Cowboys Host Streaking Aggies

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

OSU Depth Chart in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Oct. 30, 2000

Oklahoma State begins the homestretch of the 2000 football season this week as the Cowboys host Texas A&M. Kickoff on Lewis Field is set for 1 p.m. as the Cowboys try to snap a five-game losing streak and notch their first Big 12 Conference win of the season. Texas A&M will come to Stillwater having won three straight and six of its first eight. The Aggies are 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play. The Cowboys are 2-5 overall and 0-4 in league play.

Tickets/Kickoff
Tickets for this week's Big 12 game against Texas A&M are available. The tickets can be purchased at the Athletic Ticket Office on North Boomer Road in Stillwater, or by calling (877) ALL-4-OSU. Saturday will the first of three straight afternoon kickoff times on Lewis Field. Texas A&M and Baylor are scheduled for 1 p.m. starts, while the Oklahoma game on Nov. 25 will kick off at 2:30 p.m. and be televised by Fox Sports Net.

New Month, Another Ranked Opponent
The Cowboys will usher in another month of the football season against another opponent ranked in the top 25. Texas A&M climbed into the national rankings this week at No. 25 (USA Today/ESPN) and No. 24 (Associated Press). Three other teams in both polls are on the OSU schedule. Southern Miss (ranked 11th), Texas (No. 20) and Oklahoma (No. 1 in the country) join two other Big 12 teams (Nebraska and Kansas State) that are not on the 2000 O-State schedule but are nationally ranked.

Trick or Treat or the Meaningless Stat of the Week
Oklahoma State has not won a football game the week of Halloween since 1989. That's 10 straight losses when a game has been played either on Halloween or the week after. The last victory came on Nov. 4, 1989, when the Cowboys defeated Kansas in Lawrence by a 37-34 margin.

Tough Schedule, Part I
Oklahoma State's 2000 football schedule was tabbed early as demanding. More than halfway through the season, that prediction has come to fruition. In fact, OSU's first six Division I-A opponents have a combined record of 24-19, with all six teams through seven or eight games. Two of those early opponents, Southern Miss and Texas, are 6-1 and 6-2 respectively and bowl-eligible. Iowa State is currently 5-2, one game shy of being bowl-eligible.

Tough Schedule, Part II
It doesn't get any easier. The remaining four teams on OSU's schedule have a combined record of 21-10, with five of those 10 losses belonging to Baylor, OSU's Nov. 18 opponent. Texas A&M, this week's opponent on Lewis Field, is 6-2 and ranked 24th in the country. Texas Tech, which OSU plays on Nov. 11, is 6-3. Baylor, which visits Lewis Field on Nov. 18, is 2-5, and Oklahoma is 7-0 and the top-ranked team in both polls. The Sooners visit Stillwater on Nov. 25.

OSU Last Week
Freshman quarterback Aso Pogi had a second straight game of 300-plus passing yards, but the Cowboys fell to Colorado, 37-21, in Boulder. Pogi, OSU's talented young quarterback, made his second career start and registered his second straight game of more than 300 yards. He became the first quarterback in OSU history to accomplish that feat (there's more on Pogi later in this release). Saturday afternoon in Boulder, CU jumped to a 21-0 lead and led 30-7 at the half. OSU scored two consecutive touchdowns, a nine-yard run by Reggie White and an eight-yard pass from Pogi to Khary Jackson, to cut the CU lead to 30-21. Colorado put the game away with a fourth-quarter touchdown.

Texas A&M Last Week
The Aggies registered their third straight victory and established themselves as a solid contender in the Big 12 South with a 26-10 win over Kansas State in College Station. The win over Kansas State gave A&M its third straight league win (Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State). Ja'Mar Toombs sparked the Texas A&M offense by scoring three touchdowns. Toombs has now scored 11 rushing touchdowns this season.

On the Air
Saturday's game against Texas A&M will be broadcast live on the Cowboy Sports Network. KWTV Sports Director Bill Teegins is the radio voice of Oklahoma State football and basketball and is joined on the broadcast by Tom Dirato. The Cowboy Sports Network is produced and syndicated by Cowboy Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Communications. The OSU-A&M radio broadcast will begin at noon with an extensive pregame show and end with a live postgame report from the OSU lockerroom. The broadcast can be heard in Oklahoma City on KOMA (FM 92.5), in Tulsa on KRMG (AM 740) and in Stillwater on KSPI (FM 93.7). There will be no TV telecast of the OSU-Texas A&M game.

OSU Offense
Oklahoma State's offense has continued to jell under the guidance of redshirt freshman quarterback Aso Pogi. Pogi has played in six of OSU's seven games, starting just two of those, and he has already thrown for 912 yards and five touchdowns. He has completed 80 of 143 passes and has a completion percentage of 55.9 percent. He is averaging 152 yards per game. As a team, OSU is averaging 219 passing yards and 155.6 rushing yards per game. On the ground, OSU is averaging 4.1 yards per carry. Tailback Reggie White leads the Cowboy ground attack. Through seven games, White has gained 704 yards on 139 carries and scored four touchdowns. He is averaging 100.6 yards per game. OSU quarterbacks Pogi and Tony Lindsay, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery two weeks ago, have spread the wealth among a talented group of receivers. Eleven different players have at least two receptions with Gabe Lindsay topping that list. Through seven games, Lindsay has 23 catches for 280 yards and a touchdown. Jamaal Fobbs is tied with Lindsay in number of receptions (23) and has 242 yards and a touchdown.

Pogi Taking Charge
Quarterback Aso Pogi had played sparingly in four of Oklahoma State's first five games in 2000. Senior quarterback and leader Tony Lindsay spent the early part of the season competing with a bad shoulder. When surgery became necessary on Lindsay's shoulder, the quarterback chores fell on the the shoulders of Pogi. He has responded almost brilliantly and is one of the bright young quarterbacks in the country.

300 Once
In his first start against Iowa State, Pogi passed for 328 yards. It was the most passing yards in school history by a freshman, the fourth-best single-game passing performance in Cowboy gridiron history and OSU's first 300-yard passing effort since Mike Gundy had 315 yards through the air against Iowa State in the 1989 season finale. Only Gundy, Ronnie Williams and Tony Pounds had better single-game performances.

300 Twice
How could Pogi encore the numbers from his first start? How about throwing for 313 more yards in his second career start. Last week against Colorado, Pogi threw for 313 yards on a day in which he completed 30 of 49 tosses, threw for two touchdowns and had just one interception. He became the first Oklahoma State quarterback ever to pass for 300 or more yards in back-to-back games.

OSU's Top 10 Single-Game Passers

Rank	Name	Class	Yards	Opponent
1.	Mike Gundy	Sr.	429	Kansas
2.	Ronnie Williams	So.	363	Nebraska
3.	Tony Pounds	Jr.	329	Nebraska
4.	Aso Pogi	Fr.	328	Iowa State
5.	Mike Gundy	So.	325	Wyoming
6.	Mike Gundy	Sr.	315	Iowa State
7.	Aso Pogi	Fr.	313	Colorado
8.	Don Babers	Jr.	297	Detroit
9.	Don Babers	So.	284	Missouri
10.	Mike Gundy	Fr.	275	Kansas

Did You Notice?
Among Oklahoma State's top-10 all-time single-game passing performances, the only two freshmen on the list are Aso Pogi and Mike Gundy. Gundy passed for 275 yards against Kansas in 1986. If you extend the list through the top-40 single-game passing performances, you will find only six by Cowboy freshmen. Pogi's and Gundy's are already documented, Gary Porter passed for 261 yards against Missouri and 259 yards against Kansas as a freshman in 1992.

Good Company
He has just two college starts under his belt, but OSU's redshirt freshman quarterback is among good company in this week's Big 12 statistics. In passing efficiency, Pogi is ninth, narrowly trailing Sage Rosenfels of Iowa State, Kliff Kingsbury of Texas Tech and Craig Ochs of Colorado. He is also high in the league in total offense. Again with limited time in all but two of OSU's seven games so far in 2000, Pogi is 10th with an average of 142.86 yards per game.

Big 12 Total Offense Leaders

Rank	Player	School	Avg. Yards
1.	Josh Heupel	Oklahoma	323.70
2.	Kliff Kingsbury	Texas Tech	285.56
3.	Jonathan Beasley	Kansas State	254.56
4.	Sage Rosenfels	Iowa State	241.75
5.	Major Applewhite	Texas	241.13
6.	Mark Farris	Texas A&M	240.13
7.	Dylen Smith	Kansas	235.75
8.	Eric Crouch	Nebraska	198.38
9.	Craig Ochs	Colorado	173.57
10.	Aso Pogi	Oklahoma State	142.86

Reggie Shooting for 1,000 Oklahoma State is looking to notch its first 1,000-yard rusher since 1996. Reggie White heads into the eighth game of the season with 704 yards and a per-game average of 100.6. White is 296 yards short of the 1,000-yard mark and needs to average just over 74 yards per game over the final four to reach the coveted milestone. The Liberty, Texas, junior registered 102 yards on 26 carries against Missouri two weeks ago. It was White's fourth 100-yard rushing performance of the season. White is ranked third in the Big 12 and 25th nationally in rushing.

Reggie's Season

Opponent	Att-Yards	TD	Long
at Tulsa	25-187	1	35
Southwest Texas	23-130	1	22
Southern Mississippi	23- 65	0	15
at Texas	15-104	1	69
at Missouri	26-102	0	31
Iowa State	11- 40	0	11
at Colorado	16-76	1	21

NCAA Rushers

Rank	Player	School	Avg. Yards
1.	LaDainian Tomlinson	TCU	184.7
2.	Deonce Whitaker	San Jose State	178.7
3.	Damien Anderson	Northwestern	166.8
4.	Michael Bennett	Wisconsin	158.5
5.	Ken Simonton	Oregon State	145.3
----
8.	Ennis Haywood	Iowa State	133.0
24.	Dan Alexander	Nebraska	100.63
25.	Reggie White	Oklahoma State	100.57

Big 12 Rushers

Rank	Player	School	Avg. Yards
1.	Ennis Haywood	Iowa State	133.0
2.	Dan Alexander	Nebraska	100.63
3.	Reggie White	Oklahoma State	100.57
4.	Eric Crouch	Nebraska	84.9

As a Team
Oklahoma State is fifth in the Big 12 in rushing offense. The Cowboys are averaging 155.5 yards per game. Nebraska tops the Big 12 chart with an average of 356 yards per game. Iowa State (199.5), Kansas State (197.4) and Kansas (171.4) are just ahead of the Cowboys. Texas A&M, this week's opponent, is sixth in the league averaging 155.2 yards per game.

OSU Defense
As a team, Oklahoma State is allowing an average of just 117.6 yards per game on the ground, and that continues to rank as one of the best marks in the league and the nation. The Cowboys are allowing 272 yards through the air, and those numbers combine for an average of 389.6 yards of total offense per game. The Cowboys have intercepted four passes this season, two of those by Chris Massey. Elbert Craig and Marcus Jones have the other two interceptions.

Levels OSU's Top Tackler
Junior linebacker Dwayne Levels continues to have a solid season and should be considered for All-Big 12 honors come November. He leads the OSU defense with 60 total tackles. Fifty of his stops have been unassisted, and he is second on the defense with eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage. He also has a pass deflection, one fumble recovery and two quarterback hurries. He had eight total tackles in Saturday's game at Colorado.

Against the Rush
The Cowboy defense ranks sixth in the Big 12 against the rush, allowing just 117.57 yards per game. That number is good enough for 34th in the country. In Big 12 statistics, only Kansas State (84.22), Texas A&M (98.50), Texas (101.38), Nebraska (101.50) and Oklahoma (115.00) have allowed fewer yards on the ground.

Defensive Gems
Earlier in the season Oklahoma State's defense allowed Southern Miss minus-seven yards rushing, the lowest opponent rushing total of the season. It was the third straight week Oklahoma State had held its opponent to fewer than 100 rushing yards and the 19th time in 36 games that OSU's opponent has been held to less than 100 yards on the ground. The performance against USM ranked among the all-time best in OSU football history. Southern Miss' minus-seven yards equals the sixth-lowest total ever allowed by a Cowboy defense. Iowa State had the same rushing total against Oklahoma State in 1981. Southern Miss becomes the 10th OSU opponent to be held to negative rushing yards. Three of Oklahoma State's top-10 all-time efforts against the rush have come during the Bob Simmons era of Cowboy football.

OSU's Top Days Against the Rush

Rank	Team	Yards	Year
1.	Kansas State	-33	1980
2.	Tulsa	-20	1999
2.	Fresno State	-20	1997
4.	North Texas	-17	1982
5.	San Diego State	-10	1984
6.	Southern Miss	-7	2000
6.	Iowa State	-7	1981
8.	Texas Tech	-3	1944
9.	Kansas State	-2	1947
10.	Wichita State	-1	1975

Charting Juqua
Senior defensive end Juqua Thomas is seven games into his senior season and has lived up to the preseason All-America billing. Through seven games of 2000, Thomas has 34 total tackles. Thirteen of his tackles have been behind the line of scrimmage, and he has 6.5 sacks. With four games to play in the 2000 regular season, Thomas has equaled his 1999 total of 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Thomas turned in one of best performances of the season against Iowa State. His numbers included six unassisted tackles, four tackles behind the line of scrimmage and two sacks.

Below are game-by-game statistics for OSU's All-American candidate:

Opponent	UT	AT	Total	For Loss	Sacks
at Tulsa	2	4	6	3-13	1-8
Southwest Texas	6	1	7	3-13	2-11
Southern Miss	3	0	3	2-14	1-13
at Texas	2	2	4	0-0	0-0
at Missouri	2	1	3	2-6	0-0
Iowa State	6	0	6	4-17	2-9
at Colorado	2	2	4	0-0	0-0

Robinson Steps Up and Speaks Up
Linebacker Terrence Robinson became a vocal leader for the Cowboy defense at halftime at Colorado. He has also made an impact on the field in 2000. Through seven games, Robinson has been credited with 35 total tackles, and that number is the fifth-best on the Cowboy defense. He also has five tackles behind the line and 2-1/2 sacks.

Extensive Time for Bombach
Beaver, Okla., junior Roger Bombach had the most extensive playing time of his OSU career in the second half at Colorado. He responded with a career-high five tackles, three of which were unassisted. He was also credited with a third-down stop and a pass deflection.

More Defensive Notes
Redshirt freshman Elbert Craig continues to impact the OSU defense. Against Colorado last week, Craig was credited with seven tackles, five of which were solo stops. He also had one sack for minus-11 yards, a third-down stop and a pass deflection. Through seven games, Craig is the second-leading tackler on the OSU defense with 58 total stops. He has 45 unassisted tackles, two sacks and two other tackles behind the line of scrimmage. He also has five passes broken up, which ties him with Kevin Williams for second on the defense behind Michael Cooper. Speaking of Cooper, the junior-college transfer has 19 tackles to go with his 11 pass deflections and he has recovered one fumble.

Tight Ends Receive National Recognition
Oklahoma State's tight ends have been receiving national recognition through various scouting reports for the 2001 NFL draft. ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. has Marcellus Rivers rated as the second-best tight-end prospect in the country, and the Sporting News recently listed both Bryan Blackwood and Khary Jackson among the top five prospects in the country. The trio have combined for 27 catches and 347 yards this season along with three scoring grabs. Blackwood and Jackson have played the majority of time at tight end while Rivers has spent most of his playing time at wide receiver.

Davis-Bryant Evolving To Playmaker Directly coinciding with the emergence of quarterback Aso Pogi is the play of sophomore wide receiver Terrance Davis-Bryant. In the last three games, "TD" has caught 14 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown. Against Colorado, he set career highs in receptions (six) and yards (75), vaulting him into third place on the receptions list this season with 17. Here are his stats over the last three games:

Opponent	Rec.	Yds	TDs
Missouri	4	53	1
Iowa State	4	64	0
Colorado	6	75	0
Totals	14	192	1

Saluting Tony Lindsay
When shoulder problems ended Tony Lindsay's season prior to the Iowa State game, a significant era of Cowboy football also came to a close. Lindsay came to Stillwater in Bob Simmons' second OSU recruiting class and, after a redshirt season in 1996, asserted himself as one of the best quarterbacks to ever wear the OSU uniform. He has passed for 4,002 yards and is third on the career passing list. He also has 5,355 yards of total offense and is second on that career list at Oklahoma State. He was a four-year starter at Oklahoma State and one of only three quarterbacks to achieve that status in OSU football history. Mike Gundy was a four-year starter from 1986 to 1989 and Tony Jones started from 1993 to 1996. Lindsay was effective as a passer and a rusher. He finished his career with 1,353 rushing yards and is 21st on that career list.

About Texas A&M
Texas A&M upset No. 8 Kansas State 26-10 last Saturday in College Station. The Aggies are now 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play heading into Saturday's contest against the Cowboys. A&M, ranked No. 25 in the ESPN/USA Today's coaches poll, is tied with Texas for second place in the Big 12 South Division behind Oklahoma and will play the Sooners at home Nov. 11. The Aggies' victory last Saturday assured the team a non-losing season for the 18th straight season, dating back to 1982.

Who To Look For
Texas A&M is led by its "Wrecking Crew" defense that is ranked No. 14 in the country in total defense, allowing only 295 yards of offense per game. The defense is also the sixth-best scoring defense, allowing opposing teams only 12.75 points per game. Senior outside linebacker Jason Glenn is the heart of the A&M defense with 58 tackles, 13 for losses, and a team-leading four sacks. He also plays a role in pass coverage with one interception and is tied for the team lead with 12 passes defensed. As a team, the Aggies have picked off 14 passes, with three players with three interceptions apiece (Brian Gamble, Terrence Kiel and Sammy Davis). The A&M offense is led sophomore QB Mark Farris and sophomore running back Joe Weber. Farris is 30th in the country in passing efficiency on the season and was 12-of-20 for 155 yards in the win over Kansas State. On the season, he is 141-of-230 for 1796 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions. Weber leads the ground attack with 393 yards and two scores while Ja'Mar Toombs leads the runners with 11 scores, including three last week against KSU. Junior receiver Robert Ferguson leads the team with 39 catches for 661 yards and four scores.

The Head Coach
R.C. Slocum is in his 12th season as the head man of the Texas A&M program, and he sports an overall record of 108-34-2, fifth-best among active coaches. Slocum has led the Aggies to nine bowl games in 11 seasons and has never had a losing season. He was the TAMU assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Jackie Sherrill prior to being named head coach on Dec. 12, 1988. He began his coaching career in 1968 at Lake Charles High School in Lake Charles, La., then moved to Kansas State for two seasons. Slocum then proceeded to coach as an assistant at A&M (1973-80) before moving to USC as the Trojans' defensive coordinator in 1981. In 1982, he came back to A&M, where he has been for the last 18 seasons.

The OSU-Texas A&M Series
The Cowboys and Aggies have met 15 times on the gridiron since the series began in 1913 with the Aggies holding an 11-4 advantage. A&M has won all four meetings between the schools since the Big 12 formed in 1996, including a 21-3 decision last season in College Station. OSU's last win over TAMU occurred in the 1988 season when the Cowboys won 52-15 in Stillwater, where the Aggies hold a 3-2 series lead.

Last Five Meetings

Year	Outcome	Location
1988	OSU 52, Texas A&M 15	Stillwater
1996	Texas A&M 38, OSU 19	Stillwater
1997	Texas A&M 28, OSU 25 (OT)	College Station
1998	Texas A&M 17, OSU 6	Stillwater
1999	Texas A&M 24, OSU 3	College Station

OSU-Texas A&M Memory (Oct. 31, 1998 - Last Meeting in Stillwater):

STILLWATER, Okla. (Daily Oklahoman) - Oklahoma State has had to re-assess its outlook several times this season. Texas A&M did it for the Cowboys on Saturday night.

The eighth-ranked Aggies, in a convincing 17-6 win before a crowd of 47,250 at Lewis Field, left OSU facing this simple scenario: Win out, or spend the winter wondering what went wrong.

The Cowboys, who entered this season talking about Big 12 Conference championships and big-time bowl games, are now 3-5 overall. They already altered their focus weeks ago, after a three-game losing stretch against league teams muddled their goals. Now, what they face is clear - three must-win games, musts to salvage a winning season and any hope for a bowl bid.

And next in line for OSU is a trip to Austin, to take on a fast-finishing Texas team that won at Nebraska on Saturday.

In crunch time against A&M, the Cowboys crumbled. On a wet Halloween night, OSU finished with many haunting numbers. They managed 172 yards of offense, less than half the Aggies' total of 345, and finished with 10 fewer first downs, 16-6. In the second half, OSU mustered only 54 yards and no first downs.

And yet, most telling was this alarming stat: The Cowboys were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions, the Aggies 11-for-21.

The Aggies, 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the Big 12, won with defense and a cast of backups on offense, as running back Dante Hall and quarterback Randy McCown - both starters - left the game with shoulder injuries.

But A&M still made plays, with backup quarterback Branndon Stewart, who burned the Cowboys in College Station a year ago, firing a touchdown pass on his first play. And fullback Ja'Mar Toombs filled the running void, banging inside for 111 yards on 23 carries.

The Cowboys, who lost to a top-10 team for the 23rd consecutive time dating back to 1984, seemed capable of an upset at times, as they did in close losses to Nebraska and Texas Tech.

They led 6-0 early in the second quarter on Tim Sydnes field goals of 37 and 27 yards. But the Aggies rallied to take a 10-6 lead at halftime, then went on an 80-yard touchdown march to open the third quarter.

A&M left the rest to its "Wrecking Crew" defense, when the OSU offense wasn't wrecking itself. Illegal procedure penalties bogged down both drives.

Nathan Simmons ran for 97 yards, but Tony Lindsay finished 7-of-17 for 56 yards through the air with an interception.

After Sydnes' second field goal, the Aggies got the biggest play of the game, an 84-yard return from Chris Taylor on the ensuing kick that went to the OSU 13.

Two plays later, McCown fired a 7-yard scoring pass to Matt Bumgardner.

A Few Extra Tidbits
Marcellus Rivers has a streak of 14 games with a reception ... Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz and Bob Simmons coached together at Colorado from 1987 to 1994 ... A&M defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt was the defensive line coach at Oklahoma State in 1996 ... The Cowboys' five-game losing streak is the longest under Bob Simmons and longest in a season since losing seven straight to end the 1993 season ... The combined record of Oklahoma State's final four opponents is 21-11 (19-5 excluding Baylor).

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos