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Can you believe it? The 1999 NCAA football season is just weeks away! And this season kicks off in style on August 28 with four games: Arizona vs. Penn State in the Pigskin Classic; Louisiana Tech at Florida State; Kansas vs. Notre Dame in the Eddie Robinson Classic; and N.C. State vs. Texas in the Black Coaches Association Classic.
The series now continues with a look at how Texas A&M, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin and Tulane will fare this season. TEXAS A&M (11-3) - The Aggies were undoubtedly a national force in 1998, and the defending Big 12 champs should certainly make their impact on the BCS again this season. The core of this team returns pretty much in tact. The only major holes are lurking in the linebacking corps, where juniors Roylin Bradley and Cornelius Anthony must step up their respective games to help fill the void left by Dat Nguyen and Warrick Holdman. The secondary looks extremely strong with the return of Brandon Jennings and Sedrick Curry, and reports claim that A&M may switch to man coverage in an attempt to create more of a pass rush. The Aggies look strong on offense as well. Randy McCown enters this season as the starter, and role he earned by winning six of the seven games he started last season. The extra year of experience and the confidence of his "new" role should help the A&M senior, who should be productive if he can stay healthy. Dante Hall and Ja'Mar Toombs return to lead a powerful rushing attack that could give opponents fits. If they can overcome the loss of two experienced linemen and find decent blocking up front, they will be in prime position to repeat as conference champs. ARIZONA (12-1) - Forget what people are saying about "the Arizona curse." Sure, Arizona State fell on their face last season after a great '97 created vast amounts of preseason hype. But don't expect the same thing to happen to these Wildcats. If anything, the fate of last year's 5-6 Sun Devil squad should make for great inspirational locker room material for Dick Tomey and his staff. |
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