theory that Manziel will be less effective this season because coaches such as Alabama’s Nick Saban used the offseason to come up with ways to contain him.

“I think last season, seven or eight games in, somebody had to figure out that our team and what we were doing was pretty impressive,” Manziel said. “Obviously what we did at the end of the season — to have an 11-2 record, Cotton Bowl champs, and just doing what we did in the SEC — people are probably going to be gunning for us. I’m OK with that. That’s fine. That’s how things go. But we’ll be just as prepared. I guarantee that.

“I can’t wait. I love football season and there’s not a greater time than that.”

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2013

Sumlin ‘anxious’ for fall structure

By ROBERT CESSNA | robert.cessna@theeagle.com

F

Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

or a coach known for his offensive expertise, Kevin Sumlin spent a lot of time this summer on the defensive — talking about the actions of his players, particularly Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

A year ago, A&M’s head football coach was answering questions about how his pass-oriented philosophy would hold up in the defensive-minded Southeastern Conference. But the Aggies blazed their way to an 11-2 record. Many of the major components of that offense are returning, making A&M a national contender.

Now Sumlin faces questions about off-the-field actions heading into the season, including assault charges against Floyd Raven Sr. and Deshazor Everett stemming from an April incident. And Manziel has been under constant scrutiny this summer, particularly for the autograph-for-profit allegations, leaving the Manning Passing Academy early, and a couple of his tweets that some found offensive.

“He’s made poor choices [and] he’s made good choices,” Sumlin said at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., on July 17, just days after Manziel left the Manning Academy. “Unfortunately, the good choices aren’t the ones that people see.”

Sumlin added that Manziel hasn’t been a distraction for the program, and that players are largely on their own until they report for fall camp.

“The offseason is the offseason,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that happen — guys come and go. We got 31 new guys coming into the program who are just trying to figure out their way from the dorm to class and the weight room.

Everybody’s got some issues. The way the rules are set up right now as a head coach or the assistant coaches, [we] have very limited access to 14

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

2013 our players to talk about different things. That’s why I’m anxious to get to [fall camp], where I do have some structure going on for our younger players and for our older players.”

Sumlin’s ability to relate to young players is one of his greatest assets, said ESPN’s Andre Ware, the 1989 Heisman winner.

“He understands the dynamics of pushing players’ buttons in terms of getting the most out of each individual player,” Ware said.

“How to coach each individual player is different. He can scream at one player and he’s gotta pat another on the back. He understands how to do that, and that’s what makes him special.”

In Sumlin’s first year at A&M, the Aggies finished fifth in the nation. Expectations are even higher for 2013 with 10 starters returning, led by Manziel, along with senior All-American offensive tackle Jake Matthews and sophomore wide receiver Mike Evans, who had 82 catches for 1,105 yards in 2012.

“The excitement level is really, really high,” Sumlin said. “That’s a good thing.”

A&M also is undertaking a $450 million renovation of Kyle Field, expanding it to seat 102,500. That would top the SEC and the state of Texas.

“That is a product of the momentum and the enthusiasm coming off of last year,” Sumlin said.

Sumlin has A&M in position to win after Manziel leaves, whenever that may be. His 2013 recruiting class was ranked ninth in the country by 247 Sports, and A&M has 14 commitments for the

Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin speaks at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas prior to the 2013 Cotton Bowl. Sumlin led the Aggies to an 11-2 record in his first season.

2014 class, which earned a No. 7 ranking heading into August.

“He can recruit very, very well,” Ware said. “He’s passionate about what he does. You look at the players that are coming in.

He is a tireless worker. He’s got energy to where he is still in living rooms. He wants to put his handprint on it rather than his coaching staff doing all the work, and he comes in and seals the deal. He is still very much hands-on who is coming to A&M.”

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

15

PHOTO CREDITS Bill Montgomery: Arkansas Athletics.

Charles Alexander: LSU Sports Information Deuce McAllister: Ole Miss Athletics.

Brock Olivo: Missouri Athletics.

Buddy McClinton: Auburn Sports Information.

Charlie Krueger: Texas A&M Sports Information.

George Rogers: South Carolina Athletics.

Lee Roy Jordan: Alabama Sports Information.

Tim Couch: Kentucky Athletics.

Carlos Alvarez: Florida Athletics.

Eric Zeier: Georgia Athletics D.D. Lewis: Mississippi State Athletics.

Brock Olivo: Missouri Athletics.

Johnny Majors: Tennessee Athletics.

Will Wolford: Vanderbilt Athletics

LEE ROY JORDAN

BUDDY McCLINTON

E

Z RIC

EIE

R

PAUL “BEAR” BRYANT

Flash back to legendary players and look ahead to the 2013 season

TIM COUCH

Past & resent P DEUCE McALLISTER

CHARLIE KRUEGER

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

Lee Roy Jordan #54 | C-LB | 1960-62

Gritty linebacker became All-Pro player with Cowboys

By ROBERT CESSNA | robert.cessna@theeagle.com

L

ee Roy Jordan had a way of stealing the spotlight.

He ended his All-American career at Alabama with 31 tackles in the 1963 Orange Bowl, a much-anticipated game between two of the game’s greatest coaches.

The Sooners were guided by Bud Wilkinson, who already had won three national championships. Alabama was coached by Paul “Bear” Bryant, who was coming off his first national title.

If that wasn’t enough of a draw, Alabama’s quarterback was sophomore sensation Joe Namath.

“He didn’t hurt us at all,” said Jordan with a laugh. “He wasn’t bad.”

It was big enough that President John F. Kennedy attended, taking part in the coin toss with the game captains, including Jordan. The linebacker dominated the game and helped throttle OU’s high-powered offense in Alabama’s 17-0 victory.

“Lee Roy told me he missed some tackles,” Bryant told reporters afterward. “But I imagine the films will show he made a few.”

Jordan first earned Bryant’s attention with a monster game during his high school junior season at Excel, a small town in southwest Alabama.

“I never really thought about playing college ball until I was a junior,” he said. “But I had a good growth spurt, and 18

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

when one of Coach Bryant’s coaches saw us play another team, I had a better game than the guy they were scouting on the other team. So they come over after the game and met my coach and all the players and said they’d be back to watch next year. And they were there every game next year.”

Jordan also played center on offense at Alabama, but it was his play at linebacker that made the Cowboys draft him No. 6 in 1963 and got him inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He earned MVP honors in the Bluebonnet Bowl against Texas his sophomore season. In his junior year, Alabama went undefeated and won the national championship. Alabama capped the season in the Sugar Bowl with a 10-3 victory over Arkansas, and allowed only 25 points that season. Jordan earned second-team AllAmerican honors. The Tide almost matched that in 1962, going 11-1. Jordan finished fourth in the voting for the 1962 Heisman Trophy.

“It was a great experience for a kid coming out of a small high school and getting the opportunity to play for Coach Bryant, getting to play on a national championship team and then almost winning another one,” Jordan said. “I don’t think we lost but three games in two years, so we had a pretty good run at it.”

The run ended with that win over Oklahoma. Jordan had his most memorable game, stopping the run against a team that had reshaped the way college teams moved the football, splitting its three running backs farther apart than the Wing T offense had. Jordan’s 31 tackles remain an Orange Bowl record, though he says the style of play at the time — heavy on the running, light on the defensive substitutions — helped those numbers.

“I played every down [on defense] and they didn’t make me play as much on offense as I normally did,” he said. “So they gave me a little rest and gave me a little more energy just for playing defense that particular game.”

Jordan went on to be an All-Pro player for the Dallas Cowboys from 1963 to 1976.

He set the franchise record for tackles with 1,236, and still ranks second on that list behind Darren Woodson, who ended his career in 2003 with 1,350.

Jordan bought Redwood Lumber Co. of Dallas in 1977 and renamed it Lee Roy Jordan Redwood Lumber Co. With facilities in Dallas and Hillsboro, his

company is one of the largest suppliers of specialty woods in eight states, he says.

The 72-year-old says Bryant was “very instrumental” in his life, and that he taught his players about loyalty, work ethic and winning on and off the field.

Jordan still carries the banner for his alma mater. He attends several games per season and attends alumni functions. And he says the games have been more fun in recent years because of Coach Nick Saban.

“I just have so much respect for Coach Saban because he is teaching the same things another winning coach had taught me 50 years ago,” Jordan said. “Here he is, teaching young people and young players the same message now about being successful as a person and being successful in life. Just what you can do by working hard, planning, having integrity and supporting your teammates and being loyal to everyone around you. I look at it and say, ‘Hey, that message works today just as well as it did 50 years ago.’”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Virginia Tech (in Atlanta)

Oct. 5

Georgia State

Nov. 9

LSU

Sept. 14

at Texas A&M

Oct. 12

at Kentucky

Nov. 16

at Mississippi State

Sept. 21

Colorado State

Oct. 19

Arkansas

Nov. 23

Chattanooga

Sept. 28

Ole Miss

Oct. 26

Tennessee

Nov. 30

at Auburn

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Alabama won its third national title in the past four seasons, capped by a 42-14 victory over Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide, 13-1, won its last four games after a 29-24 home loss to Texas A&M. The only close victory was a 32-28 win over Georgia in the SEC championship that ended with Georgia at the Alabama 5-yard line.

QB AJ McCarron, senior (211-314, 2,933 yards, 30 TD, 3 INT) RB T.J. Yeldon, sophomore (175 carries, 1,108 yards, 6.3 avg., 12 TD) WR Amari Cooper, sophomore (59 catches, 1,000 yards, 16.9 avg., 11 TD) OG Anthony Steen, senior (14 starts) OT Cyrus Kouandjio, junior (14 starts) LB C.J. Mosley, senior (team-leading 107 tackles) LB Adrian Hubbard, junior (41 tackles, 7 sacks) CB Deion Belue, senior (40 tackles) S HaHa Clinton-Dix, junior (37 tackles, 5 INT) LB Trey DePriest, sophomore (59 tackles) S Vinnie Sunseri, junior (54 tackles, 20 passes broken up)

PLAYER’S QUOTE “I’m here to win, I want to win as a team.

I want to win national championships. I’m not really worried about individual stuff.”

— Quarterback AJ McCarron

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Alabama is 50-0 in the past five seasons when it rushes for at least 150 yards. Texas A&M held the Crimson Tide to 122 yards rushing in last year’s 29-24 upset victory.

COACH’S QUOTE “I’m never satisfied. I spoke to a bunch of alumni groups today, and they all want me to make a comparison between this year’s team and last year’s team, and the team before that, and the team before that, and the team before that. And I wasn’t happy with any of those teams at this point. If I was happy with them, we wouldn’t have summer conditioning, we would not have fall camp, and we wouldn’t have 30 practices to get ready for our first game against Virginia Tech. We’d just pack it in and say, ‘All right, let’s go to Atlanta and play the [SEC title] game.’ We’re not there yet.” — Nick Saban after spring drills

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19

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

Bill Montgomery #10 | QB | 1968-70

Record-breaking quarterback reflects on winning ways

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com

W

hen asked about his legacy in Fayetteville, former Arkansas quarterback Bill Montgomery has a one-word answer: “Winning.”

Makes sense for a player who led the Hogs to 28 wins in three seasons, all during the golden era of Razorbacks football (1968 to 1970).

Montgomery was highly recruited out of Carrollton north of Dallas. Arkansas coach Frank Broyles’ innovative split-back, twowide system would feature Montgomery in a unique fashion.

“It was a lot of different styles for the quarterback,” he said. “A lot of option, a lot of sprint-out, play-action, all kinds of movement in the backfield. It lended itself well to someone who could run a little bit, throw a little bit.”

Montgomery led Arkansas to a 10-1 record in 1968 and a Sugar Bowl win against Georgia. It set the tone for 1969. Arkansas steamrolled through the first nine games of the season, winning each by at least 13 points. The offense was held to less than 30 points just twice. And the defense, ranked No. 1 in the country, had given up just 7.6 points per game.

Then came the Texas game. The Longhorns were No. 1 and the Razorbacks were ranked second. The winner would go to the Cotton Bowl and be favored to win the national championship. President Richard Nixon even made the trip to Fayetteville to take in the game. More than half of all television sets in the United States (52.1 percent) were tuned in, according to ABC. It was dubbed “The Game of the Century.”

“It was a confluence of many things,” Montgomery said, “and when you add them all up in a bowl, you end up with the thought of, ‘Wow, what a game.’ It was quite something to play in.”

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The game put Texas’ top-ranked offense against Arkansas’ topranked defense. Through three quarters, defense was winning.

Arkansas had shut out James Street and the Longhorns’ wishbone attack. Montgomery had led an efficient attack, resulting in two long scoring drives. But on the first play of the fourth quarter, Street sprinted into the end zone for the Longhorns’ first score, then dove into the end zone for a two-point conversion. Arkansas led, 14-8.

Montgomery led the Hogs on a 73-yard drive, chewing up precious time and getting Arkansas to within 7 yards of the goal line. Broyles called a pass play on second down, which was nearly intercepted.

“In hindsight, you run the ball and kick the field goal,” Montgomery said. “And they have to score twice with six minutes left.

When you get inside the 10-yard line, it’s not easy to throw there.

The field closes in on you.”

On third down, Broyles called another pass play. Texas defensive back Danny Lester jumped the route and picked off the pass. It was just the seventh interception of the season for Montgomery.

“I’d give anything to have thrown it up in the stands,” he said.

Street led the Longhorns on a last-gasp drive down the field, even converting a 44-yard pass on fourth down near midfield. Jim Bertelsen ran for a 2-yard touchdown. The Longhorns prevailed, 1514, and went on to win the national championship.

“That singular game,” Montgomery said, “was clearly the most important sporting event I ever participated in, and it was a crushing defeat for the team, the school and the state.”

Arkansas ended up falling in its bowl game and finishing the year at 9-2.

During his senior season, Montgomery

led the Razorbacks to another 9-2 finish. His offense ranked third in the country in scoring (36.5 points per game). And Montgomery had his best statistical season, throwing for 1,662 yards

and 10 touchdowns. He finished his career with an overall record of 28-5. It was the highest winning percentage (.875) in the school’s history over any three-year period. At the time of his graduation, Montgomery had rewritten the Arkansas record books, leading in career touchdown passes (29), career passing yards (4,590), singleseason passing yards (1,662) and single-game passing yards (338).

Montgomery, 64, was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall Of Fame in 1997. He also is a member of Arkansas’ All-Century Team and Arkansas’ Sports Hall of Honor. He eventually moved back to the Dallas area after graduating in 1971. He worked with Morgan Stanley and served as director of Hicks Acquisition Co. during a successful business career. He retired in 2009.

But that third-down play against Texas still gnaws at him.

“Time moves on,” he said.

“But I’ll never get over it.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Louisiana-Lafayette

Sept. 28

Nov. 2

Texas A&M

Auburn

Sept. 7

Samford

Oct. 5

at Florida

Nov. 9

at Ole Miss

Sept. 14

Southern Mississippi

Oct. 12

South Carolina

Nov. 23

Mississippi State

Sept. 21

at Rutgers

Oct. 19

at Alabama

Nov. 29

at LSU

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

In April 2012, coach Bobby Petrino was fired after reports of an affair with a member of the athletic department. Former assistant John L. Smith was brought in to take over on an interim basis. The Razorbacks were upset

by UL-Monroe, then lost their next three games by a combined score of 145-36. The Hogs went from preseason Top 10 rankings to a disappointing 4-8 season. The Razorbacks lured Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema to Fayetteville.

QB Brandon Allen, sophomore (21-49, 186 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT) RB Jonathan Williams, sophomore (45 carries, 231 yards) WR Mekale McKay, sophomore (21 rec., 317 yards, 2 TD) DE Chris Smith, senior (9.5 sacks) C Travis Swanson, senior (12 starts) OT David Hurd, senior (11 starts) DE Trey Flowers, junior (6 sacks) WR Javontee Herndon, senior (21 rec., 304 yards, 3 TD) OT Brey Cook, junior (6 starts) CB Will Hines, sophomore (24 tackles, 1 INT)

COACH’S QUOTE

PLAYER’S QUOTE

“Going into fall, it reminds me a lot of when I took over at Wisconsin.

Now, we finished that season 12-1, but we started the season ranked like 65th or 68th in the country because everybody thought we lost a lot of good players and had a new coach that they didn’t know a lot about. That same thing now, but we are playing in not just the best conference, but the best division in college football.” — Bret Bielema

“Going through this spring, we learned so much who [Bielema] is as a coach and a person, which is really refreshing to us. This spring we have made some huge steps.

I don’t think we are where we need to be, but we have summer and fall camp to get there.” — Center Travis Swanson

ALSO OF NOTE ...

The Razorbacks were the SEC’s worst rushing attack last season, averaging just 118.7 yards per game.

Game Changer.

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SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

21

AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Buddy McClinton #27 | S | 1967-69

Star safety still holds Auburn interception records

By DAVID CAMPBELL | david.campbell@theeagle.com

A

uburn found Buddy McClinton late. McClinton found a school that would become like family.

“Candidly, if there was one word that really described Auburn University and the feeling that you have about the school, it’s ‘family,’ and I mean that with all my heart,” McClinton said. “What happens is that you are adopted and become a part of a family. I run into people who I haven’t seen in 20 or 30 years and all they want to do is talk about Auburn football. Not just past Auburn glory, but also present.”

His career at safety still shines brightly among those memories. McClinton holds the Auburn record for career interceptions with 18, a remarkable number considering freshmen could not play, limiting him to three seasons in the Tigers’ secondary.

McClinton attended Montgomery’s Robert E. Lee High School, which was an Alabama powerhouse that has won eight state football titles. He estimates he was 5-foot8 and 150 pounds, and says not many “big schools” were recruiting him.

“I had grown up an Alabama fan, because my mother was a big Alabama fan,” he says. “But Alabama did not think I was big enough to play.”

McClinton’s high school coach, Tom Jones, was hired as Auburn’s freshman coach. He convinced head coach Shug Jordan to offer McClinton a scholarship. McClinton holds the school’s single-season interception mark with nine his senior year, and the 22

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

career mark with 18.

“I’m amazed that the record still stands, only because you’ve got five years to play four now,” McClinton said. “We had three years on the varsity and only had 10-game schedules. So we played 30 games, and now the kids all play 12 games, plus a possible conference [title] game after that — and they have an extra year.”

Pat Sullivan and his star receiver, Terry Beasley, were sophomores in McClinton’s senior season. Sullivan was on a path to become Auburn’s first Heisman Trophy winner. But the 1969 Auburn Tigers were built on defense. They had two shutouts and held two other teams to three points. And they embarrassed one of the top offenses in college football. Florida boasted the combination of quarterback John Reaves and receiver Carlos Alvarez, and the Gators were undefeated and ranked seventh in the nation when they rolled into Auburn. The Tigers intercepted nine passes — still an NCAA record — in a 38-12 win.

“We just absolutely wore them out,” McClinton said. “They didn’t know what hit them. They had no idea what happened.”

The rivalry game with Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide loomed. The Tigers had lost to the Tide the previous two years.

“So this was our last chance, and we beat them 49-26,” McClinton said. “We scored the most points, the most touchdowns, that had ever been scored on a Bear Bryant team.”

McClinton had to fight his own teammates for interceptions.

When he set Auburn’s single-season record with nine in 1969, teammate and fellow All-American Larry Willingham had seven. Don Webb, the opposite-side cornerback who was McClinton’s roommate, had led the team in interceptions the previous year.

“We had a great secondary, and a great linebacker in Mike Kolen and an All-American tackle in David Campbell, so we felt like we could play with anybody,” McClinton said.

There could have been even more.

NCAA records did not reflect totals in bowl games. McClinton had three pickoffs, returning one for a touchdown, in a 34-10 Sun Bowl win over Arizona in 1968, and was named MVP of the game.

“That Sun Bowl game was huge and they were beating us at halftime,” he recalled. “Coach Jordan very rarely raised his voice. He was such a gentleman and so positive, and I’m telling you, he was so upset with us and read us the riot act. When we hit the field, we made a big comeback in beating them.”

McClinton was an All-American

defensive back and also earned Academic All-American honors at Auburn. He is now the chairman of the board and CEO of McClinton and Co., which develops shopping centers. His son, David, who played at Auburn in the 1990s, is the company’s president and chief operating officer.

Buddy McClinton joined the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and was a finalist for the College Football Hall of Fame this year. He credits the team aspect of football, and equates it to family.

“It didn’t matter whether I was the leading interceptor on the team or not,” McClinton said. “The bottom line is I was intercepting some of those passes because Larry Willingham and Don Webb on each side of me had their guys covered, and he was looking somewhere else to throw it. Or Mike Kolen and David Campbell rushing up front hurried the quarterback.

“It’s not an individual thing.

It’s all about team.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Washington State

Oct. 5

Mississippi

Nov. 2

at Arkansas

Sept. 7

Arkansas State

Oct. 12

Western Carolina

Nov. 9

at Tennessee

Sept. 14

Mississippi State

Oct. 19

at Texas A&M

Nov. 16

Georgia

Sept. 21

at LSU

Oct. 26

Florida Atlantic

Nov. 30

Alabama

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Auburn fell to 3-9 and head coach Gene Chizik was fired after the season. He was replaced by former Tigers’ offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who had been the head coach at Arkansas State (10-3 in 2012).

Auburn was one of two conference teams that failed to win a Southeastern Conference game.

RB Tre Mason, junior (171 carries, 1,002 yards, 8 TD) QB Kiehl Frazier, junior (62-116, 753 yards, 2 TD, 8 INT) FB Jay Prosch, senior (12 carries, 28 yards, 2 TD, 5 catches, 19 yards) S Justin Garrett, sophomore (6 tackles, 6 assists) WR Trovon Reed, junior (9 catches, 122 yards) WR Quan Bray, junior (14 catches, 94 yards) DE Dee Ford, senior (23 tackles, 11 assists, 6 sacks) TE Brandon Fulse, junior (7 catches, 136 yards, 1 TD) CB Jonathon Mincy, junior (41 tackles, 16 assists, 4 passes defensed) CB Chris Davis, senior (21 tackles, 21 assists, 3 passes defensed) C Reese Dismukes, junior (third year as starter)

COACH’S QUOTE “The number one thing that our players have to do for us to be successful this year is get our edge back. That is the mental and physical toughness, the blue-collar, hard-nosed, hityou-in-the-mouth Auburn football that’s made Auburn great. Worry about your teammate, not worry about yourself. Lose the entitlement issue.

History shows if Auburn has their edge, they can compete for championships and win games.” — Gus Malzahn

ALSO OF NOTE ...

RB Cameron ArtisPayne rushed for 2,048 yards (7.8 average) and 25 touchdowns in 10 games at California’s Allan Hancock Community College in 2012. As a team, Auburn rushed for 1,781 yards (4.1 average) and 16 touchdowns last season in 12 games.

PLAYER’S QUOTE “We were upset with the way last season ended, but we accept that as motivation. We’re looking forward to flipping that season around. Our mindset is to go undefeated. We know what it feels like to have a losing season.

We’re encouraging each other. We don’t want to go through what happened last year.” — Auburn running back Tre Mason

AggieSports.com SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

23

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Charles Alexander

220-pounder, who won the 1975 Texas 4A state title in the 100yard dash with a time of 9.5 seconds.

“We remember him as an incredible physical specimen who could run like the wind,” said Thad Minaldi, a former teammate who roomed with Alexander on road trips. “We knew greatness was certainly a possibility for him.”

Alexander played as a reserve again as a sophomore, then became a star during his junior season of 1977. That year, Alexander set the LSU and Southeastern Conference single-season rushing record with 1,686 yards. #4 | RB | 1976-78 Although his rushing total dipped to 1,172 yards in his senior year, Alexander finished with 4,035 yards rushing, a school record at the time. He was fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1978.

Alexander credits Stovall for much of his success, saying his position coach joined him for extra work before and after practices and encouraged Alexander to play racquetball to improve his footwork.

Stovall, who also made the College Football Hall of Fame as a player for LSU, won the recruiting battle for Alexander over

By LARRY BOWEN | larry.bowen@theeagle.com Grant Teaff of Baylor and Bill Yeoman of Houston.

“On National Signing Day, at that time coaches could basically harles Alexander spent early December in New York, come to your house and camp outside your house,” Alexander said. where the former Louisiana State running back was “When I left to go to school that morning, I had the UH coach inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. It sitting in my driveway and I had Coach Stovall across the street in was not where Alexander expected to wind up before his car, so I had to make a decision. he went to LSU, or for a long time after he got there.

“I went to Coach Yeoman and I thanked him for recruiting The player LSU fans came to call “Alexander the Great” arrived me, and then I jumped in the car with at Baton Rouge with modest expectations.

Coach Stovall and committed “I had doubts,” Alexander said. “I was wondering if I could to LSU. I think I made a good play, but I figured at least I could go there and get an education. decision.”

My goal was to go to LSU, get an education and come back to Alexander sometimes wonders Galveston and coach high school football. I certainly didn’t think about his NFL destination. After I’d have a career in the NFL.” Cincinnati chose him with Alexander broke the LSU career rushing record, earned Allthe 12th pick in American honors and became a first-round pick in the 1979 NFL the draft , AlexDraft. He played seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. ander became Now 56, Alexander lives near Houston in Missouri City. He the starting works in sales in the oil and gas industry. halfback in a In 1975, Alexander came out of Galveston Ball High School running game as the state sprint champion in track. His football ability was still geared toward raw.

250-pound “In high school, I was a big guy that could run fast, but I really fullback Pete didn’t know how to be patient, how to run the football,” AlexanJohnson. der said. “I had to develop my style. Eventually, with the help of In seven my running backs coach, Jerry Stovall, I learned.” seasons with Asked about highlights of his LSU career, Alexander first the Bengals, mentions his rocky start. In his first game as a freshman against Alexander Nebraska, Alexander carried the ball eight times for minus-2 yards. A backup to Terry Robiskie, Alexander rushed for 301 yards rushed for 2,645 yards. He started as a freshman. for Cincinnati in But his teammates saw great potential in the 6-foot-1,

Texan led SEC in rushing, earned spot in Hall of Fame

C

24

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

Super Bowl XVI. “I had an adjustment to make,” Alexander said. “I wasn’t very happy, but I did what I had to do to try to make the team successful. I definitely wanted to touch the ball a lot more than I did in Cincinnati. I just tried to do the best I could.

“I’m just like anybody else: I always wondered how my career would have turned out if I had maybe gone to another team.”

Alexander went into the College Football Hall of Fame with a class that included former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, another product of Southeast Texas. The ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York was a long way from the Golden Triangle.

“That was a dream come true,” Alexander said. “Going to New York and being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame was something beyond my wildest dreams when I left the little city of Galveston, Texas. I never thought anything like that would happen.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Texas Christian (in Arlington)

Sept. 28

at Georgia

Oct. 26

Furman

Sept. 7

Alabama-Birmingham

Oct. 5

at Mississippi State

Nov. 9

at Alabama

Sept. 14

Kent State

Oct. 12

Florida

Nov. 23

Texas A&M

Sept. 21

Auburn

Oct. 19

at Mississippi

Nov. 30

Arkansas

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Louisiana State went 10-3, including a 6-2 mark in conference games to finish tied for second in the SEC West. The Tigers recovered from a 21-17 home loss to top-ranked Alabama in early November to win their last three games of the regular season. LSU lost the Chick-fil-A Bowl to Clemson, 25-24.

QB Zach Mettenberger, senior (202-352, 2,609 yards, 12 TD) WR Odell Beckham, junior (43 receptions, 713 yards, 2 TD) OT La’El Collins, junior (13 starts) S Craig Loston, senior (55 tackles, 29 unassisted, 3 INT) RB Jeremy Hill, sophomore (142 carries, 755 yards, 12 TD) WR Kadron Boone, senior (26 receptions, 348 yards, 4 TD) LB Lamin Barrow, senior (105 tackles, 52 solo, 7.5 tackles for loss) RB Terrence Magee, junior (9 games, one carry, one reception) S Corey Thompson, sophomore (13 games played, 11 tackles) OT Vadal Alexander, sophomore (9 starts) CB Jalen Mills, sophomore (57 tackles, 2 INT)

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Les Miles refused to eat any of the sponsor’s product before the Chick-fil-A Bowl because he has an endorsement deal with Raising Cane’s.

COACH’S QUOTE

PLAYER’S QUOTE

“When you’re the No. 1 team in the country, you tell your team, ‘Listen, you have to earn that. That’s something you get at the end of the year, a compliment to your program, but you really have not earned that position and will not until the back end.’ A year like this year, where you’re not necessarily picked No. 1, basically there’s a responsibility for us to control the outcome.

The fact is our team kind of looks at each game [as] an opportunity to play for victory. It really does not affect us really what [anyone] outside of the perimeter of that team room says about them.” — Les Miles

“With the guys we got in the front, no matter what quarterback we are playing, you have about three seconds to get the ball out, and that’s what we try to accomplish. We make sure to take care of our jobs. If each of us does our job individually, then we will get the play we want.”

— Safety Craig Loston

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SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

25

MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY

D.D. Lewis #53 | C-LB | 1965-67

All-American linebacker played in five Super Bowls

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com

W

hen D.D. Lewis stands in front of a crowd for a speaking engagement, he can proudly boast of two Super Bowl rings. He is one of eight players in NFL history to have played in five Super Bowls.

But the road wasn’t easy. When he looks back, Lewis said, he feels blessed.

“I couldn’t have lived a better life,” he said.

Lewis was born the youngest of 14 children in Knoxville. He said it was dysfunctional, growing up poor in an overcrowded house.

The expectation was for the kids to get through high school, he said, then go to work and provide for the family.

But Lewis’ nephew talked him into going out for the Fulton High School football team. He starred as an all-state linebacker and received a scholarship to play at Mississippi State. One problem, though.

“My mother wanted me to go to work,” he said, “not go to school.”

Lewis said he convinced his mother, and he headed to Starkville. The coaches grew fond of his style of play.

“They took an immediate liking to my aggression,” he said. “They also liked my technique. I was quick — quicker than I was fast — and I could defend myself 26

against blockers.”

Lewis was a two-way starter (at center and linebacker) during his debut sophomore season in 1965. And the Bulldogs won their first four games, including an upset win over No. 8 Florida and a future Heisman Trophy winner.

“We beat Steve Spurrier,” Lewis recalled. “How cool is that?”

In his next 26 collegiate games, Mississippi State went 3-23.

But Lewis led the Bulldogs in tackles during all three of his varsity seasons. He was named All-SEC in 1966 and 1967. And following his senior season, he was selected as a first-team AllAmerican and was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year.

All for a team that finished 1-9.

Still, NFL teams had their doubts that Lewis was big enough to make it in the pros. He slipped to the sixth round, where the Dallas Cowboys drafted him to back up Chuck Howley.

He made his mark in his first four years on special teams.

“I went nuts on special teams,” he said. “That’s how veterans said they made it in the pros, and that helped me.”

Howley suffered an injury during the 1973 season and Lewis took over the weak side linebacker position. He started 135 consecutive games — third-most in franchise history. He holds the Cowboys’ record for playing in 27 playoff games.

Lewis said that his best attribute was his consistency.

“I’d like to think that the guys could depend on me,” he said.

“That if they needed me, I’d be there.”

The final play of Lewis’ career just happened to be “The Catch” in the 1982 NFC Championship Game. He’s the No. 50 you see running toward Joe Montana, as the 49ers quarterback lets loose one of the most famous throws in NFL history, caught by Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone.

“It really hurt,” Lewis said, “because you have to see that play a million times afterward.”

After Lewis retired, “The Catch” couldn’t have been further from his mind, he said. For three years, Lewis dealt with substance abuse problems. He said it cost him his wife and his children, that he owed the government thousands of dollars and that the bottom was near. But eventually, after three trips to rehab, he got it.

“I had never grown up thinking surrendering would lead to winning,” he said. “But I just surrendered, and that

was the point of change. It’s been a miracle in my life. I’ve been clean and sober for almost 28 years and have had the opportunity to help a lot of people.”

Once he was back on his feet, Lewis got into the agriculture business, moving up the ladder at PotashCorp, a national fertilizer company.

He went around the country, speaking about battling addiction. The 68-year-old retired in Dallas two years ago.

“Playing football, forming those relationships really helped me to bounce back and be successful in business,” he said.

His career came full circle when he received the call in 2001 that he would be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

“I never thought anything like that would come my way,” he said. “That ring they gave me, I wear that more than my Super Bowl rings. It’s been a great honor all the way through, being able to represent Mississippi State.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Oklahoma State

Oct. 5

LSU

Nov. 9

at Texas A&M

Sept. 7

Alcorn State

Oct. 12

Bowling Green

Nov. 16

Alabama

Sept. 14

at Auburn

Oct. 24

Kentucky

Nov. 23

at Arkansas

Sept. 21

Troy

Nov. 2

at South Carolina

Nov. 28

Ole Miss

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Mississippi State rolled to a 7-0 start before crashing against Alabama and Texas A&M on backto-back weekends.

The Bulldogs finished 8-5 overall, 4-4 in the SEC. The Bulldogs fell 30-24 to Northwestern in the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl.

OL Gabe Jackson, senior (two-time All-SEC, 38 career starts) RB LaDarius Perkins, senior (1,061 yards, 8 TD) QB Tyler Russell, senior (231-394, 24 TD, 10 INT) C Dillon Day, junior (22 starts, Rimington Watch List) TE Malcolm Johnson, junior (10 rec., 17.1 avg, 2 TD) LB Benardrick McKinney, sophomore (102 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 8 PBU) DE Denico Autry, senior (42 tackles, 9.5 TFL) SS Nickoe Whitley, senior (88 tackles, 3 INT) P Baker Swedenburg, senior (41.1 avg., 18 punts inside 20)

PLAYER’S QUOTE

ALSO OF NOTE ...

A Mullen-led Bulldog team has never lost a game in which it led going into the fourth quarter (28-0), and never won when trailing going into the fourth quarter (0-20).

COACH’S QUOTE

“The main reason I came to Mississippi State was I wanted to help rebuild the program. We’ve done that. We have a brand new football facility. There are expectations from our fans. It’s not good enough to win eight games, go to a bowl game.” — Quarterback Tyler Russell

“This is the first year we hadn’t won our last game of the season. I do think with a lot of guys here, it is a motivating factor for them coming into spring. They are not pleased with how the last year ended. Sometimes it will put a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. They got a little more ‘umph’ to them out there on the field.”

— Dan Mullen

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

27

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI

Deuce McAllister #22 | RB | 1997-2000

Mississippi star stayed home, won with Rebels and Saints

S

By LARRY BOWEN | larry.bowen@theeagle.com ome people thought Deuce McAllister made the wrong move going to the University of Mississippi. McAllister had similar doubts when he was drafted by the New Orleans

Saints.

Looking back, those routes took the star running back a long way.

McAllister is the career rushing leader for the Rebels and the Saints.

He fulfilled his dreams as a kid in the tiny town of Lena, Miss.

“I’ve always thought and dreamed big,” McAllister said. “Growing up, I told people that I wanted to make it to the big leagues.”

Some people in Lena criticized McAllister’s decision to attend Ole Miss, saying the program couldn’t take him where he wanted to go. He was pursued by bigger programs, he says, including Notre Dame, Tennessee and Miami.

“When I decided on Ole Miss, a lot of people frowned on it,” McAllister said. “They said that wasn’t the big leagues, not knowing that the SEC was a growing monster. I was happy to be able to go there and make a name for myself.”

McAllister helped Ole Miss make four consecutive bowl games. He rushed for 3,060 yards and set 18 school records.

Statistical marks, particularly in this era of high-powered 28

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

offenses, have become easy targets. McAllister knows this football truth, and treasures other aspects of his four years with the Rebels.

“I was proud of the bond and the relationship I had with my teammates,” McAllister said. “The records will eventually be broken — that’s life — but the memories and the friendships can never be taken away.”

After his senior season, McAllister expected to be taken early in the 2001 NFL Draft. McAllister was projected to be among the top 10 selections, perhaps in the top five.

Instead, he slipped to the 23rd pick, chosen by a New Orleans organization that had given up eight draft picks, including all of its 1999 selections, to move up and grab Texas running back Ricky Williams at No. 5 that year.

The slide down the draft and the presence of Williams caused McAllister to question the pick.

“Slipping to No. 23 was disappointing at the time, but looking back, it couldn’t have worked out any better for me,” he said.

Williams was traded the next year, and McAllister became one of the most popular players in Saints history. He set the New Orleans career rushing record with 6,096 yards and is a member of the Saints Hall of Fame.

“Deuce McAllister was a special guy,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis told the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

“I don’t know how you rank players on your all-time list of most important players, but clearly he’s in the top two or three of all time. I’m biased, because I was a part of the group that drafted him, but he’s exactly what you draw up when you picture someone to represent your organization.”

McAllister spent eight seasons with the Saints before knee injuries ended his career. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament and suffered microfractures in both knees, undergoing eight knee surgeries.

“I wonder at times what it would have been like if I didn’t have the major injuries,” McAllister said. “I had to change my game. Early in my career, I had a lot of 50- and 60-yard runs. In the later part of my career, those runs became 20- and 30-yard runs. Once I got in the open field [early in my career], I knew I wouldn’t get caught. After the knee surgeries, that kind of changed.”

The Saints released McAllister before the 2009 season, but they brought him back to the organization as an honorary captain during New Orleans’ run to winning the Super Bowl that season.

Since his retirement from football,

McAllister has been involved in hurricane relief efforts and attempts to revitalize the Jackson, Miss., area. He continues to work with the Catch 22 Foundation, which he started during his Saints career to help youth in the Gulf South region.

In 2004, McAllister donated $1 million to help Ole Miss build an indoor practice facility. Five years later, his Nissan dealership in Jackson, Miss., went bankrupt, earning him a place on unflattering lists of athletes who lost fortunes.

“That was right when the economy was going down,” McAllister said. “I didn’t have great partners. All they saw was an NFL player that had ‘endless pockets.’ It wasn’t a good deal.

“I’ve been able to bounce back from that ordeal. We’ve been able to do some pretty good things, and we’re still active in the community. I’m OK and my family’s OK. My kids will be fine. I’ve invested outside of that dealership and have done good.”

TX-COL05 Texas_A&M.indd 1

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 29

at Vanderbilt

Oct. 5

at Auburn

Nov. 9

Arkansas

Sept. 7

Southeast Missouri

Oct. 12

Texas A&M

Nov. 16

Troy

Sept. 14

at Texas

Oct. 19

LSU

Nov. 23

Missouri

Sept. 28

at Alabama

Oct. 26

Idaho

Nov. 28

at Mississippi State

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Mississippi experienced a resurgence under new head coach Hugh Freeze, finishing 7-6 for its first winning season in three years and beating Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl. It was the Rebels’ first bowl appearance since the 2009 season. Ole Miss went 3-5 in SEC games, placing fifth in the SEC West Division.

QB Bo Wallace, junior (235-368, 2,994 yards, 22 TD) RB Jeff Scott, sophomore (197 carries, 846 yards, 6 TD, 23 receptions) LB Denzel Nkemdiche, sophomore (82 tackles, 13 for loss, 3 INT) FS Cody Prewitt, junior (80 tackles, 44 solo, 2 INT) WR Donte Moncrief, junior (66 receptions, 979 yards, 10 TD) WR Vince Sanders, junior (39 receptions, 504 yards, 4 TD) LG Aaron Morris, junior (13 starts) LT Emmanuel McCray, senior (13 starts) QB Barry Brunetti, senior (23-36 passing, 196 yards, 60-277 rushing) LB Mike Marry, senior (78 tackles, 37 unassisted) CB Charles Sawyer, senior (63 tackles, 44 solo, 8 PBU)

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Eli Manning holds the Ole Miss record for career passing yards with 10,119, but he doesn’t have the highest game total in school or family history. Archie Manning threw for 436 yards against Alabama in 1969.

COACH’S QUOTE

PLAYER’S QUOTE

“I started to believe that the guys had bought in and got it after the Alabama game. Certainly, there were some valleys, Vandy and A&M in particular, where your kids gave you so much effort. Everything is so magnified when you lose a game like that. I had to give these guys credit and our staff credit, they’re more resilient than myself. They pick me back up.

[Last year’s goal] was to make sure our team was competing passionately for this university, and they did that. We’ve proven that we can be competitive, and we’re shorthanded a bit. We’re excited about the process and the next step.” — Hugh Freeze

“It feels good because it lets everyone know that our program is moving in the right direction. We are not where we want to be right now, but we are trying to get there and we are ready to put in more work so we can get better next year.”

— Linebacker Mike Marry

8/6/13 9:22 AM

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

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TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Charlie Krueger #78 | OT-DE | 1955-57

Tough-nosed Aggie lineman achieved All-Pro status in NFL

By DAVID CAMPBELL | david.campbell@theeagle.com

C

harlie Krueger was a two-time All-American at Texas A&M. The legendary Aggie, however, nearly enrolled at Rice.

The Caldwell native was flattered that Owls coach Jess Neely would consider him. A&M coach Paul “Bear” Bryant gave him little choice but to sign with Texas A&M. “There had never been anyone from that high school who had gone to college on a football scholarship,” Krueger said.

“Bryant was trying to recruit everybody he could. ... He sent [assistant coach] Pat James over there to find me, and Pat James wouldn’t leave until I signed.”

Krueger played offensive tackle and defensive end for the Aggies, which he calls “an ordeal by fire.” Bryant is among the most beloved figures in college football history for his success at A&M and his legendary run at Alabama. But Krueger remembers his coach in a more critical manner.

“I remember our first meeting,” he says. “Paul Bryant was a man for great drama.

Great drama and great psychological pressure.

He would put young people under the gun to produce and to pay attention and to work hard.”

Krueger played on Bryant’s most successful Aggie team, which was 9-0-1 in 1956, and on an 8-3 30

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

squad in 1957, the year A&M running back John David Crow won the Heisman Trophy.

“We had gone eight games and won eight games,” he said of the ’57 team, “and then we lost to Rice by one point and Texas by two points, and then we played Tennessee in the Gator Bowl and lost that S.O.B. by three points. So, we lost our ass by six points.”

Krueger is still friends with teammates, including Jimmy Wright and Loyd Taylor, both of whom became coaches. Taylor, an allSouthwest Conference halfback, was an assistant coach with the 1967 Aggies when they beat Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. Wright said the Krueger-era team had an unparalleled trio of talent.

“There probably are never going to be three players that excelled at the highest level like Jack Pardee, John David [Crow] and Charlie Krueger that were on the same team,” Wright said. “They probably didn’t get a lot of publicity or recognition because we were on probation in ’55 and ’56, but those three were really, really something to behold.”

Krueger was the ninth overall pick in the 1958 NFL Draft (Crow was second), and played for 15 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. He was named All-Pro three times and was respected as one of the toughest players in the league.

Toward the end of Krueger’s career, Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray wrote, “Krueger may soon end his profession of handing out contusions and nose bleeds, holding quarterbacks upside-down till they cough up the football and hitting blocking backs with a forearm that has 24 years of teeth marks and cleat marks on it to say nothing of pieces of other people’s flesh.”

“I played against a guy named Joe Scibelli with the Rams for many years,” Krueger recalls. “In my 15th year, I knew I was done. We never talked. We fought each other tooth and toenail, and when that last game was over I said, ‘Joe, I want to shake your hand. I’m going to the house. Joe, you’re getting better and I’m getting worse.’”

Krueger moved into the retail liquor and wine business after retiring from the NFL and worked for 20 years.

Three years after retirement, Krueger says a doctor discovered that his anterior cruciate ligament was gone. He passed his physicals during his playing days, but was not informed of his condition by the 49ers, he says.

He continued to play with the aid of cortisone shots and painkillers. Krueger filed suit against the 49ers and Courtesy of Cushing in 1988 won a $2.36 Memorial Library

million decision because of the debilitating damage to his left knee.

“I was the first guy that ever sued the damned league and won, and it took me nine years,” he said. “The last judge wrote an ironclad opinion and they left it alone after that.”

Football took its toll on Krueger’s body. His left leg has bothered him for 40 years, he said, and he has had numerous operations. He says he changes out his over-the-counter drugs to alleviate the pain.

“If you have to process that stuff, it’s going to tell on your kidneys sooner or later,” he said.

“Better to get as much use out of your kidneys as you can.”

Krueger lives with his wife of 37 years, Kristin, in Clayton, Calif., 31 miles east of San Francisco on the slopes of Mount Diablo.

“We have a lot of wildlife — deer, turkeys, mountain lions, coyotes,” he said. “It’s a pleasant place to live. If it’s 70 or 75, we have dinner on the patio. It’s just a pretty little town.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Rice

Sept. 28

at Arkansas

Nov. 2

UT-El Paso

Sept. 7

Sam Houston State

Oct. 12

at Mississippi

Nov. 9

Mississippi State

Sept. 14

Alabama

Oct. 19

Auburn

Nov. 23

at LSU

Sept. 21

SMU

Oct. 26

Vanderbilt

Nov. 30

at Missouri

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

In their first season in the Southeastern Conference, the Aggies defeated eventual national champion Alabama and finished with an 11-2 record. Quarterback Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, and the Aggies defeated Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, 41-13.

QB Johnny Manziel, sophomore (295-434, 3,706 yards, 26 TD; 201 carries, 1,410 yards, 7.9 avg, 21 TD ) RB Ben Malena, senior (138 carries, 826 yards, 5.9 avg, 8 TD) WR Mike Evans, sophomore (82 catches, 1,105 yards, 5 TD) OT Jake Matthews, senior (3-year starter; Outland, Maxwell and Lombardi watch list) OT Cedric Ogbuehi, junior (Lombardi watch list; 2-year starter) CB Deshazor Everett, junior (56 tackles, 31 solo, 2 INT) S Howard Matthews, junior (58 tackles, 34 solo) CB Toney Hurd, senior (67 tackles, 41 solo, 1 INT) LB Donnie Baggs, junior (27 tackles, 17 solos) K Taylor Bertolet, sophomore (13 field goals, 67 extra points)

PLAYER’S QUOTE

ALSO OF NOTE ...

In 2012, Texas A&M had its first perfect record away from Kyle Field since 1939, when the Aggies won the national championship. A&M was 5-0 in road games and 2-0 in neutral site contests.

Kevin Sumlin, who won his last six on the road at Houston, has a personal “away” winning steak of 13 games.

COACH’S QUOTE

“Nothing has changed. They understand, the leaders of the team, they’re there for me, texting me and saying, ‘You’re not doing anything we’re not doing. We’re working hard, enjoying life.’ I love those guys, wouldn’t be here without them, and their opinion, and my family and my coaches’ opinion, that’s all that matters to me.” — Quarterback Johnny Manziel on his relationship with his teammates

“It’s great for our former students, for our fans, for our community to be excited about this football season, to be excited about being in the SEC, to be excited about our schedule next year. But as a team, we have to hit the reset button. We signed 31 new players, 31 guys over the course of the last year that are really going to come in. Many of them are going to have to help us this season be successful as true freshmen.” — Kevin Sumlin

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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Carlos Alvarez

could play wide receiver.

During his freshman year — freshmen weren’t eligible to play varsity back then — he developed a rapport with quarterback John Reaves. And when they suited up the following fall on Florida Field, the “super sophs” unleashed an aerial fury on their opponents.

The Gators opened the season at home against No. 7 Houston.

On the game’s third play, Alvarez made his first career reception — a 70-yard touchdown. He scored again that day, and the Gators rolled the heavily favored Cougars, 59-34. #45 | WR | 1969-71 The following week, the team scored 47 points in a victory over Mississippi State, and Alvarez caught 12 passes for 180 yards. From that point on, Alvarez was known as “The Cuban Comet.”

“I really liked it,” he said. “The press picked it up after I started playing, and then it just caught on.”

Weeks later, Alvarez had his most memorable game: 15 receptions for 237 yards in a Gators’ victory over Miami. The 15 catches remain a single-game school record and the 237 yards mark stood for 33 years.

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com “I knew in the beginning when we were warming up that something was going to happen in that game,” Alvarez said. “Then the arlos Alvarez’s first memory of football is of a game whole evening, we just couldn’t miss. Having all your relatives there against some members of the Boys Club in North and a lot of Cubans up in the stands, it was pretty magical.”

Miami. Alvarez took a pitch around end and scored Th e 1969 team finished the season 9-1-1, the best record in with ease. school history at the time. And Alvarez was the star of the show.

There was just one problem.

During a period when the running game was king, he “I had no idea where the goal line was,” he said. “I kept running set single-season records for receptions (88), yards until I hit a chain link fence.”

(1,329) and touchdown receptions (12). He was also Alvarez, 63, grew up in Cuba, and when he was 10, his father the only sophomore named as a consensus Alltook the family on a ferry to Key West. It was 1960. His father American that season. announced that America was their new home.

“I was named an “When we took the car off the ferry, he told me and my All-American, and brothers, ‘You’re never going back. I’m through with I still wasn’t yet an Cuba,’” said AlAmerican citizen,” varez, now 63. he said with a laugh.

After growing (He became an American citizen up in an environlater that year, he said.) ment of violence, “I was stunned,” he said of that season’s success. “It’s one of where, “instead of those things when you don’t know what you’re shooting at. I didn’t baseball cards, [they] even know if I was going to make the team before the season. But had bullet collections,” everything just came together perfectly.”

Alvarez said, he was in Alvarez found out he had played that season with a minor tear a new country with a in his knee — acquired when playing basketball in high school. new language and sporting It got worse as time went on, and he says his knee would swell interests. He only knew baseball. But he said he also knew up whenever he worked out in the offseason. His doctors it was time to broaden his horizons. eventually recognized the problem and scraped the knee, “Ultimately, football for me was trying to become an Ameribut he said he never felt right. can, to fit in as a kid,” he said.

In his final two seasons, he caught a combined 84 passes Alvarez said he was blessed with speed, which allowed him to for 1,224 yards and seven touchdowns. stand out in high school as a running back. He followed both of his “I was hobbled by that and it was so painful,” he said. “I older brothers to the University of Florida, where he was told he

‘The Cuban Comet’ reflects on his fast success with Gators

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SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

had such hopes after my sophomore year. It was just extremely frustrating.”

Alvarez was drafted in 1972 in the 15th round by the Dallas Cowboys but never appeared at Texas Stadium due to those knee ailments.

“At the end of the day, I couldn’t run without my knee swelling up,” he said. “It never came back. It was very frustrating to not play pro football, but it couldn’t be done.”

He went on to get his law degree from Duke and is a practicing lawyer in Tallahassee.

His record of 2,563 career receiving yards still stands at Florida. And in 2011, thanks to that memorable sophomore season, Alvarez became the sixth Florida player inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Alvarez said he is still awed by that first touchdown reception against Houston.

“Nine years earlier, I was this kid who didn’t know football or a word of English,” he said.

“It was quite the ride to get me there.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Oct. 5

Toledo

Arkansas

Nov. 9

Vanderbilt

Sept. 7

at Miami

Oct. 12

at LSU

Nov. 16

at South Carolina

Sept. 21

Tennessee

Oct. 19

at Missouri

Nov. 23

Georgia Southern

Sept. 28

at Kentucky

Nov. 2

Georgia (in Jacksonville)

Nov. 30

Florida State

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Florida returned to the Top 10 during Will Muschamp’s second season. The Gators won on the road at SEC newbie Texas A&M and upset undefeated LSU, 14-6, behind 146 yards from Mike Gillislee. But the Gators turned the ball over six times in a 17-9 loss to Georgia.

The season ended with the Gators being upset by Louisville in the Sugar Bowl. Florida still finished 11-2, with the No. 5 defense in the country.

QB Jeff Driskel, junior (156-245, 1,646 yards, 12 TD, 5 INT) RB Matt Jones, sophomore (275 yards, 3 TD) WR Quinton Dunbar, junior (36 rec., 383 yards, 4 TD) CB/WR Loucheiz Purifoy, junior (51 tackles) DL Dominique Easley, senior (4 sacks) P Kyle Christy, junior (45.8 yards/punt) DB Jaylen Watkins, junior (3 interceptions) C Jonotthan Harrison, senior (13 starts) CB Marcus Roberson, junior (23 tackles, 2 INT) FB Trey Burton, senior (17 rec., 164 yards, 3 TD)

COACH’S QUOTE “We’ve got to improve the efficiency as far as throwing the ball. There are some things that we are going to need to work on, but we can’t get away from who we are. We’re going to be a physical football team. I really believe in order to win this league, you’ve got to be physical. You’ve got to be able to win on the line of scrimmage. You can’t get away from that.” — Will Muschamp

Lighting the Maroon & White Night Best of the Brazos Award 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 Winner-Best Electrician

The Eagle Readers’ Choice Award 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 Winner-Best Electrician

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Florida’s running game accounted for 90 plays of 10 yards or more.

The passing game only had 26 plays of 20 yards or more.

PLAYER’S QUOTE “Last year it was more of hand the ball off on third down, get the conversion. It’s hard to put drives together when you’ve got to hit big plays to score touchdowns, and we’ve got to do that more.” — Quarterback Jeff Driskel

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SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

35

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Eric Zeier

Clemson at home, at night, and no one thought we would win that game,” Zeier said. “We were coming off a year where Georgia struggled some. The stadium was electric. It was actually the night the [Atlanta] Braves clinched the division title in baseball for the first time for a long time, so all that excitement spilled over into our game. It was a just a phenomenal day.”

Zeier threw for a school-record 544 yards against Southern Mississippi as a junior. For his career, he passed for 11,153 yards, which at the time was a team and SEC record. His total was third in the NCAA when he left in 1994 as an All-American. (He now #10 | QB | 1991-94 ranks 38th in career passing yards.)

The record was helped by his number of starts, but was also a result of the style the Bulldogs played under Ray Goff, who was in his third year at Georgia when Zeier arrived.

“I just think it was a shift in philosophy and I happened to be the quarterback there at the time.” Zeier said. “Georgia, prior to me getting there, was really dominated by running backs. It was a great running back university going back to Herschel Walker. I could rattle off names before and after Herschel.”

By RICHARD CROOME | richard.croome@theeagle.com Since Zeier, quarterbacks at Georgia have had an equally impressive run. Mike Bobo, the Bulldogs’ current offensive coordinaric Zeier didn’t need much coaxing when it came to tor, followed Zeier. Then came David Greene, who broke Zeier’s leaving high school early, something rarely heard of in passing yards record, and D.J. Shockley, both of whom went to the his era.

NFL. Matthew Stafford became the first “I actually committed to Georgia on a Sunday,” Zeier pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Aaron said, “and I got a call later that night telling me, ‘You qualify [to enMurray, who is poised to shatter roll now], do you want to do it?’ I took about 15 minutes, thought Greene’s passing yards mark, about it and said, ‘Yes, I do.’ I was in school two days later.” turned down going pro after last Zeier, who played two seasons at Marietta High School in season to return for his senior Georgia after two years at Heidelberg American High School in season at Georgia.

Germany, had originally planned on attending summer school at Zeier played for six years Georgia to acclimate himself to college as soon as he could, but in the NFL after being the opportunity allowed him to take it one step further in January draft ed in the third 1991. He became one of the first celebrated high school players round by the Cleveto graduate ahead of his class and go through a spring practice at a land Browns.

He university, which is now a more-common scenario. started 12 games, “I never imagined when I did it, it would happen to the extent completing 56 that it has happened today,” Zeier said. “I never did it to set any percent of his kind of trend. Really did it because I was looking toward my passes for 3,520 future. I wanted to give myself every opportunity to integrate myself into college life, give myself every opportunity to integrate yards, with 16 touchdowns and 15 inwith my new teammates and to prepare myself to play if the opterceptions while with portunity did arise.” the Browns, Baltimore Zeier’s visions didn’t go without their rewards. He was on the field one month into his freshman season, directing the Bulldogs Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. to a big win over Clemson. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder never reThe numbers paled in comlinquished the quarterback job after his debut, starting 41 games, parison to his stats at 26 of which Georgia won.

Georgia — 877 The 27-12 victory over nonconference foe Clemson is the day of 1,461 atthat stands out most for Zeier. tempts “I have one or two a year, but my freshman year we played

Record-breaking quarterback now a Georgia radio analyst

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SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

for 67 touchdowns and 37 interceptions. He held 67 school records and 18 SEC marks.

Zeier, who lives in Atlanta, has a good pulse on the present-day Bulldogs. He has been the Georgia football color commentator on the radio since 2007. He started that career with a bang as well, taking the microphone for the first time in the Bulldogs’ overtime victory that year at Alabama.

“That one is tough to beat when it’s your first one,” Zeier said. “Another game was the black-out game, where we wore black jerseys and everybody in the stands wore their black as well, and we played Auburn.

The stadium was electric.

“It’s pretty unique that one of the first games I played in was one of the most memorable, and the first game I called is most memorable,” Zeier said. “It’s just the way it worked out. I could bring up a number of games on both ends — broadcasting and playing — but those are two that just pop out.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

at Clemson

at Tennessee

Nov. 9

Appalachian State

Sept. 7

South Carolina

Oct. 12

Missouri

Nov. 16

at Auburn

Sept. 21

North Texas

Oct. 19

at Vanderbilt

Nov. 23

Kentucky

Sept. 28

LSU

Nov. 2

Florida

Nov. 30

at Georgia Tech

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Georgia (12-2, 7-1) arguably came a play away from the national championship game, losing to Alabama 3228 after coming up 5 yards short in the SEC title game. Georgia’s shortcoming was giving up 353 yards rushing (7 per carry) to the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs dispatched Nebraska 45-31 in the Capital One Bowl.

QB Aaron Murray, senior (249-388, 36 TD, 10 INT) CB Damian Swann, junior (53 tackles, 2 sacks, 4 INT) OLB Jordan Jenkins, sophomore (31 tackles, 8 TFL, 5 sacks) WR Malcolm Mitchell, junior (40 rec., 950 yards, 22.6 avg, 9 TD) RB Keith Marshall, sophomore (759 yards rushing, 6.5 avg, 8 TD) RB Todd Gurley, sophomore (1,385 yards rushing, 6.2 avg, 17 TD) OG Chris Brurnette, senior (24 career starts) ILB Amarlo Herrera, junior (70 tackles, 3 TFL)

Freshmen running backs Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall, who wear Nos. 3 and 4, both averaged more than 6 yards a carry and combined for 2,144 yards and 25 touchdowns. Legendary 1980 Heisman winner Herschel Walker wore No. 34, and his best average per carry for a season was 6.0 in his freshman campaign.

PLAYER’S QUOTE

COACH’S QUOTE “The fact that we’re in the type of league that is so rugged that people understand even if a team has one loss, they might be worthy of an opportunity to play for a national championship, that’s exciting to be part of that type of league.”

— Mark Richt

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37

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

Tim Couch #2 | QB | 1996-98

Kentucky native helped make Wildcats’ program a winner

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com

T

im Couch had entertained the thought of transferring.

Things weren’t going as planned after his freshman season at the University of Kentucky. His coach, Bill Curry, wasn’t using the pocket-passing quarterback.

And when he was used, it was in the option offense.

“That was ugly to watch,” Couch said.

It wasn’t what he had in mind when he decided to attend Kentucky, in hopes of reviving a stagnant program. Couch said he chose Kentucky in 1995 because it was home.

“Kentucky had just won one game [in 1994],” he said. “And I wanted to stay home and help my home state.”

When he arrived in Lexington, Couch was already regarded as a star. From the small town of Hyden, with a population of less than 400, Couch had earned national attention. He led Leslie County to the state semifinals his senior year.

Couch finished with national records for career passing yards (12,901) and touchdowns (133), and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year.

But during his freshman season, Couch started two games and threw only 84 passes.

Curry was fired after going 26-52 during his seven seasons. Kentucky hired Hal Mumme from Valdosta State, who was known as the innovator of an offense he dubbed the “Air Raid.” During his first meeting with Couch, he convinced the quarterback that the offense would revolve around his talents.

“I was sold immediately,” Couch said.

38

Mumme and offensive coordinator Mike Leach implemented a system that paid immediate dividends. Kentucky finished 5-6 in 1996 but reinvigorated an apathetic fan base. The Wildcats beat Alabama in an overtime thriller for the first time in 75 years. And Couch quarterbacked the No. 6 offense in the country. He led the nation in passing yards (3,884) and completion percentage (66.4). He finished second in touchdowns (37) and in total offense (341.7 yards per game). The Wildcats’ offense broke or tied 15 SEC records.

“It gave me a very similar look to what I did in high school,” Couch said of the offense. “It gave me the opportunity to do what I could do. We were one of the only teams to be doing that style. We were really throwing it 50, 60 times a game. It was a quarterback’s dream.”

In the second year under Mumme, the Wildcats sold out every home game, finished the season at 7-4 and made the school’s first New Year’s Day bowl game in 47 years. Couch was a first-team All-American and threw for 4,275 yards and 36 touchdowns. He also became the first Heisman finalist from Kentucky in 41 years, finishing fourth.

“I was just thrilled to be part of turning the program around,” Couch said.

Following his junior season, Couch entered the NFL Draft. The expansion Cleveland Browns used the first pick of the ’99 draft — and the first pick of the restored franchise — on the gunslinging quarterback. And though he took pride in being the No. 1 pick, Couch said being on an expansion roster meant a lot of bumps in the road.

“When you’re in it, you think completely different,” Couch said. “But when you get removed from it, you realize: That was almost an impossible situation to be successful in.”

Couch, just 20 at the time, was told he would back up Ty Detmer for a season so he could adjust to the pro game. But the Browns were humiliated 43-0 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the season opener. Detmer was benched.

Enter Couch. He went 2-13 as the starter and was sacked 56 times in 15 games (an NFL record at the time). He suffered the first of many injuries, an ankle sprain, that forced him to miss the finale.

“I wish I had the opportunity to sit and learn that first year,” he said. “I wasn’t ready.”

During his second season, Couch made early strides and was among the league leaders in completion percentage. But he broke his thumb during practice and was shelved for the rest of a 3-13 campaign.

And in year four, Couch led the Browns to seven wins in their final 11 games. Cleveland was headed to the playoffs. But Couch broke his leg during the season finale

and watched as the Browns fell in the wild-card round.

“It was the way my career had been going,” he said. “I had really big highs and really big lows.

Every time I would play well, something would happen.”

Following another losing season, Couch’s days in Cleveland came to an end. He caught on with Green Bay, but needed reconstructive arm surgery. That essentially ended his career.

“There is obviously a little bit of disappointment,” he said.

“I felt I could play better and I didn’t do it every week, which is partly my fault and partly being on the bad team.”

Couch, now married with two kids, moved back to Lexington, where he is adored for choosing to stay home and play with the Wildcats. He is a broadcaster for Fox Sports South.

“Kentucky fans are unbelievable,” he said. “They treat me like I played there last year. They remember me because I turned down every other offer when it wasn’t a popular choice. It’s a decision I’ll never regret.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Western Kentucky (in Nashville)

Oct. 5

at South Carolina

Nov. 9

Missouri

Sept. 7

Miami (OH)

Oct. 12

Alabama

Nov. 16

at Vanderbilt

Sept. 14

Louisville

Oct. 24

at Mississippi State

Nov. 23

at Georgia

Sept. 28

Florida

Nov. 2

Alabama State

Nov. 30

Tennessee

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

The Wildcats were upset early in the season by Western Kentucky, and then things spiraled out of control.

Kentucky went 0-8 in SEC play, including games to Arkansas, Florida and Vanderbilt by a combined score of 127-7. The Wildcats finished 2-10.

Joker Phillips’ tenure ended, and Kentucky hired Florida State defensive coordinator Mark Stoops — the brother of Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops — as its head coach.

QB Jalen Whitlow, sophomore (87-161, 801 yards, 3 TD) RB Raymond Sanders III, senior (669 yards, 5 TD) RB Jonathan George, senior (504 yards, 4 TD) DT Donte Rumph, senior (26 tackles, 4 sacks) LB Avery Williamson, senior (102 tackles, 3 sacks) CB J.D. Harmon, sophomore (2 INT) P Landon Foster, sophomore (42.9 yds/punt) S Ashely Lowery, junior (43 tackles, 1 INT) DE Alvin Lucas, junior (91 tackles, 6.5 sacks) LB Miles Simpson, junior (70 tackles, 1 sack)

COACH’S QUOTE “We’re here every day working and recruiting and developing our players to win. ... I understand the obstacles that lie ahead. I understand the challenges as much as anybody. But again, that doesn’t mean that I’m just going to accept losing to anybody. We’re going to develop and we’re going to recruit and we’re going to play to win.” — Mark Stoops

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Kentucky’s 2013 spring game attendance was 50,831.

The 2012 spring game attendance was 4,500.

PLAYER’S QUOTE “I had butterflies today knowing there was going to be this many people here for the spring game. That’s big. That’s big to the University of Kentucky. That’s big to the state of Kentucky.” — Quarterback Jalen Whitlow on the Wildcats’ spring practice attendance of 50,831

It’s always game on for Stuart Villanueva, a Bryan-College Station Eagle award-winning photojournalist who shoots Texas A&M football like no one else.

Don’t miss the 2002 Aggie graduate’s slideshows from each game. You’ll find them online at: theeagle.com · aggiesports.com · MyAggieNation.com

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

39

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Brock Olivo

onship as a senior and was named the state’s player of the year.

Those numbers helped Olivo get recruiting attention from prominent college programs. But he saw his home state school struggling. The Tigers had just completed their 11th consecutive losing season and were the doormat of the Big Eight.

Olivo said it was the perfect fit.

“It was a pride thing,” he said. “When new coach Larry Smith and assistant Curtis Jones sat in my living room when I was a senior, I would have run through my living room wall that night.

The decision was easy.” #27 | RB | 1994-97 The Tigers went 3-8 during Olivo’s freshman season in 1994, but the running back led the team with 614 yards and five touchdowns. In the next two seasons, Olivo rushed for a combined 1,734 yards and 11 touchdowns.

In his senior season, Missouri split its first six games, heading into the meat of the Big 12 schedule. Led by dual-threat quarterback Corby Jones and Olivo, the Tigers beat Texas, upset No. 12 Oklahoma State on the road and defeated favored Colorado in Boulder.

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com That sixth win guaranteed Missouri its first bowl bid since 1983.

Olivo said he still remembers the flight back to Columbia. rock Olivo had heard the stories about NFL legends “Th at was one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever felt,” he said. “As such as Jerry Rice and Walter Payton using hills to train we were descending upon Columbia Regional Airport, we could in the offseason. So he went out in the see hundreds of people because we had solidified a bowl berth. heat of the summer to scout his own.

Th at’s when it hit us. We did it.”

The Missouri freshman running back found Olivo fi nished as Missouri’s all-time leader with a steep hill on the outskirts of Columbia, Mo. 3,026 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns. He was He didn’t notice that there was a trash also awarded the Mosi Tatupu dump at the base or that the surface Special Teams Player of the Year was covered by weeds. Instead, he Award, becoming the first Missaw how daunting it was. souri player to earn a national “It was about 40 yards long, but it honor. was such an incline you could stand “Frankly, I loved special at the bottom and reach out and teams because it was different almost touch the thing,” Olivo said. from everything else,” he said.

He woke his buddies at 5 a.m. one “And when we were climbing summer day. They went out and weedthe ladder, it took everything we whacked the overgrown area. From that had.

We needed every advantage point on, it became known as “The Hill.” and that was getting our 11 best “Once our strength staff got wind of it, football players to play on special teams.” they’d take us there,” he said. “It became part of the Th at attitude translated to the NFL. Olivo went unregimen.” drafted, but caught on with the Detroit Lions. Olivo Olivo’s father, cousin and uncle had all played in the NFL, played five seasons, was named special teams captain so that was his goal as a kid in St. Louis. But, he said, he wasn’t and led the team in special-teams tackles twice. And blessed with their talent. then he retired.

“They were all superior athletes — bigger, faster and stronger “I walked away at the peak of my career,” he said. than I was,” he said. “My goal was to be a running back. I was told “But most importantly, I was healthy, and I wanted to I couldn’t do that because I was too slow, too small. I took that as do other things, try some new things.” fuel and turned it into a positive.”

He rushed for 5,030 yards and 70 touchdowns at St. Francis BorHe traveled to Italy and coached an Italian profesgia Regional High School. He led his team to a 1993 state champisional team, helping to spread the game he loves. He then

‘Proud, local kid’ helped turn Missouri’s fortunes

B

40

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

worked as a program manager and assistant political liaison in Washington, D.C., which gave him an interest in politics. In 2008, he ran for Congress as a Republican in Missouri, but lost in the primaries.

At that point, he said it was time to get back into football.

He is now in South Carolina, coaching running backs at FCS program Coastal Carolina.

“It’s a passion of mine,” he said. “I get up every day and I go to teach a game to young men. And oh yeah, it’s a job, too. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

Olivo said he still loves to return to Missouri to see a program that has improved since he left in 1997. There he sees seven jerseys that have been retired, including his No. 27.

“I was a proud, local kid that wore those colors with honor,” he said. “And I sold out and left everything, everything on that football field, on Faurot Field every time I stepped on it, for Mizzou and my teammates.”

GET OUR

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Oct. 5

Murray State

Nov. 2

at Vanderbilt

Tennessee

Sept. 7

Toledo

Oct. 12

at Georgia

Nov. 9

at Kentucky

Sept. 21

at Indiana

Oct. 19

Florida

Nov. 23

at Ole Miss

Sept. 28

Arkansas State

Oct. 26

South Carolina

Nov. 30

Texas A&M

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

LAST YEAR After moving into the SEC along with Texas A&M, Missouri (5-7, 2-6) missed going to a bowl game for the first time since the 2004 season.

The Tigers were hit with key injuries. Quarterback James Franklin missed four games, and running back Henry Josey missed the entire season with a knee injury.

QB James Franklin, senior (139-234, 10 TD, 7 INT) RB Henry Josey, junior (1,168 yards, 8.1 avg, 9 TD in 2011) WR Dorial Green-Beckham, sophomore (28 rec., 395 yards, 5 TD) WR Marcus Lucas, senior (46 rec, 509 yards, 3 TD) OL Evan Boehm, sophomore (12 starts, Rimington Watch List) DT Kony Ealy, junior (37 tackles, 10 TFL, 3.5 sacks) CB EJ Gaines, senior (74 tackles, 7 TFL, 1 INT) PK Andrew Baggett, sophomore (14 of 20 FGs) PR/TB Marcus Murphy, junior (13.9 avg. punt return, 252 yards rush, 5.5 avg.)

COACH’S QUOTE

Of the 60 total starts on the offensive line, only 23 were made by the person projected to start at that position because of injuries.

PLAYER’S QUOTE

“I’m making some changes as far as practice. Two years, back-to-back, the most injuries we’ve ever had. I have to get my football team to September healthy, so we are going to do some things different to try and do that. I know some of that is luck, but we’re going to try some things different.”

— Gary Pinkel

NEW

ALSO OF NOTE ...

“We’ve been going down to College Station for a couple of years, so it will be good for them to come up and get a taste of Faurot [Field].” — Linebacker Andrew Wilson on this year’s Texas A&M game.

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41

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

George Rogers #38 | RB | 1977-80

Heisman winner looks back at success, redemption

By LARRY BOWEN | larry.bowen@theeagle.com

G

eorge Rogers says he shares credit for his climb to the top of the mountain, but he accepts sole responsibility for his plunge into a hellish hole.

Rogers won the 1980 Heisman Trophy while playing running back for the University of South Carolina. The only Heisman winner in school history, Rogers went on to play in the National Football League, where he developed a fondness for cocaine that nearly ruined his life.

Now 54, Rogers has returned to the university to work in public relations and fundraising. He serves as CEO and president of the George Rogers Foundation, which he formed to provide financial assistance to first-generation college students from North and South Carolina.

“In your life, you better have done something besides run with a football,” Rogers said. “You better help somebody else.”

Nobody who’s worn the Gamecocks’ garnet and black ran the ball better than Rogers, although Marcus Lattimore was drawing comparisons last year before a seasonending injury. Rogers’ career rushing total of 5,204 yards is almost 2,000 more than any other USC player.

And then there’s the Heisman.

Rogers won the trophy after leading the country in rushing with 1,781 yards, over Pittsburgh defensive end Hugh Green and Georgia’s freshman phenom Herschel Walker. There are benefits to being a school’s only Heisman winner, as Texas A&M’s 42

John David Crow was from 1957 until Johnny Manziel won last year.

“I’m still recognized, even after my professional career,” Rogers said. “I’m the only Heisman Trophy winner from the University of South Carolina, but I look at it as a team honor more than an individual. Those guys in front of me made me look good.

“It didn’t matter how many yards I had, those guys would come and tell me they’d do better next week. Our defense pushed to get the ball back to us. We were a team, and that’s what it takes to win the Heisman Trophy.”

The guys up front that season included tight end Willie Scott, who was a first-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs and played eight seasons in the NFL. Scott and Rogers are still friends, meeting often on the benefit golf tournament circuit. Scott is a regular participant in the tourney to benefit Rogers’ foundation.

“It was a pleasure blocking for George,” Scott said. “Nobody cared who got the glory. We played together. We blocked for each other. We ran a two-tight-end offense that was ugly, but it worked.

“We just lined up and went George left, George right, George up the middle. It was a grand time in Columbia.”

Rogers’ path to the top of the college football world began as one of five children raised by his divorced mother in inner-city Atlanta.

When Rogers accepted the Heisman, his father was in prison for murder.

Rogers was the first pick in the 1981 draft, selected by the New Orleans Saints. He led the league in rushing and was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

But off the field, Rogers stumbled. He was implicated in a drug scandal involving Saints players. He admitted to buying more than $10,000 worth of cocaine during his rookie year.

Rogers made the Pro Bowl in 1981 and again with the Washington Redskins in 1987, when he won a Super Bowl ring. Rogers retired after the 1987 season, citing nagging injuries. In seven NFL seasons, he rushed for 7,176 yards and scored 54 touchdowns.

Drug problems followed Rogers when he returned to South Carolina as a fundraiser. Two months after he was hired in 1990, Rogers was arrested on cocaine charges. He was allowed to enter a pretrial intervention program and avoid jail by performing community service.

“Other kids would come up to my kids and tell them that their dad won the Heisman Trophy, but he did drugs,” Rogers said. “I felt real bad about that. I was a young man who hadn’t seen the greater part of life and I was just looking out for myself, being selfish.

“You live and you learn, and that’s the way I overcame it. I realized that I had kids who looked up to me. I had to shape up or ship out.”

Rogers said he received treatment at a drug rehabilitation center “to find ways to stay away from drugs. I found out if you mess with those kind of people, that’s exactly what you’re going to get. It cost me money to find that out.

“All these things I brought on myself,” he said. “Nobody else brought them on me. But I believe in God, and I believe he’s been with me through the hard times and the good times. I’m trying to give back and show my appreciation, because I could have been a statistic. I could have died from using.”

Among those Rogers credits with helping him survive those dark days are members of the Heisman Trust and former teammates such as Scott.

“He has come through this thing,” Scott said. “The ups and downs. That’s what life’s all about.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 29

Oct. 5

North Carolina

Nov. 2

Kentucky

Mississippi State

Sept. 7

at Georgia

Oct. 12

at Arkansas

Nov. 16

Florida

Sept. 14

Vanderbilt

Oct. 19

at Tennessee

Nov. 23

Coastal Carolina

Sept. 28

at Central Florida

Oct. 26

at Missouri

Nov. 30

Clemson

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

South Carolina went 11-2, matching the school record for victories that was set the previous season. The Gamecocks defeated Michigan 33-28 in the Outback Bowl. South Carolina was 6-2 in conference and finished third in the SEC East behind Florida and Georgia. The losses were back-to-back on the road against Top 10 teams LSU and Florida.

DE Jadeveon Clowney, junior (54 tackles, 40 solo, 23.5 for loss) QB Connor Shaw, senior (154-228-7 passing, 1,956 yards, 17 TD) WR Bruce Ellington, junior (40 receptions, 600 yards, 7 TDs) SS Brison Williams, junior (52 tackles, 43 solo, 2 INT) OT Brandon Shell, sophomore (9 starts, freshman all-SEC) OG Ronald Patrick, senior (13 starts) CB Victor Hampton, junior (40 tackles, 23 solo, 6 PBU, 1 INT) OT Corey Robinson, junior (nine starts) P Tyler Hull, junior (54 punts, 39.4 average, 12 inside 20) DT Kelcy Quarles, junior (38 tackles, 23 solo) CB Jimmy Legree, senior (44 tackles, 35 unassisted, 3 INT)

COACH’S QUOTE

PLAYER’S QUOTE

“We know we’re not favored to win it, but we think we’re going to have a team capable, capable if everything works out, [if] some guys really come around, get a break or two.

That’s something we’ve not done at South Carolina, is won a conference championship, and we have hopes to do it. We’re going to try our best to see if we can make it happen this year. It won’t be easy, of course. We may fall flat on our face, but that’s what we’re going to try to do, try to win the conference.” — Steve Spurrier

“I think we can be as good as we want to be. Coming in behind guys like Melvin Ingram, you really start to catch on. They went out with the attitude that they wanted to win and not settle for being an average team. I think our goals for next year should be higher than what we did last season.” — Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney

ALSO OF NOTE ...

South Carolina has a solid 6637 record in eight seasons under Steve Spurrier, but during that time the Gamecocks are 4-6 in games on artificial turf.

Tune In to 1150 AM Monday - Friday 2pm-4pm SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

43

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE

Johnny Majors

safety, who had been the Southeastern Conference’s most valuable player in 1955 and ’56, and finished second in the Heisman voting in ’56. Pitt had a potential top-ranked team returning.

“I can tell you that Tennessee would have been the only job I would have considered at that time,” Majors said. “If Southern Cal or Ohio State or Notre Dame — three of the greatest jobs in America — had offered me a job, I would not have taken it.”

Tennessee was different. It was home. And the Vols had finished eighth in the SEC in 1976, their worst finish since 1962.

He accepted the challenge, taking over the Tennessee program in #45 | TB-S | 1954-56 1977.

The turnaround was slow at first. Tennessee had one winning season in Majors’ first four years. Then the Volunteers made seven straight bowl trips from 1981 to 1987. The best three-season span of his career was from 1989 to 1991, going 29-6-2 with three New Year’s Day bowl appearances.

Despite that, Majors said he was “pushed out the door” in the 1992 season and replaced by longtime assistant Phillip Fulmer.

Majors remains bitter about those responsible for his exit.

By ROBERT CESSNA | robert.cessna@theeagle.com “That was not a normal thing that happened, the way I was let go here, not with that many wins,” he said. “I worked for the ennessee’s Butch Jones has plenty of work to do. He’s wrong people at the top.” the program’s fourth coach in six years. The VolunMajors returned to Pittsburgh, going 12-32 in four seasons, teers have had only one winning season in the last then served as special assistant to the athletic director until 2007, five and are coming off back-to-back 1-7 efforts in the when he retired and moved back to Knoxville. His impressive Southeastern Conference. coaching tree includes Jimmy Johnson, Larry Lacewell and Jackie Despite the challenge, Tennessee great Sherrill, who were on his first staff at Iowa State. Sherrill was also Johnny Majors believes Jones is the an assistant at Pittsburgh, and took over when Majors left for man to rebuild the program.

Tennessee.

Others who worked for Majors: Joe Avezzano, Dave “He’s got what it takes,” Majors said.

Campo, Dom Capers, Jon Gruden, Kevin Steele, Dave WannstThat’s good news for fans. If anyedt and Ron Zook. one knows what it takes Majors credits his knack for turning programs around to his to revive a program, father.

Shirley Majors was 108-24-2 at the high school level in it’s the 78-year-old Tennessee, coaching Lynchburg and nearby Huntland, where he Majors. He turned coached all five of his sons. The school led the state in scoring around Iowa State three straight years with Johnny at tailback. Shirley Majors evenand took the Cytually went to Sewanee, where he become the school’s winningest clones to their first coach, going 93-74-5 in 21 seasons. bowl game in 1971.

By the time he was a high school senior, Johnny was heavily reThen he turned downcruited.

Kentucky’s Paul “Bear” Bryant was the first to send him a trodden Pittsburgh letter during his junior season. into a national cham“I still got that letter somewhere,” Majors said. pion, capping a 12-0 Majors eventually zeroed in on Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Auburn, season in 1976.

Georgia, West Point and Alabama. The Vols were appealing Back home that because they were running the single-wing offense, the same he year, the Vols didn’t go to a bowl game for played in high school. He also loved Tennessee’s bright orange uniforms and the horseshoe stadium, which at the time had about the second straight 50,000 seats. season. They made a The night before he was supposed to sign, he was still torn. His pitch to their former mother made things simple. star tailback and

Coaching great took pride in rebuilding college programs

T

44

“She said, ‘John, I know you’re having a tough time making a decision where to go,’” Majors recalled. “‘I’d like to see you stay close to home and stay in the state.’”

“Well, hell, that made the decision for me,” said Majors.

But at 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds, Majors was uncertain about playing major college football. He got knocked around in practice for a few days, but at the first scrimmage, he broke tackles as the scout team quarterback. Tennessee coaching legend Robert Neyland, who had recently retired and was sitting in the stands, stopped the action and asked someone to identify No. 15.

Afterward, Majors ran all the way to the local drugstore to call home.

“I called collect,” Majors said. “My dad answered. I said, ‘Daddy, they miss tackles in college, just like they did in high school.’

“That was one of the greatest days of my life.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 31

Austin Peay

39

.95

South Alabama

Nov. 2

at Missouri

Sept. 7

Western Kentucky

Oct. 5

Georgia

Nov. 9

Auburn

Sept. 14

at Oregon

Oct. 19

South Carolina

Nov. 23

Vanderbilt

Sept. 21

at Florida

Oct. 26

at Alabama

Nov. 30

at Kentucky

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Tennessee passed its way to 434 points, but that didn’t stop the Vols from having their third straight losing season for the first time since 1909-1911. The Vols finished 5-7, and were 1-7 in Southeastern Conference play for a second straight season. Coach Derek Dooley was fired. Tennessee hired Butch Jones from Cincinnati.

LT Antonio Richardson, sophomore (12 starts) C James Stone, senior (12 starts) OG Zach Fulton, senior (11 starts) OT Ja’Wuan James, senior (12 starts) RB Rajion Neal, senior (156 carries, 708 yards, 4.5, 5 TDs) DL Daniel McCullers, senior (39 tackles) DL Maurice Couch, senior (38 tackles) LB Jacques Smith, senior (33 tackles, 7 TFL) LB A.J. Johnson, junior (team-leading 138 tackles, 8.5 TFL) LB Curt Maggitt, junior (30 tackles, 5 TFL) DB Justin Coleman, junior (59 tackles) DB Byron Moore, senior (86 tackles, 5 int.)

DB LaDarrell McNeil, sophomore (58 tackles)

COACH’S QUOTE “The message is loud and clear: There is no other place in the country like Tennessee. All you have to do is look at the evidence — the success of the program, the leadership from our administration, the fan base and our coaching staff. We are going to attract the right players to come play football here at Tennessee. Why would you not want to come here? You see the environment, the chance to build something special.” — Butch Jones

ALSO OF NOTE ...

Tennessee had 485 passing plays last year, but allowed the quarterback to be sacked only eight times, tops in the Southeastern Conference.

PLAYER’S QUOTE “Really, it’s all about bringing that old Tennessee back. Whoever we’re going to face this year is going to know we are going in there to beat them. We are going to have a swagger about us that I think we lost over the past couple of years, and we’re getting it back.”

— Offensive lineman Mack Crowder

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45

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

Will Wolford #69 | OT | 1982-85

Vandy legend returns home to coach his high school team

By ROBERT CESSNA | robert.cessna@theeagle.com

F

ormer Vanderbilt offensive tackle Will Wolford has come full circle. He’s in his first season as head football coach at Louisville’s St. Xavier High School, where more than three decades ago he started to develop a love for the

game.

“For me, living in Louisville, there’s nowhere I’d rather coach than St. X High School, and to have the opportunity to be the head coach is truly a blessing,” Wolford said. “And I think only people who are St. X grads and live in Louisville really understand that, because a lot of people question why I do it. But there’s nothing else I’d rather do. It’s fantastic.”

The 49-year-old Wolford is Vanderbilt’s only offensive lineman to be a first-round NFL pick, taken by the Buffalo Bills in 1986. He played in three Super Bowls with the Bills, was a three-time Pro Bowler, and in 1993, while with the Indianapolis Colts, was the game’s highest-paid offensive lineman.

He’ll graciously talk about those accomplishments, but he’s more focused on St. Xavier’s rivalry game against Trinity, the three-time defending Class 6A state champ that has won 10 state titles since 2000. St. Xavier has won 12 state championships, the last in 2009. Trinity beat St. Xavier twice last year — 34-7 in the regular season and then 15-14 in the playoffs.

Wolford was a star at St. Xavier, an all-male school of 1,500. Now it’s his job to make sure the 100 freshmen trying out for the team learn the game the way he did.

46

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

“It’s quite an undertaking, but when you grow up in Louisville and are raised the way I was raised, the way my wife’s family was raised, it’s a big deal to say, ‘I’m a St. X graduate,’” Wolford said.

“And it almost carries more weight than anything I’ve done.”

Like many boys in Louisville, Wolford was hoping to attend Notre Dame. It seemed a possible destination for a 240-pound rising defensive line star, but Wolford broke his right leg during his junior season, then got viral meningitis and lost 30 pounds right before his senior season.

Notre Dame no longer had an interest in Wolford, but Vanderbilt did. More importantly, his girlfriend and future wife, Mary Jude Craven, who attended Louisville’s Sacred Heart Academy, was headed to Vandy.

Vanderbilt moved him to the offensive line, and he started three seasons at left guard and the final year at right tackle, blossoming under the pro-style attack of head coach George MacIntyre.

Vanderbilt had only one winning season while Wolford was there, going 8-4 his freshman season.

“I remember a school that had a lot working against it as far as recruiting and battling in the SEC,” Wolford said. “[But] we were able to win eight games and almost got to the Sugar Bowl. That was a pretty special time.”

The 6-foot-6, 275-pound Wolford earned the nickname “The Tractor” from MacIntyre. He was voted into the Vanderbilt Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and was named the school’s Legends of the SEC player in 2001.

Wolford’s good fortune continued at the next level. He joined the Buffalo Bills just as the organization hired Marv Levy as head coach and signed quarterback Jim Kelly after the USFL folded. Wolford played in the Bills’ first three Super Bowls before leaving for the Colts.

Fifteen years after his NFL career ended, Wolford still has a knack for being at the right place at the right time. He was working as a radio analyst for the Colts when Mike Glaser, who was St. Xavier’s head coach for 31 seasons, stepped down. Wolford got the job, and brought in former Louisville quarterback Browning Nagle as his offensive coordinator. Nagle’s son, B.J., is a senior quarterback who transferred from Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis.

Wolford says he emphasizes the basics in working with his team.

“For example, an offensive lineman can

block anybody if he uses the proper technique and fundamentals,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if that guy is bigger, faster, stronger and quicker than him. He can still perform and do his job if he learns it the right way.”

Vanderbilt, meanwhile, is on the upswing. Coach James Franklin has taken the Commodores to back-to-back bowl games, reviving a program that had lost 16 of its last 17 SEC games before he arrived. And he signed the nation’s 19th-ranked class in February, according to Rivals.com.

“There’s no doubt his personality is contagious and a lot of people have caught on,” Wolford said. “And it’s fun to see a program that’s a lot like what Stanford has done on the West Coast. Vanderbilt is not supposed to be very good, especially in the mighty SEC, which it is tough, no question about it. I love SEC football. And not only is Vanderbilt competing, it is winning, competing against a lot of good programs.”

2013 Season Preview SCHEDULE Aug. 29

Ole Miss

Sept. 28

Alabama-Birmingham

Nov. 9

at Florida

Sept. 7

Austin Peay

Oct. 5

Missouri

Nov. 16

Kentucky

Sept. 14

at South Carolina

Oct. 19

Georgia

Nov. 23

at Tennessee

Sept. 21

at Massachusetts

Oct. 26

Texas A&M

Nov. 30

Wake Forest

LAST YEAR

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS

Vanderbilt was 9-4 and went to a bowl game for the second straight season (for the first time in school history). The Commodores ended the season with a seven-game winning streak, including a 3824 victory over North Carolina State in the Music City Bowl.

WR Jordan Matthews, senior (94 catches, 1,323 yards, 8 TD) WR Chris Boyd, junior (50 catches, 774 yards, 5 TD) OT Wesley Johnson, senior (13 starts) CB Andre Hal, senior (48 tackles, 14 PBU) DE Walker May, senior (41 tackles, 10.5 TFL) DE Kyle Woestmann, junior (22 tackles, 6 sacks) LB Chase Garnham, senior (84 tackles, 7 sacks) LB Karl Butler, senior (51 tackles, 11.5 TFL) S Kenny Ladler, senior (team-high 90 tackles) S Javon Marshall, senior (80 tackles) PK Carey Spear, senior (school-record 20 field goals)

COACH’S QUOTE “I’m glad you asked me about [the season opener against] Ole Miss. That’s our focus. That’s all we’re going to be talking about until then. I think the people that have been covering Vanderbilt football for a long time here in Nashville, [know] it’s night and day compared to my first year, and obviously years before we got here.” — James Franklin.

ALSO OF NOTE ...

In the last two seasons, Vanderbilt won four Southeastern Conference games by at least 23 points. In the previous 54 seasons, Vandy had won only four SEC games by at least 23 points.

PLAYER’S QUOTE “This is my team. I think it’s my team, but I’m going to let Coach Franklin make that decision [on who starts].

But I’m going to keep working hard, setting an example and doing what I have to do for the rest of these 100 guys.” — Senior quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels

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47

2013

Manziel’s year among SEC’s best

Courtesy of The Gainesville Sun

STEVE SPURRIER

TIM TEBOW Courtesy of The Gainesville Sun

48

J

By DAVID HARRIS | david.harris@theeagle.com

ohnny Manziel’s remarkable 2012 season was one for the record books, but it took a few weeks before grabbing national headlines.

It all changed during the Aggies’ 58-10 throttling of Arkansas. Manziel threw for 453 yards and ran for 104 yards. His 557 total yards eclipsed Archie Manning’s 43-year-old SEC record (540 yards) for total offense in a game.

Manziel made his mark in other SEC categories, and he was the sixth SEC quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy (Steve Spurrier, Pat Sullivan, Danny Wuerffel, Tim Tebow and Cam Newton).

Spurrier set an SEC record in 1966, when he threw for 2,012 yards for the Gators.

Sullivan (Auburn) led the nation with 2,856 total yards and an NCAA record 8.57 yards per play. But that was a different era, and those numbers now don’t even reach the top 20 in their respective categories.

Wuerffel, playing for Spurrier at Florida, was the first quarterback to reap the benefits of a pass-happy offense. Spurrier implemented the “fun ‘n’ gun,” and Wuerffel — a four-year starter — rewrote the SEC record book. During his Heisman Trophy season in 1996, Wuerffel led the nation with 39 touchdown passes and an efficiency rating of 170.6. And he set an SEC record, throwing for 3,625 yards — a record that has since fallen outside the top 10.

Tebow, Newton and Manziel all won the Heisman with their ability to beat teams with their arms and legs. During Tebow’s memorable 2007 season, he set the SEC single-season records for rushing touchdowns (23) and total touchdowns (55).

He became the first player in NCAA

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

history to have more than 20 rushing and passing touchdowns in a season.

Newton nearly matched him in 2010, while leading the Tigers to a national championship. He led the SEC in rushing with 1,473 yards and finished second nationally in passing efficiency with a 182.05 mark, which broke the SEC single-season record.

He also accounted for 51 touchdowns and set the SEC record with 4,327 yards of total offense.

But of the six Heisman Trophy winners and all the other

JOHNNY MANZIEL Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva

2013 legendary SEC quarterbacks — Joe Namath, Fran Tarkenton, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Tim Couch and more — Manziel’s 2012 season was arguably the most impressive one.

Manziel shattered Newton’s total offense

mark with 5,116 yards, and did so with one fewer game. Manziel matched Tebow, becoming only the second player in NCAA history to throw and run for at least 20 touchdowns. He broke his own record for total offense in a game when he torched

Louisiana Tech for 576 yards in a road victory. And he became the first SEC quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

Here’s a look at how Manziel’s year ranks with the SEC best.

SEC QUARTERBACK RECORDS Touchdowns Rushing

Most Yards Accounted For

1 Tim Tebow, Florida (2007)

23

1 Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M (2012)

2 Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M (2012)

21

2 Tim Tebow, Florida (2007)

2 Trent Richardson, Alabama (2011)

21

3 Tim Couch, Kentucky (1998)

4,151-6,348 (65.3 percent)

4 Cam Newton, Auburn (2010)

20

4 Cam Newton, Auburn (2010)

4,327-6,989 (61.9 percent)

5 Shaun Alexander, Alabama (1999)

19

5 Rex Grossman,

5,116-7,261 (70.45 percent) 4,181-5,943 (70.35 percent)

3,904-6,503 (60 percent)

Florida (1998)

Total Offense 1 Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M (2012)

5,116

2 Cam Newton, Auburn (2010)

4,327

3 Tim Tebow, Florida (2007)

4,181

4 Tim Couch, Kentucky (1998)

4,151

5 Rex Grossman, Florida (2001)

3,904

Passing Yards

Total Touchdowns 1 Tim Tebow, Florida (2007)

55

2 Cam Newton, Auburn (2010)

51

CAM NEWTON

3 Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M (2012)

47

Associated Press

4 Tim Tebow, Florida (2008)

42

5 Danny Wuerffel, Florida (1996)

41

Yards Per Game 1 Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M (2012) 393.5 2 Tim Couch, Kentucky (1998)

377.4

3 Rex Grossman, Florida (2001)

354.2

4 Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky (2000)

347.9

5 Tim Couch, Kentucky (1998)

341.7

PEYTON MANNING Tennessee Athletics

1

Tim Couch, Kentucky (1998)

4,275

2

Rex Grossman, Florida (2001)

3,896

3

Aaron Murray, Georgia (2012)

3,893

4

Tim Couch, Kentucky (1997)

3,884

5

Ryan Mallett, 3,869 Arkansas (2010)

6

Peyton Manning, 3,819 Tennessee (1997)

7

Andre Woodson, 3,709 Kentucky (2007)

8

Johnny Manziel, 3,706 Texas A&M (2012)

9

Jared Lorenzen, 3,687 Kentucky (2000)

10

Tyler Wilson, Arkansas (2011)

3,638

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

49

2013

2013 All-SEC Team

JADEVEON CLOWNEY

The preseason Media Days All-Southeastern Conference Football Team

FIRST TEAM Offense

QB Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M RB T.J. Yeldon, Alabama Todd Gurley, Georgia WR Amari Cooper, Alabama Jordan Matthews, Vanderbilt

*-Ties

Special teams

Associated Press

P Kyle Christy, Florida PK Carey Spear, Vanderbilt RS Odell Beckham Jr., LSU AP Bruce Ellington, South Carolina

TE Arthur Lynch, Georgia OL Cyrus Kouandjio, Alabama Jake Matthews, Texas A&M Anthony Steen, Alabama Gabe Jackson, Mississippi State C Travis Swanson, Arkansas

SECOND TEAM Defense

Offense

DL Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina Dominique Easley, Florida Anthony Johnson, LSU Chris Smith, Arkansas LB C.J. Mosley, Alabama A.J. Johnson, Tennessee Denzel Nkemdiche, Ole Miss DB HaHa Clinton-Dix, Alabama Craig Loston, LSU Loucheiz Purifoy, Florida Deion Belue, Alabama

QB AJ McCarron, Alabama RB Tre Mason, Auburn *LaDarius Perkins, Mississippi State *Keith Marshall, Georgia WR Donte Moncrief, Ole Miss Mike Evans, Texas A&M TE Rory Anderson, South Carolina OL Antonio Richardson, Tennessee Jon Halapio, Florida Chris Burnette, Georgia Ja’Wuan James, Tennessee C Reese Dismukes, Auburn

Defense

DL Xzavier Dickson, Alabama Ed Stinson, Alabama Dee Ford, Auburn Jeoffrey Pagan, Alabama LB Adrian Hubbard, Alabama Jordan Jenkins, Georgia Lamin Barrow, LSU DB Damian Swann, Georgia Andre Hal, Vanderbilt Marcus Roberson, Florida Vinnie Sunseri, Alabama

Special teams

P Cody Mandell, Alabama PK Cody Parkey, Auburn RS Bruce Ellington, South Carolina AP Odell Beckham Jr., LSU

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2013

A

JOHNNY MANZIEL through

To show how much of a surprise Johnny Manziel was in 2012: His name did not appear in our SEC magazine previewing A&M’s first season in the conference.

This year’s a little different. So we went alphabetical on Manziel and his rise to fame as the face of Aggie football. — Rob Clark

A |

All-American Manziel became A&M’s first quarterback to earn All-American honors with his record-breaking 2012 season.

B |

Baseball The former high school baseball player threw out the first pitch for the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres this summer.

C |

Celebrity Manziel has hobnobbed with the likes of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Megan Fox, the bearded Duck Dynasty crew, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Bun B, James Harden, LeBron James and many more.

D |

Drake Manziel said a highlight of his offseason was his trip to Toronto to meet the rap star.

E |

Evans A&M’s breakout receiver Mike Evans was Manziel’s go-to guy for much of 2012, and arguably saved the game against Ole Miss with his 32-yard third-down catch in the Aggies’ come-from-behind win.

52

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

F|

Z

Fiddle Manziel jumped onstage during a 2012 concert by Randy Rogers Band at Hurricane Harry’s and showed off his fiddle skills. Rogers later joked on the Aggie Nation radio program that Manziel earned a D-minus grade for his performance.

G |

Gracious As in, “Oh my gracious! How about that!?” That was CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist’s reaction after Manziel’s ridiculous bobble-turned-touchdown against Alabama.

H |

Heisman Manziel’s magical year made him the second Aggie to win the coveted trophy (John David Crow, 1957). And the media circus kicked into high gear afterward.

I|

Internet Manziel leaned on online courses at A&M to avoid post-Heisman campus distractions.

J |

James Manziel rooted for the Miami Heat and star LeBron James in the NBA Finals against the Spurs, despite Kerrville’s proximity to San Antonio.

K |

Kerrville Manziel’s senior-season stats at Kerrville Tivy: 3,609 passing yards, 1,674 rushing yards and 77 touchdowns.

2013

L |

Louisiana Tech One of Manziel’s top plays happened against the Bulldogs, even though it didn’t count. After an apparent Christine Michael fumble, Bulldog defender Chip Hester picked up the ball and started running.

Manziel tackled him and caused a fumble. Bulldog linebacker Mike Schrang scooped up the loose ball, but Manziel also tackled him. The old “two-tacklesand-one-forced-fumble” one-play stat for a quarterback, had the refs not called the play dead.

S |

Scooby-Doo Manziel earned chuckles with his Halloween costume of the cartoon canine.

T |

Twitter Social media turned up the glare on Manziel, especially his tweets about leaving College Station and “please walk a day in my shoes.”

M |

U |

McCarron Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron became Manziel’s pal in 2012, and they roomed together at the much-discussed Manning Passing Academy in July.

N |

Newton Manziel’s touchdown celebration — pretending to rip his jersey to reveal a Superman logo — was patterned after Cam Newton’s during his Heismanwinning season at Auburn.

O |

Oregon Manziel originally committed to the Ducks, but later switched when A&M came calling.

P |

PAT One of the few blunders in Manziel’s Heisman campaign was a badly booted extra point attempt in a blowout win over Sam Houston State.

University of Texas The Longhorns reportedly could have had Manziel, but only considered him as a defensive back. Nice move, Mack.

V |

Victories Manziel’s play helped Sumlin win more regular-season games than any other A&M coach in his debut season. Dana X. Bible and R.C. Slocum each won eight. Sumlin won 10.

W |

Whitfield Manziel credits George Whitfield’s summer guidance for helping him get the starting quarterback job in 2012. He trained with Whitfield again this summer.

X |

eXtraordinary OK, that’s a stretch, but our lovely coffee-table book — Extraordinary: Texas A&M’s Inaugural Season in the SEC — is available for purchase at The Eagle and pedimentbooks.com.

Q |

Y |

R |

Z |

Quickness A&M’s fast-paced offense was a perfect fit for Manziel. A&M averaged 83.5 offensive plays per game, ranking eighth in the country.

Rossley Tom Rossley, assistant for former coach Mike Sherman, is credited with recruiting Manziel.

Yee Yee! Manziel has retweeted the trademark exuberant phrase by A&M grad and singer-songwriter Granger Smith, and appeared in Smith’s video for Silverado Bench Seat Seat.

Zig-zag As in Manziel’s crazy runs, especially his touchdown scampers against SMU, Arkansas, Louisiana Tech, Auburn, Ole Miss and Oklahoma.

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

53

2013

Great names pepper SEC rosters

T

By ROB CLARK | rob.clark@theeagle.com

Associated Pr ess

he SEC record books are loaded with great names, from Nacho Albergamo to Andrew Zow. We dug into this year’s media guides to deSHAQUILLE termine the 2013 All-Name Team.

O’NEAL But first, some random observations.

We almost had an All-Fish-Name Team: Patrick Fish (South Carolina), Darreon Herring (Vanderbilt), Hameet Gill (Missouri), Justin Bass (Texas A&M) and Walker Sturgeon (Ole Miss).

The influence of former LSU basketball star Shaquille O’Neal is obvious, with Shaq Roland (South Carolina), Shaquille Love (Kentucky), Shaquille Fluker (Georgia) and Shaquille Wiggins (also Georgia).

Fans of beloved actor Jimmy Stewart will be glad to know there’s a Vanderbilt player with that name. Other famous names on SEC rosters: novelist James Baldwin (Mississippi State), Bobby Hill from King of the Hill

Sherlock

(Ole Miss), old-school talk-show host Mike Douglas (Kentucky), South Park’s’s Trey Parker (A&M) and Texas coach Mack Brown (Florida).

Three teams have potential confusion: Missouri has two players named Mitch Hall — no relation — who both play on the offensive line. South Carolina has Gerald Dixon and Gerald Dixon Jr., both on the defensive line (the former is the younger half-brother of the latter).

And A&M has twins Tyrell and Tyrone Taylor, both part of the linebacking corps.

From the extra “z” department: Xzavier Ward (Georgia) and Xzavier Dickson (Alabama).

And we spotted lots of first names ending in “ius,” or close to it. This year’s crew includes Latevius (Vanderbilt), I’Tavius (Ole Miss), Dontavis (Tennessee), Quintavius (Ole Miss), Quantavius (LSU), Quadarias (Ole Miss), Maquedius (LSU), Octavius (Florida), Rantavious (Georgia) and Montravious (Auburn).

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2013

SEC All-Name Team Here are our 20 selections for this year’s All-Name Team.

Some are real names, some nicknames, but all are exactly how they are listed in the teams’ media guides.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mister Cobble (DT, Kentucky) Pig Howard (WR, Tennessee) Chief Brown (DB, Ole Miss) Ego Ferguson (DT, LSU) Max Strong (K, Kentucky) Zach Hocker (K, Arkansas) Chandler Shakespeare (RB, Auburn) Trip Thurman (OL, Florida) Tip McKenzie (WR, Vanderbilt) Cassanova McKinzy (LB, Auburn)

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

HaHa Clinton-Dix (DB, Alabama) David Priddy (DB, Tennessee) Will Sport (OG, South Carolina) Ray Ray Smith (LB, Ole Miss) Pancho Thomas (LB, Kentucky) Gimel President (DE, Auburn) Jake Star (TE, Georgia) Curt Maggitt (LB, Tennessee) Paris Head (S, Vanderbilt) Taz Zettergren (TE, Ole Miss) Open

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Gear up for a big season

2013

Expert predictions for A&M’s year Kirk Bohls

George Schroeder

Austin American-Statesman TOP 7 IN SEC WEST Texas A&M; Alabama; LSU; Arkansas; Ole Miss; Auburn; Mississippi State TOP 3 IN SEC EAST Georgia; South Carolina; Florida TOP 3 IN HEISMAN RACE AJ McCarron; Braxton Miller; Johnny Manziel

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A&M I will be shocked if the Aggies don’t have one of the five best offenses in all of college football. I see no drop-off and perhaps even an improvement if Kevin Sumlin finds a receiver to replace the reliable Ryan Swope. A&M definitely enters the year as one of the favorites to win it all, and eight home games without Georgia, South Carolina and Florida on the schedule is a huge help. My biggest fears are a defense that breaks down at times without the singular presence of a dominant player like Damontre Moore and an erratic kicking game.

TOP 7 IN SEC WEST Alabama; Texas A&M; LSU; Auburn; Ole Miss; Arkansas; Mississippi State

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A&M A year ago, the question was whether the Aggies could possibly compete in the mighty SEC. Given their struggles for most of the previous decade in the Big 12 South, it was understandable, if undoubtedly insulting. That’s all gone now. Now, people wonder if Kevin Sumlin’s bunch can take the next step and contend for the BCS title. That’s TOP 3 IN SEC EAST a very, very big step. It’s certainly possible — if Texas A&M beats South Carolina; Alabama Sept. 14 at Kyle Field, look out — but it’s also possible the AgFlorida; Georgia gies could slip a bit from ‘12. With Johnny Manziel, it feels like anything could happen. But it’s also hard to overlook significant losses on the TOP 3 IN offensive line and in the defensive front seven, both of which could HEISMAN RACE increase the difficulty factor. I expect the Aggies to contend for the Braxton Miller; SEC West title. The schedule is not especially difficult — A&M misses Jadeveon Clowney; the top three SEC East teams and has a pillowy soft nonconference Johnny Manziel schedule. A run at a crystal football, though, is a tall order, considering the biggest obstacle is college football’s current dynasty.

Tex in t as A& he reg M w ul a i l

IR

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM JOHNNY MANZIEL The season can’t get here soon enough for Manziel. He has more problems in the offseason than he does the season, but the field should be his comfort zone. I don’t buy all the nonsense that teams will be better prepared for himK the second time around. Didn’t Oklahoma haveK BOHLS all the scouting reports after 12 games? I do think defenses will try to better contain him with a more deliberate and an outside pass rush and try to force him to win more games throwing.

But he can. I see very little drop-off in his game, and I expect him to be in the Heisman race to the very end.

But I do think this will be his final college season.

Ivan Maisel ESPN

TOP 7 IN SEC WEST Alabama; LSU; Texas A&M; Ole Miss; Mississippi State; Auburn; Arkansas TOP 3 IN SEC EAST Georgia; South Carolina; Florida TOP 3 IN HEISMAN RACE Jadeveon Clowney; Marcus Mariota; Teddy Bridgewater TEXAS A&M’S REGULAR-SEASON RECORD 9-3

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM JOHNNY MANZIEL Johnny Football could have exactly the same statistics and very similar impact as 2012, and it would be seen as a letdown. That’s unfair, but it’s just the way of things. He (and A&M) are no longer a fresh, new, completely unexpected story line. I expect Manziel to be very, very good again, perhaps better than he was last season — it’s an old football truism that quarterbacks grow the most between their first and second years as a starter — and yet, he might not have the same stats, and A&M might not have the same record.

If Texas A&M doesn’t achieve the same (or better) results as 2012, Manziel’s performance won’t resonate as much. But if he leads the Aggies past the Crimson Tide again, and they keep rolling from there? You could be looking at a two-time Heisman winner, and a berth in the BCS championship game.

o lg rs

TEXAS A&M’S REGULARSEASON RECORD 12-0

USA Today

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A&M I have two questions about A&M. One is the same question everyone else has, and that’s Manziel’s ability to maintain his focus when everything else around him is going haywire.

And I think what’s more germane to the football field is replacing the senior leadership on defense as well as the senior play on defense — that is my biggest football question.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM JOHNNY MANZIEL I think he has a very difficult task before him, because he’s not only measured against himself, but the expectations that have been built up around him. Combined, that’s a Herculean task that would be difficult for anyone, much less a 20-year-old who’s being forced to deal with being in the middle of the American celebrity machine.

ea 12so 0 n.

TEXAS A&M’S REGULAR-SEASON RECORD 10-2

Andre Ware

ESPN, 1989 Heisman Trophy winner TOP 7 IN SEC WEST Alabama; Texas A&M; LSU; Ole Miss; Mississippi State; Auburn; Arkansas TOP 3 IN SEC EAST South Carolina; Georgia; Florida TOP 3 IN HEISMAN RACE Jadeveon Clowney; Johnny Manziel; Marcus Mariota TEXAS A&M’S REGULAR-SEASON RECORD 11-1

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A&M I think it will be an exciting season like last season. I think the sky’s the limit. If they win that game on Sept. 14 it would not surprise me if they are in a position late in the season to go unbeaten.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM JOHNNY MANZIEL I think Johnny will have a comparable statistical year, but maybe in a little different way — maybe not the rushing yards, but the passing yards definitely will go up. That will make for an even more exciting year, seeing what he’ll do with his arm rather than running around, making plays with his legs all the time. That 5,000-yard passing season is still out there. Everybody who has played in that offense – Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons, Case Keenum – they all threw for 5,000.

Ralph Russo

Associated Press TOP 7 IN SEC WEST Alabama; LSU; Texas A&M; Auburn; Ole Miss; Mississippi State; Arkansas TOP 3 IN SEC EAST South Carolina; Georgia; Florida TOP 3 IN HEISMAN RACE Tajh Boyd; Braxton Miller; Jadeveon Clowney TEXAS A&M’S REGULARSEASON RECORD 9-3 WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A&M A slight step back mostly because of the defense that was only so-so last year and I can’t see getting better. The Aggies won’t beat Alabama or LSU, and hesitantly I’ll say they get upset at Ole Miss or Missouri. All that said, I would not be shocked if Texas A&M went 12-0.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM JOHNNY MANZIEL Huge numbers — again. The system works and his gift for improvisation and ability to make something out of nothing makes this offense unstoppable for the majority of A&M’s opponents. My guess is he’ll run for less yards and throw for more as teams become hyper-aware of his scrambling.

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

57

2013

Songs for SEC players, personalities

B

Nick Saban

By ROB CLARK | rob.clark@theeagle.com

aseball has the right idea: playing hand-picked songs for each batter who comes to the plate, and for pitchers entering the game.

If only football would adopt that idea. Any time a player or coach does something of significance, good or bad, blast an appropriate song. And whenever a talking head opines on TV too long, turn up the music.

Here’s a mix tape of sorts — a few suggestions for SEC players, coaches and pundits.

Johnny Manziel Fame by David Bowie: He can’t escape the spotlight off the field, so let’s hope he feels at home on it.

Lyrics: “Fame makes a man take things over/Fame lets him loose, hard to swallow/Fame puts you there where things are hollow/... Fame, it’s not your brain, it’s just the flame/That burns your change to keep you insane.”

The Payback by James Brown: The Alabama coach is surely eager to deliver a payback punch to the Aggies on Sept. 14 at Kyle Field.

James Brown’s lyrics — basically just screaming random angry words about how ticked off he is — seems like it fits.

Lyrics: “Got to pay back!/Revenge!/I’m mad!/The big payback!”

Mike Slive I’m Bad by LL Cool J: The SEC commish is among college football’s most powerful men. We half-expected him to enter his SEC Media Days address with this song, then finish by dropping the mic and walking off.

Lyrics: “I’m the pinnacle, that means I reign supreme/And I’m notorious I’ll crush you like a jellybean/I’m bad.”

Mark May LL COOL J Associated Press

Instant Karma by John Lennon: The ESPN commentator has been among Manziel’s harshest critics for off-the-field actions. And then it was revealed that

At Texas A&M our students and faculty succeed on every “playing field.”

We are committed to a culture of excellence in teaching, research, and service and to an environment of respect where all Aggies Commit to Learning for a Lifetime.

58

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

2013 May had some troubles with the law in his college days. Whoops!

Lyrics: “Instant karma’s gonna get you/Gonna knock you off your feet/Better recognize your brothers/Everyone you meet/Why in the world are we here?/Surely not to live in pain and fear/Why on earth are you there?/When you’re everywhere/Come and get your share.”

Lyrics: “Oh, it’s another social casualty/Score one more for me/ How could I forget?/Mama said, ‘Think before speaking’/No filter in my head/Oh, what’s a boy to do/I guess he better find one soon.”

AJ McCarron Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson: That’s what goes through our head whenever we see the Alabama quarterback’s model girlfriend, Katherine Webb. That and Brent Musberger biting his palm, Lenny-and-Squiggy style.

Lyrics: “Is she really going out with him?/Is she really gonna take him home tonight?/Is she really going out with him?/’Cause if my eyes don’t deceive me there’s something going wrong around here.”

Kevin Sumlin Cool by The Time: The ’80s funk workout fits the Texas A&M coach’s swagger. Too bad Kliff Kingsbury, his partner-in-cool, isn’t around to hold up a big mirror during the game, just like The Time’s Jerome Benton did for singer Morris Day. Lyrics: “When I look into the mirror/It just tells me something I already know/I’m so cool/Honey, baby, can’t you see?/Girl, I’m so cool/Ain’t nobody bad like me.”

Will Muschamp

Paul Finebaum

www.theeagle.com

My Stupid Mouth by John Mayer: The radio host who recently joined ESPN is also regarded by some as a professional troll. He certainly played that role during SEC Media Days, with his relentless criticism of Manziel.

JOHN MAYER

Associated Press

Fancy by Reba McEntire: There’s no logical reason for this. We just pictured the Florida coach (and former Texas defensive coordinator) singing it at karaoke night — all sassy-like — and we wished it were so.

Lyrics: “It sounded like somebody else that was talkin’/ Askin’ ‘Mama what do I do?’/She said, ‘Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy, they’ll be nice to you’/She said, ‘Here’s your one chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.’”

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59

Fun With Flow Charts

HOW TO DRINK THE KOOL-AID AND BELIEVE TEXAS A&M WILL WIN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

By Rob Clark

Are you an optimist?

Did you believe A&M’s title buzz in ’75 and ’95?

Yes

We have Johnny Manziel and Kevin Sumlin now.

OK, so?

Will A&M be better without Luke Joeckel, Ryan Swope and Damontre Moore?

Why do you have to bring up old, painful memories?

No

Yes

But Alabama and LSU lost even more. And there hasn’t been a 3-peat national champ since the ’30s.

So Alabama’s chances are debatable.

OK, so?

No

Yes

60

Of course you are

I know, right?

Are you thirsty for a maroon, powdered flavored drink?

Do you need a cure for that?

Yes

And A&M will beat Alabama?

Wow! A&M beats Alabama two years in a row!

Do you have Battered Aggie Syndrome?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Oh yeah!

Drink up, Aggie.

A&M will win the national championship!

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

Realism has no place in rooting for Aggie football!

No

I’m just realistic

SEC 2013 | The Eagle | AggieSports.com | MyAggieNation.com

61

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