Aggie Football Talk

The Day After: Texas A&M 26, Missouri 40

2007-11-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, the Fire Franchione-o-Meter has finally hit 0. Raise your hand if at this point you don’t think Franchione will be gone next year. Didn’t think so.

We didn’t look that bad against Missouri. It was a lot closer than the final score would indicate. We finally spit out a passable passing game, and the McGee-Bennett hook-ups that I’d dreamed about finally happened, but they were about 11 games too late (Bennett is 6-7, a freak athlete with great hands, is unstoppable, and the rest of our receivers can’t get separation to save their lives. How is it that we haven’t used Bennett like an Antonio Gates or a Jason Whitten? One of the 534,234,234 reasons that Franchione should be fired). In the end though, we couldn’t stop their offense, and I never had the feeling that we’d be able to pull the upset. Bottom line is that we’re a Top 40 team, and we played about as well as a Top 40 team would play against a Top 5 team in an away game.

I mean, other than that, there’s not much more left to say. Like I said before, Franchione’s only graceful exit would be to beat t.u. two weeks from now, but that now looks tougher than I’d thought it be. Mike Leach can whine all he wants, but his team got handed by the Longhorns. I want to know what Jamaal Charles is smoking right now because the dude is on fire. And unfortunately, Colt McCoy has picked it up too. Did anyone know that Opie could run? I’m starting to feel that God is a Longhorns fan. Or that Mack Brown has sold his soul to Satan, which I think is a more plausible explanation of the Longhorns’ season thus far.

Since all I can say about the Aggies’ loss is that we lost, I’m tacking on the quick hits across the board in this post as well:

Ohio State goes down to Illinois. All I can say is, “I told you so.” See my last Quick Hits Across the Board. I’ve been watching this Buckeyes team, and they were one of the weakest number one teams in recent memory. This Illinois team is a pretty good team, but I’m not ready to anoint Juice Williams with the holy oil as the next Vince Young. He needs to complete more than half his passes and get a lot more yards running and passing before I’d be impressed.

Boston College goes down yet again. Again, all I can say is, “I told you so.” And again, see my last Quick Hits Across the Board. What do you get when you have a team that plays no one and has a quarterback who puts up gaudy stats against cupcake teams? An overrated team. I’ve been sick and tired of hearing about national championship talk surrounding BC, and I’m glad that it’s ended.

Michigan blows it. And that’s too bad. They could have been the feel-good story of the year. But without Mike Hart or Chad Henne playing in the game, I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone. I can’t believe, however, that Lloyd Carr didn’t put those two in the game to save them up for the Ohio State game. Wisconsin exactly isn’t a McNeese State in which you can save your starters against. Carr is another bozo who the Michigan faithful won’t miss next year.

Georgia is the hottest team in the SEC. I never thought I’d say that during this season, but it’s true. Auburn got totally whooped on. It makes me wonder if we really do want Tommy Tuberville if his teams are going through their own whippings. And Auburn’s offense is ranked 90^th or something pretty bad like that. I just don’t picture Tuberville changing the A&M program into a perennial Top 10 program. I have a sick feeling about the potential hiring move, and usually I’m dead-on about these sick feelings.

LSU vs. OU should be the national championship. It’s what everyone in the country wants to see (unless you’re a Ducks fan), and there’s a good chance that it can happen, but both teams face major hurdles in the forms of conference championships. If they both win the rest of their games, they both deserve to be there. Here are some other championship scenario run-downs:

Oregon vs. OU: I might give the Ducks the edge in this game. Big 12 teams don’t match up well against Pac 10 teams for some reason.

LSU vs. Kansas: LSU in a romp. KU hung 76 on Nebraska, but the Aggies also clobbered Nebraska. Other than that, KU has yet to play a quality team.

LSU vs. Missouri: Again, LSU in a romp. Chase Daniels looked like Tom Brady against our D, but our defense doesn’t have Glenn Dorsey running after you all night.

Oregon vs. Kansas or Missouri: Oh gawd, one of the most boring national championship games ever. Should this happen, the clamor for a BCS play-off will get even louder. By the way, I will always be against a play-off system. By not having a play-off system, every game each week has significance. It’s what makes college football the most exciting sport to watch. Have you seen NBA regular season games lately? It looks as if the players don’t realize that exhibition season is over. Shaq looks as if he’s going to try to sleepwalk through the season until the playoffs start. And that’s too bad, because the way the Heat are playing, they’ll be lucky to get the 8^th seed in the atrocious Eastern Conference.

At least there’s Aggie Basketball: The Texas A&M Men’s basketball season started this weekend at #14, and the arrival of DeAndre Jordan makes me almost forget the terrible football season we’ve had. The only thing is that Michael Beasley of Kansas State is even better and will make Kevin Durant look like Adam Keefe.

Game Preview: Texas A&M vs. Missouri

2007-11-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

And the losses keep piling. We’re going to get crushed again folks. It’ll be almost a dejavu of last week’s game, but possibly worse because of all the distractions that have been surrounding the Franchione controversy. Missouri is a pretty damn good team who played Oklahoma close in their one loss, and I’d put Missouri ahead of Kansas right now. They killed Texas Tech and destroyed an underrated Colorado team that’s poised to make a return to prominence under Dan Hawkins.

What’s more, Chase Daniels is hands down the best quarterback in the Big 12 (If you’re a Texas Tech fan, don’t even think about bringing up Graham Harrell. Please.) In fact, if you were to rank a QB based on a combination of personal stats and team’s success, Daniels would have to be the number one QB in the nation. Dennis Dixon is a close second, but he doesn’t have the eye-popping numbers that Daniels does. Plus, he’s got a stud running back in Jonathan Stewart in the backfield. Tebow is a beast, but he also isn’t in the same stats category when it comes to passing yards, and Florida has three losses. As for Matt Ryan, Ryan is the single most overrated quarterback since Chris Leak. I’ve been railing about Boston College on several of my posts, but they climbed the rankings by beating up on a bunch of patty cakes in the weak ACC, their one impressive win was against Virginia Tech in which they barely escaped, and when they finally play a Florida State team that’s starting to gel but still not a Top 25 team, they fold over. Why is BC even in the Top 10? Why is such a team even allowed to exist? Why is Matt Ryan fawned over as the next Doug Flutie when he’s going to be carrying a 2^nd string QB’s jockstrap in the NFL?

The thing that makes me sad about Chase Daniels’s ascension is that I distinctly remember our 25-19 win against Missouri last year. Both A&M and Missouri were up-and-coming teams in the Big 12, and both Daniels and McGee were seen as precocious sophomores who had bright futures ahead of them. I had the feeling that I was witnessing a critical crossroads, and I figured that the next year the game between the two squads would have significance in the Big 12 title and possibly the national championship.

What a difference a year makes. A year later, Daniels and the Tigers have taken off as I thought they would, and they’re ranked in the Top 10. If they played Oklahoma again on a neutral field, I’m not sure if I’d pick OU. But, as for McGee and the Aggies, this season has been an absolute disaster this side of Nebraska and Notre Dame. And it’s not for a lack of talent, but due to a series of joker moves by the coaching staff on and off the field. Every morning I wake up pissed off because (a) t.u. has escaped through a two-loss season when they should have five losses (I’m convinced that Mack Brown made a pact with the devil after Vince Young left) and (b) we’re stuck with an even bigger clown than Mack Brown and it’s going to cost $8 million just to buy him out. Unfreakinbelievable. Oh, and we’re losing this game 45-10.

Next update: Sunday—The Fire Franchione-o-Meter hits 0.

Quick Hits Across the Board

2007-11-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

-Darren McFadden is one crazy mofo. 321 rushing yards against South Carolina. I don't think he'll put up Adrian Peterson's numbers next year, but he's a beast. Too bad that Arkansas plays in the brutal SEC and that my sister would be a better QB than Casey Dick. Did they really have to take away the 2 yards so that he tied the record rather than breaking it?

-t.u. continues to get lucky. Unbelievable. After their lucky escape from Nebraska, they escape yet again from Oklahoma State. I can almost guarantee that they're going to be blown out by Texas Tech this Saturday.

-Oregon, not so impressive. Allow me the first to say that I think Dennis Dixon and the Ducks are over-rated. If they played LSU or Oklahoma tomorrow, it wouldn't even be close.

-USC vs. Cal is a snoozer. Biggest disappointment game of the year. A month in it looked as if the game would decide the national championship. Now it's for 3rd place in the Pac 10.

-Ohio State could be upset. Illinois is a pretty good team this year, and OSU doesn't really impress me. I smell an upset.

-Biggest story of the week. The biggest story of the week is that Franchione is going to get bought out. Both sides can deny it all they want, but it's a done deal. I mentioned Rich Rodriguez last post, but now that I think about it, I think Jeff Tedford might be a better replacement. Cal was non-existent program before Tedford came knocking.

Next Update: Friday, Game Preview against Missouri

The Day After: Texas A&M 14, Oklahoma 42

2007-11-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

I hate that I was so dead-on in my prediction of the A&M-OU game (see my previous post). I should give up my day job and become a gambler in Vegas. Not only was my predicted score prophetic, but just like I thought, the Aggies got nowhere with their running game, and then went to their passing game at the end to put on some garbage points in the fourth quarter. It’s this kind of predictability in our game plan that makes me want to light myself on fire. What’s worse, the Sooner just absolutely dominated us in all phases of the game. Their QB Bradford had a field day hooking up with his tight end Gresham, and he had one more touchdown the generous four touchdowns I’d predicted for him. I’ve had enough, and every faithful Aggie should have had enough by now. It’s time for Franchione to go.

The only reason that Franchione hasn’t scored a 0 on the Fire Franchione meter is because if the Aggies were to miraculously win against Mizzou, t.u., and their bowl opponent, I could see Franchione having a slim chance of keeping his job, which would be a big mistake. What’s left for Coach Franchione is to win the game against t.u. so that he can bow out with some dignity intact.

It’s time to start talking about the coaches who might replace Franchione next year. There’s been talk of Tommy Tuberville as well as the dude at Rutgers and possibly even Steve Spurrier. Auburn is having a decent season in the brutal SEC this year, but I have a hard time picturing laid-back Tuberville taking A&M to greatness. As for the Ol’ Ball Coach, I love the man, but his Fun’N Gun offense hasn’t exactly taken off in South Carolina, and I don’t see it being the best fit in A&M either. I personally think that Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia would be a good fit, and while he’s got a good program at West Virginia, I’d think that he’d be willing to leave for the right person; after all, Texas A&M offers the chance to rebuild one of the most tradition-rich programs in the nation while the state of West Virginia is the armpit of America.

Next update: Wednesday-Quick Hits Across the Board

Game Preview: Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma

2007-11-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

I hate to be a wet rag, but we're getting blown out by Oklahoma for the following reasons:

-It's in Norman
-Sooners had a bye week to prepare
-OU needs a blow-out win to move up the BCS rankings with the season winding down
-They're pissed that they had a lackluster outing against Iowa State in the last game
-They have the 3rd ranked rushing defense in the nation, and the running game is the only thing we have going for us this year.

All of this adds up to bad, bad signs for the Aggies. Let's just hope that it's not going to be the 77-0 debacle of a couple of years ago in which Sports Illustrated felt compelled to write a whole feature piece on the route. My favorite part of that story was when Terrence Murphy was quoted as saying something along the lines of, "If I'd caught that first pass, it would have been 77-7." Painfully hilarious.

Bradford will have about 250 yards and 4 TDs, Malcolm Kelly will get his 100 yards+ receiving, and They'll gain another 200 yards on the ground. In the meantime, they'll stack eight men in the box, but we'll try to pound out the triple option anyway and gain nothing in the ground for three quarters before trying to pass when we're behind. It'll basically be like the Kansas game but worse because OU is a more talented team, and Stoops is one of the top coaches in the country. Our only chance is for Bradford to suddenly wake up tomorrow and realize that he's a redshirt freshmen who'd still be riding the pine if Rhett Bomar hadn't royally fucked up. Or for McGee and Bennett to realize that were two of the most highly-recruited players out of Texas, ignore Franchione's plays, and go ballistic on the OU defense with a tag team aerial attack between the two of them. Not gonna happen. I'm predicting that the final score will be 42-7.

Next update: Sunday--The Franchione Fire-O-Meter heats up.

Quick Hits Across the Board

2007-10-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Longhorns continue to be over-rated. For the life of me, I cannot understand how t.u. barely escapes a bad Nebraska team in the fourth quarter, and the team moves up several notches in the polls. If you’re a pollster and you’re not going to watch the game, at least read the recap. At least read that the Longhorns were down 17-3 going into the fourth quarter and that Jamaal Charles had to channel his inner Ricky Willaims for Mack Brown’s boys to escape in Austin. At least read that Nebraska had been blown out their last three games and that t.u. has had several close escapes. I don’t care if the Aggies lose by a combined score of 210-0 in the next two games against Missouri and Oklahoma. If they can just beat t.u. and put them in their place, I’m all for bringing Franchione back. Wait, no.

Matt Ryan is the leading Heisman candidate by default right now. He didn’t look great against Virginia Tech until the last two minutes, but I have to give him props for winning against a (a)Top 10 team, (b)on the road, and (c)in rainy conditions. It seems that no one wants to win the Heisman this year. Tim Tebow and Andre Woodson lost last week, Mike Hart was still out, and DeSean Jackson is a punk. Dennis Dixon on the other hand, could make a run starting with the Arizona State game this Saturday. Would there be a more boring national championship game than if BC played Ohio State? Every college football fan should be praying every Saturday that both teams lose sometime in November. BC has such a weak schedule that they might escape unscathed, and Ohio State can stumble against Wisconsin or Michigan.

I want to see Oklahoma play LSU in the national championship game. Seeing the Oregon Ducks play LSU might not be so bad, but with the sub-par defense that the Ducks have, I still think that Oklahoma and LSU are the top two teams in the nation. Don’t bring up Arizona State. Having them in the national championship will be almost as bad as BC. Look, I like cinderella stories as much as anyone, but when it comes down to it, I want to see the traditional big-name teams with the big-time players and big-time coaches and the big-time fans going at it. And if you’re a true college football fan, you know that’s what you want too.

The SEC is still the best conference. I know a bunch of sportswriters took shots at the SEC after Kentucky, Florida, and South Carolina lost, but what do sportswriters know? These teams lost to other teams in the conference!!! It’s a conference with the best players and the best coaches, and they’re beating up on each other—it’s a wonder that they even have a national championship contender remaining in the form of LSU. You could argue that Ole Miss is the only SEC team that doesn’t have a legitimate shot each week of beating any other SEC team.

The Patriots are playing stupid. Yes, this is a blog dedicated to Texas A&M Aggies and college football, but the Patriots are worth bringing up because they transcend the NFL right now. Yes, they’re scary-good, and yes, Bill Bielichek is pissed off about the whole tape scandal and is intent on not only killing every team but also pillaging their respective cities, but he’s being stupid. Not only is keeping your first team on the field stupid because a Brady or Moss might get hurt when the score is 34-7, but you’re just enlargening the bull’s eye on your back. Maybe no team will get you this year, but the moment the Patriots start to lose their lackluster, every team in the NFL will look to return the humiliation. And despite Bielichek’s supreme arrogance and the Patriot’s great front office, the natural rhythms of the draft and free agency will diminish the Patriots some day, and perhaps some day soon.

Next update: Friday

The Day After: Texas A&M 11, Kansas 19

2007-10-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

After predicting that the Aggies would beat
Kansas, I admit that I underestimated the Jayhawks. The score was only 19-11, but Kansas dominated us in all fronts of the game. Their defense absolutely shut down our run, and while our passing game put up 200+ yards, that was during garbage time. McGee and company had nowhere to go with the triple option. It was maddening to watch our coaching staff call running plays play after play that led to three and outs until it was too late in the game. Even though the score was 0-0 by halftime, you had a feeling that the Jayhawks were about to let loose, and sure enough, they poured it on the third quarter. Their running back Anderson just tore us apart in that quarter, and it was over.

If the Miami and Texas Tech games didn’t show it, the Kansas game revealed what we are: a Top 40 team. A Top 40 team puts up big numbers against cupcake teams, but they lose all the high-lighted games on the schedule. Now and then when they’re playing at home or feeling particularly inspired they might pull a surprise upset against a ranked team here and there, but there’s never the feeling that the team is sustaining any consistent momentum to eventually become a conference champion and then eventually a national champion. That’s what we are right now: a Top 40 team. In the upcoming games against Missouri, Oklahoma, and t.u. (especially t.u.), there’s a sense that we might be able to stay competitive in all three and perhaps even steal one, but I don’t think anyone thinks that the Aggies will run the tables.

At the very least, with the money that Franchione is making and the tradition, facilities, and the backyard recruiting in the state of Texas that Texas A&M has, you want to be a Top 15 team. A Top 15 team is a team like Missouri. A Top 15 team not only beats up on the cupcakes, but there’s a feeling that they could potentially vie for the national championship. When they beat a Top 5 team it’s a good feeling but not a total shock, and when they lose to another Top 15 team it’s a total letdown. When you’re a Top 15 team, even the Top 1 team gets a little nervous facing you on Saturday. After Franchione is replaced, I think Aggie fans will expect a Top 15 team within 2-3 years.

In 3-4 years, I’d want us to have a Top 5 team. A Top 5 team is a team like Oklahoma. A Top 5 team puts the fear of God into the cupcakes, and they run up the score to Madden levels to keep the fear intact. A Top 5 team expects to win the national championship, and winning the conference title is a given. A Top 5 team wins the game against its big rival, and it reloads with a group of Top 10 recruits. It becomes a Top 5 Program whose mascot or logo is recognizable to even someone living in Hickville, Montana. A Top 5 team thrashes gimmicky teams like Texas Tech who put up monster yards against teams like Southern Texas McNeese Northern State but can’t do anything against the real deal. Besides the actual Top 5 ranking, I’ll know that Texas A&M will have finally arrived when we’re destroying Mike Leach’s teams year after year in College Station and Lubbock. I hate Texas Tech.

Next update: Wednesday

Game Preview: Texas A&M vs. Kansas

2007-10-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

We are going to beat the Jayhawks. Their QB Todd Reesing has had a decent season so far, and their corner Aqib Talib is one of the best in the country at his position, but nothing about Kansas really scares me. There’s no way in hell that Kansas should be ranked #12 in the nation. They beat up on a bunch of patsies, their signature victory was against a K-State team that has three losses, and they barely escaped a mediocre Colorado team.

This is one of those games where you can just taste the upset. We’re playing at Kyle Field, and there’s some rolling momentum after the Nebraska game, but there isn’t overconfidence because the Aggies know that they’re facing the toughest home stretch in the nation. The overall season schedule has been a meat grinder, although in hindsight that Miami team was not as good as we made them look to be (That game still pisses me off. Coming into the game there was the feeling that it would make or break the season, and it was the worst outcome we could have imagined. None of the drama that broke out the last month or two would have happened if we’d won that game.)

If the Aggies lose this game, I honestly have a hard time seeing us win any of the next three games. If the Aggies win, there just might be enough momentum for us to steal a couple of the next three, although I still can’t picture us beating Missouri or Oklahoma. Sam Bradford has the second highest efficiency rating in college football, and you could argue that Chase Daniels has had the best season of all the QBs this side of Tim Tebow.

Speaking of Chase Daniels, I remember that when we played Mizzou last year, Daniels and McGee were seen as up-and-coming QBs in the Big 12. Since then, Daniels has blossomed in the position, while McGee’s numbers are down across the board with the exception of his rushing yards. I guess yards are yards, but even as a huge McGee fan, I have to say that I’m scratching my head as to what’s going on. Sure, our receivers aren’t great (in fact, they’re not good), but the O-line is supposed to be one of the best in the conference, Bennett has had one more year under his belt to tighten up his run routes, and Goodson is there to catch the swing pass. I can’t tell if our passing game sucks so much because (a) McGee has regressed, (b) the offensive components outside of McGee aren’t doing their job, (c) the running attack is doing so well, (d) Franchione is an idiot, or (e) all of the above.

Now I have no qualms with a power running game when we’re gashing teams like we did against Nebraska last week. But the game has shifted in the last 10 years to more sophisticated passing offenses, and I can’t think of a top caliber team that overpowers good teams on a consistent basis with the power running game like the Nebraska teams of the ’90s. The negative side effect is that the QBs and the wide receivers don’t want to come to your school, and the opposing team is stacking eight men in the box to solely stop the run. I truly have a hard time believing that McGee, a QB who was celebrated in high school for his passing skills, is being used to his max potential by running the triple option. It’s a testament to his talent that he can run for 167 yards even as a square peg in a round hole.

I expect the passing game to pick up for us against Kansas, and I’m putting faith that the defense will step it up a notch with the season on the line. This game will be telling of how we’ll do in the stretch. I predict we’ll come through with a 21-17 win.

Quick Hits Across the Board

2007-10-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

-Ohio State and Boston College are the weakest 1-2 teams in recent memory. I seriously can’t remember the last time the number one and two countries were so weak. The Buckeyes have a good defense, but they play in a soft conference and have a suspect offense. If Mike Hart is healthy for the Michigan-OSU game, I’m picking Michigan. As for Boston College, I can’t believe they’re ranked that high. Have the pollsters actually paid attention to the teams they’ve been playing? Their one big win was when Georgia Tech was ranked #15, and since then Tech’s had 3 losses. Matt Ryan is the most over-rated quarterback this side of Colt McCoy. I’m picking Virginia Tech to beat them.

-Tebow is one bad motherfucker. In a marquee match-up against Kentucky in Lexington, the Great White Hope pulls it out with over 200 yards passing, 75 yards rushing, a four touchdowns, and no interceptions. As much as I love my man Stephen McGee, Tebow belongs in his own class of “Dual-threat quarterbacks who are white”. Like I said before, if Florida faces LSU in the SEC title game, I’m picking Florida hands down.

-Michigan climbs back. Do people remember that back at the start of the season Michigan suffered what was considered the most humiliating loss of all time? And that the very next week they got their ass kicked again by the Ducks in the Big House? Since then a gazillion top 10 teams have lost while Michigan has steadily started to climb back up the rankings. Their win against Illinois without Mike Hart was noticeable. If they can win the rest of their games including the OSU game, I can guarantee that everyone’s jumping on Michigan bandwagon for the feel-good story of the year; people will forget that Lloyd Carr still has an outdated playbook and that the Big Ten sucks this year. But I like Hart, and I’m jumping on the bandwagon too.

-Tide rising. I was mighty impressed with the way Alabama pummeled Tennessee. Saban may be a king jerk, but damn can he coach. The Tide are going to be one of the top teams in the SEC next year. Speaking of the SEC, I can’t believe how stacked the conference is. Besides Georgia and Tennessee who have been persistently over-rated the last couple of years, LSU, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Auburn are good teams just beating up the hell out of each other. With Oklahoma looking shaky on Saturday against a hapless Iowa State team, I’m inclined to say that LSU and Florida are the top teams in the country.

-Miami beats Florida State. And nobody cares. It’s hard to believe that one of the most anticipated showdowns throughout the ’90s generated no attention this Saturday. I never thought in my lifetime I’d see South Florida ranked in the top 10 and Miami and FSU not even ranked in the top 25. But then again, the same could be said of Nebraska and Texas A&M. Sad.

-Les Miles is not a genius. The pass into the end zone with eight seconds left was stupid. Very stupid. And also very lucky. After this and the Florida game in which Miles gambled on five fourth downs and got them all, I’m starting to think that Miles has made a deal with Satan. By the way, did anyone else realize that Jacob Hester was white? You’re the starting running back on an SEC team with a name like Jacob Hester, and you’re white? Go figure.

-t.u. looks like a mediocre team. Their score against Baylor doesn’t truly show how sluggish they looked. Mack Brown suddenly looks like the same old Mack Brown who dropped big games. It’s funny how Vince Young made everything look so easy. I can’t help but play the “What if” scenario: What if we had Vince Young this year? Would our secondary look so bad? Would our receivers be so incompetent? Would people care that Franchione had a VIP connection? Would Colt McCoy shit his pants?

Next blog update: October 26, 2007

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

2007-10-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Game Preview: Texas A&M vs. Nebraska

2007-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

Nebraska is the Texas A&M of the Big 12 North: big expectations that were never lived up to this year. Facing Nebraska is like facing your retarded twin brother only to realize that you’re just as retarded as he is. Fuck.

I remember Nebraska during the Osborne glory-days of the 1990’s. They were flat-out, wet-your-pants scary. They had dominant lines, and they were going to run it straight up the gut, and there was nothing you could do as they just flat out mauled you. Guys like Tommy Frazier, Eric Crouch, and Lawrence Phillips weren’t college football players; they were Hessian mercenaries who formed Osborne’s Big Red Machine. I still remember when the Aggies faced Nebraska in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game when the conference had just formed. The Cornhuskers were at their peak, and the announcer said something to the tune of, “R.C. Slocum’s boys are just going to go out there with the attitude of nothing to lose and have some fun. Let’s see what happens.” Well, what happened was that we got spanked something like 54-15. It felt as if there were 20 Nebraska players out on the field vs. our 11, and the only word that ran through my head was the word helpless. And we were the Big 12 South champions! I’m inclined to say that those Nebraska teams were the greatest ever in the history of college football.

But oh how the mighty have fallen. Ten years later Nebraska is getting killed by teams on their own turf, the AD is getting fired, and Callahan and his fancy shmancy West Coast offense are about to get the boot as well. I watched the Nebraska vs. USC game earlier this year, and Nebraska was the team that looked helpless. Their QB, Sam Keller, put up over 300 yards, and back in the day a Nebraska QB would have been lucky to put up 200 yards (200 passing yards that is—Tommy Frazier might have ran for 400 yards for all I remember). But despite all those yards (which came in garbage time), Nebraska was just slaughtered by a USC team that’s now looking to be mediocre. They displayed none of the power running game and the dominant defense that were the hallmarks of past Cornhusker teams. In short, the same hallmarks of the great Texas A&M teams of the early 1990s.

The sad part is that even though Nebraska has fallen on hard times, I think this year’s Aggie team is worse. I think in tomorrow’s game we’ll see Keller put up yards and points against our hapless secondary, and our once high-powered offense will put up a disappearing act for the second week in a row. We’re in a tailspin folks, and we’re not coming out this year. Nebraska’s favored by 2, I predict a bigger rout of Nebraska 34, Aggies 10.

The Day After: Texas A&M 7, Texas Tech 35

2007-10-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's over. This year's Texas A&M squad is officially a mediocre team. Franchione is gone after this season. I'm looking at the rest of the schedule, and with the possible exception of Nebraska, we're losing all our future games. That's 6-6.

Even after the Miami fiasco, there was some stupid hope in me that the Aggies weren't really that bad. All the hoopla about Franchione's VIP newsletter and all the stories about the Aggie players rallying around their coach somehow got into my brain, and it somehow fogged up the truth: this year's team is mediocre.

The worst part is having that mediocrity exposed by Texas Tech. They've got their gimmicky offense and their smug coach and their craptastic fans, and it pisses the hell out of me that we always choke when we go to Lubbock. The excruciating part is watching their offense shred our defense to pieces, and realizing yet again how far our defense has sunk since the glory days of the early '90s.

The only good thing about this game is that it finally convinced me 100% that Coach Franchione needs to be replaced. For five years I've either supported him or was on the fence about him, but now I'm at peace with the idea of having him replaced. When it comes down to it, College Station has the best fans around, and we don't deserve this.

Quick hits across the board:
-LSU needs to replace Flynn. I said in my last post that LSU looked beatable, and I'm not at all surprised that they lost to a good Kentucky team. I cannot understand for the life of me why Les Miles starts Matt Flynn when Ryan Perrilloux is waiting in the waitings. Yes, there's a 70% chance that he'll end up arrested in the next 10 years, but Flynn isn't the QB for a championship team.

-It's hard to take Pac-10 seriously. Cal's got a chance to be the #1 team after the Tigers' loss, and they respond by losing to Oregon State. It's crap that always undermines the Pac-10 in the eyes of the supposed "East Coast-biased" media.

-Oklahoma is the best team in the nation. If I had to pick a team to win the championship right now, it'd be the Sooners. Their win against a damn good Missouri team was impressive, and I'm still puzzled over their meltdown against Colorado. Bob Stoops's boys are back, and I'd take them over Ohio State, Boston College, South Florida, etc.

The Day After: Texas A&M 24, Oklahoma State 23

2007-10-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! At halftime of yesterday's game I was ready to write that the season was done. Over. Stick a fork in it. Franchione was fired at the end of the season (if not sooner), we were going to have a 5-7 season, and all hell would break loose. Then two quarters later, the Aggies had tied their greatest comeback ever, we were in sole possession of first place in the Big 12 South, and t.u. was at the bottom of the conference.

What does this all mean? Well, not much has changed. We could still go 5-7 with a crazy schedule the rest of the way. We still don't have a reliable passing game, and Mike Goodson seems to be regressing each week. We still don't include Bennett enough in the plays, and Franchione still may be a monotonous robot in disguise.

But for one week, we can enjoy the fact that the Ags pulled this one out. I mean, along with the Fresno State game, this is the kind of game that the Aggies would have lost one or two years ago. Yet in the wake of the Miami massacre and the newsletter scandal, the team somehow held on. Yes, we were 6 1/2 point favorites going into the game, but OSU was a dangerous opponent. This is a team with a high-powered offense that just hasn't lived up to its billing this season, and they were waiting to play spoiler at Kyle Field. But somehow we escaped, and now we can concentrate on the train wreck of a schedule that's looming ahead.

I'll be writing more about the upcoming games this week, but if there's one thing I want to make clear, it's this: I hate, hate Texas Tech. I would rather lose to the Longhorns rather than the Red Raiders. More to come on this.

Quick hits around the board:
-USC experienced the biggest upset ever. Some will disagree and say that it was Michigan's loss to Appalachian State, but trust me, this was bigger. Up to this point, Stanford was a pitiful, pitiful team. And they were playing with their backup quarterback who'd thrown one collegiate pass. And they were playing at USC. And they were 41 point underdogs.

-Colt McCoy is one concussion away from retirement. His grounder on the fourth down play with less than a minute to go just captured the weirdness going on with McCoy this season.

-LSU looks beatable. They beat Florida, but for three quarters the Gators looked like the better team. If they were to meet again on a neutral field for the SEC championship, I'd pick Florida without blinking. By the way, I think during the game one of the announcers mentioned that Tim Tebow bench presses 400 pounds. 400 pounds! Can our offensive lineman bench press 400 pounds?

-I hate Texas Tech.

The Day After: Texas A&M 34, Baylor 10

2007-09-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

As much as anyone could give a rat's ass about beating Baylor, I figured I should at least have a paragraph. We dominated Baylor, and we should have scored more points than we did. Baylor's passing yards were less than 200 yards which might seem like an impressive job by our secondary, but I also saw that Baylor's receivers dropped 10 balls: Considering that Kyle Wright burned us last week by going for something ridiculous like 21-26, I'd say that God picked the wrong weekend to be on the side of the Aggie secondary. Other than that, I really don't have much to say. I mean, it's Baylor. Yes, they came in with a winning record, yes, they have kept it close against the Aggies the last couple of years, and yes, they won in overtime a couple of years ago, but they're still Baylor--the toe fungi of the Big 12.

The bigger news is that Oklahoma and t.u. lost this weekend. I've seen that some news articles are pointing out that if the Aggies beat OSU next weekend, we'll be in first place in the Big 12 South, but let's be realistic: even if that happened, it's not going to last for us. I don't like to be a pessimist, but I still can't get the Miami game out of my head.

So rather than talking about how great it'd be to in first place next weekend, it's just a great time to enjoy the fact that t.u. got the shit kicked out of them by Kansas State. They haven't looked good all year, and I've been dying to see something like this happen. The best part is that Colt McCoy looked horrible out there. There's always been something about Colt that's pissed the hell out of me, but I can't quite figure it out. Maybe it's the fact that he looks like Opie but with a male pornstar name, or that if he'd traded shoes with Stephen McGee, McGee would be putting up Playstation numbers, but there's always been something about McCoy that always puts me a bad mood.

Speaking of McGee, in case you didn't catch this article, during the post-conference of the Baylor game he defended Coach Franchione and declared that he'd back him until death. It's stuff like that leaves me willing to commit a minor felony for McGee anytime, and why I'm proud to be an Aggie. You can say what you want about Frachione or our unbalanced offense or that we're entering the part of the season where things can get real ugly, but there is no quarterback out there who has the toughness or leadership that McGee does. Every time I see him out there, I keep wondering what it could have been if he just had some wide receivers, a coaching staff who knew how to make use of his talent, and an O-line that lived up to its ballyhooed billing.

Franny's Mess

2007-09-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

We beat Baylor like we should have, so instead, let’s talk about the recent trouble Coach Fran is in. In case you missed this article, a reporter found out that a dozen or so Aggie boosters were paying $1,200 per year to receive “VIP connection” information on Aggie players and injuries.

Now, I’m sure a lot of Aggie fans would like to use this story as one more reason that Coach Fran should be fired right now (Hell, not only did our team get depantsed and spanked by Miami, we got spanked because our traitor head coach is selling SECRETS about our team!) But, I’d like to take a step back and look at the big picture. If the Aggies had won in Miami, this would be total non-news. In fact, if it were printed, we’d all be saying, “Good for good ol’ Fran! Frank Beamer only manages to squeeze out $39.95 for the exact same thing, but Coach Fran has suckers who’re willing to pay $1,200 for non-information!”

I haven’t read the newsletters, but trust me, it’s non-information. Teams have a vague-to-good sense of the other team’s injuries, and they could care jack squat if some of the minor players get injured; if Stephen McGee had a probable chance of playing, the other team would know this—newsletter or none. Besides the injury reports, Franchione’s player assessments aren’t exactly CIA classified stuff. I could tell you from watching the games that Earvin Taylor and Pierre Brown have average speed. It isn’t rocket science—if your receivers can’t get any separation, it’s because they’re not fast!!!

Bottom line is that there was some pissed off booster who was sore that the Aggies got embarrassed on national television, and he broke it to a reporter who pounced at the chance to stoke flames about Franny’s possible firing. My personal opinion is simple: Barring any crazy scandal involving hookers or drugs or both, Fran stays if the Ags win 10-12 games, he’s on the edge if they win 9 but should probably stay to ride out McGee’s senior year, and he should be gone if they win 8 or less, or I’m going to stick my face in a blender.

The Day After: Texas A&M 17, Miami 34

2007-09-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well that game sucked. Have you ever been sucker-punched in the stomach so that it shocks you and hurts like hell at the same time? Well, that hasn't happened to me either, but my guess is that the game was equivalent to that experience. I couldn't believe that the score was 24-0 at halftime. I was watching the game at a bar, and for .03 seconds I seriously contemplated the idea that if I drank fast enough and hard enough, the score would be reversed in our favor.

I wish I could say that we just weren't prepared tonight or that Miami got lucky, but it was just a flat-out beating by a better team. Their defense was too fast for us, and our defense was too slow for them: 99.99% of the time this leads to bad things in football games. We made Kyle Wright look like freakin' Peyton Manning by allowing him to dump off short passes in the flat that led to 12-13 yard gains because our linebackers were too damn slow.

Quite frankly, this game was a wake-up call to me that this year's Aggie football team is just not good. We're like Britney Spears in the post-Kevin Federline era: there's still enough looks and signs of talent to hint at a break-out performance, but then the MTV awards come along to expose just how screwd up everything really is.

The only bright spot was at the end of the game when Jerrod Johnson whizzed around a bunch of Hurricane defenders before tossing a 33-yard TD to Martellus Bennett as if he were flicking a nerfball. It was Mike Vickesque, the pre-prison years. And then to see Bennett use his height and athleticism to reel in the ball over the 'Canes defenders was a thing of beauty. It's almost sacrilegious to say it, especially since any Aggie fan would be willing to commit a minor felony for Stephen McGee, but the QB position might not be locked in stone next year.

Gameday: Miami Hurricanes

2007-09-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

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.

3 Things the Aggies have to do to beat Miami

2007-09-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

1. Hit Miami early and hard with a couple of big plays. The conservative approach would be to try to grind Miami down with our running game and eat up a lot of clock in the process to shorten the game in a hostile environment. But Miami’s offense is anemic, and if the Aggies can build an early 10 to 14 point lead, it’ll be hard for them to catch up. The coaching staff should look to surprise Miami with a couple of strikes downfield and possibly a trick play or two. With explosive weapons like Bennett, Goodson, and McGee, the Aggie offense is capable of scoring quickly.

2. Dare Kyle Wright to beat us. Despite holding Louisiana Monroe to 110 yards passing, I still don’t have a lot of faith in the Aggie secondary at this point. And yet, I’d still rather have Miami’s QB try to make plays. Yes, he passed for over 200 yards and a touchdown last week, but that was against a team that was a 33 point underdog, and he just doesn’t strike me as a gamebreaker who’s going to make you pay for daring him to beat you. He burst on the national scene two years ago as a highly touted freshman in a season opener against Florida State, and while the ’Canes lost that game, he was anointed as the next Ken Dorsey. Well, that hasn’t exactly happened, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. He just gained his starting job back, and that’s only because the other QB was aggressively terrible in the OU game.

3. Don’t buy into the Miami mystique. There’s a whole lot of hoopla surrounding this Miami game, but the reality is that Miami is unranked, and the Aggies are ranked #20. But anyone who’s pretending that we’re going off to play another unranked ACC team like say, Georgia Tech, either is fooling himself or is thinking about the wrong sport. Fact is that the Hurricanes were the baddest sons of bitches in college football throughout the last two decades, and besides winning national championships they were an NFL factory that produced an embarrassing load of talent along the lines of Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey, Willis McGahee, and Kellen Winslow among others. But the key thing to remember is that this is Miami’s weakest team in years (Hmm, I guess they sucked last year too). They’ve got a new head coach who’s yet to prove himself, they got shellacked by Oklahoma in week 2, and the offense has been absolutely putrid. The Aggies picked a perfect year to play Miami, and we need to get it into our heads that this Hurricanes team carries all the brashness of the past without the same talent. I love my Aggies, but throughout the years I’ve noticed that we always seem to lose the nonconference games against teams that have such “mystiques.” Whether it’s Florida State one year, Virginia Tech in another, and Tennessee in a bowl game, we always seem timid in these kinds of situations. If Texas A&M is going to ever be the national powerhouse that it should rightfully be, it needs to start winning these winnable games against “mystique” teams. We need to be like how Oregon was against Michigan in week 2: the Ducks realized that this year’s Wolverines team was crap, and they unloaded that crap into the garbage dump with authority.

I have a bad feeling about this game. The last couple of weeks the Aggies coaching team has been saying that they’ve been saving their best stuff for Miami, and I want to believe them SO badly. I want to believe that our defense has been giving up big play after big play as to not give away prep material to the Miami staff, and I want to believe that we’re really capable of 300 yard passing games if we really wanted them, but my eyes know better. It’s like when your kid is coming home with a bunch of D’s and F’s on his homework, and he’s telling you that he knows what he’s doing and will get his act together in time for the big test. You want to believe him because he’s your kid, but deep down inside you know that he’s just fucked.

But dammit, if this Aggie team is like my kid, I’m like the crazy parent who thinks his kid can do no wrong: I’m saying that the Aggies will win 27-14.

The Day After: Texas A&M 54, Louisiana Monroe 14

2007-09-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, the Aggies didn't win 56-0 (see my previous post), but this was exactly what the team needed. They spanked a hapless Warhawk team, ironed their passing game somewhat, and got to rest the starters in preparation for the big Miami game Thursday.

Offense: A-
Yes, McGee passed for over 200 yards. Yes, Martellus Bennett had a big game, and Kerry Franks caught 5 balls to show that Aggie wide receivers can contribute in a game. But before we start to wet our pants about this, let's keep in mind that the Warhawks came into the game with one of the worst passing defenses in the country and had given up over 300 yards in their previous two games. I'll have to see how the passing game does against the Hurricanes before declaring it out of the woods.

But the running attack continued to be strong. McGee ran for only 18 yards on 4 carries, and we still piled up 310 yards. Goodson came back to tear up yardage, and the back-ups Tarrant and Johnson showed glimpses of a promising future. I guess I can't complain too much about it when the score is 54-14, but the one downer was that the J-Train was stalled for 34 yards (albeit two touchdowns). If this tailback tandem really is supposed be the second coming of Bush and White, they need to be both dominant on the same days.

Defense: B-
Nice improvement from the debacle last week against Fresno State. The second touchdown that was scored was when the subs were in and the score had already been long decided. I've harped on the A&M secondary throughout this blog, but they deserve props for coming up with two big interceptions and limiting the ULM passing game to 110 yards.

But, I'm still giving them a B- because in the first half the Warhawks were able to march the length of the field with some ease, and one of the drives resulted in a touchdown while the other two drives were stalled by interceptions. The defense also gave up up over 200 yards on the ground. Granted, the Warhawks are better at their running game than their aerial attack, but for crying out loud, this isn't the USC Trojans with their armada of Parade All-American running backs--this is freakin' ULM who haven't had a winning season since joining Division I in 1994.

Special Teams: A-
Dammit, writing about special teams bores the hell out of me unless they screw something up. In this case, they had no real chances to screw things up. Szymanski scored on a 45-yarder, the return men of Kerry Franks and Arkeith Brown had some nice kick-off returns, and the punting unit never had to come out because the Aggies scored on every possession but one. I'm giving them an A- because they didn't do anything spectacular.

Coaching: A
Even shocking myself, I'm giving Coach Franny and his staff a flat-out A. The Aggies obviously came with an agenda of fixing the passing game by taking over 30 attempts, and on top of meeting that objective, they tacked on 54 points. Fran was also able to take the starters out to avoid any freak injuries, and the team is as tuned up as it could be for Thursday's matchup.

Quick hits across the board:
-Both USC and LSU looked damn good last night. If they're able to somehow run through their brutal schedules undefeated (and that's a big if), it's going to be another one of those "game of the century" match-ups between those two. I think there's already been three in the last 15 years.

-Nick Saban sure as hell knows how to coach. Down 38-31 with two minutes left and facing fourth down, he goes for the field goal and trusts his defense to hold, which they did. Either he's an evil genius who sold his soul to Satan, or he's a damn lucky sonuvofabitch with big cajones. I'm going with both. By the way, why did McFadden skip the NFL last year? What, did he think the Hogs were going all the way this year? Isn't there a slight possibility that Houston Nutt drugged up McFadden one night and took incriminating pictures? Why aren't we investigating this?

-Noel Devine looks like the reincarnation of Barry Sanders. Why did he get only 5 carries when he was averaging 20+ per touch against Maryland? Oh yeah, cuz they also got Patrick White and Steve Slaton who also both play like videogame characters sprung to life. If WVU had a decent defense, they'd be right there with USC and LSU. On a completely unrelated note, why anyone would even want to step foot in the state of West Virginia is beyond me.

-What was up with Tebow's roommate kissing him on the neck after the Florida-Tennesse game? Whatever's going on between them is none of my business, but fellas, let's keep that in your room.

-Texas sucks and blows. UCF should have had them, just like Arkansas State in the opener. I'm torn between wanting to see TU upset versus wanting to see them keep escaping by so that we can spank them later in the year. Colt McCoy is over-rated.

-Speaking of over-rated, if you were to look it up in the dictionary, you'd see Jimmy Clausen. And next to it, it'd read, "see also Charlie Weis."

Stay tuned for posts on the Miami game throughout this week.

Gameday: Louisiana Monroe

2007-09-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Kick-off against Lousiana Monroe is in a couple of hours, and it's time for Aggies to make a statement today. Playing at Kyle Field against a ULM team that got routed by both Tulsa and Clemson, Texas A&M needs to erase all the doubts that arose from the nail-biter against Fresno State a week ago. Ideally the box score should look something like this:

Texas A&M 56, ULM 0
Aggie passing yards: 350, ULM passing yards: 23
Aggie rushing yards: 323, ULM rushing yards: 56

But, since this year's Aggie squad has been unable to display any sense of (a) a passing game or (b) defense, and since Coach Franchione has openly admitted that he can't figure out what's wrong with the passing game (I'll take a guess--maybe untalented receivers, weak pass protection by supposedy one of the best O-lines in the conference, and lack of imagination in the play-calling?) a more realistic box score will read something like this:

Texas A&M 31, ULM 17
Aggie passing yards: 212, ULM passing yards: 144
Aggie rushing yards: 278, ULM rushing yards: 156
Stupid Aggie penalties: 6
Dropped balls by Aggie receivers: 4
Wide open catches by ULM receivers: 5

I'm already starting to get pissed off reading my own prediction of the outcome. We need to badly pound the crap out of ULM before the Miami game. We then need to kick Miami's ass on their own home turf so that the biggest story of the week about A&M isn't that Reveille was taken to the time-out corner because she snapped at some cadet--I mean, what the hell was that? The J-Train punishes the Fresno State defense in 90 degree weather when they're putting 8-9 men in the box, and the press decides that the mascot quarantine was the big news. Crap like that drives me nuts.

The Day After: The Aggie Report Card vs. Fresno State

2007-09-09T21:35:00.001-07:00

Now that the euphoria of squeaking by Fresno State is over, it's time to grade the Aggies on what should have been a blowout after the first half.

Offense: B-
Pounding out close to 400 yards against a Fresno State defense that limited its previous opponent to 100 yards wasn't bad, but the Bulldogs previous opponent was Sacramento State. Like I said yesterday, Stephen McGee and Jorvorskie Lane were absolute studs when it came to running the ball; towards the end of the game the Bulldogs knew that the Aggies had abandoned their paltry passing game outright, but they still couldn't stop the Aggies rushing attack. McGee is a badass, and he deserves more national press than he receives. The slight downer in the running game was that Michael Goodson got a decent set of carries and managed only 70 yards. Hopefully that was a one game setback, but if Goodson is going to live up to preseason hype as one of the premier running backs in the next wave of young backs, he needs to start tearing up yardage when he gets 20+ carries.

Speaking of the Aggies abandoning the passing game, I take that back--the Aggies had no passing attack to abandon. You know you've got no vertical game when your top receiver caught 40% of the passes (5 receptions) for a measly 35 yards, and he also happens to be your tight end. Considering that Martellus Bennett was the number one recruited tight end out of high school and was elected by ESPN to its pre-season All-American team, he's done jack squat in the first two games. He's got the height, the strength, and the speed to be a premier tight end, and he needs to start living up the hype.

But even Benett's numbers were Randy Moss-like compared to the Aggie receiving corp. It's not just that they combined for just 40 some yards between them, it's that they were constantly unable to get open. Time after time McGee had to throw the ball away even after receiving decent pass protection. And when they did get open, there were a couple of dropped balls that should have been caught. I'm not looking for the Aggies to become Texas Tech overnight, but we just need the possibility of a vertical threat to relieve some pressure off the running game.

Defense: D
Am I being too harsh on a defense that dominated in the first half? No, and it's because Fresno State absolutely torched the defense in the second half and the overtime periods. What was frustrating was that they weren't running anything fancy. Their running back Matthews repeatedly ran up the middle for 5 yard gains and made me want to gouge my eyes out. It's one thing for a school that produced the likes of David Carr to gains some yardage in the aerial game, but it's another thing for school from traditionally pass-happy WAC conference to shove the running game up the middle to us.

With their running game going, their QB got into a rhythm and burned the secondary as well. Our secondary looks as if it's taken a step back from last season, and they weren't exactly Wrecking Crew caliber either. After two games of getting lit up by decent but non Top 25 teams in the passing game, you have to wonder how the corners are going to hold up when the Aggies face the likes of Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and TU in the second half of the season. But you have to spread the blame as well to the defensive front, as there was little pressure put on the QB in the second half. There's been a lot of talk of new defensive coordinator Gary Darnell's 4-2-5 scheme, but so far I've yet to be impressed. Until we start putting some pressure on the quarterback and shutting down passing games, the Wrecking Crew is a long gone memory.

Special Teams: C
Give credit to our field goal kicker to Matt Symanski to recover two missed field goals to kick a huge one in overtime. But if he hadn't missed the first two field goals, it might have been a different game to begin with. Our punter and return guys did nothing special worth mentioning.

Coaching: C-
The coaching won't get anything higher than a C anytime the Aggies are at Kyle Field playing against a team that we should be beat and somehow squander a 19 point lead. Period, end of discussion. Give Franchione credit though for realizing in the fourth quarter that the Aggies passing attack was asstastic and resorting straight to the running game. His best call of the game was actually challenging the officials in overtime to get the 1 yard botched call overtime. But all of this is wiped out by the big picture fact that Aggies underachieved yet again against a team that they should have handily beat.

This was one of those games in which if you're an Aggie fan, you're screaming at the top of your lungs with joy on Saturday for escaping a game in which we should have lost, but the next morning you wake up pissed because it should have never been this close. Bottom line is that this Aggie team needs to wake up against Louisiana Monroe next week before heading out to Miami.

Texas A&M 47 Fresno State 45

2007-09-08T13:40:00.001-07:00

Oh geez, we just escaped a doozy against Fresno State. After smoking in the first half, we were DAMN LUCKY escape this one after three overtimes. I'm still trying to revive my heart after suffering massive heart attacks in the second half. Why is it that we have to go through these close suckers all the time in the Fran-era against opponents we should be just flat out killing?

I'll get into tomorrow as to what didn't go right tomorrow (and there will be plenty of that), but today my hat goes off to our running heroes Stephen McGee and the J-Train for shoving it down the Bulldogs' throats down the homestretch. In the last drive of regulation, you got the feeling that Stephen was going to will the offense to score the badly needed touchdown after Fresno State just gashed throughout the entire second half to pull even. Now, if only we could pair him up with a couple of wide receivers who can (a) get open, and then (b) hold onto the freakin' ball.

And as for Jorvorskie Lane, after a lackluster start to the season against Montana State in which he looked out of shape again for the seventeeth time in his collegiate career, he was the brusin' J-Train of last year to punch in the win against a tired Bulldog defense at the end. His second effort to grab the first down in the third overtime after being hit from behind the line of scrimmage was the key play of the game. Jorvorskie Lane, I salute you!