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Wednesday, September 27, 2000

Texans focusing on winning
Tarleton team avoiding championship disrtactions
By Javier Becerra
Caller-Times
History, said Tarleton State University coach Todd Whitten, has kept the talk of a Lone Star Conference championship from becoming a distraction for the Texans.
   Winning hasn't been too common at Tarleton State over the last decade.
   Since 1990, The Texans have had just two winning seasons, the last a 6-4 campaign in 1992. This year, however, the Texans have the LSC's best record at 3-1 overall and sit atop the South Division standings with a 2-0 mark.
   And they're coming to Kingsville to play the Javelinas on Saturday.
   "We haven't had a winning season in a while, so it's ridiculous to talk about winning a championship," Whitten said. "All we talk about is our immediate opponent. We don't even talk a whole lot about winning. If you improve, play hard and take care of football and not give the game away, winning will happen."
   Tarleton State was picked to finish sixth in the seven-team South Division preseason poll. The Texans' play in their season opener seemed to confirm that prediction by turning the ball over six times in a 52-38 loss to Harding (Ark.) University.
   Since then, Tarleton State has won three straight, outscoring its opponents 113-29.
   Quarterback Steve Kelly leads the LSC in passing, total offense and passing efficiency, having completed 88 of 128 pass attempts for 1,239 yards and 10 touchdowns.
   "Steve is doing a really nice job and is getting better and better. He's feeling more conformable every game but still has to get used to some things," Whitten said. "Spring training was up and down, he had his good days and his bad days. During the preseason he improved a lot and it has carried over. That's the biggest thing we stress on him, to just try to improve."
   Chris Chambers has caught 28 passes for 371 yards and three touchdowns for Tarleton State. Kenneth Kennard has recorded 20 receptions for 324 yards and two touchdowns.
   Tarleton State's rushing game ranks sixth in the LSC with an average of 137.3 yards per game. Whitten said consistency has been hard to establish in using three and sometimes four running backs.
   While it appears that Tarleton State throws more than it runs, Whitten said opponents should know that the Texans "always make and effort to run the ball."
   But Whitten admitted that things don't always happen as expected, especially from his own team.
   "I'm not sure what we expected because we weren't really sure what any of our opponents would be like," Whitten said. "We just sort of decided take each game one week at a time and improve as much as we could. We're 3-1, so I guess so far so good. We didn't play very well in our first game, but hopefully we got that out of our system."


Staff writer Javier Becerra can be reached at 886-3734 or by e-mail at becerraj@caller.com

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