Gameday: Miami Hurricanes

The season starts today for the Aggies. In the first three games there was the sloppiness against Montana State, the scare against Fresno State, and the assuring blow-out win against Louisiana Monroe. The only thing that matters is that we’re now 3-0, and the defining moment of the season starts today in Miami. Win this game, and it’s a huge confidence boost going into a brutal Big 12 schedule that includes road games at Nebraska, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Lose this one, and we’re looking realistically at a probable 7-5 record for the season.

Back in his days at TCU and Alabama, Coach Fran was the makeover genius who turned around losing programs into winners. That luster has long since worn off of him since his arrival at A&M four years ago. At this point, he has no excuses to give: the players are all players he recruited, A&M has upgraded its facilities, the fan support has always been one of the best in the nation, and the assistant coaches are no longer underpaid. Winning at Miami could be the start of a glorious season that restores Franchione’s reputation as one of the game’s craftiest coaches. A loss and a step back overall in this season could start up the murmurs of a need for a coaching change.

But this game and the season itself is bigger than Franchione. The fact is that the Aggies have not been part of the national picture in college football throughout the entire decade. In fact, there have been only two note-worthy wins during the 21^st century: the win against Texas last season, and the win against a #1 ranked Oklahoma in 2002 in which a freshman Reggie McNeal showed all the potential of what might have been. You’d have to go back to the early half of the 1990s (with the exception of the 1998 season blip) to really recall the national prestige the Aggies once held. But even those glory days in the now-defunct SWC conference were marred by the fact that the Aggies couldn’t win in the big bowl games: the 1991 season ended with a loss to Florida State, and the ’92 and ’93 both ended with losses to Notre Dame. These shortcomings have been compounded by Texas’s rise during A&M’s decline. A&M nation is much more passionate and fevered about their team than our Texas brethren up in cosmopolitan Austin, and we deserve a team that can justify such passion of its fans.

I personally think that our defense is too shaky to think that we can pull off the 10-11 win season that Aggie fans are hoping for. For us to even have a chance of pulling this off, the Thunder and Lightning combo of Lane and Goodson need to light it up in the same games rather than in alternating weeks. Martellus Bennett needs to prove that he can be a big-time performer on a consistent basis. Kerry Franks and the rest of the wide receivers need to show that they can make the occasional big plays to keep defenses honest. Speaking of defenses, the A&M defense needs to show that it can be dominant on both halves of a game. And finally, Stephen McGee needs to be let loose to really let his talent shine. It irks me that media pieces on Stephen usually tend to focus just on his leadership and toughness as if that’s all he had. The reality is that for all the hype that Tim Tebow is drawing down in the Swamp, if McGee traded places with him, he’d be piling better stats—the guy has that kind of talent. It’d be a travesty if McGee were to go through his A&M career without receiving the recognition he’s due. But with the national coverage for this game, McGee just might get that chance. McGee’s and the rest of the team’s season starts today. Gig’em Ags.