Texas A&M should learn from
Paterno
by
Jim Dent, San Antonio Express-News
December 29, 1999
The Aggies were surprised when a guy from Hoboken trotted onto
the turf Tuesday night to lead Penn State into the Alamo Bowl.
Even more disconcerting was that Rashard Casey, making his first
start ever for the Nittany Lions, was wearing No. 12 — as in the 12th Man.
Long before Casey collected his hardware as the game's offensive Most Valuable Player, the
Aggies thought they had counted 12 men on the field.
Casey was more than a flash in the pan. He was a flash of light;
the blink of an eye. He was speed you can't measure. I know why the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
drafted him to play the outfield.
"There aren't many guys around who can do that,"
Aggies coach R.C. Slocum said.
In leading Penn State past the Aggies 24-zip in the seventh
Alamo Bowl, Casey didn't dazzle them with his statistics, completing only 8 of 16 passes
for 146 yards. He passed with the touch of a blacksmith. The A&M "Wrecking
Crew" knocked him around on the first offensive series.
But he laced a perfect 45-yard over-the-shoulder touchdown pass
to Eddie Drummond in the second quarter that left the Aggies down 14-0. He also
rollerskated seven times for 45 yards, and sprinted four yards untroubled around right end
for Penn State's third touchdown.
Not bad for a guy who's never started for the Lions. But it was
nothing Penn State fans hadn't seen before. You see, Casey is the second wheel in Penn
State's quarterback rotation — the reliever with a smoking fastball. When Kevin
Thompson injured his rotator cuff last week, Casey was ready.
Paterno admitted that Thompson was basically ready to go at game
time, and Thompson threw with velocity in warm-ups. But Paterno also knew that Casey was
ready to star on national TV in one of the best bowl matchups of the year.
Pay attention, you Aggies. Paterno schooled you in the art of
offensive football Tuesday night. He proved that having two good quarterbacks is better
than having one mediocre one.
I know it's not fair to lay all the blame for this disappointing
season at the feet of Randy McCown. He did, however, tie a bowl record with four
interceptions. Granted, three of those were precipitated by the swooping outside rush of
linebacker LaVar Arrington.
Arrington shot holes in the Aggies' offense. But we had seen it
all before.
From top to bottom, Texas A&M cannot be happy with this 8-4
season that began with such promise, and saw the Aggies rise to No. 5 in the polls in late
September. But a crushing loss to Texas Tech, followed by a rout in Oklahoma, followed by
a 2-yard rushing performance against Nebraska left the Aggies in a state of confusion.
Slocum knows why and where the offense went wrong. They were too
ambitious with the passing game early in the season, and forgot to use their best asset
— the running game. Now Slocum must fix the offense with a redshirt freshman
quarterback — Colby Freeman from Brownwood — who has displayed high-level skills
on the practice field.
Basically, the Aggies need to get back to the basics.
They need to begin spring drills by giving the ball to monster
back Ja'mar Toombs.
And they need to watch film of JoePa's offense.
