Granger Starts, Then Comes Back Out of Bullpen : Football: Texas A&M; quarterback is replaced in third quarter, but returns in the fourth and sparkles.

It sure didn’t seem like a Disneyland Pigskin Classic for Texas A&M; quarterback Jeff Granger. For the better part of three quarters Wednesday night against Stanford he was just plain awful.

Jeff Granger? How about Jeff Grounder?

His passes went high, low and everywhere in between. Everywhere, it seemed, but into his receivers’ hands. Nothing much seemed to work for the Texas A&M; offense and midway through the third quarter Aggie Coach R.C. Slocum decided he’d better go to the bullpen.

“It’s like in baseball, when your pitcher can’t throw strikes you don’t leave him out there,” Slocum said.

So much for all that poise and experience Granger brought to the Texas A&M; quarterback position. Ever since he returned to the football team from a brief fling at a baseball-only career, Aggie fans had been talking about a possible national championship.

“We just didn’t do a good job in the first half,” said Granger, a pitcher who came back to the football team only after he was cut from the U.S. Olympic baseball team. “I was really upset with myself. I had disappointed myself.”

Slocum replaced Granger with Corey Pullig, a true freshman taking his first college snaps. His first pass was almost intercepted. On second down, he was sacked for a loss of seven yards. On third down, he threw an incomplete pass.

Pullig’s second series went about as badly and Slocum went lower into the depth chart, bringing on Matt Miller, a redshirt freshman. He wasn’t much better and Texas A&M; was in big trouble--down, 7-0, to start the fourth quarter.

But Slocum decided to give Granger a shot at redemption. Some 15 minutes later, Granger had delivered with two improvisations that turned a frustrating opening night into a 10-7 victory.

His 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Schorp 2 minutes 50 seconds into the fourth quarter pulled Texas A&M; even. And a 33-yard scramble down the right sideline set up the winning points--a 39-yard field goal by Terry Venetoulias with 3:18 left.

In keeping with the evening’s theme, neither play was particularly pleasing to the eye. Each play was set up by heavy Stanford pressure. But without them Texas A&M; wouldn’t have won Wednesday.

“It definitely wasn’t pretty,” Granger said.

On the touchdown pass, he rolled left, fooling Stanford linebacker Dave Garnett least of all. With Garnett bearing down on him, Granger lofted a moonball toward Schorp, who slipped behind the Stanford defense. Schorp made a leaping catch for the touchdown.

“I saw him with his hand up,” Granger said. “I threw it where only he could catch it. You’re always surprised when somebody makes a tough catch. . . . That was a tough catch.”

It wasn’t a bad throw either.

Granger’s confidence, which seemed to be slipping away with each incompletion in the first half, returned at that point.

“I stopped worrying about throwing interceptions,” he said. “My spiral started coming back and I executed well.”

With 7:41 left, Texas A&M; got the ball back at the Aggie 18. After a running play lost a yard, Granger found wideout Tony Harrison wide open in front of the Cardinal coverage for a 21-yard gain. After an incomplete pass, Granger dropped to throw again.

Again Garnett flushed him from the pocket. Granger ducked out of the way and looked up to find only green grass in front of him. When the Cardinal finally caught him, he had picked up 33 yards to the Stanford 29.

“I thought I was a passing quarterback,” Granger said later. “I faked the run to Greg Hill and the pocket collapsed, and I got out of there. I was just trying to run for my life, to tell you the truth.”

Three plays gained little and Venetoulias kicked the game-winning field goal.

You can give credit for the save to Granger. He’ll gladly take it.