Aggies, Seminoles to square off in Kickoff Classic
Feb 17, 1998 | Football
February 17, 1998
Perennial football powerhouses Texas A&M and Florida State will square off at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., in the 16th edition of the Kickoff Classic, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority announced Tuesday. The game is slated for a 7 p.m. (central) kickoff on Monday, Aug. 31 and will be televised nationally by ABC-TV.
"We're excited about opening the 1998 season in New York against a quality program like Florida State," Texas A&M athletic director Wally Groff said. "We're honored the Kickoff Classic selected Texas A&M for its 1998 game."
The Aggies return 14 starters from last season's 9-4 team that won the Big 12 South Division Championship and was ranked No. 20 in the final Associated Press poll, while Florida brings back 12 starters from an 11-1 team that defeated Ohio State in the Nokia Sugar Bowl and finished No. 3 in the final AP poll.
The Aggies fell to UCLA in the 1998 Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic, 29-23. A&M lost only 12 lettermen from the 1997 squad and returns 51 lettermen.
On offense, the Aggies are led by an experienced backfield that returns its top two quarterbacks, running backs and fullbacks. At quarterback, Branndon Stewart emerged as the starter at midseason after splitting time with Randy McCown. Dante Hall and Sirr Parker were the co-starters at running back and combined for 1,773 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. At fullback, starter Marc Broyles is a bruising blocker and his backup D'Andre Hardeman contributed 508 ground yards.
On defense, the Aggies are paced by senior Butkus Award candidate Dat Nguyen (pronounced DAT WIN), who was a unanimous All-Big 12 selection in 1997. Nguyen has led the Aggies in tackles the past three seasons and earned the Defensive MVP award in the Cotton Bowl after posting a whopping 20 tackles against UCLA, including a bowl record 15 solo stops. Nguyen also made six tackles behind the line of scrimmage and intercepted a Cade McNown pass that he lateralled to a teammate for a touchdown.
Aggie head coach R.C. Slocum became the winningest head coach in school history with A&M's 27-16 victory over archrival Texas in the regular season finale. Slocum's career record in nine seasons at A&M stands at 83-25-2. With a career winning percentage of 76.4, Slocum ranks as the fifth-winningest active head coach in the nation, just behind the Seminoles' Bobby Bowden (76.9 percent, 281-83-4).
The Aggies have played in the Kickoff Classic once previously, falling to Nebraska, 23-14, in 1988. A&M has also competed in two other preseason bowl games, defeating Bill Walsh's Stanford Cardinal, 10-7, in the 1992 Disneyland Pigskin Classic and falling to Brigham Young, 41-37, in the 1996 Pigskin Classic in Provo, Utah.
Before adding Florida State and the Kickoff Classic to its 1998 schedule, the Aggies' non-conference opponents were: Louisiana Tech (Sept. 12), Southern Mississippi (Sept. 19) and North Texas (Sept. 26).
