COTTON BOWL : Florida State Aims at Lesser Championship

The best team in Texas plays the third-best team in Florida today with nothing at stake except--gulp--pride, and although that might not be the best way to ring in the New Year, it’s the only way the Cotton Bowl has.

Texas A&M;, possessing a clean bill of probation health from the NCAA as well as its top overall defense, takes on the NCAA’s would-be national champions, the psychologically damaged Florida State Seminoles, in the 56th annual Cotton Bowl game at the old oval stadium in Fair Park.

Actually, it could have been an interesting matchup had it meant something.

The Aggies (10-1) of Coach R.C. Slocum, who moved up from defensive coordinator after the demise of the scandal-ridden program of Jackie Sherrill, are ranked No. 7, and field probably the top linebacker in the country--6-foot-3, 243-pound Quentin Coryatt.

All you need to know about Coryatt is that he has 92 tackles this season, wraps two rings of tape around all his fingers except the thumbs, and broke the jaw of a receiver from Texas Christian in two places when he tackled him.

The Seminoles (10-2) are ranked No. 5, and have the year’s most intriguing story in college football--how to hold the national championship for most of the season, then let it fall with a thud by losing the last two regular-season games.

When Coach Bobby Bowden was asked if he would remember this year with heartache or happiness, he said it would be with fondness. But he had to think about it first. That is the likely problem the Seminoles will face against the defensive-minded Aggies: How to make the most of a sad situation.

After posting a 10-0 record and being ranked No. 1, consecutive losses to Miami, 17-16, and Florida, 14-9, could prove to be too much of an emotional burden for Florida State to haul.

“You always wonder if your boys are really ready to play,” Bowden said. “Are they still concentrating? Of course, I don’t know the answer. How are we going to respond? I don’t know. But I think we’ll play as good as we can play under the circumstances.”

Bowden said the Seminoles still have something to play for.

“We’d like to have that term champion , so we’d like to be Cotton Bowl champion,” he said. “Our goal was to win the national championship, and we didn’t make it. We didn’t even get the state championship.

“You know what it all comes down to? The pride of your kids. If I got kids with pride, it’ll be all right. If they’ve got no pride, they’ll win. We’re in a new environment. I think the shock of setting real high goals and not getting it has gone away.

“Like (with) the pressure of being No. 1, some coaches will respond, ‘Oh, no, don’t pick me,’ because it’s a burden.

“If you set your goal to be No. 1 in the country and you don’t make it, you’re a failure,” he said. “The good thing is, if you don’t make it, you’re No. 5. That’s better than setting your goal of No. 20 and making it.”

The Aggies’ only defeat was in the second game of the season, a 35-34 upset at Tulsa when starting quarterback Bucky Richardson was injured and did not play. Otherwise, Southwest Conference champion Texas A&M; was solid as well as young, scoring on its first possession in nine of 11 games and counting 24 freshmen and sophomores on its 44-player depth chart.

After sanctions by the NCAA and the resignation of Sherrill, Texas A&M; signed only 13 players in 1989. Slocum, who was the Aggies’ defensive coordinator for 17 years, was 8-4 and 9-3-1 in his first two years as head coach.

The Aggies’ main problem will be to defend against quarterback Casey Weldon and tailback Sean Jackson, who has replaced the suspended Amp Lee in the starting backfield.

Although Lee rushed for 977 yards, the fourth-highest one-season total in school history, Jackson is bigger and faster and had a better average per carry, 6.5 yards to 5.3 yards.

Slocum remains wary of the Seminoles, regardless of the shape they’re in as they walk down the ramp into the Cotton Bowl.

“They don’t look to me like a team that has had its confidence shaken,” he said. “Florida State is as good as any team in the country. You don’t roll into those 10-victory seasons without being confident.”