The Day After: Texas A&M 36, Nebraska 14

For the life of me, I can’t figure out this year’s A&M team. Just when I thought that another embarrassing route would seal Franchione’s fate, the Aggies go to Lincoln and seal Callahan’s fate with a spanking of the Cornhuskers. The Aggies flat-out dominated the Cornhuskers in the second half using the triple option that the Nebraska teams used to employ to lay out opponents into the ground. I had to rub my eyes when checking the stats sheet: 35 carries for 167 yards by Stephen McGee. McGee’s not a quarterback; he’s Michael Goodson in disguise (Where is Goodson this year? Forget being Reggie Bush of the south; try the poor man’s version of Leeland McElroy). Jorvorski Lane also rushed for over a hundred yards and four touchdowns, and Franchione’s finally gotten the clue that you hand it off to your best player—especially when he’s the size of a mac truck.

So I’m feeling pretty good about the team for the week, but here’s the reality: Nebraska was the easiest team in the brutal 5 game stretch we were facing. Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas all are tougher teams than the Nebraska team that was blown out by three teams. I’m not completely sold on this year’s Kansas squad, so I feel confident that we’ve got a good chance to upset that squad. Missouri is a damn good team this year with Chase Daniel at the helm, and they looked scary in laying the hammer against Texas Tech. I’m going to say that we’re losing that one. Oklahoma didn’t look good at all against Iowa State, but I’m going to attribute that to an off-day by their redshirt freshman QB Bradford. We’re losing that one too, though maybe not in a route depending on which Bradford shows up. As for t.u., they’ve looked sub-part throughout the whole season. With the game at Kyle Field, I’m going with another upset for us.

If we do take the Kansas and Texas games, that would leave the team 8-4 and bowl eligible. If we win the bowl game, we’re 9-4, and that’s going to make it awfully tough for Byrne to make the call on whether to keep or dismiss Coach Fran. On one hand there’s the expensive buy-out, but on the other hand, there’s the VIP newsletter and five seasons of mediocrity. I predict that we’ll actually go 7-6, and Franchione will get the boot.