August 14, 2000
The Texas A&M football team completed a pair of workouts on Monday in preparation for next month's season-opener against Notre Dame, but a double-digit total of injured players is hampering the Aggies' progress, head coach R.C. Slocum said.
"I've been pleased with the effort and intensity we've shown in workouts, but we've still got a long way to go before we're ready to play a football game," Slocum said. "We've had a bunch of injuries in the last few days and that's been frustrating. Both Richard Whitaker and Joe Weber couldn't practice today, and when your two tailbacks are out it throws everything off. (Sophomore) Maurice Harris and (redshirt freshman) Oschlor Flemming received most of the carries in their absence and I thought they did some good things."
The laundry list of walking wounded reached double-digit proportions on Monday, but only two of the injured players -- second-team offensive tackles Chris Montgomery (back) and Alan Reuber (rehabbing broken leg) -- are expected to miss the Notre Dame game.
EARLY WAKE-UP CALL FOR AGGIE ASSISTANTS --- Several members of the Aggie coaching staff received an early wake-up call when a gas leak forced the evacuation of the Pebble Creek neighborhood in College Station during the wee hours of Monday morning.
"We had several of our assistants that were affected by the evacuation," Slocum said. "They woke up (Offensive Coordinator) Steve Kragthorpe at 2:30 and they came by (Director of Football Operations) Tim Cassidy's house at 5. Just about all of our assistant coaches were affected, and they had to scramble to get to work. But they all made it here in time for the morning workout."