August 22, 2001
The Texas A&M football team held a situational scrimmage for two hours in full pads Wednesday night at Kyle Field after spending the morning hours in a two hour workout in shorts and shoulder pads on the grass fields.
Following the evening workout, A&M head coach R.C. Slocum announced that freshman redshirt placekicker Chris Sims had left the team due to a recurring back injury.
"Chris Sims has decided to quit football because of the recurring problem with his back," Slocum said. "He had surgery in high school and had a great senior year. He took his redshirt season off, but this summer he was kicking and reinjured it. He hasn't really kicked since he got back here.
"This is a similar problem to what he had in high school and he told me earlier this week that he was just tired of fooling with it."
Sims' injury, coupled with sophomore punter and placekicker Cody Scates' groin injury, sent the A&M coaching staff looking for an additional kicker. On Tuesday night, the staff found A&M transfer student Matt Douglas from White Oak, Texas, already on campus.
"The last couple of days we have been scrambling around and checking the waiver wire," Slocum said. "We knew about Matt Douglas a couple of years ago, but he went to Kilgore Junior College and kicked, but his year was shortened with an illness.
"He's in his third year of college and is enrolled here. He got his physical today and was cleared and was out there kicking in the scrimmage tonight."
Douglas, who is left footed, will be listed as a sophomore transfer and will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Slocum also announced that Bryan High School product Oscar Almeda will join the squad on Thursday as another backup kicker.
On the injury front, Slocum said that sophomore tight end Fred Spiller will be out indefinitely with a herniated disc in his back and will not be available for the Aggies' season opener.
Others missing all or part of the workouts were offensive lineman Andre Brooks (hip flexor), Scates (groin), wide receiver Terrence Murphy (groin), defensive lineman Rocky Bernard (ankle sprain), and wide receiver Mickey Jones (slight sprained medial collateral ligament in knee). Each of the players are listed as day-to-day.
Wide receiver Bethel Johnson returned to the workouts after his groin injury.
The Aggies will hold a walk through and weight training session on Thursday morning before returning the practice field for a two hour workout in the evening. They will practice once on Friday morning before beginning game preparations on Sunday afternoon.
A&M opens the season on September 1 against McNeese State at 6 p.m. at Kyle Field.