By ROBERT CESSNA
Texas A&M defensive coordinator Joe Kines said if you asked Santa Claus for a quarterback, Kansas State's Josh Freeman would be under your tree on Christmas morning.
Kines wants his unit to play Scrooge on Saturday against the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Freeman, who has been taking what defenses give him.
Freeman is averaging 280.2 yards per game, which ranks 20th in the nation in total offense. He is 90-of-143 passing (62.9 percent) with 12 touchdowns and only two interceptions. His passing efficiency rating 10th in the nation at 162.7.
"There's not a throw on the field that he can't make," A&M head coach Mike Sherman said. "If you're on [the left] hash over here, he can throw the out [to the right]. Most college kids don't have that arm strength, and, a fair amount of NFL players, if they were put on this hash over here, they would struggle to throw that out. But he has a very strong arm."
Kines calls Freeman's right arm a bazooka. Freeman also is hard to tackle with the physique of a defensive linemen. He's rushed for 126 yards and eight touchdowns on 29 carries, getting caught behind the line of scrimmage just once.
Texas Tech blitzed a cornerback last week who had a clear shot at Freeman, but the Red Raider couldn't tackle him.
"When he hit him, it looked like it just made him mad," Kines said. "He never even flinched. The corner just bounced off him. He looked like he just as well could have run into that wall. [Freeman's] a big, strong good-looking youngster who is really playing good."
KSU has done a better job protecting Freeman this season by returning nine of its 10 offensive linemen on the two-deep chart.
"The [offensive line] does a good job of protecting him, but he gets the ball out pretty quick, too," Sherman said. "He's a hard guy to sack because of how he plays the game."
A&M's defense hasn't had much luck sacking quarterbacks, managing only five to rank 107th among FBS teams. The Aggies rank seventh in pass defense (148.6 yards per game), but that's misleading because A&M ranks only 70th in pass defense efficiency. A&M's run defense also has been porous, allowing 225 yards per game, which ranks 114th.
Different types of quarterbacks have given the Aggies fits.
Oklahoma State's Zac Robinson accounted for five touchdowns in the Cowboys' 56-28 victory last week. He completed 10 of 13 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for 66 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.
Arkansas State's Corey Leonard passed for 160 yards and a touchdown and added 86 yards rushing in the Red Wolves' season-opening 18-14 victory. Army sophomore quarterback Chip Bowden rushed for a game-high 128 yards on 34 carries in his team's 21-17 loss, and Miami freshman Robert Marve threw for 212 yards on of 16-of-22 passing with two touchdowns in a 41-23 victory.
A&M's best defensive effort against a quarterback came in a 28-22 victory over New Mexico. A&M forced Donovan Porterie into three turnovers which resulted in three A&M touchdowns.
Freeman will be a much bigger challenge. He's accounted for 20 of his team's 29 touchdowns. Several publications have him as one of the nation's top quarterback prospects for the NFL draft, should he leave after his junior season.
"You really gotta be sound against this guy," Kines said.
Freeman threw for a school-record 3,353 yards last season. He has thrown a touchdown pass in 16 straight games and his career completion percentage is 60.
"I would not trade him for any quarterback in the country," KSU head coach Ron Prince said at the Big 12 Media Days.
Freeman is coming off one of his worst efforts. He was 13-of-28 passing for 170 yards in a 58-28 loss to Texas Tech. He added 18 yards rushing on seven carries.
"I am embarrassed," Freeman said. "As a quarterback and leader of the offense, it is unacceptable to play the way we played. We can learn from this, and we have to put it behind us."
Freeman and the Wildcats get their chance at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kyle Field.
"It is definitely a must-win week," Freeman said. "We know they have a great team and stadium. We are going to have to bring our 'A' game to win."
TOTAL OFFENSE LEADERS
There are seven Big 12 quarterbacks among the nation's Top 20 in total offense. The nation's other BCS conferences -- ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC -- have only one quarterback in the Top 20 in Illinois' Juice Williams.
RANKNAME, SCHOOLYPG
2.Graham Harrell, Texas Tech404.4
3.Todd Reesing, Kansas358.4
4.Chase Daniel, Missouri347.8
7.Sam Bradford, Oklahoma328.4
10.Colt McCoy, Texas319.4
*18.Corey Leonard, Arkansas St.282.2
19.Joe Ganz, Nebraska280.6
20.Josh Freeman, Kansas St.280.2.
*played against Texas A&M
GAME INFO
Kansas State (3-2, 0-1 in Big 12) at A&M (2-3, 0-1)
TV/Radio: none, WTAW (1620 AM)
Tickets: $70, $35 (bleachers)
Line: KSU by 3 1/2
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Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: RE:Agjosh
The recruiting ranking is based on the value of all your commits added together at this time. If you have a higher total of commits than another team your collective points will be more than theirs. A lot of teams know their commits will come later and do not fill up so fast in the beginning. Next point: Know this if nothing else. In the days of the SWC (rc slocum) it was us and tu with ark trying. You did not have to be much of a recruiter when it was you and one other school. We carried this roster into the big-12 but quickly found out it wasn't just us anymore and about 2/3 years into it we ran out of players. As someone else said' rc..great guy....lousy recruiter. It cost him his job. I was there.
Posted by: Agjosh On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: Miller58 is a liar
He's just dead wrong. I went through the efforts to pull up his list and to check out just the first guy on it. Craig Loston never was a firm commit to A&M, is only a soft verbal to Clemson, and seems to be leaning toward Texas now. He doesn't run a 4.4 but did clock a 4.57. Counting any commits from high school juniors (playing early in their junior year by the way) toward ecommits is ludicrous. Many of these young guys are just starting to get offers and often speak way to soon. I'd love to know the national average of juniors that facvor one school compared to who they actually sign with. I bet its pretty high. The only decommits that should be considered significant are seniors who commit before signing day and then actually sign with someone else. Miller also fails to take into account that changes in staff and scheme lend greatly to changes in who gets recruited (especially juniors) regardless of the school or coach. We ran a nickel last year so those coaches were recruitng a lot of DBs. the new scheme isn't so stupid and thus requires less DBs and more LBs. This alone will cause the coaches to pull offers and players to change plans. Miller doesn't answer questions. I've asked numerous times for him to explain his rants about recruitng in light of the fact that we have one of the highest regarded recruiting coordinators in Tim Cassidy. He was the recruiter who made all those Slocum classes so solid. Miller remains silent. I qasked him if we are so bad in recruiting, then why do we have the #17 ranked (Rivals) and #6 ranked (Scout)current class. No answer. I've tried to explain that we aren't in the position to just chase 4 and 5 star players. We have too many holes to plug and need to recruit a lot of good quality players, then later focus on stars. Just look at Goodson and how good he is but it doesn't show because our O-line is so bad and you can understand. He doesn't respond. Sherman will turn this around. I was a 12thman walkon when he and Cassidy were there in the early 90s and I believe we will get there in the next 3 or so years. Just be patient!!!
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: RE: MILLER HATERS
Dislike what he says, dislike how he says it, but this man brings it. I have learned from miller and so have you whether you admit it or not.The man has more passion for this program than any two of you put together and it comes across in his posts. I don't know the man but I respect his posts because most of it is presented with FACTS and SOURCES to back it up. Open your eyes and your minds and you may just learn how we arrived at this particular place after about 15 years of misguided effort and countless millions of dollars. This post will probably draw the 2%er, hiway 6 runs both ways, sit down bus driver remarks which only fortify the miller position. That's some of the exact mindset he speaks of. We've tried it your way for almost 15 years.......it's time for change. Who knows, it may even be "MILLER TIME" !!!
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: shiner
My personal opinions: Shiner, sorry you are having so much trouble; spud had no trouble finding the coaching info today. Hope this gets the job done; I wouldn't do this for anyone else? Go to: SportingNews.com ! Then search: "Ranking the Big 12 best players by position" . Then on page 1 of 10 scroll down to: miller58 20 May 2008 16:44 , Texs A&M AD Byrne, Sherman absoutely gone in 2008? Please pay attention to the context defining the list so you understand my post exactly. Thanks, miller58
Posted by: Shiner On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: Miller 58, Please name them
The answer was not listed days ago. I'm not the only one who has not seen the names. 17 names, that's what I want. I have not got them to date. You alluding to them as a group in your rants does not constitute a list. I even used the magic word in my inquiry.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: SeeingStars
My personal opinions: The ncaa allows us to sign 25 recruits per year plus up to 3 from last year if we don't have the 25 from last year. Having only 22 or less on the squad from last year would allow us to sign the three. All this has to fall within the constraints of 85 total on the squad. Right now we have 24 commits toward the 25; and three toward the 3 from last year, as I recall and I'm not 100% sure, Allen the OL transfer from lsu, WR Fuller and QB Dorman enrolled in January filling up last year's allowable 3 as I remember. A&M can sign as many as it wants in February, 30, 35 whatever and some schools do to allow for expected grade problems, decommits, etc. the problem is if you offer a scholarship and then can't deliver, high school coaches immediately put you on their black list! Pulling ships also accomplishes this. An intelligent coach may tell some less talented recruits that if they don't have a ship available (oversign), the recruit may have to grayshirt(enter in January). If A&M suddenly committed the 14 difference makers we need to start the turnaround and started pulling ships, coaches often immediately would ban A&M recruiters from their campus! You.d try to get some lesser talented commits to agree to grayshirt or tell them their chances for playing time is nil and get them to decommit on their own! Sorry this is so wordy. A sample distribution of half (12) of our current class showed three star: 5.6- 4, 5.5-2, 5.7 -3, and four star 5.8 -2 fron our discussion last Friday. miller58
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: RE:miller
Yeah, I know six require. Juat not sure the poster did when heput us in the bowl. Now a question for you. What is our max number recruits we can sign this year, how many commits do we have, and if a lot of talent shows interest late would we take back our offers to certain recruits to sign them?
Posted by: Ryansdad On: 10/9/2008
Comment Title: Ignore miller58
People, miller58 is bored, he hass nothing to do so he badmouths A&M just thriving for our comments, he wants to argue. If we ignore him he will go away. By the way, I believe 58 is his i.q.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: Answers?
My personal opinions: It takes 6 wins to be bowl eligible. Answers to Shiners question and coaching questions were posted a number of days ago! Raptor 99, are you still upset because I had to correct your completely wrong post? By the way you never did answer me when I ask " were you completely clueless, or if not, were you just lying?" now Which is it? With the first year auburn OC being fired today, maybe there is yet hope for Sherman! Sherman has a worse record. miller58.
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: RE: raptor99
Bowl eligible? How many wins do we need to be bowl eligible? At least your more positine than miller although I don't think more rational.
Posted by: raptor99 On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title:
The Ags are going through some tough growing pains, but they are improving. Unfortunately there's been some carry over of simple, stupid mistakes from the franchione regime that plagued A&M for 5 long years. Things will get better (sooner rather than later, I hope). As for miller58, that guy is an idiot. Passionate, but still an idiot. His conclusions are completly baseless and he lives in some sort of delusional world that's absent of any sense of reality. His opinions continually get horrible reviews on every forum that he posts on. He refuses to answer any questions and cries like a 2 year old if anybody has the audacity to question him or submit an opinion contrary to his. It's like dealing with an 8 year old know it all. Back to the positive. The Ags should beat k st on Saturday in a close game. The rest of the season won't be pretty, but there's no reason why the Ags can't be bowl elgible (albeit barely elgible) and win that bowl (most likely the Fort Worth bowl). 2009 will be a much better season. Gig'em Aggies and beat the hell outta kansas state
Posted by: AgClassof01 On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: Miller58, why don't you answer the question?
I am curious why you never answer Shiner's question as well. Do you want to see the objective truth, or feed your grudge/bias against Sherman and co.? Everything A&M is going through right now should be expected. If Sherman is so horrible why are ESPN analysts and others that have nothing to gain from pumping sunshine for Sherman telling Aggie fans to give him time to work? What do you honestly expect to gain from your continual negative posts against Sherman and Co.? Have you ever actually played football or coached on a professional level? Do you go to every practice and watch the Ags work out like Sherman invited us all to do for free? You guys who get on here and complain about recruiting and the Ags in SHERMAN's FIRST YEAR need to get some perspective and stop allowing the "WE WANT RESULTS NOW" generation from affecting your judgment. You continually threaten not to buy a ticket to an Ag sporting event until we get X number of 4/5 star recruits. If I was Childress, Turgeon, or Sherman THAT would bring a smile to my face. It also means when I go and support the Ags no matter what the record or score, because that's a what a good Ag does, I don't have deal with 2%s such as yourself.
Posted by: Shiner On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: Miller 58, Please name them
Name the 17 de-commits that occurred after Sherman was named head coach in November 2007. I have asked you to do this 4 times and yo continue to run. I tried to name them but I cannot because 17 do not exist.
Posted by: baylor bear On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: miller58 is a moron
Get a life miller. You make no sense, never have. Actually, I sort of feel sorry for you, however, it's nice to see that they grant you computer access in the asylum. Go take you meds now.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/8/2008
Comment Title: Kansas State vs Texas A&M analysis; What the Ag Spin Machine won't tell you?
My personal opinions: A&M enjoys a huge talent advantage, and should easily win based on talent alone. A&M has signed thirty-three 4/5 star difference makers, while K State has signed only 17 in the last five years! A&M's head coach in national publications has been ranked as low as dead last, and one that ranked new head coaches, went from coaches that "brings fear in the eyes of oponents" down to the ranking of" brings a smile to opposing coaches when they think of facing a Sherman coached team"! With this in mind, the people who make a living doing it, make the line at Kansas State favored by 4, even with the game at Kyle field! miller58.
