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HOLIDAY BOWL NOTEBOOK : How Many Passes Were Too Many?

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

BYU players did their best to be cordial. As they watched the minutes and their hopes fade in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Holiday Bowl, Texas A&M; continued to throw passes at their defense. And mud in their face.

When it was over, the Aggies had won 65-14. A&M; scored its final two touchdowns on passes. The Aggies threw seven times in the fourth quarter, including a flea-flicker that covered 39 yards.

Texas A&M; led 44-14 at the conclusion of the third third quarter and Ty Detmer had been removed from the game because of two separated shoulders.

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Several BYU players wondered why it was necessary for a predominantly running team to continue passing when there was no question which team would come out on top.

Said linebacker Scott Giles: “I was a little disappointed to see them throwing a flea-flicker and stuff like that. I don’t mind throwing, but this flea-flicker crap . . . that’s baloney.”

Said linebacker Jared Leavitt: “They wanted to run up the score, that’s kind of obvious. It’s kind of an arrogant thing, I think. Just to throw it in our face ‘cause Detmer won the Heisman.”

BYU Coach LaVell Edwards was asked if he was surprised Texas A&M; was still passing after it had built such a huge lead in the fourth quarter.

“Well, I’m not going to comment on that,” he said. “I’ll let them answer that.”

Edwards didn’t shake hands with Aggie Coach R.C. Slocum after the final gun, but he said that was because he couldn’t find him. He did indicate that he might have had words with Slocum if he had found him.

“I may have said something then that I probably wouldn’t now,” Edwards said.

And then a bit later he answered another question about the score by saying: “I don’t know. They’re the ones who ran it up. You’ll have to ask A&M.;”

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There was pushing and shoving throughout the game. Late in the third quarter, BYU’s Bryan May and A&M;’s Jayson Black were ejected after a short wrestling match.

May, an offensive tackle, slammed his helmet down as he walked off the field and watched the rest of the quarter with his hands on his hips.

Cougar tight end Chris Smith gave a slight smile when asked about the Aggies’ taunting and said: “What can I say, they’re a Texas team.”

Said Slocum: “Taunting can mean a lot of things. It depends on how it’s perceived by the officials. I don’t condone taunting.”

Texas A&M; linebacker William Thomas was chosen the defensive MVP. For his effort, he received a trophy that was about the size of a place kicker.

Thomas finished with six tackles, two sacks and an interception. The plan was to blitz and that’s what he did. All night.

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“I knew if I got past the tackles it wasn’t really going to be that hard,” said Thomas, who stands 6-foot-3 but weighs only 207 pounds. “We knew what we were going to do from ‘Day One.’ We were going to blitz from ‘Day One.’ That’s what we’ve been doing the whole time.”

The man called on to replace Ty Detmer was Joe Evans, a community college transfer.

Evans, a junior, came in for one play in the second quarter and handed off to fullback Mike Salido, who carried for three yards. Detmer returned on the next play.

Evans was called on again midway through the third quarter when Detmer went down again. He finished with four completions in nine attempts for 77 yards, including a 60-yarder to tight end Chris Smith that ended with a lost fumble.

BYU kicker Earl Kauffman didn’t break any distance or altitude records on his first-quarter kickoffs.

To open the game, he sent a line drive skipping into the corner of the end zone for a touchback. Then, midway through the quarter, Kauffman hooked two in a row out of bounds and wound up kicking off from the 25. That one he kept in play, knocking it to the 13-yard line.

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