thebattalion The ‘foot’ in
A&M vs. OU Bring your Twelfth Man towel to tomorrow’s game when Aggies everywhere attempt to “Twelfth Man Towel-Out”Kyle Field.
No. 8 OU Game preview | page 6
● friday,
Senate bill calls for big change
Ryan Seybold, staff writer
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football
File photos
By Kyle Cunningham | The Battalion
I
n the past, the kickers and punters of some football teams were considered the odd men out on the team; they were the ones that had the label of “superstitious” and detached from the rest of their teammates. This probably started with Garo Yepremian, a kicker with four NFL teams in a 13-year career. Many teams at the time had foreign kickers on their roster. Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud is probably the best known, but Yepremian was the one who had the toughest time assimilating to the American culture. On kickoffs, Yepremian would, in fear of being laid into by American linebackers, kick the ball and then run towards the bench. This fear of contact, on top of other interesting social quirks, stayed with the specialist positions as the decades went on. For A&M specialists Randy Bullock and Ryan Epperson, however, none of said brandings hold true. Bullock, a junior placekicker from Klein, and Epperson, a sophomore punter from Keller, both started in soccer before being introduced to the game of American football. Bullock played soccer until his sophomore year in high school when he began receiving interest from college football teams. The 5’9” kicker transitioned at the time between midfield and forward. “I think [playing soccer] helped, but it was definitely different because of the shape of the ball,” Bullock said. “There’s the round surface [of a soccer ball] compared to the football.” For Epperson, the transition was slightly tougher. His brother Derek, a punter at Baylor, started at goalkeeper for the soccer team, which made it easier for
him to play punter. Ryan, however, started at centerback and centermidfield. Neither position offered him the chance to punt, but did give him a chance to be one of the football team’s kickers while Derek handled punting. When Derek left for Baylor, Ryan found himself forced to transition to a new position. “We didn’t have a punter [my junior year of high school],” Epperson said. “My brother graduated and we had a senior kicker, so the only way I was going to play was if I punted.” Ryan considered following Derek to Baylor from his junior year to the beginning of his senior year, but the Bears did not extend an offer to him until he had already gotten comfortable in his decision to come to Texas A&M. With both jobs being in front of home audiences that routinely hit 80,000, it can be reasonably assumed that both Bullock and Epperson face immense pressure. Bullock said that kicking is not a job that involves too much stress. “It’s more like muscle memory,” Bullock said. “Once you get out on the field, there’s not a whole lot of thinking. It’s just kind of doing.” The toughest part, according to Bullock is “making sure you can put [misses] behind you,” which he feels he’s gotten better at. But with every miss comes the added stress from fans and writers who call for a kicker’s job. “So what do they do [when a kid misses]?” Stenerud said. “They say the kid is strange, and they cut him.”
Junior kicker Randy Bullock is 10-for-13 on field goals during the 2010 season. The Aggies take on Oklahoma Saturday.
See Kicker on page 4
A&M, college choirs join together for ‘Gospel Fest’ The Battalion Saturday night, the Bryan-College Station community will be given the opportunity to experience “more than just a melody” from Texas A&M’s gospel choir, Voices of Praise. Voices of Praise is presenting the 28th Gospel Fest, which offers a way for choirs from around the state and country to gather and give a rich encounter for the Aggie community. Gospel Fest will feature Voices of Praise alongside choirs from six other universities, including Sam Houston, Texas Christian University, the University of Texas-Arlington, Henderson State and Texas State. “It’s an all day event to fellowship with other choirs in and out of state,” said Gregory Castille, junior elementary education major and chairman for Gospel Fest. During the day, choirs participate in workshops led by clinician Carnel Davis. Davis, a Houston native, is the director and founder of Incorporated to Praise, ITP. ITP has shared the stage
with many prominent gospel singers and consists of 30 members from varying denominational backgrounds. In addition to workshops, participants will have a luncheon and a rehearsal combined of all choirs. The mass rehearsal will prepare the choirs for the performance later that night. It is a chance for the univer- sities to come together and fellowship with one another. While Gospel Fest is creating bonds among different universities, it is also allowing Voices of Praise to come together to serve the other choirs and the community. “It’s bonding us as a choir and it’s spiritual growth because our minds have to be in the right spot,” Castille said. Voices of Praise will be working all week to prepare for the event. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., choirs will be putting on a performance at The First Baptist Church in Bryan. “The community can expect a refreshing spirit, great music from college gospel choirs all over Texas and various other ministries, a time of fellowship and worship and, most im-
portantly, a chance to let the worries of the week, the month, the year just vanish as God is praised,” said Marisela Christina Spangler, a junior animal science major and parliamentarian for Texas A&M’s Voices of Praise choir. Each choir will be performing separately, and then they will all come together and perform. Chara Dance Company and the miming group Silent Voices of Praise will also be performing. Voices of Praise is the only gospel choir on campus, and it offers students a way to connect to one another and their faith. “I got involved because I grew up singing in the church choir and found Voices of Praise to be a nice substitute for what I was missing at home,” said Rachel Job, junior accounting major and secretary for Voices of Praise. Voices of Praise has performed for Texas A&M president, R. Bowen Loftin, and can be seen singing backup for Lyle Lovett. “I have sung for churches growing up and
my love for God has just intensified when I can praise him with the gift he’s given me. Voices of Praise is an excellent way for me to express both my love for God and for music and singing,” Spangler said. Voices of Praise, along with Gospel Fest, serves as an outlet for students in College Station and beyond to express their individual beliefs.
TALIO N
Joanna Raines
— TH E BAT
PepsiCo. is the world’s largest food and beverage company. With 285,000 employees and 19 different product lines that produce $1 billion of revenue each year, per line, PepsiCo. has raked in about $60 billion of revenue. Thursday, the CEO of PepsiCo., Indra Nooyi, came to Texas A&M to speak publicly to undergraduate business honors and full-time MBA students. The dean of Mays Business School, Jerry R. Strawser, class of 1983, was also a participant. The main topics of discussion were the obesity epidemic and PepsiCo.’s policy and goals regarding nutrition, which Nooyi spoke about at length.“There are extremely obese people who eat healthily, and there are extremely thin people who eat very unhealthily, so it’s a complex rubric of the way you live, genetics, what you eat and stress levels in your body,” Nooyi said. Nooyi also said that although obesity is a complex problem that does not necessarily have a solution, that doesn’t mean PepsiCo. should ignore the problem. PepsiCo. said any efforts to improve the situation are a step in the right direction. “We are all committed to reducing calories, sugar levels, saturated fat levels and sodium levels in all our products,” Nooyi said. Other topics of discussion included PepsiCo.’s long-term growth strategy and commitment to environmental sustainability. “[We are committed to] finding innovative ways to reduce the use of energy, water and packaging,” Nooyi said.
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PepsiCo. CEO speaks at Mays
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Katie White, staff writer
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The Student Senate passed a bill Wednesday in opposition of the Texas State Senate Bill 1528, which allows illegal immigrants in-state tuition. The Student Senate Bill, SB 63-11, was introduced by 41 Aggies and supported by five senators. After extensive debate between senators both opposing and supporting the bill, the bill passed with a 41-for and 26-against vote. The bill does not bind the University to take any action against allowing illegal immigrant students in-state tuition. However, Senator Caperton, chairman of the External Affairs Committee and a primary researcher for the bill, said the Texas legislature asked him to gather student opinion about the bill. “Texas Legislature said they need student opinion and it is our obligation to represent the student body,” Caperton said before the vote. Another author of the bill, Senator Justin Pulliam, said many people have had issues with the bill because the authors did not send out a survey about the issue for student reaction before the vote. Pulliam said the lack of a survey did not mean the senators proposing the bill had not polled their constituents correctly about the issue. “Right now, Texas law rewards criminal acts of being here illegally,” Pulliam said. He said the bill did not discriminate against illegal immigrants, but merely opposed a state law that violates federal law. Other senators present said they wished the Senate would worry about issues more pertinent to its domain, such as budget cuts.
noveber 5, 2010
11/4/10 8:13 PM