Texas A&M Awaits Army

Army, 28-point underdogs on the road, might be able to stay with the Big 12's Texas A&M, after all.That's because Texas A&M may be forced to roll out third-string quarterback Ryan Tannehill on Saturday. Tannehill is a red-shirt freshman, but he might have to shoulder the load for the Aggies (1-2).

Speaking of shoulders, that's why Texas A&M might turn to the untested Tannehill to lead them. Starting quarterback Jerrod Johnson sprained his throwing shoulder in during the second quarter of his first career start against Miami (Fla.) last week. Johnson separated the same shoulder last year against Nebraska. The Aggies lost to Miami 41-23.Just a week earlier, senior Stephen McGee, who led Texas A&M to a win over Army two years ago, suffered an even worse shoulder sprain in a win over New Mexico. That ended his 28-game starting streak.

Tannehil has been running with the first team offense early in the week."It's going to be a day to day situation," Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman said. "I think both QBs, Stephen (McGee) and Jerrod, will be fine by the end of the week but we're just going to have to wait and see on that."

It seems unlikely that both McGee and Johnson will be available on Saturday, but if they are, Sherman may rotate both of them in."I've talked about it and thought about it since the end of the ballgame, how this next week will play out, Sherman said. "Stephen does things that Jerrod doesn't do, and Jerrod does things that Stephen doesn't do. They both offer different attributes and can compliment our gameplan in certain aspects in a very positive way. I know I'm being evasive here, which is my choice (laughing), but I'm going to take it day by day and see where we end up at the end of the week."

Count Sherman in as another coach "worried" about Army's option offense, which has struggled this year."The big problem is you only play that style of offense one time every couple of years," Sherman said. "When you run a triple option like they do, that's all they practice and they're pretty good at it. You have to get to a point in a very short pretty of time where you can defend that flawlessly. It's very easy to give up a big play against them, where they have a triple option threat and they get that ball pitched, and you don't take the pitch or you don't cover the quarterback or you get loaded."

Like Army's offense, Texas A&M's is struggling mightly. The Aggies rank 100th or worse in the nation in five statistical categories: total offense (101st), rushing offense (102nd), rushing defense (105th), kickoff returns (111th) and sacks allowed (115th).