SOUTHWEST ROUNDUP : Texas A&M; Routs SMU, 65-6, to Clinch Title

Texas A&M; punched out Southern Methodist and earned a ticket to the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.

But the Aggies will wait until their Thanksgiving night game against Texas to officially accept the bid to play No. 3 Florida State on New Year’s Day.

Bucky Richardson passed for three touchdowns and the No. 12 Aggies rolled to the Southwest Conference championship by routing SMU, 65-6, at College Station, Tex.

“We’re going to wait until after the Texas game to accept the Cotton Bowl bid,” A&M; Coach R.C. Slocum said. “We don’t want the Texas game to be anticlimactic. We still have some unfinished business.”

No Cotton Bowl representative was present as the Aggies celebrated their title after being picked fourth in the preseason.

The Aggies, 9-1 overall and 7-0 in the SWC, won their 16th SWC title. They can go through the conference undefeated for the first time since 1956 if they beat Texas.

“It feels good going back,” said Richardson, who was the MVP of the 1988 Cotton Bowl when A&M; beat Notre Dame, 35-10. “But we have to beat Texas.”

SMU (1-9, 0-8) lost its 25th consecutive conference game since the NCAA death penalty in 1986.

It was the second-worst defeat Texas A&M; had inflicted on SMU in the 72-year history of football between the two schools.

SMU avoided its worst defeat to the Aggies--that was 62-0 in 1916--on a four-yard touchdown from Todd Ritz to Mick Rossley with seven seconds left.

Richardson played only the first half and completed seven of 12 passes for 161 yards. He rushed 10 times for 33 yards.

“We tried to hold the score down,” Slocum said. “We played four quarterbacks and everybody we had on the bench.”

Texas Christian 49, Houston 45--Matt Vogler threw three touchdown passes, the last to Stephen Shipley with 28 seconds remaining, and Texas Christian capitalized on a punter’s nightmare to escape with an SWC victory at Ft. Worth.

TCU defenders prevented Houston punter Charles Langston from getting off three attempted punts and the Horned Frogs turned all the miscues into touchdowns.

Vogler had scoring passes of four and 16 yards, sneaked in once himself and connected with Shipley for a 15-yard touchdown as the Horned Frogs (7-4, 4-4) finished their first winning season since 1984.

Houston (4-6, 3-4) lost despite a record-breaking afternoon by David Klingler, who completed 30 of 62 passes for 429 yards overall and four touchdowns, all in the second quarter.

Only 1:34 remained when Vogler took the Frogs 60 yards in four plays for the winning touchdown. The key play was a 27-yard reception by Kelly Blackwell.

Klingler, fighting flu all week, threw touchdown passes of 25, 17 and 41 yards to Marcus Grant and connected with Verlond Brown for a 26-yard touchdown.

Klingler broke former teammate Andre Ware’s school record of 660 career completions set in 1989. Klingler, a senior, has 685 with one game remaining against Texas Tech.

Arkansas 20, Rice 0--E.D. Jackson gained 120 yards as Arkansas concluded its 77-year run in the Southwest Conference with the victory at Little Rock, Ark.

Arkansas (6-5, 5-3), which will join the Southeastern Conference next year, will play Georgia in the Independence Bowl at Shreveport, La., on Dec. 29.

Trevor Cobb, the nation’s leading rusher with 159 yards per game, gained 90 yards in 21 carries for Rice (4-7, 2-6).

Baylor 21, Texas 11--Robert Strait’s touchdown early in the fourth quarter produced the game’s first points and Baylor shut down the Longhorns for the SWC victory at Austin, Tex.

David Mims gained 103 yards for Copper Bowl-bound Baylor (8-3, 5-3) to become the only runner this season to gain more than 100 yards against the Longhorns. Baylor turned two fumble recoveries into touchdowns, and also intercepted two of Peter Gardere’s passes in the second half.

Texas (5-5, 4-3) did not score until Craig Dickey’s 28-yard field goal with 6:57 left. Gardere then threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Darrick Duke with 46 seconds remaining. Texas has not been shut out in a record 129 SWC games since Baylor did it in 1980.