COLLEGE FOOTBALL : ORANGE, SUGAR, COTTON BOWLS : Texas’ Lone Star (A&M;) Is Stopped in Cotton Bowl by Ohio State, 28-12

The past year was a disastrous one for a lot of Texans, from the millionaire Hunt brothers to the lowliest laid-off oil rig worker.

The 1986 football season was a forgettable one for the Dallas Cowboys, who missed the playoffs, and for Texas Coach Fred Akers, who was fired.

If there was one segment of the state’s population that had a right to feel good about the past 12 months, it was the Texas A&M; football team and its following.

Coach Jackie Sherrill’s Aggies repeated as champions of the Southwest Conference and marched into the Cotton Bowl confident of joining Texas as the only team to win the game two years in a row.

Instead, quarterback Kevin Murray became a one-man Aggie joke, throwing five interceptions as A&M; lost to Ohio State, 28-12, on a brisk New Year’s Day afternoon.

Murray broke the Cotton Bowl record of four interceptions set by Joe Montana in 1979. Montana’s team, Notre Dame, beat Houston in that game.

Murray, a redshirt junior who has been debating whether to play another year at A&M; or turn pro, looked badly in need of more seasoning after he broke up a close game with five interceptions in the second half.

He was intercepted twice by Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman, who returned one 24 yards for a touchdown that put the Buckeyes ahead, 14-6, early in the third quarter. Another Buckeye linebacker, Michael Kee, ended A&M;’s chances with a 49-yard interception return with 2:49 to play.

In between, outside linebacker Eric Kumerow and rover Sonny Gordon also intercepted passes from the Aggie quarterback.

For Ohio State, the Big Ten co-champion with Michigan, the trip to Dallas was a consolation prize, but Thursday’s win eased some of the disappointment of not making it to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl.

“We came down here to Texas and went against the 12th man and the waving white towels, and we adapted and we won,” said Spielman, a unanimous choice as defensive player of the game.

“Our defense took this as a challenge, because we felt we lost the Michigan game. The loss to Michigan can never be erased; it will be in my memory banks forever. But this game helps, and it should restore a little respect for our defense.”

The Buckeyes began the new year with new looks in their defense, footwear and even Coach Earle Bruce’s attire.

Three new wrinkles in the defensive alignment probably had more to do with the outcome than the bright red shoes worn by the Buckeyes or the business suit worn by Bruce, who normally appears in frumpy coaching togs.

The red shoes were ordered for the Michigan game but didn’t arrive in time. Spielman didn’t like them at first but decided they were pretty spiffy after he made two interceptions in them.

Quarterback Jim Karsatos, who passed for 195 yards, hopes to keep a pair of the new shoes. “But I wouldn’t wear them everywhere--just around the house,” he said.

For his part in the sartorial shake-up, Bruce donned a gray tweed suit.

“I hadn’t worn a suit since I coached in high school,” he said. “Heck, you come south and they all dress up. We have threads, too, you know.”

The new looks that counted most, of course, were the defensive changes involving linemen and linebackers. All were designed to confuse Murray and stop A&M;’s short-passing game, Spielman said.

“He doesn’t like to run, and I think he got a little frustrated,” the Buckeye linebacker said.

“I’m not going to say I feel sorry for him, but he did look to me like he was confused.”

Murray, who was intercepted eight times all season in earning Southwest Conference player of the year honors for the second straight season, wasn’t looking for sympathy and wasn’t convinced he had been out-smarted.

“It’s not what they did, it was what we did,” Murray said. “We had enough turnovers to lose to the Little Sisters of the Poor. They didn’t just whip us. We moved the ball, but mistakes killed us.”

He said Ohio State deployed Spielman as a “spy,” plugging him into the middle and allowing him to read the quarterback.

Spielman didn’t use any CIA tactics, just common sense.

After studying Aggie tendencies, he knew Murray liked to throw to tight end Rod Bernstine in third-down situations.

Ohio State was ahead, 7-6, when the Aggies were forced into a third and 13 at their 15 on the first series of the second half.

“We were playing a nickel zone, and he went to Bernstine,” Spielman said. “I picked up Bernstine across the middle and grabbed the ball. It was just common sense.”

Said Bruce: “I’ve said before he’s the best linebacker in the country against the run and the pass. He really showed his ability to get under the pass and make the big play.”

The team leader in interceptions in the regular season was Gordon, with six. And it was his interception on A&M;’s next series that enabled Ohio State to take a 21-6 lead.

After the interception by Gordon at the Buckeye 46, Karsatos strung together an eight-play, 59-yard drive that ended with an 8-yard scoring run by Vince Workman.

The Aggies, who had just two field goals in the first half, scored their only touchdown on a two-yard run by Roger Vick with 9:10 left in the game. A two-point conversion try failed.

Spielman made his second interception on A&M;’s next series, and Kee crushed the Aggies with a 49-yard interception return a few minutes later.

“You won’t win many games when you make that many turnovers,” Sherrill said. “That’s the way it happens. These games come around.

“They played both zone and man coverages, and Kevin went through his reads. . . . On one of the interceptions, they dropped eight people into coverage areas. On another, they hit Kevin’s arm and the ball just fluttered. Overall, he didn’t throw with as much velocity as in other games.”

Sherrill’s players didn’t seem devastated by the loss or overly impressed with Ohio State.

“We had a super season, we won the conference and made it back here, but we just didn’t win today,” Vick said. “We could come back tomorrow and beat them worse than they beat us today. It was just a bad day.”

Naturally, the Buckeyes saw it differently.

“Hey, the Big Ten is on a roll,” flanker Nate Harris said.

“I guess you could say the Big Ten is a better conference,” Karsatos said.