Friday January 29th, 2010

10:55pm

The End of the Road

The time has come for me to bring my website to an end. This is a decision that I have been wrestling with for about three years now and have finally come to grips with it.

My family has grown and now that Benjamin is active I want to spend more time with him and my wife. I simply don't have the time to put the amount of research together that I feel is necessary to make this site what I want it to be.

You probably noticed that I completely neglected the basketball team last season (and this one) and painfully did very close to the same with the baseball team. I was weening myself off but I wanted to get through one more football season.

When I started this website up 7 years ago I had no intention or idea that it would ever get beyond just my parents reading my longwinded complaints but it afforded me many contacts and experiences that I would never have come across otherwise. It has been a labor of love, and one that I took pride in doing.

It was always cool to be up in the stands at Olsen Field and see someone reading through a printed off copy of one of my regional previews, or for someone to come up to me at a basketball game and ask, "Hey, aren't you the guy with that website?"

I would like to thank the players for giving me something to write about and to the family members of those players who came to be email friends. I want to give a special thanks to my father and my father-in-law who are the real reason the little ticker number at the bottom of the page is as big as it is. Even more than them I'd like to thank my wife - who put up with the nuesence of me dissapearing for the evening while I was scrambling to get a game preview typed up and uploaded before the weekend hit.

I have started a sister site called Comments from Kyle Field where I will every once in a blue moon put together something I find interesting but it will be a rickety frail skeleton of this site. I'm also going to try and transfer some of the more interesting posts I've done here over to there but I am putting no time table on it and no guarantees that it will happen.

I'm not exactly sure when this page will turn into the classic "Page not found" but, as the t-shirt reads, I'll be in the stands if you need me.

Gig'em, God Bless, and B.T.H.O. t.u.! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Thursday January 21st, 2010

9:58pm

Welcome to Aggieland Tim DeRuyter

It's official. Mike Sherman has hired Tim DeRuyter as the new defensive coordinator. I'm pretty jazzed about this development.

Get us back to that. Soon. Please.

If you want to see Air Force pick apart Houston's #1 offense in the Armed Forces Bowl, here is the game in it's entirety. If you want to see his stats, you can do so in last Monday's post.

We'll now have to see what changes he makes to the defensive staff and who he brings in.

Gig'em!

| Where are you?

Wednesday January 13th, 2010

10:38pm

State of the Program

Thank goodness the 2000s are over because it was not a good decade for our Ags. Our overall record was 63-59, we appeared in six bowl games (winning 1) and our best season was 2006 when we finished 9-4.

It was my first decade of football as my freshman year started with the 2000 season. Over the 10 seasons I attended 81 games including 68 of our 70 games at Kyle Field (missing '04 OU and '05 TxSt).

I don't think anyone can say that 2009 was a good season but I think we saw good things from it. In my season preview had us pegged with a 6-6 regular season, which we hit, but we lost our bowl game giving us a losing record for the second season in a row (for the first time since '79-'80).

This season I made it to 11 of our 13 games (missing tech and KSU), which was a personal single season high. I did the math and I traveled over 5,300 miles to see our Ags play this season. At 16 miles/gallon, plus food, lodging, tickets....I hope my wife doesn't read this.

And it's still worth it.

I do think that we made improvements and some nice strides towards next year. We played a school record 18 true freshmen and another 6 red-shirt freshmen. Those 24 freshmen accounted for 57 starts and 249 appearances. Six of them started seven or more games (Mangan, D.Harris, EZ, B.Jackson, P.Lewis, J.Stewart) and project to have long career for us. Lewis was named to CollegeFootballNews.com's All-Freshman 2nd team while Mangan, EZ, and Christine Michael were all named 3rd team.

I've probably said it 10 times on this site but Christine Michael is going to be a complete stud.

A&M OL Starts v. W-L
====================
  2003  20 v. 4-8
  2004  62 v. 7-5 
  2005  87 v. 5-6
  2006  79 v. 9-4 
  2007 119 v. 7-6
  2008  21 v. 4-8
  ---------------
  2009  56 v. 6-7

[note: 2005 is out of whack because we had Aldo De La Garza and Jamie Hightower, both experienced seniors but both playing the same position -- Hightower was beat out by Yemi Babalola (freshman) at tackle so he moved to guard and split time with Aldo -- that is, until Dominique Steamer ended up beat'em both out after our 5th game. Going into 2005 Aldo & Hightower had 51 career starts between them and they started a combined 5 games in '05]

Michael and sophomore Cyrus Gray ran behind an offensive line that was certainly in transition for the first portion of the season. Coming into 2009 we had a total of 56 offensive line starts returning, mostly from guys that were first time starters in 2008.

        LT      LG      C      RG     RT    RYds Sck
     ======= ======= ======== ===== ======  ========
UNM  Baker   Shumard Matthews Allen Grimes   245  2
UtS  Shumard Eike    Matthews Allen Grimes   251  1
UAB  Shumard Barrera Matthews Allen Baker    236  1
Ark  Barrera Shumard Matthews Allen Grimes   113  2
oSu  Barrera Lewis   Matthews Allen Grimes   109  4
KSU  Shumard Allen   Matthews Lewis Grimes   -13  6
 tt  Shumard Lewis   Matthews Eike  Grimes   321  1
ISU  Shumard Lewis   Matthews Eike  Grimes   267  1
 CU  Shumard Eike    Matthews Lewis Grimes   132  1
 OU  Shumard Eike    Matthews Lewis Grimes    59  4
 BU  Shumard Eike    Matthews Lewis Grimes   375  1
 tu  Shumard Eike    Matthews Lewis Grimes   190  3
UGA  Shumard Eike    Matthews Lewis Grimes   109  2

We struggled mightily trying to find the right mix of players (rushing for a total of 209 yards and giving up 12 sacks in our first three "real" games) but once we re-inserted Evan Eike and added freshman Patrick Lewis at the guard positions things started to click more often. Everyone made a big deal out of us being 0-7 on TV and 6-0 when we weren't televised, but I think the fact that we were 0-7 when we ran for less than 200 yards had more to do with it than the bright lights of Hollywood.

                      PrevExp  2009  Into2010
                      ======= =====  ========
M.Allen (Jr)..........   0/0    8/6     8/6 
D.Baker (So)..........  10/1   13/2    23/3 
S.Barrera (Fr)........   0/0    9/3     9/3 
E.Eike (So)........... 12/12   13/8   25/20 
L.Grimes (Sr)......... 20/12  12/12   32/24 
J.Hyde (Fr)...........   0/0    8/0     8/0 
P.Lewis (Fr)..........   0/0   12/9    12/9 
K.Matthews (Sr)....... 21/12  13/13   34/25
M.Shumard (Sr)........ 29/17  12/12   41/29 
B.Thomas (Fr).........   0/0   12/0    12/0
J.Villavisencio (So)..   2/1    0/0     2/1 (RSed in '09)
V.Williams (Sr).......  12/1    3/0    15/1

Next season we lose our three more experienced linemen in Kevin Matthews, Michael Shumard, and Lee Grimes and we will only return 42 starts but we bring in what looks to be the best OL recruiting class we've scored in the last 15 years. We also get to see the highly touted red-shirt freshman Rhonte Scales. I've said before that the offensive line was a weak link for us and it probably will be until 2011 but if anyone is going to bring it to where it needs to be it will be Mike Sherman - and he is on his way to doing that.

In addition to C-Mike, I'm also a big fan of freshman Uzoma Nwachakwu who led the team in receiving yards with 708 yards. His three 100 yard performances tied the school record and set the freshman record while his 6 TDs was the second most ever by a freshman and 7th most overall. He didn't add to either of those achievements in the last 7 games of the season though (after the KSU game). Another thing I noticed was that he had a ton of yardage on defensive off-sides where we had free plays and JJ just took a shot deep to him. I'm curious why we saw such a big drop in production. Clearly Fuller coming back played a part and maybe teams got enough film on us and schemed him out of the game during Big 12 play or maybe his route running or ability to get separation against Big 12 opponents reflected his freshman inexperience. We'll have to keep an eye on that over the next few years, but I have a feeling he's going to be a good one.

2008            G-GS No Yds TD 
R.Tannehill..   11-6 55 844  5
J.Fuller.....   11-8 50 630  9

2009            G-GS No Yds TD 
R.Tannehill..   13-0 46 609  4
J.Fuller.....    9-7 41 568  7
U.Nwachukwu..  13-12 40 708  6

EZ isn't the only great WR we have on the roster. I think that the current WR corps will be the best we've ever had. When we had Bethel Johnson, Jamaar Taylor, Terrence Murphy, and Greg Porter we were pretty stout but by the time the current group is gone I think they will have them trumped.

Jeff Fuller has 16 career TDs and is only three shy of tying the school's career record (19 by Bob Long in the late 1960s). Tannehill, even with his much limited snaps this year to keep him healthy as the backup QB, is only eight TDs behind Fuller and is already 7th on the school's all-time receiving yardage list with 1,453 (T-Murph is #1 with exactly 2,600).

Fuller and Tannehill were just sophomores this season.

One of the reasons our WRs are so good is because of their QB, Jerrod Johnson, who re-wrote the record books this season. In my season preview I wrote the following:

I think that Reggie's junior season of 2004 was THE best passing season we've seen but I think that as a sophomore JJ was more polished than Reggie was at that point in his career (read: his sophomore year - 2003) so I'm kind of excited to see if he can take the big leap as a junior as well.

We can say that Jerrod's junior season of 2009 was THE best passing season we've seen.

    
         G-GS Cmp-Att-Int  Yds  Pct TD Avg/G
2007...   5-0       2-7-0   50 58.0  2  10.0
2008... 12-10  194-326-10 2435 59.5 21 221.4*
2009... 13-13  296-497-8  3579 59.6 30 275.3

(*JJ played some QB in 11 of our 12 games but I want to note that 
the YPG stat kept by the school did not take that into account when 
dividing his season total of yards by the number of games played. 
They used all 12 games he appeared in to calculate his YPG at 202.9.
He came off the bench at WR in the Arkansas State game and did not 
play any QB & he started at WR in the Army game but did play some QB)

He was named 2nd Team All-Big 12 and I posted earlier this season on his achievements and I'll update those numbers now:

• Threw for 30 TDs in 2009 shattering his own single season school record of 21 (he set last season)
• Broke Kevin Murray's career record of 48 TD passing finishing his junior year with 53 career TDs (he tied Murray on his 741st career attempt which was 185 fewer than Murray's 926 career attempts)
• Broke Reggie McNeal's single season school record with 3,579 yards (besting McNeal by almost 800 yards)
• His career 6,064 passing yards is only 928 yards shy of McNeal's school record
• Currently has career completion percentage of 59.3% (492/830). That sits as the second highest in school history by .2% (S.McGee is at 59.5%)
• He threw 8 INTs on 497 pass attempts in 2009....that is 1 every 62 pass attempts
• Set Big 12 record for single season consecutive pass attempts without an INT (225)
• Set Big 12 record for consecutive pass attempts without an INT (242 - from '08 BU to '09 KSU)
• Had the fewest INTs and most TDs by a Big 12 QB in 2009
• His six 300 yard passing performances in 2009 was a single season record (Dustin Long had three in '02)
• His eight career 300 yard games is a school record (Dustin Long had three)

As a matter of fact, we can probably start getting used to the idea that he is the best QB we've ever had roll through here. Of course, JJ detractors are going to point to our record and say, "He didn't win. All the numbers in the world wouldn't match what Kevin Murray/Bucky/Pullig did for this program."

Here is what I say to that: Jerrod doesn't have a defense. Think about this:

• During Murray's career, only once did we have to score more than 40 points to win a game. We lost that game.
• During Bucky's career, only once did we have to score more than 40 points to win a game. We lost that game.
• During Pullig's career, only once did we have to score more than 40 points to win a game. We lost that game. Actually, during Pullig's career we only had to score more than 30 points twice (we went 1-1)
• During the last two seasons, we have given up 40 points TWELVE times. In 25 games.

Unless Jerrod can bookend with Von Miller on the DL and create pressure on our opponents QB, our W-L record isn't in his hands.

That leads me right into my next topic....the defense.

It's really bad.

         RushD        PassD          TotalD          ScoreD          3DC
      ========================================================    ========   
2003  225.1 (112)*  206.42 (40)     431.50 (96)*    38.8 (115)+   2003 44%
2004  142.5 (55)    244.25 (93)*    386.75 (63)*    23.3 (47)     2004 44%
2005  139.2 (38)    304.64 (117)+   443.82 (108)*   31.2 (96)*    2005 48%
2006  132.1 (44)    190.54 (44)     322.62 (46)     20.5 (44)     2006 29%
2007  160.9 (65)    254.85 (92)*    415.77 (83)*    25.9 (50)     2007 46%  
2008  219.3 (114)*  242.67 (93)     461.92 (113)+   37.4 (114)*   2008 55%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009  171.6 (90)    254.69 (106)*   426.31 (105)    33.5 (105)*   2009 38%

*Indicates that at the time it was one of the three worst 
     seasons in modern Aggie history (post-1950)
+Indicates the single worst season in modern Aggie history

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that defensive coordinator, Joe Kines, has decided to retire. I'm still not sure how I feel about Kines. I mean, I really liked the guy, he has a great personality, and he clearly knew how to coach - as evident from his decades of success prior to A&M - but just couldn't get it done in Aggieland. I can't be angry at him - he came in after Reggie Herring bolted on us in the 11th hour knowing that we had nothing on the defensive side of the ball. I appreciate that Kines did us a huge favor by taking a job that was, to almost any other defensive coordinator, career suicide. However, part of me still struggles with the fact that we were SO bad defensively.

Now that we have some talent starting to become infused at different positions this job is certainly more desirable than it was two years ago - although it doesn't mean that the new defensive coordinator is just going to walk into a great situation like Will Muschamp did over in Austin and we're going to be a top 5 defense before August is over. With our offense we don't have to have the best defense in the country to win at a high level, but it has to be better than 105th.

The defense wasn't 100% doom and gloom. We saw some great improvement from a handful of players. Garrick Williams is starting to look more like a Big 12 LBer....I thought Jordan Pugh had his best season and improved dramatically with the ball in the air....Terrence Frederick is turning himself into a very nice little cornerback....and of course Von Miller turned himself into an All-American.

Von was named 1st team All-American by both Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News and 2nd team by the AP and was a finalist for the Hendricks Award. He became one of the top rush ends in the country and led the nation with 17 sacks, which put him second in A&M single season history (Jacob Green with 20 in 1979). After leading the team in sacks for the second straight season he moved into 7th place all-time with 22.5 career sacks.

Even with Von's big decision to return for his senior season, our defensive line is the weakest link of our football team so we'll have to see what transpires personnel-wise - and coaching-wise as DL coach Buddy Wyatt joined Turner Gill's staff at Kansas....under their new defensive coordinator, CARL TORBUSH! WOW!

Besides the DL it was our special teams that did us in time after time this season which was brought to a head in the Georgia game. Special teams mistakes are always huge, game changing events and when you have a lot of them you're not going to win football games. ST coach Kirk Doll is in a tricky spot. He was hired by Reggie Herring to be the LBer coach (which is what he has had success at) but when Herring left and Kines came in, Kines took the LBer spot and Doll moved to special teams. We'll have to see if he is retained by the incoming defensive coordinator at LB coach. Regardless, I expect a new face to be heading up the special teams.

The punting was either rugby style, which was canned mid-season, or INCREDIBLY slow to develop. I don't know how we didn't have more punts blocked.

Kicker, Randy Bullock, seemed to get hit with a nasty case of sophomore slump. The field goal kicking was a step down from 2008.

FIELD GOALS         FGM-FGA  Pct 01-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-99 Lg Blk
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2008 Bullock, Randy   6-7   85.7  1-1   2-2   2-2   1-2   0-0  46   0
2009 Bullock, Randy  12-19  63.2  0-0   3-4   5-7   3-6   1-2  50   2

I think the thing I struggle with even more than the drop off in FG kicking is the inability to kickoff into the endzone.

I'm ok with our kickoff returners, Cyrus Gray and Ryan Swope and Linnis Smith but our punt returning disappeared on us to the point where I was just happy when we just maintained possession on a punt return. Special teams has a long way to go before it's "special" again.

Coach Sherman has a big month here in January. He was able to bring Von Miller back but he still has to make the hire at defensive coordinator that will make or break his career in Aggieland and he has to hold the clamps down on our excellent recruiting class (we're currently sitting at #11 per Rivals and #15 per Scout).

For the first time in a long time I feel like things are swinging in the right direction for Texas A&M football. Like I said at the top of the page, it wasn't the best season but it was a step in the right direction. Let's keep on moving that way.

Gig'em!

| Where are you?

Monday January 11th, 2010

12:01am

The Defensive Coordinator Search?

I took some time yesterday to run through a couple of the potential defensive coordinators we're looking at, Justin Wilcox (DC at Boise State) and Tim DeRuyter (DC at Air Force).

This hire is a huge one for Coach Sherman and like Coach Fran it will determine his future.

Whomever we hire will be the 5th defensive coordinator we've had in 9 seasons (Hankowitz '02, Torbush '03, Darnell '06, Kines '08, ????? '10). What that means is that we have not had a defensive player in 10 years come to A&M who started and finished his eligibility without having to learn at least two defensive systems. That will lead to some bad defenses. As we've seen.

Here are the two top candidates....

Justin Wilcox

• Oregon c/o '99
• Runs a 4-2-5 base defense
• 2001-2002 Boise State Grad Assistant (worked with OLB)
• 2003-2005 Cal LB Coach
• 2006-2009 Boise State Defensive Coordinator

        Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2006   89.1 (8)   194.9 (45)  284.0 (14)  17.6 (20)
2007  130.8 (35)  207.2 (26)  338.0 (25)  21.6 (25)
2008  118.0 (22)  190.2 (34)  308.2 (20)  12.6 (3)
2009  120.4 (28)  179.9 (21)  300.2 (14)  17.1 (14)

Boise State National Rankings
     BEFORE          DURING       
   2004  2005   2006  2007  2008  2009
   ==========  =======================
R   10    16      8    35    22    28 
P   99   100     45    26    34    21
T   47    51     14    25    20    14
S   64    51     20    25     3    14

Clearly Wilcox is young and we only have one stop on his resume to judge him on, but WOW....his worst career finish in total D and scoring D was 25th nationally. If you look at Boise State's rankings before he showed up you can see, clearly, that he made a big impact on their defense - which in turn put them in their first BCS bowl in 2006 against OU.

They're not doing this against horrible offenses either. This season their schedule included SEVEN games against teams with Top 15 offenses:

• Oregon #8 scoring offense
• Fresno St #17 total offense & #14 scoring offense
• Hawaii #11 total offense
• TCU #7 total offense & #5 scoring offense
• Idaho #9 total offense
• Utah State #12 total offense
• Nevada #2 total offense

I'd be really interested to see if Sherman goes this route, putting his career in the hands of someone that is only 32 years old....but that resume sure does sparkle.

Tim DeRuyter

• Air Force c/o '85
• Runs a 3-4 base defense
• 1995-1998 Ohio University Defensive Coordinator
• 1999-2001 Navy Defensive Coordinator
• 2002-2004 Ohio University Defensive Coordinator & Secondary Coach
• 2005-2006 Nevada Co-Defensive Coordinator & Secondary Coach
• 2007-2009 Air Force Defensive Coordinator & Safeties Coach

I couldn't dig up any stats from his first go-round with Ohio but that was over 10 years ago anyways so we'll just start with his time at Navy where he replaced Dick Bumpas who took the DC job at UH in 1999 (currently DC at TCU).

        Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
1999  151.6 (64)  209.4 (76)   361.0 (52)  25.5 (62)
2000  188.8 (91)  229.6 (87)   418.5 (97)  35.5 (105)
2001  243.1 (112) 218.1 (58)   461.2 (104) 34.4 (102)

That wasn't a huge confidence booster. Thankfully, it gets much better.

DeRuyter's next stop was back at Ohio University from 2002-2004.

        Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2002  153.7 (55)  224.1 (66)   377.8 (66)  31.2 (88)
2003  150.0 (51)  219.8 (58)   369.8 (54)  31.0 (88)
2004  124.3 (32)  195.4 (28)   319.6 (22)  24.6 (51)

Ohio National Rankings
     BEFORE          DURING         AFTER
   2000  2001   2002  2003  2004  2005 2006
   ==========  =================  =========
R   36    91     55    51    32    80   54
P   68    86     66    58    28   109   18
T   43    99     66    54    22   109   29
S   19    82     88    88    51    88   23

You can see that he made an impact when he arrived and then took another step in his third year. He left when Frank Solich came in as head coach....and things went downhill for the Bobcat's defense.

The third DeRuyter stop we're going to look at was his stint at Nevada where he was Co-Defensive Coordinator along with the aptly named Barry Sacks.

        Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2005  141.3 (47)  269.3 (104)  410.6 (88)  31.9 (101)
2006  128.5 (52)  196.9 (52)   325.5 (48)  19.2 (30)

Nevada National Rankings
     BEFORE       DURING       AFTER
   2003  2004   2005  2006  2007  2008
   ==========  ===========  ==========  
R   74    103    47    52    78     6
P   82     21   104    52    76    119
T   83     79    88    48    79    91
S   74    106   101    30    95    99

Similar results to Ohio....he came in it took a tad bit of adjustment and then they took a big step forward....and when he left, they fell off.

Following Nevada, Tim returned to his Alma mater, The Air Force Academy.

        Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2007  136.5 (45)  232.2 (68)   368.7 (51)  21.1 (22)
2008  141.5 (64)  199.9 (50)   341.5 (50)  22.2 (43)
2009  134.0 (47)  154.3 (5)    288.3 (11)  15.7 (10)

Air Force National Rankings
     BEFORE          DURING       
   2005  2006   2007  2008  2009
   ==========  =================
R   84    68     45    64    47
P   94    75     68    50     5
T   98    78     51    50    11
S  100    78     22    43    10

Once again, very similar results with a year or two of improvement and then a big (and in this case it was a HUGE) step forward. Their performance against Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl was the icing on the cake as they held Case Keenum and the #1 offense in the country to just 20 points and just 331 yards of total offense (their average was 563 ypg). Air Force also faced TCU (#7 total offense & #5 scoring offense) and BYU (#11 scoring offense) this season.

Oh yeah, DeRuyter is doing this at A SERVICE ACADEMY. Think about that for a minute.

I think either is a solid pick and I'm really excited to see which way we go. One thing that also excites me is that we're going after guys who have seen a lot of the spread offense before, which is something that I think has hurt us in our last 3 DC hires.

Either one also needs to solve the void that is the DL. Hopefully this hire can persuade Von Miller to come back....he'd earn half his salary right there (or if nothing else make his job a heckuva lot easier in 2010).

Big week coming up.

| Where are you?

Saturday January 2nd, 2010

12:29am

Ag Football Recap: Aggie Special Teams Lead to Georgia Victory, 44-20

Independence Stadium
After that sun went down the temp dropped from cold to C-O-L-D

We started our trip early on Monday morning as my brother, Sean, and my Dad swung by and picked me up at 7:30am. We headed up 59 towards Shreveport, stopped somewhere along the way (maybe Cleveland) for some What-a-burger bkft, and got to our hotel in Shreveport around 12:15ish.

The problem was that our hotel was not to be. The shmucks at the Ramada over booked and told us they had saved us a room at the Country Inn, "only five minutes down the road".

Hey, at least it has HBO

I'm pretty sure that if we wanted to get some nasty disease from our bed we would have made the road trip to lubbock back in October. We didn't even get out of the car. Thankfully my old man was able to pull some strings and found a room at the Hilton down by the Riverwalk and all the Casinos. MUCH nicer.

Unknown to us, the Hilton was the Georgia team headquarters so when we walked it there was red and black everywhere. Our room wasn't going to be ready until 3pm-ish so we changed into our warmest clothes in the bathroom and on the way out saw a bulldog, an actual real life bulldog, getting onto the elevator. Remembering that Uga had just passed away I thought to myself, "Huh, those SEC fans are so hardcore. I wonder how many Aggies have Collies that travel with them?"

As it turned out, the dog we saw was actually Russ who is an older brother of Uga VII and was filling in for Uga.

Anyways, we got back into the car looking like sumo wrestlers with our 8 layers of clothes on and headed towards Bossier Pierre Mall where the shuttle was to take us to the game. Lesson Re-Learned: Don't ever ride the shuttle to the game unless you are sure it is a smooth operation. Getting to the stadium was no problem but afterward - WOW. We waited for over an hour and fifteen minutes to get onto a bus as the line wrapped about 4 city blocks long. We ran into a similar problem back in '06 after the Holiday bowl trying to catch the tram after the game - but we weren't able to navigate ourselves out of this one. And it was C-O-L-D.

In 20 years, if one was curious how the 2009 season went for Texas A&M, then they could plug this game into whatever totally sweet visual device that they're using in 2029 and watch this game because it was a microcosm of our season.

Sean & Me

I thought that the defense came out and played a superb first half holding Georgia's offense to a total of 90 yards. Matt Moss really stood out to me as playing a whale of a first half. Our offense had better results, especially in the second quarter, but we still matched Georgia's 5 first half punts. We were able to strike first scoring on a 15 yard pass to Jamie McCoy in the endzone with 2:33 remaining in the half, which was really set up on a big 41 yard reception by freshman Brandal Jackson.

Unfortunately, that lead quickly evaporated as Georgia's Brandon Boykin returned the ensuing kick-off 81 yards for a TD (his third of the season).

That wasn't the beginning, or the end, of our special teams woes. It was, hands-down, the most pathetic showing I've ever witnessed from our special teams. Words can't describe it. We were really bad under Coach Fran but this is worse.

After the KO return we went 3-and-out and Ryan Epperson's punt was blocked and recovered by Georgia on our 2 yard line. One play later Georgia was up 14-7. A span of one Georgia offensive play and they scored 14 points.

We started our next drive at our own 25 yard line with 1:22 on the clock and the offense came out and moved the ball. Things ended badly, but on account of the officials. We got the ball down to Georgia's 20 yard line and on the first down the clocked stopped to move the chains and JJ snapped and spiked the ball with 2.8 seconds on the clock. The officials signaled the end of the half. There is no way that a spike took 2.8 seconds off the clock and after Cart taught everyone, including himself, in the Big 12 championship the clock stops when the ball hits the ground AND it can be reviewed to verify that. We saw the officials get it correct in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl keeping both teams on the field and reviewing the clock to make sure they got it right just before the half - and VT ended up with a chance at some points. Two snaps earlier we spiked the ball following them moving the chains and the clock went from 00:10 to 00:09....so how does it take more than double that the second time we do it?

By the end of the night, this didn't cost us the game, but at the time it was huge. Instead of being tied up 14-14 or at a minimum down 14-10 at the half we were denied the opportunity to stop or re-swing the momentum in our direction.

In summary of the "special" teams by the end of the night we...

• ....had a field goal blocked (that cost us 3 points)
• ....fumbled a punt return (thankfully it went out of bounds and we retained possession)
• ....gave up the KO return (that cost us 7 points)
• ....had a punt blocked (that cost us 7 points)
• ....snapped a ball over the head of the punter (leading to a short, quick UGA TD - 7 points)

Special teams cost us 24 points in a 44-20 loss. If you need me to do the math for you (**cough**tech fans**cough**) that was the difference in the ballgame. That is frustrating.

Georgia's offense finished with 44 points, their second highest output of the season, but the majority of that was a direct result of field position. They scored 28 points on TD drives of 30 yards or less and in all honesty, our defense held them in check until the end of the game when we started rotating the players more.

One thing that I thought really hurt us, just like they did up in Boulder, was our inability to get off the field on 3rd & Longs. They converted on 3rd & 8, 3rd & 13, 3rd & 10, 3rd & 9, & 3rd & 10 at various points of the game.

Throughout the game we saw a lot of Michael Hodges, Jonathan Stewart and Sean Porter playing at LB, trying to get additional speed onto the field.

QB Joe Cox threw for 158 yards and 2 TDs, AJ Green only had 57 yards on 6 receptions, and Washaun Ealey ran for 78 yards and Caleb King added 60 more.

Our offense put up 471 yards on Georgia, the most ever in Mark Richt's tenure. I didn't think that Jerrod had a particularly great night (compared to his performance against t.u.) but it was by no means a bad night. He threw for 362 yards and two TDs on 29-of-58 passing and ran for an additional 51 yards (for 413 yards of total offense). He set a myriad of A&M Bowl Records: Yards, completions, attempts, total offense (upping Bucky's legendary '90 Holiday Bowl performance by 91 yards)....he also tied the TD passing record.

He threw two INTs, one of which was a bad one that was returned to our 28 and led to an easy TD but the other was on 4th down and was just as good, if not better, than one of our punt attempts.

Christine Michael ran for 77 yards on 15 carries including a TD while Cyrus Gray only had 3 carries. C-Mike is going to be a complete star.

Jeff Fuller led our receivers, tying the A&M bowl record, with 7 receptions for 102 yards. Howard Morrow finished his career with 5 for 65 including our final TD.

One thing that I think did hurt us offensively was the inability to run any play-action. Jerrod did a spectacular job of moving around to complete passes because Georgia's DL was visibly better than our offensive line and JJ had a ton of pressure on him. We didn't have enough time before their DL got through our OL to run any PA.

After the game we encountered the bus/shuttle melee and when we finally got back to the car at the mall we were starving. There was a Chili's right across the street so we headed there and after being told there was a 25 minute wait - we were seated in about 4 minutes. In hindsight they seated us so we wouldn't leave. It took over 50 minutes from when we ordered for our chicken tacos and chicken tenders to arrive at the table. After that we got back to the Georgia hotel and crashed.

I think it is safe to say that the city of Shreveport is not physically capable of handling thirty or forty thousand visitors.

Tuesday morning we loaded up early and headed back home. We celebrated as we crossed the state line.

My record >100 miles from CS       
      03 Nebraska          L -36
      04 Cotton Bowl       L -31
      06 Army              W +4
      06 Holiday Bowl      L -35
      07 Miami             L -17
      07 Nebraska          W +22
      08 New Mexico        W +6
      09 Arkansas          L -28
      09 Colorado          L -1
      09 Oklahoma          L -55
      09 Independence Bowl L -24

This game was my 81st overall Aggie game and my 17th game away from Kyle Field. Disregarding the games I've been to in Waco and Austin (in which we are 3-3) our record is 3-8 (victories '06 Army, '07 Nebraska, & '08 New Mexico) and only once in those 8 losses was it by less than the '07 Miami game's 17 point margin. Basically, we get crushed regularly when I travel.

I'd like to say it was a fun trip, and it was fun getting to screw around with my dad and brother, but there was a lot of suckage to go with it....I'd still do it again.

I'll try to get my season recap up soon and hopefully we'll have a new defensive coordinator (and possibly a new defensive staff) to discuss by then.

| Where are you?

Wednesday December 30th, 2009

10:28pm

texas tech Fires Mike Leach

Hands down the best news of the bowl season.

In quasi-related news, Aggie defensive coordinator, Joe Kines, has retired. I have no clue who will be taking his place and I'm sure it will be discussed at length at some point soon. I'll get more into this in my season recap.

Bowl trip and game recap will be coming soon.

| Where are you?

Saturday December 26th, 2009

10:52am

Ag Football Preview: Independence Bowl vs. Georgia

I have only been to the lovely city of Shreveport once before. My senior year my high school baseball team played in a tournament at Evangel Academy. I figured that since I was going to be on a bus for 14 hours that I'd be able to read my English assignment, Pride & Prejudice. Haha. The bus had a TV with a VCR and there were 20-something other teenagers....and we had Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber. I got through page 4 and picked up the Cliff Notes when we got back to Houston.

Beyond that my memories of Shreveport are pretty slim....I remember some of the shenanigans we played at the hotel, eating at a Cracker Barrel, and it being so dad-gum cold. It was so cold that my dad took the curtain from his hotel window to use as a blanket at one of the games. I also remember hitting a fly ball to right field that hit off the tippy-top of the fence - but where it hit was a white sign and I thought the ball got out of the field - I yelled "OH MY GOD!" as I hit first base because it would have been the first HR I hit in my life (of the non-inside-the-park variety)....instead I got a stand-up double and 3 RBIs. I believe this was the first documented event that was stamped with "Epic Fail".

Let's hope that we don't have that same disappointed feeling in the pit of our stomachs when we leave Shreveport this time.

Mark Richt

The 2009 Indepenence Bowl is a tale of two programs. The 2009 season has been one of ups and downs but mostly promise and a look towards the future for the Aggies but for Georgia it is an extreme disappointment for a squad that was a Top 15 team both pre-season and as late as week 4. The Independence Bowl is a long way from the 3 BCS games the Bulldogs have played in over the last 7 years....and it's a long way from Athens (675 miles = 11 hour drive).

The Dawgs had to try to overcome losing two first round draft picks at enormous positions, QB Matthew Stafford and RB Knowshon Moreno, which would be difficult for any team. They had to do that against one of the nation's most difficult schedule and the team's defense really slid which made a run at the SEC title even that much more difficult. Their 7-5 record is the most losses that they have had since 1996, which was the last year they did not make a bowl. Their schedule was brutal with OoC games against Oklahoma State, Arizona State & Georgia Tech to go with the regular rough SEC schedule (SC, Ark, LSU, Tenn, Vandy, Fla, Aub, Kty). You have to respect Mark Richt for scheduling a legitimately difficult non-conference schedule. Their final game was a against #7 Georgia Tech in Atlanta and they pulled off the rivalry upset, which is pretty impressive.

  UGA O                TAMU D
==========          ===========
157.1 (54)   RUSH   168.6 (87)
204.8 (78)   PASS   262.8 (111)
361.8 (73)    TOT   431.3 (107)
 27.7 (59)   SCOR    32.7 (104)

The Bulldog's offense is led by first year starting QB Joe Cox (#14, Sr) who is filling the big shoes of #1 overall NFL draft pick, Matthew Stafford. Cox has thrown for 2,426 yards at a 56.1% clip (averaging out at 202.2 ypg) to go with 22 TDs and 14 INTs.

Like us, the Dawgs have played around with their offensive line for the majority of this season and finally settled on a group of five with Cling Boling (#60) at LT, Cordy Glenn (#71) at LG, Ben Jones (#61) at C, Chris Davis (#63) at RG, and Josh Davis (#78) at RT. That five-some have made up the starting lineup for the last 5 games and they have averaged 226 yards rushing compared to only 108 yards rushing in the first 7 games.

        Att Yds  Avg TD Av/G
============================
Ealey.. 112 639  5.7  3 79.9
King...  98 534  5.4  5 59.3
Samuel.  88 395  4.5  2 35.9
Smith..  17 208 12.2  2 17.3

Coach Richt has split the carries of the guys running behind this line between Washaun Ealey (#24, Fr-H), Caleb King (#4, RSo), Richard Samuel (#22, So), with Ealey & King almost splitting all the carries equally over their last 4 or 5 games. Freshman 5* DB Branden Smith (#1) also picks up a carry or two per game, with big results (his lone start of the season was at RB against Florida). QB Joe Cox is not a running threat.

A.J. Green

A.J. Green (#8, So), at 6'4" 207 lbs, is one of the top wideouts in the country and he leads the Dawgs with 47 receptions (twice as many as Michael Moore, the second highest pass catcher), 6 TDs and an average of 83.4 ypg. No one else on the roster, including Moore, averaged more than 2 receptions per game. Moore was second on the squad with 5 TDs. Green is coming off of a separated shoulder injury that limited his snaps in the last 4 games but is expected to be fully healthy by the time the Dawgs roll into Louisiana.

Out of the backfield, King was the most prolific receiver with 9 receptions with Samuel having 6 and Ealey only 2.

  TAMU O            UGA D   
==========        ==========
190.4 (25)  RUSH  127.6 (40) 
274.9 (22)  PASS  200.8 (33)
465.3 (5)    TOT  328.4 (30) 
 33.9 (15)  SCOR   26.4 (70)    

This is one of the weaker Georgia defenses we've seen and as a result, Coach Richt let go three defensive coaches following their regular season finale - including defensive coordinator Willie Martinez, DE coach Jon Fabris, and LB coach John Jancek. For this game Coach Richt (who has an offensive background), their DL coach and two grad assistants are going to pick up the slack and run the defense.

 National Ranking - Scoring & Total Defense - Since 2000
---------------------------------------------------------
00TD 00SD   01TD 01SD   02TD 02SD   03TD 03SD   04TD 04SD
 19   12     49   17     15    4      4    3      8    9

05TD 05SD   06TD 06SD   07TD 07SD   08TD 08SC   09TD 09TD
 18    8      8   20     14   18     22   59     30   70  

It looks like the slide actually started last season but you can see that, clearly, the defense is not at typical Georgia standards....and that is good for us.

Rennie Curran

The defense is led by junior linebacker, Rennie Curran (#35) who was named 1st team All-SEC and has 122 tackles almost doubled the team's second leading tackler.

Their defensive line is stout with DT Geno Atkins (#56) who was named 2nd Team All-SEC and had 9.5 TFL and 27 QBHs. DE Juston Houston (#42) was also 2nd Team All-SEC and had 15 TFL and led the team with 7.5 sacks while DT Kade Weston (#91) was second on the team with 24 QBH. The strongest point for them is that they are so deep at DL and can rotate guys in and out which will match-up in their favor against our fast-paced offense (we are second in the nation in offensive plays run).

They will be playing without freshman DE Montez Robinson who was suspended from the team following his second arrest in a three day span at the beginning of the month. How on earth does that happen?

Drew Butler

The Georgia special teams is pretty solid. Prince Miller (#23) averages 11.9 yards per punt return and Brandon Boykin (#2) has already returned two KOs for TDs. Blair Walsh (#57) is 19-of-21 kicking field goals including 6-of-6 from 40-49 yards and 4-of-5 yards from beyond 50 - wow. That's not even the tops....Drew Butler (#13) was awarded the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter after he averaged 48.8 ypp on 50 attempts.

Something that you don't typically run into against bowl opponents are common opponents, but in the case of A&M and Georgia we have two common opponents, Arkansas and Oklahoma State. The Ags lost both contests - getting beat handily by Arkansas and losing a close one against oSu while Georgia was 1-1 just squeaking by Arkansas in a barn burner and losing to oSu.

COMMON OPPONENTS

        v. oSu     v. ARK                SEC RANKINGS
       aTm  UGA   aTm  UGA                 ARK  UGA
       ========   ========                ==========
RushO  109   95   113  155          RushO  10    9
PassO  273  162   345  375          PassO   1    7
 TotO  392  257   458  530           TotO   2    8
ScorO   31   10    19   52          ScorO   1    7
  3DC  44%  33%   39%  38%          

RushD  169  172   163   77          RushD   9    3
PassD  279  135   271  408          PassD  12   10
 TotD  448  307   434  485           TotD  12    7
ScorD   36   24    47   41          ScorD   9   10
  3DC  43%  40%   42%  21%

 T/O    +1   -3    +1   -2

NOTES:
-Both UGA games on the road; A&M played oSu at home and Ark at neutral site
-Dez Bryant had 2 TDs and 77 yards receiving on 3 catches v. UGA, he did not play against A&M

Just looking at the Arkansas/UGA rankings you can see that defensively they're about equal and offensively Arkansas is much better. How often do we win a turnover battle and lose, and then you see that UGA lost the TO battle in both games. They actually lost a lot of those battles, finishing 119th in the nation in TO margin (they recovered a total of two fumbles on the year).

Something else that I wanted to look at was the weather. I thought about our two worst games of the year and remembered that they were both pretty chilly evenings so I went back through and pulled Jerrod's numbers in "cold" games throughout his career (below 60 degrees).

JJ in cold weather games
        Temp W/L Cmp/Att Yds TD/INT
        ===========================
'08  BU  56   L   19/30  244   1/4
'09 KSU  49   L   21/45  314   2/3
'09  OU  54   L   12/33  115   1/1
'09  BU  59   W   19/25  153   2/1    
'09  tu  56   L   26/33  342   4/1

We've played 5 games where the temperature is below 60 degrees and we are 1-4 in those games and JJ has thrown TEN of his SIXTEEN career INTs in those 5 games. Right now the weather is looking pretty cold (high of 48) and partly cloudy. That doesn't bode well so we'll have to keep an eye on that. Tuesday there is a 40% chance of rain so lets hope that doesn't push through quicker than expected and arrive on Monday....and we're hoping that because I hate being cold and wet, not because of the effect it would have on the game.

This is the last year that the Independence Bowl has Big 12/SEC tie-ins. They are moving to an ACC/MWC matchup in 2010 and the Big 12 has picked up a replacement in the newly formed unnamed bowl to be played in the new Yankee Stadium in New York against a Big East opponent. Brrr.

I really hope that Coach Sherman is taking a different approach to the bowl game than Fran, who seemed to treat it as though it was a vacation - and the results clearly showed it (the Cotton Bowl v. Tennessee and the Holiday Bowl against Cal were the two worst bowl losses we had ever suffered). This program needs this win to continue to move forward and get itself back on track. Win this game and take the next step.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA GEORGIA! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Wednesday December 23rd, 2009

10:39pm

Ag Football Preview: Georgia Football History

I was really excited to be playing Georgia in this Independence Bowl. One of the things I do like about bowls is that it allows us to play teams that we normally wouldn't see on our schedule and I LOVE it when we play other traditional powers. I probably enjoy this more-so because I'm a sucker for sports history and I get to put together posts like this on other great programs. It might not make for a great bowl track record but I do enjoy playing big name schools in bowls.

That said, I would love for this match-up to ignite some sort of meeting of the minds to get a home-and-home scheduled between the two schools because seeing a game "Between the Hedges" is on my Sports Bucket list.

Georgia is one of the ten remaining charter members of the SEC, which was originally created as a 13 team league (and now, with the addition of Arkansas & South Carolina in 1991 and the deletion of some teams way back in the day, it is a 12 team league). The Bulldogs are a two time National Champion (1942 & 1980) and are the 11th most winning program in college football history and have a long and traditioned history that has spanned several head coaches. The one name that everyone will recognize is that of Pop Warner who started his coaching career at UGA way back in 1885. Another head coach had pretty strong ties to Texas A&M - Joel Hunt. Some of you might recognize the name as the man who held our school's single season rushing TD record (with 19) prior to Jorvorskie Lane breaking it in 2006. He was the head coach at Georgia in 1938 and led the team to a 5-4-1 that season.

Another coach that both schools are familiar with is Ol' Joe Kines. Kines was the defensive coordinator at Georgia from 1995 to 1998 and was the assistant head coach in 1999. This season marks his first trip back to the Independence Bowl since he was interim head coach at Alabama when he gave us this classic half-time interview.

Herschel

To be totally honest, the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of UGA is Herschel Walker. He is the face of the program for anyone under the age of 40. He is a fella that just might make the Dos XX's Most Interesting Man in the World raise his eyebrow. Walker....

• was his HS valedictorian....
• was known to only sleep four hours per night....
• started a crazy workout regimen at a very young age but didn't do any weight lifting....
• was a 3-time All-American....
• finished 3rd, 2nd, and 1st in Heisman balloting, respectively, in each of his three years at Georgia....
• finished with 5,259 career rushing yards (in only 3 years) - which was only 823 yards shy of the then NCAA record....
• left school after his junior year (which at the time was unheard of) for the New Jersey Generals (owned by Donald Trump) of the USFL for $5.2M....
• signed with the Dallas Cowboys when the USFL folded....
• was traded in 1989 to the Minnesota Vikings in one of the most bizarre trades in sports history....
• just barely missed making the US Olympic team as a sprinter ....
• so he turned around and competed in the 1992 Olympics in the 2-man bobsled (finishing 7th)....
• is a 6th degree black-belt in tae kwon do....
• at the age of 47, just signed on with MMA (mixed martial arts) and his first scheduled event in January 30th....
• was on Celebrity Apprentice (with Donald Trump) which is where Jennifer grew to like him....
• has multiple personality disorder....
• is known to be one of the world's few genuinely nice guys....

Someone needs to make a movie about this guy.

Frank Sinkwich

Walker, however, isn't the only great to have come through Athens. The Dawgs had two other legendary backs before Walker was even born....possibly before Walker's father was born. Frank Sinkwich was awarded the school's first Heisman trophy in 1942 after he led the Bulldogs to their first national championship and accumulated a NCAA single season record with 2,197 yards of total offense. The two time All-American finished his career with 2,271 rushing and 2,331 passing yards and 60 TDs (30 rushing and 30 passing). Charley Trippi followed up Sinkwich four years later with his Maxwell Award season as he led UGA to an undefeated season with a victory in the Sugar Bowl. After playing 1941 on the freshman squad Trippi actually played with Sinkwich in their national championship season of 1942 before he enlisted in the military and missed the '43-'44 seasons. In his three varsity seasons ('42 & '45-'46) the Bulldogs were 31-3. Interestingly, both Sinkwich and Trippi were from Pennsylvania.

More recently, David Pollack amazed college football fans with his play at defensive end in the first part of this decade. He finished his career with a school record 36 quarterback sacks and matched Herschel's feat as a three-time All-American (from '02-'04). He won the 2004 Bednarik Award, 2003 & 2004 Hendricks Award, 2004 Lombardi Award, and 2004 Lott Trophy. Beast.

Even more famous than any single player, is the school's aptly named English bulldog mascot, Uga (the U is from University and the GA is the abbreviation for Georgia). Unfortunately for Aggie fans, Uga VII passed away unexpectedly mid-season and the University has yet to find an Uga VIII. This leaves the incredibly creepy, Hairy Dog, costume mascot to roam the streets of Athens all alone.

Georgia is one of the schools that uses helmet stickers to mark achievements on their head gear. It started under Vince Dooley back in the '80s and has continued to this day. There are a couple of different stickers the players have. A white dog bone indicates an athletic achievement, like a sack or a TD. A black dog bone indicates an academic achievement - and I don't know how this is measured. This season there is an additional black sticker on each player's helmet that serves as a tribute to Uga VII. They have also added a baseball sticker with the initials CV on them as a show of support for Georgia baseball player Chance Veazey who was paralyzed in a traffic accident.

The Ags and Dawgs have matched up four times previously: 1950, 1953, 1954, and 1980....and we are 3-1 losing our last match-up against Herschel and the National Champion squad. In 1950 we matched up in the Presidential Cup, which was a bowl played in College Park, Maryland, and won 40-20. In 1953 we played them in Dallas when they were ranked #18 in the nation and pulled out the improbable 14-12 victory. In 1954 we won 6-0 in Athens in what was to be the Junction Boys only victory of Bear Bryant's first season....UGA didn't complete a pass until the 4th Q....we MISSED three field goals....Gene Stallings had the games lone TD.

Hopefully we can make it 4-1 on Monday! BTHO UGA!

| Where are you?

Saturday December 12th, 2009

2:22pm

Ags To Shreveport

It was announced officially last Sunday that the Ags will be playing Georgia in the Independence Bowl.

This is the bowl matchup that I was most excited about being possible after sitting down and looking at all of the realistic the options. Everyone has a handful of teams, beside THEIR school, that they root for....Georgia is one of mine (along with Nebraska, 'Bama, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame - pre-and-post Clausen).

Honestly, without looking at opponents, I'd rather us play in the Texas Bowl for a few reasons. I don't really think the prestige factor between the Texas Bowl and the Independence Bowl is much different....I live in Houston....and I've really tried hard, for years, to minimize the amount of time I've spent in the state of Louisiana.

The only way I was going to go to the Independence Bowl was is if we were matched up with Georgia. I kept hearing that Kentucky or Tennessee would go....and I would have watched it on ESPN2....after DVRing it. A 4pm Monday afternoon game is about the crummiest day and time we could have asked for....but it could have been worse....we could have been playing Kentucky.

It is, however, the only bowl played that day so even with the bad kickoff time, it will get some run nationally.

Even though I liked the conviencience of the Texas Bowl, I wasn't all that trilled with the possibility of a matchup against Navy in the Texas Bowl. First of all, I don't like that we would have to spend so much time focusing on stopping the triple-option, which is so different from anything we've seen so far in this era of the spread offense. Secondly, win or lose, I don't see how I could walk away from that game excited about next year. The risk-reward against Georgia is much higher. If we beat Navy, how many of you would be excited? If we lost to Navy....I don't even want to think about the meltdown. If we beat Georgia, even a down Georgia, that is HUGE for our program which needs a boost to keep us on the upswing. If we lose to Georgia, at least it was UGA. It gives us one more measuring point to where we need to get to. I can swallow that pill a heckuva lot easier.

One other thing about the Independence Bowl was how nice the ticket prices were. Can you imagine that the cheapest ticket of the season would be the $35 bowl ticket....that is until Bill Byrne got his hands on it and added a TWENTY DOLLAR processing fee to order through our Athletic Department. That's almost a 60% markup....for a fee. A fee. Torbush WOW!

I'm going to start working on a Georgia preview so watch for that in a a week or so.

| Where are you?

12:42pm

A Glimpse at the Heisman

The Heisman Award Ceremony is tonight and I tried to explain to Jennifer last night how crazy this year has been. I think she only heard "white guy from Stanford....Nebraska...." but there was a lot more in there.

Going into this teason the three highest vote getters from 2008 were returning, two of those guys already have one Heisman on their mantle (Tim Tebow in '07 & Sam Bradford in '08). I've been conviced the entire season that Cart McCoy of texas was going to win it because he got left out last year, he plays for texas, and he'll end up getting it as a sort of lifetime achievement award.

So Tebow, Bradford, and Cart are the three, and only, legitimate candidates back in August. Bradford plays about 30 snaps on the season after injuring and then re-injuring his shoulder. Tebow had a good season but it wasn't as good as either his sophomore or junior seasons. Cart has a very good year and his horns are going to be playing for the National Championship, although I thought he really hurt himself in the Big 12 Championship - as weak as the longhorns schedule was this year it doesn't help that his three worst performances were against the only three ranked teams he played (OU, oSu, and Nebraska - averaging fewer than 175 yards passing in those contests).

I'd also like to point out that the Heisman has gone to a QB 8 times in the last 9 seasons with mega-superstar Reggie Bush being the trend-bucker. Also, of those last 9 years, the winner has been slated to play in the National Championship ('02 Carson Palmer was the only one who didn't).

BUT....

We have had some crazy wildcards enter the mix starting with Alabama's sophomore RB, Mark Ingram, who like Cart has had a very good season and has led his traditional power program back to the National Championship.

The next candidate is the running back from Stanford (the white guy), Toby Gerhart, who I believe is the best offensive player in the country. Unrelated to the football field, but still making for a good story, is the fact that he is taking 18 hours this semester (in a real major), and plays for Stanford's legendary baseball team in the spring. I watched 3 or 4 of his games this year and was really impressed with his running....he runs so hard and so powerfully, it is just something we don't see anymore with all of these finesse spread offenses. He was the most consistant offensive player of the bunch and his biggest games of the year came in his final four games against USC, Oregon, Cal, and Notre Dame (13 TDs, 742 yards and an average of 6.4 ypc in those games) The biggest problem is that he plays for a 8-4 team at Stanford.

The third wildcard is the most interesting. Ndamukong Suh is a defensive tackle for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and is the best defensive player in the country - and in my opinion is the best overall player. He is the first defensive player to be invited to New York since 1997, when Charles Woodson was the first/only defensive player to win the award. Suh won every defensive award he was eligible for - the Outland Trophy (outstanding interior lineman), Lombardi Award (outstanding lineman - offensive or defensive), Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year), Nagurski Award (defensive player of the year) - and probably could have earned some consideration for the Thorpe Award - the most outstanding defensive back. ;)

Ninety-five percent of the country didn't even know his name until the Big 12 Championship game where he completely and wholly dominated Cart McCoy and the longhorn's powerful offense. He had 26 yards of tackles for a loss....only 10 yards fewer than the games leading rusher had.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one plays out. I think that Ingram will probably win it but I think the vote is going to come down to being one of the closest in history - particularly between the top 3 finishers....and I think the top three finishers will all be names we didn't know in August.

| Where are you?

Saturday December 5th, 2009

11:43am

Random Football-ness

A handful of the the All-Conference selections were released this past week, including the two more prestigious/reputable, the AP and the Coaches. We were fairly well represented.

              DMN   AP  Coaches
===============================
R.Epperson...  -     -    HM
J.Fuller.....  -    HM    HM
C.Gray.......  -     2    HM
L.Grimes.....  -     -     2
M.Hodges.....  -     -    HM
T.Hunter.....  -    HM     2
J.Johnson....  2     2     2
K.Matthews...  -     -    HM
J.McCoy TE...  2    HM    HM
J.McCoy FB...  -     -     2
C.Michael....  -     -     -
V.Miller.....  1     1     1
U.Nwachukwu..  -     -    HM
P.Lewis......  -     -    HM
J.Pugh.......  2    HM    HM
M.Shumard....  -    HM     -
R.Tannehill..  -     -    HM
G.Williams...  -     -    HM

Von Miller, clearly, is going to be the most decorated defensive player we've had since Dat. He has also been named a finalist for the Hendricks DE of the Year Award, which will be announced next Wednesday (12/9)

Christine Michael was named the Offensive Freshman of the Year by both the DMN and the Coaches, which was the first award handed out to an Aggie since Misi Tupe was named Defensive Newcomer of the Year back in '06.

Cyrus was named AP 2nd team as an "All-Purpose" and was voted by the coaches as honorable mention both as a RB and as a KR/PR. What I don't understand is how Cyrus is named honorable mention and Michael was not even though their numbers are very similar -- BUT C-Mike's are better.

I thought it was interesting to see Jamie McCoy get named as both a FB and as a TE.

The one selection that really had me scratching my head was the coaches selecting Ryan Epperson as an honorable mention. I'm excited for Epperson that he was recognized - but I don't see how. He only played in 5 games, averaged 34.8 ypp and had a long of 45 yards. Looking at the Big 12 rankings the 11th ranked punter in the conference averaged 38.6 ypp (almost 4 yards more). The only thing I can think is that a coach or two confused his name with his brother's (Derek, who was named 1st team punter out of Baylor).

Somewhat unrelated, I also can't see how Mack Brown is named the Coach of the Year by everyone when Bo Pelini has done what he has done (without a QB).

Last night I stayed up late and watched one of my birthday gifts, The Burning Desire, which is the documentary that the athletic department has just released on the '99 Bonfire collapse and the events that surrounded it. The documentary was good but what I was really itching for was the full version video of the game, which I have been in search of for years. That was the first A&M football game that I ever watched because the week before I made my decision on where I was going to go to school.

Re-watching the game I am amazed at how much the game of college football has changed in 10 years with the mass use recently of the spread offenses and the changes in the way the game is officiated. Today if you hear Dave South say "jumbo package in the backfield" you think we're on the goal line but just 10 years ago that was almost a base package for us.

I also realize how much the use of instant replay has changed the game - for the better. The officials still might not be making the all the correct calls but at least there is a chance for it to be corrected.

A few other things I mentally noted....

• I also forgot about the good, old Halo-rule on punt returns. I do think that the current rule is much better.
• Penalties were called much differently - both roughing the passer and hits out of bounds.
• We were 55-4-1 at Kyle Field in the 1990s. Wow.
• Mack Brown has really aged
• Man I miss our special teams play - Michael Jameson and Jay Brooks were beasts on punt and kick blocking and Lechler was a master
• Ja'Mar Toombs was soooo fun to watch - he ran with such passion and emotion. (ran for 126 yards and 2 TDs)

It was a heckuva football game against a Top 5 team

Tonight texas squares off against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship. If Nebraska can upset the horns they will pick up the Big 12's automatic BCS bid and will turn texas into an at-large bid -- which moves all the other Big 12 schools up a slot on the bowl pyramid. Right now, all the rumors I'm reading seem to point to us matching up against Georgia in the Independence Bowl but if Nebraska wins I'm sure the Alamo Bowl would love to bring us to San Antonio to fill up the Alamodome. The Texas Bowl against Navy is still a possibility if texas wins but I don't the Independence Bowl would pass up an A&M/UGA match-up.

| Where are you?

Saturday November 25th, 2009

4:49pm

Ag Football Recap: horns Able to Hold Off Scare From Ags, 49-39

That was a helluva football game. The final result crushed me but damn, I was proud of our players. Every time that texas punched, we punched right back. It was a game of emotions - ups and downs.

The 49-39 score provided the highest scoring game in the Lonestar Showdown's history and, honestly, it was the most exciting game since I started school. The 2006 game was incredible but it didn't feature the back-and-forth excitement that this year's game did. The first 5 minutes were absolutely E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C. On 3rd & 9 JJ hit Fuller for a 70 TD pass and then on texas's first drive they faked a punt and we stuffed them just short of the 1st down marker.

We did discover how to suck the air out of 86,000 psyched fans. You battle back from a 14 point deficit against the #3 team in the country, who just so happen to be your arch-rival, and get the game to within 3 points.....and then give up a 95-yard KO return for a TD on the ensuing kick-off.

My keys to victory were winning the turnover battle (lost 2-1; each resulted in a TD), eliminating special teams miscues (gave up a KO return TD, had a punt blocked), keeping Jordan Shipley in-check (check), and establishing the running game (check). We were 2-of-4.

One key that I really wanted to put in there but was trying to keep it to 3 keys (and I stretched it to 4) was keeping Cart from scrambling - which I did mention during my CU game recap. Cart had a career high, something our defense is great at, rushing with 175 yards and a TD on the ground to go with his 304 yards passing (and 4 TDs).

We did keep Jordan Shipley somewhat in check with only 8 receptions for 88 yards but he did have two short TDs. He also fumbled his only punt return. Malcolm Williams was a beast hauling in 9 receptions for 132 yards. That was about it for the horns. It was a three man show.

One of the biggest events of the game, and one that very few are talking about, was texas's final possession of the first half. We scored to tie the game at 21 and left them with 1:11 on the clock and they started at their won 36 yard line. Cart got them down the field and into the end zone on 7 plays to give them a 7 point lead with 5 seconds remaining. It was perfect execution and it was enormous for the horns.

We had some great performances on the offensive side of the ball.

Jerrod Johnson was INCREDIBLE. It was, hands-down, the best performance of his career. He was 26-for-33 for 342 yards and had four TDs....and then he ran for a career high 97 yards.

Christine Michael added 88 yards and a spectacular TD on the ground as we ran over texas's #1 rush defense to the tune of 190 yards - a season high by over 50 yards.

Jeff Fuller was great as well hauling in 6 catches for 132 yards and 3 TDs. It was the first time since breaking his leg that he looked like Jeff Fuller.

Howard Morrow only had two catches in his final game at Kyle Field but they were both spectacular - his diving TD catch to tie the game up at 21 just before half-time and a monster catch where he somehow kept his tippy-tippy toe in bounds as he stretched for the catch.

The 342 yards given up through the air was the second most against their defense this year - so logically the FIVE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO yards of total offense was the most against them this season (as was the 39 points).

Jerrod's 4 TD passes put him at 51 for his career which broke Kevin Murray's school record for a career (in 154 fewer pass attempts). His 5th 300 yard performance of the season (7th of his career, both school records) made him the first QB to throw for 3,000 yards in a season. Also, his 439 yards of total offense was the 3rd best in school history.

This was a great stage for all three of our top play makers (JJ, C-Mike, & Fuller) for next season and all the award banquets, etc. They all showed their game and people sat up and watched.

One of the reasons we were able to explode offensively was because the OLine played great football.

The special teams play was atrocious, as it has been for the majority of the season. We missed a 23 yard field goal that would have put us within one score with over 3 minutes left - instead we missed the FG and texas ran out the clock. We also gave up, what was really, the game changing play with the 95 yard kickoff return. We also averaged a mighty 32.8 ypp on four punts - and yeah, one was blocked. Ryan Swope looked very good at KO Return but other than that....eh. I expect there to be a change in the special teams this off-season.

Overall, I think we can walk away from the game feeling good about the future.

We're going to have to wait another week to find out where we're heading for our bowl. OU stomped oSu so the Cowboys have almost no chance at a BCS bid now, leaving us with a likely one team in the BCS (barring a Nebraska win over texas in the B12 Championship). There are rumors that the Alamo Bowl wanted us but I don't see how that is possible without two teams in the BCS. I've also read that both the Independence Bowl and the Texas Bowl want us.

Wherever we go we need to win. A winning final season record is huge.

The Texas Bowl already has Navy locked in and right now it's kind of looking like Georgia or Kentucky in Shreveport. I'd love to play Georgia but I have little interest driving to Louisiana for a 4pm Monday afternoon bowl game. It doesn't do much good to speculate until after next Saturday - but those are the two most likely scenarios. If nothing else it gives you a little extra interest in the Army/Navy game next weekend to start scouting them out.

| Where are you?

Wednesday November 25th, 2009

12:01am

Ag Football Preview: #3 texas

I have longhorn friends who have already booked their trip to Pasedena for the Rose Bowl and I would like nothing more than to make them show up wearing purple and rooting for TCU against Florida/Alabama.

The Lonestar Showdown has become a little more exciting over the last few years as we have won 2 of the last 3 but clearly this game has much more than state bragging rights on the line. The only folks who will be rooting for us will be wearing maroon or purple (and probably crimson & cream). The conference wants texas to win for $$$$, the media wants texas to win because they're a bigger story....it is going to be a us against the world type event.

   tu O               TAMU D
==========          ==========
152.2 (55)   RUSH   157.3 (76)
286.2 (13)   PASS   259.0 (110)
438.4 (17)    TOT   416.3 (100)
 42.5 (2)    SCOR    31.2 (99)

Cart McCoy makes his first trip back to Kyle Field since he "showed us tough" in our victory in Fran's going away party. He's going to win the Heisman this year, which I've been telling my dad since before the season started. Before the season I didn't think that the media would want let Tebow or Bradford repeat if the three came down neck-and-neck again when Cart didn't have one. Bradford took about 30 snaps this year & Tebow is having a good season, but it isn't as good as either of his two previous seasons so he's not going to win it on a "down" season. Reggie Bush is the only non-QB to win the award this decade so the odds on Alabama's Mark Ingram or even Stanford's looooongshot Toby Gerhart winning are pretty slim considering neither is the hands-down most exciting player in the game. It isn't going to go to someone from non-BCS conference (Sorry Case Keenum). That leaves Cart.

Yeah, this guy
(every year a goofier picture comes out of him)

In case you hadn't heard, Cart is roommates with Jordan Shipley. They throw footballs on boats. Cart is a rescue hero. I heard that he might be able to heal brain cancer, but that might just be a rumor.

One big difference from this year's longhorn team and last year's is that Cart isn't needed to run as much (he led the team rushing in '08).

            Att Yds YPC TD  YPG
===============================
T.Newton.... 67 370 5.5  5 33.6
C.Johnson... 82 331 4.0 12 30.1
V.McGee..... 56 300 5.4  2 33.3
F.Whittaker. 49 197 4.0  4 24.6

I don't think that, individually, they're as good as C-Mike or Cyrus but as a foursome they're legit.

The passing game starts and ends with Jordan Shipley (Stephen McGee's high school teammate; NINETY ONE receptions for 1,204 yards and 9 TDs). I cannot wait until he finally uses up his dozen years of eligibility. He scares the crap out of me. He can stretch the field or run crossing routes underneath and just streak across and through the defense. He should win the Heisman over Cart.

Malcom Williams also scares me simply because he is a genetic freak. He's 6'4", 225 lbs and runs like a track star.

  TAMU O             tu D                  2008   
==========        ==========           ===========
190.5 (25)  RUSH   50.1 (1)             83.0 (4)  
268.8 (24)  PASS  188.6 (22)           266.0 (110)
459.3 (7)    TOT  238.7 (3)            349.0 (58)
 33.5 (17)  SCOR   13.3 (7)             19.5 (25)

The defense is the real star of this team....and is the difference in this year's team from last year's. They were 110th in pass defense going into this game last season.

Coach "Bam MF" is doing what he is supposed to do in taking Mack's recruiting talent and turning them into a good defense. This is the best pass defense the horns have had in years, particularly due to sophomore Earl Thomas who is one of the top corners in the country and has 7 INTs already this season.

The other names you should watch for on this side of the ball are Roddrick Muckelroy (leads team in tackles), Blake Gideon, the Acho brothers, and Sergio "Drove into a building while 'text-messaging' at 3am" Kindle who leads the team in QB hits (but only 3 sacks).

Going into the game, as a fan, you have to expect to overcome 14 points on special teams.....they're going to block a punt, Shipley is going to have some monster return....whatever. Our special teams is horrific and theirs is spectacular.

We are a 21.5 point dog in this game and my head tells me, "Ryan, we're going to get crushed" but my heart tells me, "Ryan, we can beat these guys IF...."

I hate the "IF" game. But I can't get away from it.

One thing playing in our favor is that the game is at Kyle Field and we have played MUCH better at home than on the road. Our margin of victory at home is +22.5 while on the road it is, and I'm not sure I'd call it a margin of "victory", -22.0. The other two things that I like to see is that we've won two of the last three against the sips and we've won eight of the last twelve at Kyle Field. It isn't much but part of me still hasn't figured out our team. I know that if we put together a complete game we can play with just about anybody (see tech & oSu) but if we don't we certainly can stink it up against anybody.

The four keys for the game will be keeping:

1. Win turnover battle
2. Eliminate special teams miscues - these are crushing
3. Keep Jordan Shipley in check
4. Establish a run game

Those are HAVE TOs.

I want this win soooo badly. Not only would it knock texas out of the national championship picture but it would impact our bowl status quite a bit, particularly with the rest of the Big 12 having an ehh season.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA t.u.! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Sunday November 22nd, 2009

1:29am

Ag Football Preview: Ags Pummel Lowly Baylor, 38-3

Pshew. That was a big one. Our boys are going bowling, which is something that cannot be overlooked. I don't really care which one we go to, it's the extra practice that this young team can use and the chance to pick up another victory.

Before the game Sean and I met up at Wings-N-More for some lunch before heading up to campus to meet the great Ray Childress, who was one of my favorite Oilers growing up. After that we went by the Bonfire Memorial before making it back to Kyle Field just before kick-off.

We won the game easily but we still didn't play all that well. We had 138 yards of sloppy penalties and the offense stalled out way more often than it should have (we had more offense yards on our first 4 possessions than we did on our final eight).

There were two big momentum shifts in the game. The first was when Terrence Fredricks intercepted a horrifically thrown WR reverse/pass (he threw it from the right sideline and tried to hit his target in the back left corner of the endzone). We got the ball at our one yard line and on the second snap Christian Michael took it to the house on a 97 yard TD run, the longest play from scrimmage in school history.

The second was an interception by Jordan Pugh that he ran back to the 4 yard line - however - there was a flag on the play and the ball was spotted somewhere near the 30 and a couple of plays later we fumbled it. That was a big loss for us because we should have had another TD and the game should have been 28-3 at the half and the nail would already be in the coffin.

I thought the officials were horrific. We were penalized for 138 yards but Baylor was also flagged for 100 yards. I really think that the Big 12 officials this season, across the board, have been really terrible (and inconsistent) on roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness calls - both are huge penalties that literally alter drives.

The offense put up numbers on the ground, a season record 375 yards, averaging 7.2 ypc. Christine Michael had 116 with 2 TDs, Cyrus Gray had 107, and JJ added 83 yards and a TD. JJ looked great running the ball when things broke down. Bradley Stephens got some carries late in the game and, man, Bradley Stephens runs hard. I love the guy's hustle. He looks like he is going to break a 70 yard run on every snap.

JJ only threw for 153 yards but we weren't throwing the ball very much at all (a season low 25 pass attempts). He set the school record in single season passing yardage with 2,875. He also threw for 2 more TDs putting him at 24 (school record) for the season and 47 for his career, now one shy of the school record.

I thought the defense played well. We held the Bears to under 300 yards of offense and a lone first quarter FG. We also picked off 3 passes - two inside the redzone.

I've meant to say something in the last couple of weeks so here it is.....Jordan Pugh has been playing spectacular defense. I have been very impressed with his coverage and pass deflecting as well as his ability to cover ground from his saftey position, particularly on screens where he is having to shed a block to make a tackle.

It was the second consecutive game where Von didn't register a sack. I think he might be playing a little recklessly, having picked up of huge penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct, unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer....I don't mind a guy being aggressive but it seems to me that the flags thrown on him are all legit. His unsportsman-like penalty was after a play where he was jawing with the official and must have said the magic word -- Sherman chewed him up and down for about 35 yards down the sideline and I didn't see him step foot on the field the rest of the game.

Long story short....it was a huge win to really put it on Baylor, winning by 5 TDs, and to get us bowl eligible....but if we play that sloppy against texas we're going to get waxed.

Gotta love having two games in a 5 day span. WHOOP!

(photo by RandomAg09 on TexAgs.com)

| Where are you?

Friday November 20th, 2009

10:34pm

Ag Football Preview: Lowly Baylor

See Ya Next Year

This was supposed to be the year. Baylor was supposed to break loose and become the most hyped 6 win team in the history of college football. They beat Wake Forest on the road to start the season but then lost to UConn at home before throttling Northwestern State (who?) at home.

That game against NWS was the beginning of the end and their savior, QB Robert Griffin, tore his ACL and was forced to miss the remainder of the season. They were able to muster a victory over Kent State before starting Big 12 play and per their normal fate they have stunk it up. They shocked the conference when they somehow beat Mizzou in Columbia two weekends ago but the rest of the Big 12 has been unkind to the Bears (they are 1-5 in Big 12 play).

   BU O               TAMU D
==========          ==========
102.1 (106)  RUSH   164.8 (85)
245.5 (37)   PASS   263.4 (112)
347.6 (81)    TOT   428.2 (104)
 23.3 (90)   SCOR    34.0 (108)

Other than their 40 point output in Columbia, the Bears have yet to score more than twice in a Big 12 game. Losing Griffin was a crushing blow to Coach Briles. Nick Florence has had to step in and has thrown for 1609 yards on 144-of-235 passing (61.3%) with 6 TDs to 7 INTs. His top targets are Kendall Wright (57 receptions/654 yds/4 TDs) and David Gettis (44/576/3).

The run game, is terrible, but it lets everyone participate. Six players have more than 20 carries but Jay Finely (53 carries/274 yds/5.2 ypc/1 TD), Jarred Salubi (45/260/5.8/2), and Terrance Ganaway (61/174/2.9/5) lead the team....but watch out for Kendall Wright on the reverse (he has 24 carries for 123 yards and a TD).

  TAMU O             BU D       
==========        ==========     
172.0 (42)  RUSH  167.0 (89)     
280.4 (17)  PASS  230.0 (75)     
452.4 (8)    TOT  397.0 (86)     
 33.0 (20)  SCOR   26.9 (79)

This is a defense that we should be able to put big yards up on. They are led by LBer Joe Pawelek and S Jordan Lake. Beyond them there isn't much to talk about.

This is a game that we should win going away but I still go into it with some reservation because we have laid some big eggs. This is also, in my opinion, a game that Sherman HAS to win. We got waxed in Waco last season and a revenge victory would be nice. The Bears haven't won in Kyle Field since 1984 and this win would put us in a bowl game. I don't even care which bowl game, I just want to go to a bowl so we can have an extra month of practice and we can see some improvement from 2008. If we lose to Baylor, we aren't improving.

BTHO BU! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Thursday November 19th, 2009

9:59pm

Ag Football Recap: Ags Go Backwards, OU Romps, 65-10

Owen Field at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium

Michael and I showed up at Owen Field at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday night but we were disappointed that the football team didn't.

I really thought we were past embarrassments like this. We saw it against KSU but then turned around and shocked texas tech and soundly beat ISU and it made us all think that KSU was a fluke. Then it struck again. This 55 point loss was largest margin of victory against us since that 2003 OU game. I want to stop getting embarrassed.

This was my view for most of the evening as my head was in my hands.

Heading up to Norman I had checked the weather and each of the three days leading up to the game Weather.com gave me a different high temp ranging from 74, to 66, to 54. It was really, really cold. Michael's iPhone said it was 54 but that was the coldest 54 I've ever experienced. We even stopped by Academy and I picked up a pair of gloves and a set of thermals....and I was still shivering.

It wasn't my first time in Norman, but we had just stopped for dinner before (when Sean and I were driving to Lincoln). Let me just tell you this....every year I always hear fans complain, "How can A&M compete for recruits when the kids go visit Austin and Baton Rouge....College Station can't compare." They haven't been to Norman. Clearly, winning brings recruits.

The first thing we did was grab a bite to eat. At first we tried to go eat at The Diner but they close at 2pm (yeah, even on game day) and we showed up just right at 2pm. From there we set out in search of The Mont, which was really good....we sat outside so it was cold....but good. From there we went to Academy and then back towards the stadium to find a place to park.

Oklahoma's Heisman Park

The only thing I had on my list of things to see was Oklahoma's Heisman Park. There are very few schools that could have a park filled with larger than life Heisman winners. And Sam Bradford wasn't even out there yet.

We wandered into the stadium to find our seats at the tippy, tippy top of the endzone. There was one row above us.

Overall, this game is winnable but we're going to have to stop the run on defense and get it going on offense and not turn the ball over. We can't afford to give up scoring opportunities against a defense that is so stout.
- Me in my OU Preview

• We gave up 248 yards rushing (and another 143 yards and 2 TDs receiving to DeMarco Murray)
• We ran for 59 yards
• Turned the ball over FOUR times (1 INT and 3 fumbles) that led directly to 28 OU points

I learned from the CU game to take my picture before the game

The game started off pretty badly with Christine Michaels fumbling on our second or third snap (although it became clear in the days following that C-Mike's face mask was grabbed without a flag. The fumble was returned for a TD and before we even got settled in our bleacher seat we're down 7-0. We got down 14-0 before battling back to 14-10. I really thought, hey this team is responding....haha. Before we knew it the score was 28-10 then 35-10 then 42-10....and thankfully the half came and the Fightin' Texas Aggie band got to take the field.

OU's defense swallowed us up. Our only TD drive came on an interception that we returned inside the 10. Their DL manhandled our OL and Jerrod was running for his life.

The offense was bad enough that we punted NINE times but for an average of only 33.3 ypp with a LONG of 40 yards. Eww.

On defense we got smoked. We gave up 640 yards. Landry Jones had a career day throwing for 392 yards and 5 TDs and DeMarco Murray lit us up rushing for 80 yards and a TD while receiving another 143 yards and 2 more TDs. 3rd string RB, Jermie Calhoun, led the team with 94 yards rushing.

I don't think that the team quit....just watch Trent Hunter flying down the field trying to catch DeMarco Murray on a breakaway in the 3rd Q. We just completely unravel when things start going bad.

And why the heck aren't we throwing the ball to EZ? The guy has 5 catches in our last three games....after averaging 3.6 receptions in each previous game.

We also got to see Ryan Tannehill under center for his first real drive of the season late in the 4th quarter. He moved the ball down the field on 3-of-7 passing for 56 yards but once we got into a 1st & 10 at the 11 yard line.....well, we ended up missing a FORTY EIGHT yard FG on that drive.

As if the game itself wasn't bad enough we got a visit during the fourth quarter. The OU band marched themselves up the steps....all the way to row 82 and hung out for a while playing that most annoying song ever...."Boomer Sooner". Over. And over. And over again. The view of my boots was more enjoyable than that.

After the game we headed back to the car and decided, that since we didn't have hotel, that we'd start the drive back towards Texas and just stop when we got tired. We didn't get very far....but we cut the Sunday drive down by about 40 minutes.

Had a great time but I do wish the football team would stop crushing me.

| Where are you?

Wednesday November 18th, 2009

12:09am

Bonfire

In Remembrance

November 18, 1999
2:42 am

Early morning on November 18th marks the the date that Texas A&M suffered it's most tragic event. Ten years ago the Bonfire stack collapsed with approximately 70 students on it and with many more inside the perimeter of the Bonfire area. Twelve students lost their lives that night or in the following days due to injuries sustained.

I cannot believe it has been 10 years. The students who lost their lives should be approaching or in their thirties now.

I was a senior in high school that fall, and I had A&M on my short list but that event and the outpouring that followed it sealed the deal. Texas A&M was the school that I wanted to be a part of...or more so, I wanted to be a part of me.

It not only changed the lives of those directly involved but it changed the course of my life. There was no other option - if I didn't get into A&M....well, I didn't let that happen.

The following fall I was very upset that there was to be no Bonfire, but I kept hope that the following year I would be able to experience, what I believe to be, Texas A&M's finest and most important tradition.

I remember going out to the Polo Grounds in the freezing rain at 2:00am with all of my friends to participate in the Memorial Ceremonies. I remember seeing Reveille VI being carried by her handler out to the location of the tragic event because all of the grass had been worn away to mud after thousands of students had walked over it in the rain on their way to remember the fallen Aggies of a year ago.

This was one of my first experiences with the true Aggie family. I remember people embracing others, comforting strangers who could not keep all of the emotions inside of them. I say stranger, but there were no strangers....everyone out there that night was part of a 44,000 person family in mourning.

People shared umbrellas as the rain kept coming down, which was very fitting in describing the mood and feelings that went through the crowd. I remember that I could not see what was actually going on with the actual ceremony because there were too many people in front of me and I was so far back. I remember people passing flames from candle to candle....thousands of little lights across the Polo Grounds. I remember hearing the beginning of "Amazing Grace" being hummed softly, and hearing it grow louder and louder....and I remember not being able to control my emotions any more and hugging the person next to me.

That night, I learned what it meant to be an Aggie, and I knew then and there that I had missed something very special. I know that if there was a Bonfire stack being built, I would have been on it in a heartbeat.

I was not given the opportunity to participate in Bonfire the following year, and I don't think any future Ag will with the consent of the school. Since I arrived here on campus in the Fall of 2000, I have seen the true spirit of this great University slip away year-by-year, as the unity brought to our campus by Bonfire slips further and further away with each graduating class. Even though I never saw Bonfire burn, and never took part in building it, I will always remember that night out in the cold rain my freshman year.

This year there will be many news stories and newspaper articles debating as to whether or not Bonfire should be brought back to campus. I just ask that you take this time to set all of that aside and keep the twelve fallen Aggies in your thoughts today and do not ever forget about them or their love for their school....

• Christopher David Breen '96
• Jeremy Richard Frampton '99
• Jamie Lynn Hand '03
• Christopher Lee Heard '03
• Lucas John Kimmel '03
• Bryan Allen McClain '02
• Chad Anthony Powell '03
• Jerry Don Self '01
• Nathan Scott West '02
• Michael Stephen Ebanks '03
• Miranda Denise Adams '02
• Timothy Doran Kerlee, Jr. '03

If you do want something to read, go out and pick up a copy of this month's Texas Monthly. It has an article on Bonfire told by those who built it, loved it, and were there when it fell. I read it on the way home from the Colorado game and it brought tears to my eyes thousands of feet in the air.

The Bonfire Memorial has been erected and was dedicated in 2004. During the dedication Chip Theil, who was injured in the collapse, gave a speech that brought tears to the eyes of even those who had never experienced Bonfire.

Five years ago I stood on top of the world perched atop 4th stack with 3 dear friends of mine watching Aggies build what is one of our greatest traditions. Suddenly, in some unforeseeable twist of fate, my life changed, the life of every Aggie that came before and after me changed. Texas A&M changed.

As a natural result Texas A&M has to adapt to a life without bonfire on campus. As we celebrate the memories of 12 Aggies whose lives were cut short as they willingly participated in this university's greatest tradition, I would like to reflect on the contagious spirit of a tradition left behind.

My favorite time of year comes in the fall, when the northern air arrives to push the humidity down to a reasonable level, to turn leaves brown, and to remind me and Ags everywhere that it is bonfire weather.

Many current students do not know the meaning bonfire weather and many former students have let the memory fade. Bonfire weather is the time of year when Aggies unselfishly sacrifice time, grades, and everything in between to cut, load, transport, unload, and stack a forest full of trees to create the largest bonfire in the world.

It was bigger than necessary and defied reason and possibility, but we would not have it any other way. While it would have been more efficient to use modern technologies and equipment, we chose to do it as it was done for 90 years; with sweat, blisters, grunts, groans, teamwork, axes, machetes, ropes, chains, wire, over-sized nails, pliers, steel toed boots, carhartt jackets, generous donations, left handed sky hooks, FFE semis, muddy pick-ups, muffler less tractors, scarecrows, and perimeter pole fires.

Then just before the fightin Texas Aggie football team squared off against the ladies from Austin, we burned it in an arrogantly flamboyant ceremony that said, "We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we." While 10s of 1000's gathered annually to witness the big fire, the cadets, non-regs, O.C. hogs, brownpots, yellowpots, butt-pots, crew chiefs, centerpolepots, pink pots, redpots, bonfire buddies, blacks, women, asians, men, whites, latinos, and randoms who had invested 1000's of hours of sweat equity in that stack of wood knew that the only reason we burned it was to clear the Polo Fields so that we could do it all over again next year.

I would now like to take you back to a day prior to Nov 18, 1999 to enjoy what many Ags enjoyed...a common day at bonfire. Not to diminish the memories of the fallen, but to burn into your memory why they were here that night. If you would like, go ahead and close your eyes and take a nostalgic journey back to the good ol days.

As you make your way to the polo fields, first you hear it. It's dark outside and you are walking across a sleeping and studying campus. Steel toe boots clunking along the sidewalk. A chain jingles at your side that is taped to your pliers. Your pot rattles a little. The first sounds from the field emerge as the buzz of chainsaws, tractor engines, and then some faint music. A nearly worn out Jerry Jeff tape moans out "desperadoes waiting for a train..." Then you can hear the shouts and your pace quickens. "1-2 halfway up, I need a log right here, gimmie some wire, I want my chain back, headache!, I need a heave." all mixed with the proper expletives.

Then you can see it. A home made flag waves atop an oppressive hulk of a structure lit by old beat up gas lights atop leaning perimeter poles. A chill of Aggie pride runs down your spine. A mass of people are there; some working, some watching. A huge crane lifts another log and swings it gently into place.

Then you can smell it. Smoke from perimeter fires, mud or dust depending on the year, chainsaw mix, cigar smoke, stale coffee, non-reg's grodes, sawdust and fresh cut hardwood.

Then you can taste it. You flick a dead bee off an old donut and wash it down with coffee that tastes like it was made last week. On your way to the stack, you put in a dip of Copenhagen...no less than a third of the can.

Finally you can feel it. A chilly north wind, oaky bark, cold wire, metal pliers, a 2x8 for a seat in a swing on third stack, perimeter ropes nearby. You survey your quadrant and agree with your ground man where you need to concentrate. You spy a penny nail a few logs in. You get it and stick it through the hole in the sleeve of your jacket so you can use it later. Then you shout with all of your might I NEED SOME WIRE AND A LOG UP HERE RIGHT NOW!!! Again sprinkled with expletives.

At the end of the shift, the sun is peeking up over the oak trees. You work your way down the stack. Your voice is spent. You walk back to the dorm joking with your friends...probably your friends for years to come. All of you tired, but proud to be Aggies and united by the fire.

That is the Bonfire I knew, that is the Bonfire I miss.

God Bless America and the Soldiers that defend her.

Gig 'em Chip Thiel '00

Bonfire Links of Interest

1999 Aggie Bonfire

Bonfire memorial video (DL)

Bonfire Memorial Site

StudentBonfire.com

Tim Kerlee's Story

Pictures

Click THIS LINK to see the archive I'm putting together for pictures that I have come across of past Bonfires. I've got lots more I just haven't had the time to put in.

|

Friday November 13th, 2009

I'm following our Ags on the road again this weekend making the drive up to Norman with my friend, Michael. We're leaving at the crack of dawn on Saturday, going through College Station to pick up the tickets from my brother (who was my original partner but got stuck with a monster exam on Monday), plan on eating lunch somewhere between here and there, and getting to Norman a couple of hours before kickoff.

Fortunately for the players they get to fly up.

This year's Sooner squad has the same overall record as our Ags, at 5-4, but are one game ahead in the Big 12 standings (at 3-2 v. our 2-3).

This is a team that started the season ranked as the consensus #3 team in all the land but has suffered ENORMOUS losses due to injury. They lost reigning Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, to a shoulder separation in their season opening loss to BYU....and got him back for the Red River Shootout....only to lose him again mid-game to the exact same injury. They also lost All-American TE, Jermaine Gresham, their top returning pass catcher, just before the season started with torn cartilage in his right knee. Recently, as in the last 7-10 days, the Sooners have been hit hard again with OL Jarvis Jones (broken heel), OL Brody Eldridge (neck), DE Auston English (tendon in foot) all going on the shelf for the remainder of the season. Then on Wednesday it came out that OL Tavaris Jeffries might miss this weekend's game with a bruised shoulder. That would mean that OU would have lost 3 starting OLmen in a week's time.

And the Vegas line is still OU -20.

What? Are we that bad?

The answer is quite simple. The Sooners are playing at home. Owen Field at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is like an invincible force-field. Since Bob Stoops took over the program in 1999 the Land Thieves have compiled a 64-2 record at home. Yeah, two home losses in 11 years. That is a winning percentage of .970.

[just FYI the two losses were '01 oSu (20-10) and '05 TCU (17-10)].

Our last victory in Norman was in 1997 when we won 51-7. Under Stoops the Sooners have lost 4 games twice before this season, in 1995 (when they literally used a WR at QB) and in Stoops' debut of 1999 when they lost 5.

Wow, looking back at all those season records I just realized that 1999 (Independence Bowl), 2001 (Cotton Bowl), and 2005 (Holiday Bowl) are the only seasons that Stoops hasn't played in a BCS game. That's amazing.

They've played in more BCS bowl games than we've played in any bowl games. That is not amazing.

   OU O               TAMU D
==========          ==========
139.1 (69)   RUSH   155.6 (75)
273.8 (23)   PASS   249.1 (98)
412.9 (32)    TOT   404.7 (95)
 29.8 (39)   SCOR    30.6 (98)

With the fall of Sam Bradford the Sooners have turned to RS-F Landry Jones who has been solid (particularly as a freshman) but is certainly no Bradford. Jones has thrown for 1,902 yards on 58.9% passing with 17 TDs to 11 INT and an average of 211.3 ypg. He is not a runner with only 31 yards gained on the season (with a net of -32). The strong suit of the OU offense is their running game with Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray. They are almost identical statistically.

          Att Yds Avg TD  YPG
=============================
C.Brown.. 132 560 4.2  5 62.2
D.Murray. 113 512 4.5  5 64.0

The only difference is that Murray is a threat as a receiver as well and is second on the team with 28 receptions for 326 yards and 2 TDs. Ryan Broyles is the team's top target (52 for 665 and 10 TDs and an avg of 83.1 ypg)

The key to this game will be taking advantage of OU's depletion at OL and stopping the run game, which is something we struggled mightily with against KSU and CU.

Jimmy Stevens is 11-for-11 on FG attempts inside of 40 yards (0-2 from beyond) and punter Tress Way has actually been kicking the long FGs (4 of his 5 attempts are from beyond 40 yards) but hasn't hit a long one yet. As a punter he is much better averaging 43.8 ypp.

  TAMU O             OU D       
==========        ==========     
184.6 (31)  RUSH   86.8 (5)     
293.0 (15)  PASS  179.7 (22)     
477.6 (4)    TOT  266.4 (9)     
 35.6 (9)   SCOR   12.3 (7)

This is hands-down the best defense we've come up against so far this year. They are led by their boys upfront, with one of the nation's top DLmen, DT Gerald McCoy. He was just named one of the four finalists for the Lombardi Award. Jeremy Beal is also a beast at DE (9.5 sacks).

Their LBer corps is also strong with Keenan Clayton, Ryan Reynolds (third in tackles and sacks), and Travis Lewis (the team leader in tackles).

We're going to have to establish the run in this game, which was something I thought we needed to do better last week in Boulder. Since Sherman took over we have averaged 182 yards on the ground in our wins and only 69 yards in our losses. This is going to be a HUGE mountain for our OL to climb, both in the run game as well as protecting Jerrod from Stoops's relentless defense.

Overall, this game is winnable but we're going to have to stop the run on defense and get it going on offense and not turn the ball over. We can't afford to give up scoring opportunities against a defense that is so stout.

Here's to a great weekend of football!

Gig'em & BTHO OU! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Tuesday November 10th, 2009

Folsom Field

My alarm went off at 3:55am on Thursday and I have discovered that at that time of the day, whether they're in because it is really, really late and I haven't taken them out....or if it's early and they're going in, my eyeballs and my contact lenses like to have a little mini-battle royale at my expense.

We were in the car at 4:30 and were sitting at our gate in terminal A by 5:30am. As we were sitting there I realized how addicted to computers we, as a society, are. A business lady located a plug, but it was behind a plant pot against a column in the middle of the terminal. Not one to be slowed down by decorational flora, she scooted the pot away so she could plug her laptop in and then sat on cross-legged on the floor of the airport terminal not concerned with the press in her slacks.

We had a layover in Salt Lake City but on the way over I was looking out of the window at a mountain range - it was one of those moments when you are just amazed at how cool the earth really is. Then all of a sudden the mountains ended and we were over a city - the white "Y" on the side of the mountain made me realize we were over Provo - the home of BYU. It made me think of one of my best friends from high school who went off to school there. I need to catch up with him.

The Salt Lake City Airport was, hands down, the cleanest airport I have ever stepped foot in.

We got to Denver and picked up our bright red PT Cruiser....then returned it because it smelled like smoke....and got another bright red PT Cruiser (Avis must have received a bulk discount). Our hotel was in Broomfield, CO, which is a suburb of Denver that is about 20 minutes south of Boulder. We stayed in a hotel called Aloft, which is apparently some new fangled idea. It was pretty cool....very hip and modern and everything had a hint of citrus scent to it.

We went to Flatiron Crossing, a built up suburbal (I made that word up and it is a good one) area with lots of shopping and restaurants one exit north (I'm pretty sure it was still considered part of Broomfield). We ate at a place called Bloom which serves "New American Cuisine", which means normal food with a slice of cucumber and some spinach on it at a ridiculous price. We came back to our citrus room for a nap and when we awoke we drove into Boulder to eat dinner. I had been told we needed to eat at The Sink which is a very college-feeling burger/pizza/bar. Good eats. From there we went to the movie theater at Flatiron Crossing and saw Couples Retreat. After that we went back to the hotel and crashed.

We slept in on Friday. We had no plans what-so-ever so we went to California Pizza Kitchen and then headed up north into the mountains to see Estes Park. It was gorgeous and once you get up into there on those roads that are cut through the mountains it makes you realize how small you are. I noticed that all the Colorado's city signs all have the elevations on them instead of the populations, like what we're accustomed to here in Texas. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Friday evening we met up with one of my really good friends, Zach, who graciously made the drive up from Colorado Springs. We didn't have a restaurant picked out so we kind of drove around aimlessly ending up in a neighboring town, Lafayette, where we kind of fell into a pretty good Italian restaurant. We had a nice evening of catching up and good stories. It is really nice to have good friends.

My wonderful wife stayed up late and insisted that we go to Midnight Yell at a bar/restaurant back in Flatiron Crossing called C.B. & Potts. When we walked in and David Allen Coe was playing, maroon was everywhere, and everyone had a smile on their face....Good bull, particularly so far from home.

Saturday morning we got up at 8:20am and grabbed some breakfast on the way to Boulder for our 11:30am kickoff. We parked at a local high school that was selling parking spaces as a fundraiser and then we walked through campus, which, like the rest of Colorado, is beautiful. All the architecture is consistent throughout campus (which is something that I dislike about our own campus) and all the buildings use flagstone instead of brick, which I love.

Folsom Field was gorgeous. It was hands-down, the most picturesque setting I've ever seen a football game from. We got inside pretty early so I went down and saw Ralphie - much smaller than I had imagined. She was about the size of a regular cow, and for some reason I always envisioned Buffaloes to be much larger than cattle.

From a football standpoint, this was a great game. From my standpoint I really can't believe we lost to a two win Colorado team. Our redzone offense is a huge concern for me - even on the drives where we did score from inside the 15 it took us so many snaps to get the points - we are terribly inefficient in there.

Here are some notes from the game....

• Going for it on 4th and G on our first possession - I didn't mind the decision but I didn't like the playcall - JJ had tried a sneak on 3rd down and we went right back to it with the same result. I'd really like to see us just give the rock to C-Mike in that situation.
• Too many rushing yards allowed right up the middle - the DTs got killed
• Von had 2 more sacks (15.5 on the season) - team had 8 total
• We got great pressure on Hansen but couldn't get a hand on him a lot of the time (ran for 105 yards but lost a lot of yardage on sacks)- Cart is going to shred us if we do that against the horns
• Cyrus had a 99 yard KO return for a TD....it was awesome....he had another for 45 yards....he is the school record holder in career KO return yardage
• They almost blocked 2 or 3 of our punts -- eech, that doesn't bode well for our future opponents
• I thought we got a little too pass happy
• Lionel smith lays the wood - he had 2 monster hits on special teams
• Howard Morrow didn't play - injured wrist
• J.Stewart dropped an INT that hit him right in the hands (chest-high) - they ended up scoring a TD
• Offense seemed to be non-existent in 2nd and 3rd Qs
• GET OFF THE FIELD ON 3rd DOWN --> CU converted on 3-11, 3-13, 3-16....5/7 in 2nd half
• CU made an incredible TD catch for the game winner
• Up 21-10 at the half and they tied it at 21....then we went up 31-21 in the 4th Q and still couldn't put'em away
• Youth = inconsistency....and that is what we're seeing
• C-Mike 16 carries for 74 yards and 1 TD (4.6 ypc)
• Cyrus 11 carries for 41 yards (3.7 ypc)
• JJ only ran for 9 yards....he was 20-of-36 for 242 yards passing with 1 TD and 1 INT
• Ryan Tannehill had his first 100 yard receiving game of the season (9 for 100)
• Ryan Swope got a lot more snaps and passes thrown his way than normal
• CU's corners were pretty solid
• Gave up 118 yards rushing and 2 TDs to Rodney Stewart
• Markques Simas had 135 yards on 7 receptions

After all the warnings I had received we didn't have a single fan say anything derogatory towards us. On the way to the stadium one student asked if we needed directions and pointed us the right direction, inside the stadium the gentleman behind us was kind....the group of late-30 year old fellas in front of us were jerks - but not to us - it was just their general disposition.

After the game I tried to put on my pleasant face for Jennifer. We went out to eat and then came back to the Citrus Center and napped until it was time to go to sleep.

Our flight was early on Sunday morning and we dropped the car off at the rental return parking lot at 6am and were in the air by 7:30am.

It was really nice getting a weekend away and I couldn't have spent it with anyone better.

| Where are you?

Thursday November 5th, 2009

Haha....yeah, right....who are we fooling.

| Where are you?

Wednesday November 4th, 2009

Our bags are packed and we've got our gloves and thermal underwear ready to go. Jennifer and I are making the trip up to Colorado for the game this weekend. I've been wanting to go see a game at Folsom Field for over 5 years now but I couldn't get anyone to go with me in 2005 - and after seeing the result, I'm kind of glad.

I've never been to Colorado and I've joked with Jennifer that going to see the Ags play is the only way she can get me to go somewhere cold and a trip to Colorado is the only way I can get her to go to a game with me. Jennifer has been to games but doesn't like to stand in the student section (where my seats are) so when she does goes she sits with her Dad - so she hasn't been to a game with me since Notre Dame in 2001.

On an interesting side note, USC getting waxed by Oregon this past weekend was the first time that the Trojans lost by more than 7 points since they played....Notre Dame in 2001.

We fly up to Denver on Thursday morning and fly back Sunday. We don't really have any plans other than the game Saturday and a visit with my grad school buddy Zach, who I haven't seen since we met up for the New Mexico game last year. Jennifer's mother is coming down to stay at the house with Benjamin so we're going to be on our own - we might even catch a movie - we're so crazy.

The weather is supposed to be GORGEOUS! I've been following it as long as the Weather.com's 10 Day forecast has included it and I got a little concerned when they got that crazy cold last week but it has all cleared up. Highs in the mid-60s, lows in the low-40s and sunshine all day long. If that holds up, we're pretty fortunate. I can handle those temps.

Folsom Field was opened in 1924 and was named after Coach Frederick Folsom. The stadium's capacity is 53,613 and the largest crowd was their 2005 game against arch-rival Colorado State as 54,972 filed into the gates that day.

I've always heard rumors that Colorado fans are among the worst that we run into but I think the majority of that comes from the student section and our seats are clean on the other side. I still have a hard time imagining Coloradodians being mean people.

One of the things I'm most looking forward to is the Buffalo's entrance with Ralphie. I've always thought that Ralphie was one of the cooler, and most unique mascots in college football and I think it is awesome that they let him run down the field. I would have totally been one of his handlers if I went to CU. The Buff's website has a great page giving the history of Ralphie.

The Ags have had some rough times in the thin air of Boulder (we're 1-4). Most recently, in 2005, we got run out of town by a score of 41-20. Before that we played there in 2001 - one of the games that I felt like was the beginning of the end.

Our Ags were 5-0 on the season and with 2:14 remaining in the ballgame we trailed the Buffs 24-21. We got the ball back and Mark Farris completed 4 consecutive passes to march us down the field and we took at timeout with 1:24 remaining and the ball on the 50 yard line. On the next snap, Farris hit Terrence Murphy for a 15 yard gain bringing us just about into FG range at the 35. On the next snap, Farris is blindsided, fumbles, and the fumble is run back for a 52 yard TD....back breaker.

This year's Colorado squad is on the fence.....if they're going to turn their season around it needs to be done this weekend and if Dan Hawkins wants to keep his job he needs to win.

   CU O               TAMU D
==========          ==========
 76.3 (114)  RUSH   154.3 (80)
209.9 (71)   PASS   246.4 (98)
286.1 (113)   TOT   400.6 (91)
 21.8 (96)   SCOR    30.0 (96)

Colorado has a terrible offense. We have a terrible defense. It should be interesting.

The Buff's have gone through a QB controversy that has seen the head coach's son, Cody Hawkins, losing his spot to Tyler Hansen.

Unfortunately for Hansen, his offensive line is like a sieve. He was sacked EIGHT times last weekend against Mizzou and the run game was held to -14 yards (yes that is negative) rushing.

The Buffs rank 115th in the nation in sacks allowed and 114th in rush offense. They have a really bad offensive line.

So I took a look at this offensive line and found that of the 12 different players listed in their "2-deep" only two of them are classified as juniors - no seniors. So. Ryan Miller, the starting RT, was their only big time recruit ranked #2 nationally at OT when he signed (he was actually a 5*).

To pour salt on the wound, it was announced yesterday that Darrell Scott, the #1 rated RB in the country in 2008, has left the Colorado program. The Cali native chose Colorado on signing day over texas....probably because his mom got a pretty nice job in a Boulder bank. Word on the street is that he will follow his uncle, junior WR Josh Smith, from CU to UCLA.

I think that was more of a publicity blow because Scott wasn't getting many touches. He was third on the team with 23 carries for 95 yards and had yet to see the promised land. Rodney Stewart is getting the lion's share of the RB duties (130 carries for 470 yards with 7 TDs).

Tyler Hansen, the QB, is 46-for-80 on the year with one TD pass and two INTs....and has been sacked 18 times in 4 games. Two words: Von Miller.

Scotty McKnight leads the team with 50 receptions for 535 yards and 3 TDs while TE Riar Geer has 30 for 345 and 3 TDs....no one else has more than 13 catches.

  TAMU O             CU D       
==========        ==========     
191.1 (23)  RUSH  154.0 (77)     
299.4 (12)  PASS  227.9 (72)     
490.5 (3)    TOT  381.9 (80)     
 35.8 (8)   SCOR   29.5 (92)

The Buffs run a base 4-3 defense but looking at their stats the four up front aren't making a lot of noise. Six of their top eight tacklers are DBs. Their leading tackler, LB Jeff Smart, has 21 more tackles than the second leading tackler - 2008 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention DB, Cha'pelle Brown (who also has 3 sacks). DB Jimmy Smith is third in tackles and has 9 PBU and DE Marquez Herrod has 5 sacks.

Hopefully the OL shows up again and JJ has time to cut the Buff's defense apart.

A win by A&M would make us bowl eligible with 3 games remaining, a feat that many didn't think we'd get to. A win would also give us consecutive road victories, something we haven't accomplished since 2006.

B.T.H.O. CU! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Monday November 2nd, 2009

Through eight games this year Jerrod Johnson has shown that he is on his way to being the QB that we thought he could be. In my season preview I said that last season Jerrod had one of the best passing seasons in school history. I concluded that Reggie's 2004 season was THE best and Jerrod's was behind that but also noted that Jerrod was more polished as a sophomore than Reggie was and that it was Reggie's junior season (of 2004) where he made the big leap.

Jerrod has made that big leap as well. His name is moving up to the top of every passing record - both single season and career.

Our offense is sitting as the #3 total offense in the country, the #8 scoring offense, and we are 4th nationally on 3rd down conversions (at 52.5%).

Before I get into this I want to silence naysayers before they start. We do pass the ball a lot and historically, A&M hasn't thrown the ball like we do now. My response to that is that Jerrod is SEVENTH in career passing attempts - behind every single QB who still sits ahead of him.

Single Season Passing Attempts       Career Passing Attempts
------------------------------       -----------------------
S.McGee   '07  364                    C.Pullig  '92-'95  992
K.Murray  '86  349                    K.Murray  '83-'86  926
E.Hargett '68  348                    R.McNeal  '02-'05  875
M.Farris  '01  347                    E.Hargett '66-'68  821
M.Farris  '00  347                    S.McGee   '05-'08  815
R.McNeal  '04  344                    M.Farris  '99-'02  755
D.Long    '02  333                    J.Johnson '07-     645
J.Johnson '08  326
G.Kubiak  '82  324
S.McGee   '06  313
J.Johnson '09  312

You can also see that with four regular season games remaining in 2009, and an average of 39 attempts per game, Jerrod will finish with significantly more attempts in a single season -- BUT -- he will is on pace to break records well before we complete the regular season.

• In 2009 (through 8 games) he has 20 TDs passing this season, one shy of his own school record of 21 that he set last year
• Career record is 48 TD passes (Kevin Murray) - JJ is 5 shy of that
• Through only 8 games he is already only 421 yards shy of the single season school record for passing yards (he has 2,365 yards passing - the record is 2,791 by Reggie in '04)
• By the end of the season he should be about 1,000 yards shy of the school's career record (Reggie threw for 6,992 yards). He might be 6th on the career attempt list by then.
• He has thrown only 3 INTs in 2009
• Currently has career completion percentage of 59.8% (386-645). That sits as the highest in school history.
• Four 300 yard passing performances in 2009 (school record was three by Dustin Long in '02)
• Six career 300 yard passing performances (school record was three by Dustin Long)
• Big 12 record for single season consecutive pass attempts without an INT (225)
• Big 12 record for consecutive pass attempts without an INT (242 - from '08 BU to '09 KSU)

Now I say this but I must warn that we are still yet to face two of the tougher defenses on our schedule in texas (#26 pass defense) and Oklahoma (#37) - but we do still have Baylor (#46) and Colorado (#72).

I thought it was very interesting to see all of that laid out - I was a little surprised, not that JJ is moving up those lists, but how quickly. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the end

| Where are you?

Sunday November 1st, 2009

I, myself, have never seen the letters on the side of Kyle Field lit up but I have seen the pictures from years past. There has been a grass-roots mission started up to collect enough money to get those letters lit back up. For more information or to make a donation or to buy a t-shirt, because who doesn't love a t-shirt, check out AgsForKyle.com

The next thing I wanted to touch on was the current issue of Texas Monthly. I haven't picked up a copy yet but I wanted to point it out. I'm not sure if there is any sort of slant on it but I figure it's worth a read either way.

Finally, we've got something brewing that we haven't seen in years....there is an Aggie defensive player up for a major collegiate award!

Von Miller is a semi-finalist for the Butkus Award. You can vote for Von by clicking here and clicking on his name. Let's make this happen.

Von currently leads the nation in sacks with 13.5 and is second in the nation with 15 tackles for a loss.

| Where are you?

Saturday October 31st, 2009

That score is closer than the game was. Sherman took a knee at the 1 yard line and about 2 minutes remaining in the game.

It was another very complete game played by our youngsters, the second in a row. It was also the second game in row that our offensive line showed up and played very well....and as a result, we ran the ball excellently.

Cyrus Gray ran for 119 yards and Christine Michael added 63 and a TD. They both ran very hard and looked great.

JJ didn't throw for eye-popping numbers this week but he was extremely efficient, 23-of-28 for 234 yards and 3 TDs (to zero INTs). He is putting up a phenomenal season so far.

The only two things I could really complain about was the fumble on the kick-off to start the second half and the penalty flag the officials threw on Howard Morrow. It was Military Appreciation Day at Kyle Field and when Morrow scored at the start of the fourth quarter he made a quick salute before tossing the ball to the official and they flagged him for un-sportsman like conduct. His father, step-father, and grandfather all served in our Nation's armed forces and he was paying tribute to them. The officials came away looking like complete morons.

One of the big components for us offensively was our success on 3rd down - we were 10-of-13 and we also converted 2-of-3 on 4th down (keep in mind that one of the 3rd downs and the 4th down we didn't convert were when we kneeled the ball at the one yard line - so really we were 10-of-12 and 2-of-2). That is HUGE.

ISU did play their star running back, Alexander Robinson, but he didn't really thrash us - 76 yards on 20 carries. We did not have to see Austen Arnaud which was my hope.

I thought that the defense played very well. We gave up only 324 yards (169 rushing and 155 passing) and only 10 points. It was the lowest yardage total we've allowed on the season and the second lowest point total (New Mexico only scored 6 on us).

A couple other things I wanted to touch on....

• Jeff Fuller played a fairly good number of snaps and had 5 receptions for 67 yards, including a 32 yard TD - but he was clearly not 100% on his leg. He was pretty careful on it and it made me really nervous that he was going to re-injure it somehow.
• Von Miller picked up another sack today giving him 13.5 on the year. That is the most sacks by any Aggie since Keith Mitchell's 14.5 in 1996 (before that you have to go back to the late 80s). Von is currently 7th on the single season sack record list. Von also had a spectacular play called back where he lept clean over ISU's lineman on a field goal attempt and blocked the FG (Trent Hunter ran it back inside the 20) but he was flagged, and rightfully so, for jumping a bit to soon. It was still pretty awesome though.

Overall, it was a great win, putting us one victory away from a bowl bid. Our next game will be up in Boulder and I'm getting my long johns washed because it's going to be chilly.

WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Friday October 30th, 2009

How are we going to respond? Are we going to have a hangover or are we going to be focused?

Iowa State has to answer the same question after their first win in Licoln since 1977. I will say, however, ISU's win was much more fluky than ours. They won 9-7 on EIGHT, count'em, EIGHT turnovers - including 4 inside the five yard line (interception at the 1, fumble at the 1, fumble at the 1, fumble at the 5). Nebraska should have waxed'em.

Before last weekend ISU's last Big 12 road win was....'05 in Kyle Field. Thanks Fran....and thank God that Todd Blythe is out of eligibility.

This year the Cyclones are 5-3 on the year with wins against N.Dakota St, Kent St, Army, Baylor, and Nebraska and losses to Iowa, KSU, and KU. First year head coach Paul Rhoads (previously Auburn DC) has already matched Gene Chizik's win total of 5 (in two years).

A familiar face on the sidelines wearing red will be former A&M coach, Kennith Pope who is their RB coach.

   ISU O              TAMU D
==========          ==========
204.3 (16)    RUSH  152.1 (78)
183.4 (97)    PASS  259.4 (108)
387.6 (55)     TOT  411.6 (98)
 24.3 (82)    SCOR   32.9 (104)

The Cyclones are kind of the opposite of texas tech - they run the ball VERY well and don't pass all that much. This part scares me because we have a tendency to get torched against strong running attacks. One big difference between this week and the KSU week is that we have big Tony Jerod Eddie in the lineup (he was injured for the KSU game) and he should make some difference up the middle.

ISU is also keeping mum on if their top two offensive players will be in the ballgame, QB Austen Arnaud and RB Alexander Robinson. Robinson is one of the top backs in the Big 12 but has a groin injury and Arnaud has a bruised hand. Rhodes feels like both will play but I would prefer if neither did. Robinson is averaging 105 yards per game and has 6 TDs. If I could pick I would prefer Arnaud not play - he is second behind Robinson in rushing averaging 62 ypg and has 7 TDs on the ground. In the air he is 108-of-185 with 9 TDs and 5 INTs to go with 1246 yards.

        
  TAMU O             ISU D       
==========        ==========     
180.3 (33)  RUSH  137.5 (62)     
308.7 (9)   PASS  246.1 (99)     
489.0 (3)    TOT  383.6 (82)     
 35.9 (8)   SCOR   19.8 (34)     

Jesse Smith is the best defender on the Cyclones squad with 87 tackles (35 more than the next guy), two INTs, and two forced fumbles. James Smith is that second tackler with 52 (he has one INT and two fumble recoveries) and David Sims is third in tackles and leads the team in INTs with 4. They have 11 sacks on the season 3 players have two sacks and one has three sacks.

Kicker Grant Mahoney has a big leg and has hit 5 FGs of 45 yards or deeper (long of 52)....but he only has one touchback on kickoffs!?!

This one scares me a bit but a win would put us one W away from a bowl game.

BTHO ISU! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Tuesday November 27th, 2009

Think there is any way we could get that shirt re-made in reverse colors?

I watched the "No Huddle" version of the game that broadcast on FSN and was a little disappointed that it only showed scoring drives and a couple of key turnovers....none-the-less it was better than simply going off of the images I had in my head.

I still can't believe that we were able to go from the garbage we saw last week to the stunningly impressive performance we saw this week. What a response - not only from last week to this week but responding after our first play fumble that led directly to a texas tech TD. I'm not sure I've ever seen a swing week-to-week quite like that, particularly in that direction. Usually, you'll see a team win a huge game and then suffer a hangover in the next game (see UH losing to UTEP after beating tech the week before).

So what can we attribute this to? Is this one of the youth issues - consistency? Or is this coaching - being able to motivate?

I asked in my tech preview which team would show up for us....the one we saw against oSu, the one we saw against KSU, or a third one we haven't seen yet. It was certainly the one we saw against oSu, which makes the KSU game look more like the anomaly this season. Of course, we're still young and we don't know about the coaches ability to motivate - so we don't know which team we'll see this Saturday, right?

One note that someone commented to me that I loved was that we actually covered tech's 21 point line.

JJ didn't have his best night number-wise. He threw for a season low 238 yards on 19-of-28 passing with one TD. He did, however, run for 71 yards on 10 carries - and many of those were crucial big yardage runs. I thought it was Jerrod's best performance of his career. He was poised, efficient, took care of the ball, and led the offense.

EZ was, again, the leading receiver with 4 receptions for 79 yards, including a big freebie on an off-sides deep pass that he yanked away from a tech defender for a 40 yard big play early in the game.

The key was that the OL was able to run block and let us see, for the first time, how great Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael really can be. Cyrus ran for 132 yards on 25 carries for 3 TDs (and added another 41 yards and a TD on 4 receptions) while C-Mike broke the 100 yard barrier for the first time in his young career with 121 yards on 22 carries with 2 TDs.

Other than the running game, the defense forced turnovers. We forced 5 turnovers (and only gave it up once) but we only scored 10 points off of those TOs. Even though we didn't get points directly they were still big because it took the ball away from tech preventing them from scoring - the most costly was the Fredricks INT inside the redzone just before the half keeping our lead 28-14.

It was a great victory, and as fans we can enjoy it, but as players they need to make sure they get ready for ISU who is also coming off of their biggest win of the last few seasons.

| Where are you?

Saturday October 24th, 2009

Had to listen to the game over the internet so here are my notes. Of course I will be recording this one on the FSN No Huddle this Monday at noon and watching it Monday night. I'll probably get another post up once I've seen the game with my own eyes.

• We kickoff to tech to start the game - touchback
• tech picks up a 1st down; on second set of downs get into a 3rd & 1 - try to run but Lucas Patterson & Mangan stop them short; tech goes for it on 4th & 1 on their own 41 yard line - score on a 56 yard screen. Here we go.
• tech kicks it into the end zone for a touchback
• On our first play JJ hits EZ for a first down and as he is fighting for extra yardage he is stripped - tech recovers on our 38 yard line. Holy crap.
• tech starts with a 13 yard shuttle pass - but it comes back on a false start - 1st & 15 from the 43 now; run for pickup of 4; completed pass to the 25 - but it comes back on an offensive face-mask against Von Miller - 2nd & 26; dropped screen pass - 3rd & 26; Dropped pass - another flag - holding against tech but we decline so they punt! HOORAY!
• Punt returned by Dustin Harris - taken down at our 14 yard line
• JJ hits EZ for 8 yards - 2nd & 8; Run by Gray picks up 1st down - 1st & 10 at 25; J.McCoy for 1st down; Gray runs for a pickup of 20; JJ pass to Tannehill fights to the 24 for a pickup of 15 - 1st & 10 at tt's 24; JJ runs for 9 at tech's 15; Cyrus run to the 11 - 1st & 10; Cyrus runs on a halfback pass for 1 yard loss; Cyrus scores on a screen pass from JJ! WHOOP!
• JJ's 40th career TD - only 5th QB to reach that mark
• 9 plays 81 yards. Great job Ags! Heckuva way to rebound! 7-7 tied ballgame.
• Randy Bullock kicks off - tech takes knee in endzone
• Taylor Potts starts for tech; Screen to Baron Batch (RB) for 12 yards - 1st & 10; Batch toss sweep to the 39 for 7 - 2nd & 3; Screen for 1st down to A&M 48 - 1st & 10; Batch runs the draw for 4 yards - 2nd & 6 at our 45; Pass complete to our 30 - 1st & 10; Screen pass to Batch for a yard loss - good play by Sean Porter - 2nd & 11; PASS INTERCEPTED BY GARRICK WILLIAMS AT OUR 29 YARD LINE! WHOOP! (pshew)
• 5 wide - pass to Tannehill - lots of flags - PI on tech - 1st & 10; tech has been penalized quite a bit now; Run by Michael picks up 6 to the 42 - 2nd & 4; Michael picks up 2 more on a dive - 3rd & 2; I-formation - JJ runs but only picks up 1 yard - flag on the play - Shumard personal foul - (Jeff Fuller makes the field for the first time) - 3rd & 17; Shuffle pass to Gray to the 38 but we're shy; punt team comes out (Ryan Epperson makes his season debut replacing Wood; 18th true freshman to play this year) - high snap - good 45 yard punt - we miss some tackles - flag on the play - block in the back - tech starts at their 14 yard line
• Screen for 1st down to the 25 yard line - 1st & 10; Batch runs for 8 - 2nd & 2 at 33 yard line; Batch on a delay to tech's 43 for another 10 yard gain - 1st & 10; Potts under center - end around - T-Fred makes great tackle - flag personal foul against tech way down the field - 2nd & 21 at 32; Screen knocked out of bounds for 16 yard pickup - 3rd & 5 at 48; Screen to Torres (who has about 8 or 9 screen receptions already) - 1st & 10 at our 46; 20 yard pass over the middle to our 20 - 1st & 10; TD pass to Edward Britton. 14-7 with 30 seconds remaining in 1st Q.
• tech kicks off to Lionel Smith - returns to 23 yard line; 23 seconds on clock
• Draw to Gray for 6 - 2nd & 4 at 28; End of 1st quarter; JJ runs for 14; 1st & 10 at 42; Flag on snap (offsides) - free play - JJ hurls to EZ - EZ STEALS IT FROM DEFENDER - CAUGHT at 17 yard line! - 41 yards - 1st & 10 at 17; Gray on a draw to the 10 - 2nd & 3; JJ to McCoy inside the 5 - 1st & G at the 2; Gray runs in for TD! WHOOP! Score is tied at 14-14
• Ags kick off and tech returns to 37 - eech.
• Start drive with delay for pickup of 2 - 2nd & 8; Potts on screen to Torres - 3rd & 5; Screen to Batch for about 20 yards - 1st & 10 at Aggie 33; Pass deflected by Michael Hodges (the walk-on Air Force transfer); FUMBLE! Batch drops it but tech recovers - loss of 7; Potts screen to Batch to 31 yard line - 4th & 2; Leach goes for it again on 4th; AGS STOP'EM! WHOOP! Jordon Pugh with the tackle!
• 1st & 10 from our own 29 yard line
• JJ incomplete (low) to Morrow; JJ to Tannehill to A&M 44 yard line! - 1st & 10; Draw to Michael for gain of 6 - 2nd & 4 at 50; Michael to the 39 yard line for another chain mover - 1st & 10 at tech's 39; Pitch to Michael - no gain - 2nd & 11; JJ to Brandal Jackson for 16 yards - 1st & 10; C-Mike to 18 - 2nd & 5; PA by JJ throws out of end zone - 3rd & 5 at 18; under center - JJ to Fuller - makes catch but out of bounds - flags on play - PASS INTERFERENCE! - 1st & G at 3; Michael is hit in backfield but gets it to the 2; JJ keeper up the middle to the 1 - 3rd & G at the 1; hand-off to Michael - ball spotted short - 4th and inches; You have to go for this against tech- Sherman agrees; I-formation - C-Mike jumps over the top - TOUCHDOWN! 21-14 AGS!
• 6:50 remaining in half - way too much time against tech
• Bullock kicks off and tech returns to 34 - another nice return - their KO returner is leading Big 12 coming into the game
• Run by Harrison Jeffers to the 36 - 2nd & 7; Potts INC pass - 3rd & 7; HUGE 3rd down for our defense; Potts scrambles after some pressure for pickup of 3 - 4th & 4; offense is going for it - no try to draw us off-sides - delay of game - tech punts
• Harris back on the punt return - dropped at our 27
• Let's go Ags! Put another one in the end zone before the half.
• JJ forced out of the pocket - slides at 30 - 2nd & 7; JJ goes 11 yards to B.Jackson for first down - 1st & 10 at 41; Gray run to 47 for 6 - 2nd & 4; 11 yard screen to J.McCoy down to tech's 43 - 1st & 10; Cyrus runs to 31 yard line - big chunk - 1st & 10; Tannehill in at FB - JJ goes deep to EZ but can't pull it down at back of end zone - 2nd & 10; Cyrus picks up a few - 3rd & 3; JJ to J.McCoy and McCoy gets hammered but holds onto it for 7 yards - 1st & 10 at 18; Guy who hit McCoy is down; 2:26 remains in first half; QB draw to the 3 yard line by JJ! Pickup of 15 - 1st & G; False start - dog-on it - 1st & G at the 8; Cyrus runs down to the 1; JJ under center - hand-off to Gray - TOUCHDOWN! 28-14 Ags lead
• 11 play, 73 yard drive, 1:22 remains in the half, still lots of time for tech
• Cyrus's 3rd TD of the night - first multiple TD game for Cyrus
• Bullock kicks-off - pooch kick - upman fields it - tackled at 34
• Batch on a shuffle pass for loss on the play (Sean Porter reads the play and makes initial hit) - 2nd & 15; Potts to Batch down to the their 42 - 3rd & 2; Screen to our 48 - 1st down - flag down - leg whip by tech - 3rd & 17; Potts scrambles throws - not enough for 1st down - ball down at tech's 43 - 4th & 1 with 26 seconds; tech calls timeout to talk it over (will have one TO remaining); They go for it; Pass complete - they get 1st down - Flag - ARGH! Late hit out of bounds - that was critical (and stupid) - 1st & 10 ball spotted at our 29 with 20 seconds left; Potts complete - out of bounds at 17 yard line with 12 seconds remaining - 1st & 10; Potts throws - INTERCEPTED BY TERRENCE FREDRICK IN END ZONE! PSHEW and YEAH!
• 7 seconds remaining and we get ball at our 20; I say we just take this into the half - knee it
• Sherman agrees and JJ takes the knee
• HALF TIME SCORE: 28-14 Ags!
• Ags to receive the ball coming out of the half
• We have to play 4 full quarters....let's go boys
• L.Smith returns out to 22 yard line
• Michael carries for a gain of 2 - 2nd & 8; JJ hits EZ for 11 yards - 1st & 10 at 35; Michael makes a couple of cuts and picks up nice yardage - 1st & 10 at the 45; Flag - illegal procedure against us - 1st & 15 at 40; JJ runs for about 12 yards - 2nd & 3; Michael runs gets just enough to move the chains - 1st & 10 at tech's 45; Fake end around - and we hand it off - TOUCHDOWN BY CHRISTINE MICHAEL! WHOOP! FORTY-FIVE YARD TOUCHDOWN! 35-14 AGGIES LEAD!
• My heart is racing but my head knows that there is a long way to go in this one still. Why on earth isn't this game televised?
• Bullock kicks off and it is back for a touchback - tech takes over at own 20
• tech tries another screen and we read it great - gain of two - 2nd & 8; Potts complete for 1st down to Detron Lewis - 1st & 10 at 32; Incomplete (ball dropped) - Potts got hammered by Mangan - Potts is slow to get up holding left arm; Complete pass to 40 - 3rd & 2; Screen pass dropped - 4th & 2; tech goes for it again; complete for 21 yards to Craig James's kid - 1st & 10 at A&M's 39; Pass deflected by Matt Moss - 2nd & 10; SACKED BY MATT MOSS! for big loss - 3rd & 20; Incomplete pass to Detron Lewis - tech is going to have to punt!
• Dustin Harris is back to return - let's it go into the end zone so we start at our own 20 - 10:09 remains in 3rd Q
• Missed first snap but we picked up 3; PA fake - inc to EZ - over his head - 3rd & 7; JJ incomplete to T.McCoy - 4th & 7 so we're going to have punt
• tech returns it to own 48 - this is excellent field position for the raiders
• Screen to Jeffers for 5 yard loss - 2nd & 15; SACK, FUMBLED, AGGIES RECOVER! VON MILLER WITH THE SACK! 11-1/2 on the season
• Ags start at tech's 39
• C-Mike breaks through line for 12 yard gain! 106 yards on the game for C-Mike! - 1st & 10 at 20; C-Mike for a gain of one - 2nd & 9 at 19; JJ sacked at 28 yard line - backside pressure - flag - holding penalty is declined - 3rd & 21; tech jumped offsides - free play - pass is intercepted in end zone - 3rd & 15 at 23; Five-wide - JJ is changing the play - texas tech calls timeout; 7:34 on the clock; Shuffle pass to Gray - gets first down! - 1st & 10 at 10; Gray runs for six yards - 2nd & 4; JJ rolls right - no one open - throws it away - 3rd & 4; JJ to Jamie McCoy - pass is deflected away; we need to take these points at this point in the game; Sherman sends out FG unit - Bullock is good on this one; 38-14 Ags lead
• 57,730 in attendance - not the school record that tech predicted
• Kick-off into end zone for a touchback
• 7 yard pass - 2nd & 3 at 27; 5:52 remains in 3rd Q; New QB for tech- Seth Doege (RS-F) - Pass to Torres - 8th reception for 129 yards - 1st & 10; Pass to Britton - 2nd & 1 at 45; Batch turns corner down sidelines - out of bounds at A&M's 38 - 1st & 10; Pass complete to Detron Lewis for 12 yard gain - 1st & 10 to A&M's 26 - play is under review - play is reversed INCOMPLETE! - 2nd & 10 at 38; PA incomplete - Michael Hodges deflected - 3rd & 10; Dropped by Edward Britton - 4th & 10; tech goes for it - converts on a pass to Detron Lewis - 1st & 10 at 26 yard line; ARGH!; Pass deflected by Steven Campbell at the 10 - 2nd & 10; Another pass deflected - by Mangan - 3rd & 10 again; Incomplete at 15 yard line to Detron Lewis - 4th & 10 from 25; Leach goes for it again - Doege forced out of bounds and cannot reach the chains! Turnover on downs!
• 1st & 10 at our own 20; 3:41 remains in 3rd Q; 38-14
• C-Mike for one yard - 2nd & 9; JJ to EZ - incomplete - 3rd & 9; we can't stall on back-to-back drives; shuffle pass incomplete - called for intentional grounding (?!?) - 4th & 15 and we have to punt - I don't like that one bit
• tech fields at 48 and returns to 40 - flag way back at 15 - Sean Porter is involved and it is against us - gives it to tech at our 25
• Crossing route by D.Lewis to 13 yard line on first snap - 1st & 10; Pass caught at 10 - out of bounds at 7 - 2nd & 4; Handoff to Stephen - scores untouched - 38-20 and tech is going to go for two; complete to Edward Britton - 38-22
• I don't like this momentum swing. That penalty was terrible. We need to get our offense going again and keep piling on - don't step off the pedal - this is only a 2 score game now
• 1:59 remains in 3Q
• tech kicks off to L.Smith tripped up at the 22 yard line
• Do not let tech's crowd get back into this
• JJ runs for a first down - atta boy - 1st & 10 at 32; Gray gets to 34 - 2nd & 8; JJ complete to Morrow at 41 for gain of 7 - 3rd & 1; Hands off to C-Mike it is close - he got it! - 1st & 10 at 43; JJ forced out of pocket and steps out of bounds for gain of 3 of 4 - 2nd & 6 at 46; END OF 3rd QUARTER; C-Mike picks up two or three - 3rd & 4; Pass incomplete to Morrow - 4th & 4 - we've got to punt again
• COME ON GUYS WE HAVE TO KEEP MOVING THE BALL - FINISH THEM OFF
• Punt bounces out of bounds at 21 yard line
• Detron Lewis catches for gain of 4 - 2nd & 6; Pass to Batch - loss of 4 - Great tackle by Matt Featherston; we're playing with 2 JACKs right now because tech has to throw; Complete to E.Britton - 1st & 10 at 41; ARGH!; TECH FUMBLES! A&M RECOVERS AT tech's FORTY-SIX! WHOOP! Mangan wraps him up and Pugh gets the ball!
• I-formation with Gray out of bounds at the 39 yard line - 2nd & 3; Gray to the 35 - 1st & 10; 12:10 remains; Cyrus brought down from behind after another 7 yards - 2nd & 3; Gray picks up a couple up the middle - 3rd & 1; LET'S GO ARMY!; Cyrus picks up the yardage to the 23 - 1st & 10; JJ to Morrow gets it down to the 20 - 2nd & 7; 9:45 remains; Delay of game - come on guys - 2nd & 13; JJ passes to Gray - spins out of bounds at the 21 - 3rd & 7; JJ runs - picks up 1st down - TOUCHDOWN! WHOOP! TWENTY YARD TD RUN BY JJ! 45-22 Ags; 8:38 remains
• PSHEW! That was a huge possession - we needed those points and we ate a nice chunk of time off the clock as well
• tech fields KO at 17 - returns to 33 yard line
• Pass complete to Lyle Leong for 3 yards - 2nd & 7; Pass complete to James - eh - 1st & 10 at 44; An Aggie is down on the field - the Daves think it is Steven Terrell; 8:04 remains; missed a couple of plays; 1st down at 30; Pass deflected in end zone by Jordan Pugh - 2nd & 10; Screen to D.Lewis to 23 - 3rd & 3; We're dropping back and giving them everything underneath to keep the clock rolling; Pass D.Lewis for first down around the 14 - 1st & 10; Pass complete and run to one yard line - 1st & G at the 1; QB sneak - doesn't get it - clock ticking - 5:30 remains; Handoff to Batch and he gets in; tech goes for two - pass and catch to D.Lewis - 2PC is good - 45-30 Ags
• 5:13 remains in game - Still too much time to let me enjoy this like I should be
• On-side kick and A&M recovers at tech's 43 - pshew
• C-Mike runs and goes out of bounds at the 39 - 2nd & 4; STAY IN BOUNDS - PLEASE; Michael - runs to 36 - 3rd & 3; Really, really need this first down; Pass complete at 25 - JEFF FULLER's FIRST CATCH - FIRST DOWN!; 3:47 with the clock running; Gray picks up 3 - 2nd & 7; Gray runs to the right - 3rd & 3 at 17; timeout red raiders; handoff to Gray and he picks up the first down inside the 15; 2:29 with clock running; We stop the clock at 2:04 with a timeout; Cyrus to the 13 yard line - 2nd & 9; handoff to Gray again down to the 7 - 3rd & 3; tech calls timeout (their last one); CYRUS GRAY BOUNCES IT OUTSIDE FOR A TOUCHDOWN! WHOOOP!
• FIFTY TWO to THIRTY! WHOOP!
• That's going to be the ballgame
• Ags kickoff
• texas tech's first snap - FUMBLE! AGS RECOVER! VON MILLER WITH THE SACK! 12-1/2 sacks on the season!
• VICTORY FORMATION!
• AGGIES WIN!

Sherman's first big win - a win over a ranked opponent. Talk about taking the pressure off of yourself.

WOW! & WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Get your helmets, kevlar, and make sure you bring a couple of spare tires because the Ags are heading to lubbock where just about anything goes and if you have the wrong color bumper sticker you are going to get a slashed tire.

Ok, maybe it's not that bad - but you'll get the bird from at least 5 people.

I hate tech, I hate Mike Leach, I hate bass boats because they remind me of tech's helmets, I hate AT&T because the stadium is named after them, and I even hate UnderArmor because tech wears it.

Unfortunately, tech has one of the more high powered offenses and our defense is....well, sometimes I'm not sure I'd consider it a defense.

I really thought that all the stars were aligning for us in Aggieland.....tech's starting QB was injured, Baylor lost their entire offense, Sam Bradford went down....our Big 12 North schedule appeared to go from one sure victory to three with KSU, ISU and Colorado all looking terrible....and were actually looking like a much better football team than we did last year.

Someone pulled the rug right out from under me. We got the nuggets beaten out of us in Manhattan.

One of the things that scares me most coming off of that debacle is that we aren't following it up with another struggling team, we follow it up with tech in lubbock. We are terrible in lubbock and to top it off instead of just focusing on the raiders we had to take some time this week to take a step back, regroup and figure out what the hell happened in Manhattan.

We just HAVE to get to a bowl game this year. The team needs the extra month of practice and the fans need something positive. Not getting to a bowl would make this a severely disappointing season and the program really isn't in any kind of shape to have a severely disappointing season.

I don't think everyone grasped the magnitude of the situation with regards to our problems offensive line and defensive line....including myself. I thought I was pretty realistic about it but it's even worse than I thought. The KSU game was rebroadcast on Tuesday night so I watched it again (yeah, there is something wrong with me) but this time I really focused on watching the offensive and defensive lines instead of following the play and the ball. I have to agree with everything I've read that our defensive tackles are very weak and are getting stood up at the line of scrimmage and with the DE and Von trying to come off the edge on every play it ends up creating a huge hole. On the offensive line it really looked like a dam with a kid holding his finger in the holes to keep it from leaking - every snap a defender was breaking free but it was against a different OLman on almost every play.

Without offensive line play we aren't going to be good. Jerrod is getting sacked at alarming rates, he is starting to get a little jittery in the "pocket", and we can't run the friggin' ball to save our lives.

In our last ten Big 12 games we have averaged a total of 71.3 rushing yards per game. Shoot, if you just look at our last eight Big 12 games that number drops to 50.5 ypg.

Rushing v. Big 12
=================
'08 oSu  184 yds
'08 KSU  125 yds
'08  tt   20 yds
'08 ISU  128 yds
'08  CU   94 yds
'08  OU   26 yds
'08  BU   64 yds
'08  tu  -24 yds
'09 oSu  109 yds
'09 KSU  -13 yds

There are no holes for the guys to run through....but at the same time there are enough holes to cause JJ to scramble for his life on every pass attempt.

Enough with all that....let's take a look at the opponents....

  tech O            TAMU D
==========        ==========
 70.4 (118)  RUSH  166.8 (88)
413.6 (2)    PASS  226.7 (73)
484.0 (3)     TOT  393.5 (94)
 41.4 (2)    SCOR   33.3 (104)

I don't think I've ever seen a team second to last in the nation in rushing and second in the nation in passing.....and they still have the #3 total offense in the land.

We've learned through the years that it doesn't matter who the raiders have back at QB and this season is no exception....with one exception. Taylor Potts, the mustache king of West Texas, was injured and his backup Steven Sheffield had to make a start. It was the first time since Leach arrived in lubbock that they had to start a game with the backup QB. In another bizarre twist of events, Sheffield injured his foot last weekend and is done for the year just in time for Potts to come back to the lineup.

                  G Att-Cmp   Yds   Yd/G TD/INT
===============================================
2009 T.Potts      6 159-235  1817  302.8   13/6
2009 S.Sheffield  4  76-102  1014  253.5   12/2
-----------------------------------------------
2008 G.Harrell   12 406-568  4747  395.6   41/7
2007 G.Harrell   12 468-644  5298  441.5  45/14
2006 G.Harrell   13 412-617  4555  350.4  38/11
2005 C.Hodges    12 531-353  4197  349.8  31/12
2004 S.Cumbie    12 642-421  4742  395.2  32/18
2003 B.Symons    13 719-470  5833  448.7  52/22
2002 K.Kingsbury 11 529-365  3502  318.4   25/9

I didn't realize it last year but Harrell wasn't even close to being as good in '08 as he was in '07.

This year Potts/Sheffield don't have Michael Crabtree to throw so they're spreading the ball around more evenly.

            No Yds TD YPG
D.Lewis.... 35 485  4 69.3
A.Torres... 33 353  3 50.4
L.Leong.... 27 374  6 53.4
T.Swindall. 25 467  5 77.8
H.Jeffers.. 23 199  1 33.2
E.Britton.. 21 234  1 33.4
B.Batch.... 21 158  1 22.6

For reference, we throw the ball a ton and Howard Morrow is our only WR with more than 21 receptions.

Officially, they do have a guy that lines up in the backfield next to the QB, Baron Batch. He has 65 carries for 350 yards and 5 TDs. They also line Jeffers up and he has 4 TDs on only 28 carries.

Von Miller's ability to get to Potts is going to make a huge difference in the game....and that will be dictated by how much the officials allow tech's offensive linemen to get away with in regards to jersey grabbing and the other shenanigans they always get away with. Seriously though, how can a team that throws the ball 70 times/game go 4-5 consecutive games without a single holding call?

 
                                              National Rankings
  TAMU O            tech D              2004  2005  2006  2007  2008
==========        ==========            ====  ====  ====  ====  ====
156.8 (49)  RUSH  101.9 (24)     Rush    77    67    86    82    61
320.5 (6)   PASS  238.6 (89)     Pass    15    15    32    12    94
477.3 (6)    TOT  340.4 (49)      Tot    46    30    58    45    79
 33.2 (19)  SCOR   19.7 (34)     Scor    67    18    76    50    74

texas tech's defense is improved but I don't think it is THAT much better than what it has been in the past. Their scoring defense is down and they have played mighty offenses in texas and Houston but the rest of their opponents more than made up for that difference in terribleness (add that word to your Office Word spell-check).

The defense is led by big DE Brandon Sharp (8 sacks, DE Daniel Howard (5 sacks) and then LBer Brian Duncan (51 tackles), LB Marlon Williams (45 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 INT), and S Cody Davis (41 tackles).

On a positive note, tech's DBs are going to have one more wrinkle to keep up with because the word on the street is that Jeff Fuller should be making his return to the lineup on Saturday. Holy crap we've missed him.

The game isn't going to be televised live so we're all going to be huddled around our computers with the radio broadcast going. The game will, however, be televised as one of the "Big 12 No Huddle" games on FSW throughout the week....so if you really want to watch it set your DVR.

I'm really curious to see which team shows up for us....the one we saw against oSu, the one we saw against KSU, or a third one we haven't seen yet.

Gig'em and BEAT THE HELL OUTTA texas tech! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Sunday October 18th, 2009

I'm at a complete loss for words. That was the worst football I've ever seen us play.

I'm just going to transcribe the notes I made as the game was going on.

• Fumble on our first possession - gave KSU ball at our 29 yard line. They scored 4 plays later after converting a 3rd & 5
• I missed our second possession as I was frantically driving from my parents house (because they have FSC not FCS) and talking to Comcast ordering FCS
• I got home and KSU had the ball around our 40 yard line - on 3rd down Pugh got flagged for a PI but the ball was thrown completely out of the endzone - they settle for a FG
• We go quickly 3-and-out - punted from out endzone - horrific punt - punter made tackle - facemask - KSU starts at our 11 yard line - we look terrible
• 3 plays - TD 17-0 KSU with 3:31 remaining in 1st Q
• Their starting field position is killing us - they have 17 points on only 80 yards
• We get a 1st down and then punt - good punt - KSU to start at 10 yard line
• Gregory got the start at QB for KSU
• We force a punt! We start at our own 18
• JJ is wearing gloves - first time I can recall him ever doing so
• We go 3-and-out very quickly - again
• KSU connects on a long pass to our 30 (45 yard pass) - score two plays later 24-0
• We get to a 4th & 10 and go for it - JJ scrambles for the first down - then gets picked off on our next snap - I think I called that one in last week's recap
• This is the worst half of football I've EVER seen us play....worse than any Fran half....worse than '08 Baylor....worse than '03 OU
• 31-0 now
• We get ball back inside our own 20 and try to run it with somewhere around 30 seconds left in the half, then again with about 15 seconds....I'm on the phone with my Dad telling him how horrific we look and I say "Please just kneel it. We're going to screw this up somehow. Oh God, we just ran and fumbled. KSU recovered at our 15. Pause. Oh, KSU scores on 1 play." 38-0. I'm at a complete loss for words.
• Second half we kick off - to Brandon Banks - 96 yard TD return 45-0
• Then on our next possession we get picked again and it is returned to our 9 yard line - 1 play later TD 52-0 (13:50 left in 3Q)
• Michael runs for no gain, JJ sacked for loss of 13, we clipped - declined - we punt from 25 - they start at their 44 and score easily on a 20 yard run 59-0 9:48 in 3Q
• This doesn't happen to other schools.
• HOLY CRAP! JJ hits EZ on a deep post for a 55 yard TD! 59-7 9:34 in 3Q
• On next possession, KSU goes for it on 4th down - doesn't convert - we take over at own 29
• JJ and the tailbacks just haven't had any chance to do anything because the OL is completely overwhelmed
• TD on jump ball to EZ - 25 yards - nice catch - 59-14 5:01 in 3Q
• We kick it out of bounds?!? Brandon Banks isn't even on the field - we end up forcing a punt
• JJ is sacked on back-to-back plays
• KSU gets ball back - Von makes first Big 12 sack with a few ticks left in 3rd Q - KSU punts and we fair catch at 9 yard line
• Inc. pass, sack (KSU matches season total with 6 sacks), incompletion --> punt out of our own endzone - bad rugby kick KSU starts at our 35
• KSU punts and it is downed at the 1 yard line
• We punt again - regular punt - terrible (20 yards) - we down it at our own 35
• KSU hits a 56 yard FG 62-14
• We get the ball into the redzone and on 3rd & Goal - INT
• A fitting ending.
• Final: 62-14 - the worst game I've ever seen

After the game I started watching the Alabama/S.Carolina game and at one point the score was 19-7 when Jennifer walks by the TV, stops, looks at me and says enthusiastically, "Hey, we're catching up." I had to laugh. I love her - God bless her soul.

Ok, so I've let this game sink in for a few hours and I've calmed down a little bit. I have no idea how things got that far out of control so quickly but I can see some huge red flags that should point us in the right direction.

The first is turnovers. We were -5 on the night and didn't force a turnover for the second time this year. Since 2001 we are now 1-20 when we don't force a turnover. They scored 35 points off of turnovers, which reminded me of the last game that we lost to a team that was worse than us - Baylor last year, when we were again -5 in the turnover margin.

Turnovers were part of the next factor, but not the entire story. Field position. Both sides of the field position battle were bad for us. We had 17 possessions and our average starting field position was our own 22 yard line. Our BEST starting field position was our 34 yard line. KSU, on the other hand, had nine offensive possessions that resulted in a score - their average starting field position on those drives was OUR 38 yard line. The defense didn't really have a much room for error, not that it played great, but that certainly magnified the problem.

The third big factor was how quickly everything got out of control. Having such a young team we're not able to stop the bleeding, especially in our first true road game of the season. Things snowballed so quickly from that first fumble that we were playing catchup before we even had a chance to get in our seats.

We know that we're better than what we saw in Manhattan. Just last week we played oSu to the point where we should have won. This was a crushing loss. I really think that after seeing how we fared against Okie State last weekend most Ags felt that we would be a bowl team and maybe even pick up a win or two beyond that. As I mentioned in my preview, this game was huge for us because now we have to win three games out of @tt, ISU, @CU, @OU, BU, t.u. in order to get to a bowl and after getting hammered by KSU like we did, I don't think any of those games are the gimmies I thought they were 3 days ago.

This game also really hurt Coach Sherman in the eyes of the already frustrated and impatient fan base. Here's a nice SAT prep: KSU '09 is to Sherman as OU '03 is to Fran. Fran lost a lot of fans that day and the same happened in Manhattan this weekend. The bloom was already off the rose after last year but I think most fans knew it would be rough in Sherman's first season. Most of us knew it would be rough this year as well, but no one can swallow a massacre at the hands of a really bad football team. Fans can take losses, but as I've said before, I'm tired of getting blown out. Sherman isn't going to get the same benefit of the doubt that Fran got because the fans are already hungry and Fran wore out everyone's patience.

A couple notes on the actual game itself. The OL was really bad and the stats showed it....JJ was sacked 6 times and we ran for -13 yards on the evening. Christine Michael led the team with 22 yards.

Cyrus Gray only had two carries, but I don't think he was hurt because he had 7 KO returns.

JJ's 3 INTs were bad but he still managed to throw for 314 yards and 2 TDs when he wasn't on his back.

EZ led the team again with 136 yards and 2 TDs on 5 receptions - he is on pace for 890 yards receiving. Howard Morrow also had a nice night with 6 receptions for 75 yards. Tannehill had only one reception for 10 yards and it seemed as if he was on the field for a good number more snaps than he has been in recent weeks.

The defense gave up four TD runs to Daniel Thomas, but he only had 91 yards. Overall we gave up 232 yards on the ground and 192 through the air for 424 yards. Compared to the score that is not too-too bad. Von is getting double and tripled teamed on amost every snap and we can't overcome it with the rest of the DL. Von did pick up a sack, giving him 10 for the season but as a team we only have 16 so clearly we have some problems at DL.

It might be best that next weekend's game in lubbock isn't going to be televised.

| Where are you?

Friday October 16th, 2009

It looks like Willie the Wildcat (and his amazing Power Towel)is glad to see that Bill Snyder has returned after a nice retirement. Snyder is trying to bring the Kansas State program back to where he left it 4 years ago (actually, I'm sure he'd rather bring it back to where he had it 6 years ago).

Thus far, he is only slightly better than where he was when he took the program over originally back in '89. The Wildcats are 3-3 with wins over UMass (just barely; 21-17), Tennessee Tech (49-7), & Iowa State (even more barely; 24-23) and losses to U-LaLa (17-15), UCLA (23-9), texas tech (66-14). This is a bad K-State football team.

This game starts a stretch of games where we need to win. Three of our next four games are: At Kansas State, home for Iowa State, & at Colorado.

Big 12 North Losses
-------------------
2000: Colorado (3-5)
2001: Colorado (7-1)
2002: Nebraska (3-5), Missouri (2-6)
2003: Nebraska (5-3), Missouri (4-4)
2004:                                      (their Big 12 record)
2005: Colorado (5-3), Iowa State (4-4)
2006: Nebraska (6-2)
2007: Kansas (7-1), Missouri (7-1)
2008: Kansas St (2-6)                     

We have 6 losses in the last 9 years against .500 or worse Big 12 North teams. These are the games that we haven't won and until we're able to consistantly beat the bad Big 12 North teams we're not going to be heading to a fun bowl game. I would say that since 2002-2003 the Big 12 North winner is about par with the Big 12 South 3rd or 4th place team. The first big step back into Big 12 prominence is beating our Big 12 North schedule.

Not only is this game important from a "We need to beat our Big 12 North opponents" standpoint but it is also a huge game in terms of us getting to a bowl game. Let's look at our schedule, shall we?

@ KSU
@ tech
Iowa State
@ CU
@ OU
BU
t.u.

Keep in mind that we need 3 wins to become bowl eligible meaning we need to go a minimum 3-4 the rest of the way. We play four of our next five games on the road. If we win this weekend we need to go 2-3 the rest of the way with three of those games coming at home. If we lose this weekend we need to go 3-2 the rest of the way with three of those games coming at home - keeping in mind one of those is against #3 texas. That becomes a much bigger bite to swallow.

Ok, so let's take a look at the Wildcats

   KSU O            TAMU D
==========        ==========
176.0 (38)  RUSH  153.8 (81)
181.3 (91)  PASS  233.6 (81)
357.3 (75)   TOT  387.4 (83)
 22.0 (99)  SCOR   27.6 (85)

K-State is going to run the ball at us, which has been one of our weaknesses. JUCO Daniel Thomas is their top back with 127 carries for 578 yards (4.6 ypc and 4 TD). HOWEVER, this is EASILY the worst passing attack we've faced and against UA and oSu both teams had great passers to counter their strong running game.

KSU doesn't have a QB. Carson Coffman and Grant Gregory have split time under center with not so great results (Coffman 66-of-111 for 815 yards 2 TD to 4 INT; Gregory 23-of-37/264/2/1).

Regardless of which guy is throwing the ball, they're both looking for Brandon Banks. The tiny senior is one of the top wideouts in the conference but is definitely missing Josh Freeman (surprise 1st rounder last spring) heaving him the rock. This season Banks has 24 receptions for 294 yards and a TD. RB Daniel Thomas is second on the team with 16 receptions for 180 yards.

Banks also returns kicks (21 for an avg of 28.0 ypr with 2 TDs already) and punts (5 for an avg of 11.6 ypr). Let's not pull the same mistake we did last week with Parrish and keep kicking off to their best offensive weapon over and over.

One other note is that their OL gives up more sacks than anyone else in the Big 12, so expect to see Von Miller's name in the paper on Sunday.

  TAMU O             KSU D
==========        ==========
190.8 (28)  RUSH  126.3 (50)
321.8 (9)   PASS  219.5 (65)
512.6 (4)    TOT  345.8 (53)
 37.0 (12)  SCOR   25.5 (66)

I'm not sure how much we can put into KSU's overall season rankings because outside of texas tech (who COMPLETELY lit them up for 739 yards of offense with their backup QB) UCLA (#114 nationally in total offense), UMass (D1-AA), ULa-La (#99), Tennessee Tech (D1-AA), Iowa State (#42).

JJ should light up the Wildcats.

The Wildcats best defensive position is DE where they are led by senior UVA transfer, Jeff Fitzgerald, and his backup, Brandon Harold. They should match up against Michael Shumard who should be starting at left tackle if he is healthy enough to play. Their leading tackler is DB Emmanuel Lamur with 30 and he is followed by LBer Alex Hrebec and S Tysyn Hartman (who leads the team with 3 INTs).

Kickoff is 6pm at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and the game is going to be televised on Fox College Sports. Check your cable/satellite package to make sure you either get it....or get to the closest sports bar.

Gig'em & B.T.H.O. K-State! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Sunday October 11th, 2009

This loss hit me harder than the one last weekend up in Dallas. I felt like with everything going haywire for Okie State this past week, and the fact that I thought they were overrated in the Top 15, that we had a real chance to get that first big signature win. The part that was so hard to swallow was that as the game went on WE DID have a real chance, but we squashed ourselves.

JJ running for his life

The first few possessions of the game we looked terrible on offense. oSu scored on their 3rd possession after some great starting field position before we traded field position on a handful of punts before we answered with a mid-second quarter 28 yard TD pass to EZ. On the extra point we had a bad snap so Ryan Tannehill (the holder) grabbed it and ran it in for the two point conversion.

Another oSu punt gave us great field position at our own 46 yard line but on the first snap of the drive, JJ was sacked and stripped of the ball. That was bad (a) because it was JJ's second fumble in as many games, and (b) it gave oSu great field position with the momentum shift.

Thankfully, the defense came to our rescue as Matt Moss picked off a Zach Robinson pass on their second play and we turned in a nice TD drive to give us the 15-7 lead.

oSu answered right back bringing the score to 15-14. We marched down the field and had a 3rd and goal at the one yard line. We missed on a pass attempt and then Sherman decided, with just under a minute and half remaining in the half, to go for it on 4th down. I was yelling "TAKE THE POINTS! TAKE THE POINTS!" but JJ threw a fade to Jamie McCoy and the ball fell through his arms to the ground [note: after watching the replay at home on my TV, the oSu defender got a hand in there making the play much more difficult]

There were a couple more plays that would have literally changed the outcome of the game. One was on a deep ball thrown by Robinson right to the goal line that Dustin Harris had picked -- except it went right through his hands and deflected right into mitts the WR behind him. Even if that ball is just swatted down we're looking at a 7 point swing.

I think the most frustrating thing from the game was our defense's utter failure getting off the field on third down -- PARTICULARLY 3rd-and-long.

	3rd & 4 - pass completed for 40 yard gain - drive ended with TD
	3rd & 13 - pass completed for 15 yards - drive ended with TD
	3rd & 8 - pass completed for 32 yards - drive ended with TD
	3rd & 9 - pass completed for 15 yards - drive ended with TD

Stop any one of those third downs and game over. It is just so deflating for the crowd and the defense when we give up a 3rd and long.

We saw our fifth different starting offensive line lineup this week as Patrick Lewis got the start at tackle with Michael Shumard out with an injury. I thought the OL was just as bad this week as it was last week and JJ was running for his life on just about every snap. The fact that he has only turned the ball over twice (both fumbles) this season is pretty remarkable considering how much pressure he is under from the opponents. There were times when oSu wasn't even bringing a blitz and they were penetrating, and on one play they only had 3 down linemen and didn't blitz and JJ was still pressured.

Senior Jordan Pugh also missed this game with an injury allowing Stephen Campbell to step into the starting lineup. We started eight freshmen today and on several occasions had 5 freshmen on the field at the same time, both on offense (C.Michael/P.Lewis/S.Barrera/EZ/B.Jackson) and defense (D.Harris/S.Campbell/S.Nealy/J.Stewart/K.Mangum). We also pulled Aaron Arterburn's redshirt making him the 17th true freshman to see the field - a school record.

Cyrus Gray had a nice afternoon, although it wasn't his best. I thought he ran hard and earned the majority of the carries out of the backfield. He also had a nice afternoon returning kick offs with 90 yards on 3 returns (long of 41). He now stands alone atop the school's Career Kick Return Yardage list - 5 games into his sophomore season.

JJ threw for 273 yards and 3 more TDs on 22-of-42 passing. He is up to 14 TDs on the season, well on his way to breaking his school record of 21 from last year. He also broke and set the Big 12 record today with his 228th consecutive pass without an interception. That means he is going to be picked in the first quarter next week, doesn't it?

Uzoma Nwachukwu was the top target with 8 receptions for 141 yards and a TD. He is on his way to being one of my favorite players. I can't wait to see a starting lineup of Fuller, Tannehill, & EZ.

Speaking of favorite players, before the game there was a Wrecking Crew tailgate set up by TexAgs.com to benefit HelpMandyWalk. We didn't get there until after the Coaches left but I did get to meet Terrence Murphy, probably my favorite football player. He was a cool guy.

....and while I'm talking about #5 I need to mention Howard Morrow, who has stepped up big in the absence of Jeff Fuller. Morrow had another four receptions and 47 yards to go with his first TD since, well, since high school. I actually had to look that up - I couldn't believe he hasn't scored a TD here at A&M. Not only is Morrow getting the ball, he's making the tough catches and taking some hits over the middle, which isn't a fun job. Morrow already has 19 receptions on the season after having 23 career receptions going into the year.

One final note about the game....it was announced as Billy Pickard Day. I thought it was a great tribute for the man who has been with us since the days of Junction, but the circumstances were probably a little strained behind the scenes. Pickard was one of the casualties of the Athletic Department layoffs back in the start of July but Bill Byrne has allowed him back on a voluntary basis. They let him lead the team out onto the field and they named the Welborn underground pass-way after him: Billy Pickard Pass-way, to be known as Pickard's Pass. My father-in-law and I talked about this and we both thought it was kind of a weird thing to name after someone.

Overall, it was a frustrating afternoon and a game that we could have very easily won. I know it wasn't a full strength Cowboy team but it would have been a big win for us regardless - every W gets us a closer to a bowl and then to a better bowl. We've got a week to get ready to go on the road to Kansas State. The Wildcats are horrible, but it's a road game for us which is never a gimmie.

| Where are you?

Thursday October 8th, 2009

S.I. Jinx Strikes Once Again

Well, I had this thing pretty much written and then on Wednesday there was big, breaking news that All-World wideout, Dez Bryant, is going to be suspended for the season by the NCAA. I'm not sure if the suspension will hold up but I can't imagine that everything gets cleared up before Saturday.....and I don't really care if it gets cleared up after Saturday.

Apparently, Bryant hung out with Deion Sanders up in Frisco and then, for whatever reason, lied to the NCAA when they asked him about it. With Bryant being out it kind of changes everything.

         v. UGA       UH       Rice      GrSt        2009
         =======    ======    ======    ======    ==========
Rush O     172        194       124       321      202.8 (25)
Pass O     135        240       227       266      217.0 (60)
 Tot O     307        434       351       587      419.8 (29)
Scor O      24         35        41        56       39.0 (10)

I was going to talk about how Mike Gundy lost his #2 and #3 wide receivers, Damian Davis and Bo Boling, who both either left or were excused from the team during the off-season....but now he's missing all three of his top. Bryant only played in three games but he already had 323 yards and 4 TDs. This is going to be a very different Okie State pass offense.

The guy who is going to suffer the most is QB Zac Robinson. Robinson is one of the better QBs in the country and has thrown for 791 yards and 6 TDs (to 2 INTs). Adding to that he has 36 caries for 105 yards, which doesn't seem like he is running as much this year as he did last year - BUT he is a very athletic QB who CAN scramble. I wouldn't be shocked to see Gundy have Robinson call his own number a few more times this week than he has all season.

To make matters worse, the Cowboys running game is beat up. All-Big 12 RB Kendall Hunter hasn't played in their last two games (32 carries/104 yards/1 TD; 3.2 ypc) is unlikely to see the turf on Saturday with an ankle injury. In Kendall's absence Keith Toston has carried the load toting the rock 46 times for 280 yards and 4 TDs (6.1 ypc).

Jeremy Smith has also had 15 carries for 160 yards which equates out to 10.7 ypc - true freshman included runs of 69 and 51 yards against Grambling State two weekends ago and then hurt his shoulder in practice and had to have season ending surgery.

         v. UGA       UH       Rice      GrSt        2009
         =======    ======    ======    ======    ==========
Rush D      95        146        76       156      118.3 (44)
Pass D     162        366       301       104      233.3 (83)
 Tot D     257        512       377       260      351.5 (58)
Scor D      10         45        24         6       21.3 (45)

This Okie State defense isn't particularly stout. They gave up tons of yards to UH and Rice, particularly through the air.

This will be oSu's first trip away from the comfy confines of Boone Picken's playground so that is something that should play in our favor.

What a crazy way to start off Big 12 play!

BTHO oSu! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Monday October 5th, 2009

That game didn't go anything like we had hoped.

Sean and I drove up to Arlington Saturday afternoon and met our Dad, who flew in from a Phoenix business trip on Friday night. We grabbed some grub and headed to the stadium to check out the billion dollar wonder that is JerryWorld.

I thought the stadium was really cool. I liked the interior layout with the way it was tiered and the way the concourses were set up with ample space for pre-and-post game traffic.

JerryWorld - Cowboy Stadium

I was shocked yesterday to read that there were only 71,872 in attendance. That is the smallest crowd we've played in front of since the Baylor game last season in Waco. But the way the stadium sets up and with the amount of crowd noise I would have guessed at least 10-15 thousand more were there.

There were two things I would change. For a stadium that spent $40M on a big screen, I would have thought that there was at least one spot in the park that showed in-game statistics. The second thing was that I couldn't find the American flag when we sang the National Anthem. Maybe it was on the other side of the giant screen, but if that is the case they should put another flag in there.

Shortly after we arrived in our seats Jennifer's family arrived as well. I had never been to a game with Jennifer's brother and I really enjoyed sitting by him because he was as intense as I was. Even with the result of the game being what it was, I had a really good time seeing the family and watchin' Aggie football.

Our seats were great too. We were on the last row of the lowest deck which was great because we could stand when we wanted to and didn't have to worry about irritating anyone. Behind us was a 6'0" wall

On the field the team came out of the tunnel with a bit of a surprise for us - sporting white helmets for the first time since our season finale way back in 1978. I don't think they were actually retro helmets because the logo was our current logo, not the one we used back in the '70s. I thought they looked pretty cool, and I would actually love to see what they look like with our maroon tops....but because I was a baseball player in high school it means that I am mega-superstitious and I am officially anti-white helmet simply because of the score.

I have to admit that I was more amped up for this game than I have been for a game in several years. When the game actually kicked off we came out like gang-busters.

Arkansas's first three possessions were 3-and-outs, with the first two ending on huge sacks (Von Miller and Matt Featherston). Our first possession we gutted them right down the field before stalling out and kicking a field goal. On our third possession Jerrod Johnson scrambled around and found Brandal Jackson who took it 60 yards for the TD.

Things were looking great and we were just dominating on both sides of the ball.

Then Arkansas scored after a huge wide-open 67 yard pass took them down to the 10 yard line.

Our ensuing following possession was where the momentum swing took effect.

We got into a 3rd-and-12 and completed a pass for 10 yards, however we were called for pass interference on a guy who wasn't even in on the play (the pass was to Howard Morrow and Cyrus Gray was flagged). That backed us up and had us punting from our own 25 instead of from the 50....a full twenty-five yard difference in field position.

Then we attempted to rugby kick the punt....and it went out of bounds 5 yards down field. Arkansas started their drive at our 38 yard line.

The shift in potential field position was devastating. Arkansas took the lead on this drive, 14-10, and didn't look back.

Things looked better on Arkansas's next possession when Von Miller was amidst another sack when Arky QB, Ryan Mallett, threw it away and was picked by Kyle Mangan. We ended up punting - BUT - Arkansas muffed the punt at their own 12 and we recovered. We're looking great fighting back into the game.....but it wasn't meant to be. Jerrod fumbled on our second snap and Arkansas returned it 85 yards for the TD. 21-10 Arkansas. Talk about a swing in momentum.

The one that got away

On our next drive JJ hit a wide open Ryan Tannehill, who had nothing but turf between him and the endzone - but Ryan dropped the pass. I have NEVER seen Tannehill drop that ball....EVER. We have to punt and they pick up 3 more points on a FG. And they would score another TD before half (missing the PAT) that took the score to 30-10 with 1:34 remaining in the half.

We actually looked great on our final drive of the half starting at our 19 and moving the ball quickly down the field. One huge mistake by the officiating cost us some points. On our fifth play of the drive JJ ran for 7 yards and we called timeout and it was whistled for with 29 or 30 second remaining but the clock ran all the way down to 18 seconds before they stopped it. I was livid. We completed another two passes, both for first downs. Then we completed one more for a third first down and they gave us 1 second to snap and get off a final pass. We should have had 13 seconds, which with a spike would have given us plenty of time to move the FG unit onto the field OR we could have tried another pass down field and then tried to get the FG unit on the field. I don't know how this didn't get caught by the officials or our coaching staff.

The second half was more of the same. Every time we scored to get ourselves quasi-back into the game they'd answer and take us completely out.

There were two huge factors in the game.

The first was that in the second quarter they started double teaming Von Miller on every snap (sometimes even chipping with a tailback as well). He was completely taken out of the game after causing massive disruption prior to this. Before the season started one of my biggest fears was that our DL wasn't strong enough to compensate for a double-team on Miller, and against Arkansas it was evident that good teams will give us fits in this regard.

The second biggest factor was that the offensive line was manhandled by the Razorback's d-line. Jerrod spent more time running for his life than a three legged zebra on National Geographic. Poor true-freshman Stephen Barrera, in only his second career appearance on the offensive line (he was a DT in HS), was given the start at LT and he didn't look good. To make matters worse, Michael Shumard (the #2 on this week's 2-deep) couldn't slide over to replace him because he was injured and taken from the sidelines back to the locker room on a Gator-cart. Danny Baker came in to the game in the third quarter and didn't look much better. JJ got hammered time and time again. He had NO time to throw the ball.

Even with the horrific, maybe even non-existent, blocking we had JJ turned in some big numbers once again. He was 30-of-58 for 345 yards and 2 TDs and didn't throw a pick. His 345 yards was good for the 11th spot in the school's single game passing record book.

JJ found eight different receivers on the night but Brandal Jackson had the big night with 118 yards and a TD on 4 receptions. Ryan Tannehill and Howard Morrow had team-high 6 receptions.

Our rushing game was alright with Cyrus Gray picking up 65 yards on 12 carries and C-Mike adding 46 yards on 11 more carries. Gray started off the game with a nice 31 yard run which was, like last week, a big chunk of his overall yardage.

This game was not the end of the season. I just confirmed our concerns from the beginning of the season after we got our heads inflated from three games against patsys.

| Where are you?

Friday October 2nd, 2009

This is a very important game for A&M. We're 3-0 which is nice but let's be honest, we've played 3 patsies. We've looked good and we've all started thinking, "Hey, this ship is turning around." I don't think there is any denying that. Our game against Arkansas marks our first real opportunity to see how far the ship has turned so far. Very similar to 2007 just before the Miami game - we were undefeated and looking to see how good we were. Hopefully, the results are different.

Arkansas is 1-2 - BUT they've played a difficult schedule that isn't getting any less difficult. Most of their fans are looking at this game on the schedule as dip in their schedule.

09/05 Missouri State
09/19 #23 Georgia
09/26 #3 Alabama
10/03 TAMU
10/10 Auburn
10/17 #1 Florida
10/24 #21 Ole Miss
10/31 Eastern Michigan
11/07 South Carolina
11/14 Troy
11/21 Miss St
11/28 #4 LSU

Even some of those teams, like Auburn and SC, that aren't ranked are just on the tip and will be if they win this weekend.

It's not that they don't play any powder-puffs....they just spread them throughout their schedule instead of playing them all at the beginning of the season.

What that means to us is that while they are 1-2, it isn't an indication that they are a bad team. In fact, I think most would say that they are better because of it.

We on the other hand have a roster of youth and we will be playing away from Kyle Field for the first time this season. That makes me more nervous than anything else.

           2008         v. MOSt      UGA      Bama        2009
        ==========      =======    ======    ======    ==========
Rush O  113.5 (97)        144         77        63      94.7 (106)
Pass O  259.6 (23)        447        408       191     348.7 (4)
 Tot O  373.1 (49)        591        485       254     443.3 (19)
Scor 0   21.9 (96)         48         41         7      32.0 (38)

This is going to be one of the best passing offenses we see this season. I'm even willing to say that Ryan Mallett is going to be the best QB we will face this season. Yep, better than Colt and Bradford.

Their total offense dropped from #2 to #19 after the Alabama game, but anyone is going to drop when playing Alabama.

Going into the game I thought that we'd need to watch out for their rushing game. They bring back Michael Smith, who finished second in the SEC in rushing last year, but Smith only has 24 carries in three games and a 168 yards. He has shared carries with R.Wingo Jr (12 carries for 62 yards), Broderick Green (16 for 38), and Dennis Johnson (11 for 13).

The real star of the offense is Mallett. He is, however, not very mobile. He has earned the nickname "Statue". The key to this game will be how much pressure Von Miller and Matt Featherston put on him. If he has a chance he is going to throw the deep ball and he is deadly accurate.

His WR corps is very good. His top three targets are Greg Childs (13 receptions for 250 yards and 3 TDs), Joe Adams (13/206/2), and Jarius Wright (11/261/1).

           2008         v. MOSt      UGA      Bama        2009
        ==========      =======    ======    ======    ==========
Rush D  170.8 (90)         82        155       134     123.4 (52)
Pass D  204.4 (54)        123        375       291     263.0 (107)
 Tot D  375.2 (72)        205        530       425     386.7 (91)
Scor D   31.2 (93)         10         52        35      32.3 (102)

On the defensive side of the ball they bring back 9 starters. Malcolm Sheppard (DT) and Jerry Franklin (LB) are their top two defenders from a year ago but Matt Harris (FS) and Wendel Davis (LB) and Jerico Nelson (SS) are the three leading tacklers.

They have one of the worst pass defenses in the country and this gives JJ a perfect opportunity to display his game in front of the country.

It's going to be a barn burner in Dallas and I hope that we send our good host, Mr. Jerry Jones, home unhappy.

Drive safely, have fun, Gig'em, and B.T.H.O. Arkansas! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Thursday October 1st, 2009

I realized that over the last few seasons when we play an opponent that has a legitimate history I've highlighted something about their school's history....and it doesn't hurt that they're typically games I'm traveling to go see and I'm already a bit amped up about them (Army in '06, Cal in '06, Miami in '07, Penn State in '07).

Yeah, that's actually a popular head covering in Fayetteville

We haven't played Arkansas since I was in elementary school so outside of Darren McFadden, the Hog Call and Bill Clinton, I don't know the first thing about the Razorbacks. I know I'm not the only one in this spot and even if you do remember the days when we met up in the SWC it couldn't hurt to have a refresher, could it?

From what I've gathered Arkansas wasn't one of our fiercest SWC rivals but there is definitely some history between the two schools and playing them every year for next decade will certainly stir that up and maybe take it to another level. As an out-of-conference opponent that we will be playing annually, it very easily could become something along the lines of what we had with LSU back in the late-80s/early-90s.

The school itself is not as large as I would have guessed with an undergraduate population in the neighborhood of 15,000 (19,000 overall), which is slightly larger than Baylor's enrollment. The campus is located in far north-west Arkansas in Fayetteville. It is about 30 miles east of the Oklahoma border and just north of the Ozark Mountains.

As I was reading my ESPN Encyclopedia I discovered that the razorback's mascot, Tusk II, isn't actually a true razorback, which is now found only in Australia, he is a Russian boar. Something about that seems weird.

Sam Walton is a former student and the Walmart behemoth is a great source of wealth to the university. Other interesting tidbits....Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and former Cowboys HC Jimmy Johnson were teammates together in the mid-60s....one of their assistant coaches at Arkansas during that time was none other than Barry Switzer (who played for the Hogs from '56-'60). Life lesson: It's all about who you know - don't burn your bridges.

I'm really interested in seeing how the fans interact. The Big 12 has rivalries but, for the most part, they're not the bitter, hateful, disown-your-own-brother style rivalries that the SEC has. There are certainly a couple of schools that feel that way towards one another but in the SEC everyone seems to hate everyone. Part of that, I think, has to do with the fact that the Big 12 is still fairly new as a conference.

Even though in the big scheme of things Arkansas has only been in the SEC for a short period of time I am interested in seeing if their fans have picked up that cut-throat approach for their opponents, and if so how it rubs the Aggie faithful. Aggies really like to think that we're really friendly but what I've noticed is that if someone pushes us, we aren't afraid to push back.

I remember when I was getting ready for the '04 Cotton Bowl against Tennessee I was shocked at how venomous the Vols message boards were, particularly for a team they had no history against. It took me a little bit to realize and adjust to the fact that the SEC fans just go about things differently than the majority of the Big 12 fans. As soon as this past Sunday rolled around the Aggie message boards were started filling up with users named SECHog and ArkieFan and IAintGotNoTeeth just trying to rile everyone up. I think it's going to get pretty fierce between the two schools by the time it is all said and done.

This rivalry we've re-started originated way back in 1903. We didn't actually start playing them regularly until 1927 and from then until their last season in the old Southwest Conference (1991) we played them every single year except for 1931-1933.

The Razorbacks hold the overall record by quite a large margin, 24-38-3. There were two long stretches that really attributed to that record. As soon as Bear Bryant left in 1958 we started a 14 year stretch when we won once and then from 1977-1982 we were 0-7. Yowzers.

I wanted to chronicle a whole bunch of games throughout the long history between the two schools and then I realized that I would probably be the only one who is interested (and I don't have five weeks to get this written). Maybe next year.

The game is being played, strategically, in Dallas, which is a big recruiting hot bed that both teams want to get their claws into. Mike Sherman has made it a mission to re-establish a recruiting presence in Dallas and if you flip through this year's media guide you'll see that we have our foot planted in firmly in the ground up there and have had some success up in the DFW and surrounding areas.

The idea of the game can be seen as a little bit cheesy in the sense that the texas/OU game is played in Dallas every year but I think that since this isn't a conference game it's not quite the same. I was vehemently against playing texas tech in Dallas for several reasons but one of them was that we would be losing a home game every other year. By playing an out-of-conference opponent it isn't us losing a guaranteed home game every other season and it brings a spark in interest playing someone that we otherwise wouldn't see. My fear when we inked this deal was that after scheduling a long series with an SEC opponent we would completely abandon playing at least one other legitimate opponent in our OoC schedule. I was very pleased to see that my fear would not come true after we inked a home-and-home with both Southern Cal and Oregon just before the season started that should stretch over a 4 year stretch later in the decade. Of course, lots can happen between now and 2014 (see Florida State, Michigan State, Air Force....) and we still need to fill our OoC schedule between now and then. Regardless I'm happy it wasn't thrown completely in the gutter.

The Hogcall

Frank Broyles demonstrates proper technique

Years and years ago, when I was at good old Oak Creek Elementary there was a girl whose last name was Sooy. I remember being on the playground and some guys were yelling "Soooie! Pig Sooie!" at her. I didn't get it at all. She ended up going to A&M and a few months ago when I was digging through some old media guides (cause that's what I do) I realized that her father is Tom Sooy, who played for A&M back in the late-60s under Coach Stallings. Totally random story that I thought I'd toss in there for ya.

I consulted my ESPN College Football Encyclopedia and it was able to give me a good idea of what to expect from the Porkers.

"Woooooo, Pig! Sooie!
Woooooo, Pig! Sooie!
Woooooooo, Pig! Sooie! Razorbacks!"

There is, of course, a correct way to call the Hogs. Novices are advised to practice. You begin with both arms raised high and wave your fingers as the volume rises on the word "Wooooooo." The arms come down in a pumping motion on the word "Pig," then are extended again, vigorously, on the word "Sooie."

To us, that sounds kind of silly. But to them, half of the stuff we yell probably sounds silly too. Don't cast stones in a glass house. That said, I think that one of the cool things about college football is getting to see other school's traditions.

Program History Quickie

The upswing in the program started with Frank Broyles taking over as the head coach in 1958. Broyles lost his first 6 games as the head coach but turned things around with a win over our Aggies (who were in their first season post-Bear). In the 19 seasons at the helm, Broyles won the SWC title seven times and they won the national championship in 1964. Broyles became the Athletic Director in 1974 and after he stepped down from coaching he focused solely on being the AD, until 2007 when he retired.

Once Broyle's gave up the reigns of the football team, the Hogs brought in a youngster named Lou Holtz. Holtz was the HC in Fayetteville from '77-'83 before leaving for Minnesota and then Notre Dame. Under Holtz the Hogs went 62-21-2, but I think it is interesting to see that they were 30-5 in his first three seasons and then after all of Broyle's players sifted out of the program they were just 30-16 over his final four seasons.

When Holtz bolted for the Land of Lakes, the Hogs hired Ken Hatfield to run the show. Hatfield - played DB for the NC team - he is probably most famous for his punt return against texas in the 1964 season which preserved their perfect season and notched them a W over the then ranked #1 ranked longhorns. Following that early season game the Razorbacks only gave up 7 points over their final 6 contests. Hatfield went on to coach the Razorbacks for 6 seasons in the 80s and finished with an even higher winning percentage (.753) than Broyles (.708) or Holtz (.735). I know him as the head coach at Rice who continued to run the wishbone in this modern spread happy era (he was there through 2005).

An A&M tie to Arkansas is that good ol' Joe Kines took over as the head coach in 1992, their first season in the SEC after jumping ship from the SWC, in an odd fashion. The Razorbacks fired third year head coach Jack Crowe after they lost their first game of the season against The Citadel and Kines moved up from defensive coordinator to lead the program. They weren't very good....3-7-1. The Hogs hired Danny Ford to be the head coach in '93 but Kines stayed on board through the 1994 season as the DC (he had also been there for a season prior to his head coaching experiment - so from '91-'94 overall).

Houston Nutt (mid-70s Arkansas QB) took over in '98 and brought the program back to a respectable level - for the first time since joining the SEC. Nutt bottomed out in '04 and '05 before turning it around in '06 with Darren McFadden.

Nutt left for Ol' Miss before last season and Bobby Petrino was brought in from the Atlanta Falcons (he left them mid-seasons) to take the reigns and that is where we are today.

With Petrino coming into Fayetteville I wanted to take a look at how he changed the offense. Everything I read before the season stated that he runs a balanced offense....but this isn't a balanced offense

  2005      2006      2007      2008        2009
========  ========  ========  ========    ========
63% Run   64% Run   66% Run   46% Run     40% Run
37% Pass  36% Pass  33% Pass  54% Pass    60% Pass

Clearly, he took Houston Nutt's rushing attack and changed their philosophy. I say that, but you have to think that if Petrino had Darren McFadden & he would have been running the ball too.

Petrino stayed in the family when looking for his offensive coordinator, hiring his brother, Paul. He also, during this past off-season brought in John L. Smith as a special teams coach, it is Smith's first job since leaving Michigan State as their head coach. I always, for whatever reason, have Smith and Petrino linked in my head. I think it has to do with the fact that they were both HCs at Louisville.

So I Leave You....

....with "Arkansas Fight"

"ARKANSAS FIGHT"
Hit that line! Hit that line!
Keep on going!
Take that ball right
down the field!
Give a cheer. Rah! Rah!
Never fear. Rah! Rah!
Arkansas will never yield!
On your toes, Razorbacks,
to the finish,
Carry on with all your might!
For it’s A-A-A-R-K-A-N-S-A-S
for Arkansas!
Fight! Fight! Fi-i-i-ight!

Tomorrow....a preview of this year's Arkansas squad.

Gig'em.

| Where are you?

Monday September 28th, 2009

Make sure to get your vaccination. Swine flu is popping up everywhere.

B.T.H.O. Arkansas! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Sunday September 27th, 2009

Best Seats Ever

This week was a little bit different for me. I got a call from my Dad early in the week and he had been offered 4 tickets and wanted to know if Sean and I would sit with him. Neither of us had ever sat anywhere in the stadium other than the student section, and my Dad won't stand for an entire game so we've never actually sat together for a home game.

When the tickets came in the mail he called me and told me the section and row....and I called him back a couple of minutes later to let him know that these are probably the best seats we're ever going to see a game from - second deck, 50 yard line, row 2.

There was a fourth ticket so we invited one of my good friends, and a good Ag, Michael who hadn't been able to get up for a game yet. Michael met us at Wings-N-More for the pregame ritual of greatness....mmmmm.

Once we figured out how to get to our seats - as we found it was not advisable to go in the gate we normally go in - we all just kind of sat there (in actual seats, not a bench) and just soaked it in.

The game itself started very poorly as UAB kicked off and recovered a pooch kick giving them starting field position at our 30. That drive ended with a FG. Our offense started off with the fastest 3-and-out I think I've ever seen....then things picked up - tremendously.

I thought that the defense played well. I thought we tackled much better than we did against Utah State. The Blazers kicked two FGs on two drives that started on our side of the field - which means the defense actually held well. They also scored a TD on a long run in the 4th quarter against our C-team.

We finished giving up only 303 yards of defense and a full third of those yards came on their final two drives against our third teamers.

Von Miller picked up another 1.5 sacks giving him 7.5 in 3 games. The last player to record more than 7.5 sacks in a season for us was Jerrod Penright in 2002 when he finished with 9.5.

We held Joe Webb in check. He threw for 60 yards and ran for 65 yards and one TD.

Guess what Ags....we have the #1 total offense in the nation! 574.3 yards per game. We're also the #4 Scoring offense in the nation with an average of 45 ppg.

A big reason for that is Jerrod Johnson. JJ had a great game against UAB after (what I felt was) an off night the previous week. He was 23-of-29 for 290 yards with three TD passes. He also ran for 61 yards and 3 TDs. That is a nice night.

JJ came out at the start of the 4th quarter (just shy of breaking his school record of number of 300 yard games) and we got to see Ryan Tannehill step under center for the first time. He managed the team in two possessions handing off most of the time and completing his only pass of the night for 8 yards. Tommy Dorman came in for our final drive and did pretty much the same thing as Tannehill completing one pass for 10 yards.

The injured

I think the most impressive thing offensively was that we completely bombed the Blazers without our two top offensive players, Christine Michael and Jeff Fuller. Michael suffered a calf strain last week and was cleared to play but Sherman held him out to make sure he was healthy for the Arkansas. He was standing on the bench the entire game waving a towel over his head - he was totally into the game and I don't think he'll have any problems being a full strength next week. Fuller is going to miss the next 3 or 4 games with a broken right leg. I also saw that backup linebacker, Ricky Cavanaugh, didn't dress out either.

Before Tannehill went under center he had a pretty nice night with 101 yards and a TD receiving - and he was pretty much only playing on 3rd downs. Howard Morrow also had a nice night in Fuller's absence grabbing 5 catches for 71 yards. Also scoring TDs were Ryan Swope and last week's 12th Man, Don Bishop....both were career firsts.

In the running game, I thought we struggled without Michael. Cyrus Gray finished the night with 99 yards and a TD but he had 40 yards on breakaway late in the 4th quarter that really swung his stats. Before that run he was averaging 3.1 ypc on 18 carries and really struggled running the ball up the middle. I thought that Bradley Stephens actually had a better night picking up 45 yards on only 9 carries (for an avg of 5.0).

We pulled the redshirt off of Stephen Barrera giving him the start at LT. He was the third starter at LT in three games (fourth since fall camp with Lucas Patterson). Him playing well is important because it allows Michael Shumard to move back to his natural position at G. We also got to see a lot of Patrick Lewis later in the game.

I wanted to make a special mention of Kenny Brown. Brown has turned himself into a great special teams player and I've really been impressed with his return coverage.

The final two things I wanted to touch on really quickly -- the penalties were MUCH, MUCH better (3 for 25 yards)....and we actually lost the turnover battle (-1) and we didn't force a turnover - but won the game. It was our first time to win a game without forcing a turnover since before 2001 (1-19 record).

I'm working on a nice Arkansas Preview so stay tuned during the week and get ready for a big game next Saturday night in Jerry's World.

WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Thursday September 24th, 2009

The Blazers started the season with two CUSA conference games and then squeezed in a game against Troy last weekend before heading down to Aggieland this weekend. I would hate to start the season against a conference opponent.

Joe Webb

They completely lit Rice up. Actually, their QB Joe Webb, completely lit Rice up. He accounted for 417 of their 516 yards and four of their six touchdowns.

Webb is as much of a threat on the ground as he is through the air. He led the team in rushing in 2008 with 1,021 and 11 TDs and the threw for 2367 yards with 10 TDs (16 INTs). He's doing the same thing this season with 367 yards and 3 TDs on the ground and 561 yards and 5 TDs through the air. On the season he has accounted for 73% of their TDs and 74% of their offensive yardage.

UAB        2008         v. Rice    v. SMU    @ Troy       2009
        ==========      =======    ======    ======    ==========
Rush O  168.9 (39)        295        222       176      231.0 (18)
Pass O  197.3 (76)        221        226       109     185.3 (89)
 Tot O  366.2 (56)        516        448       285     416.3 (42)
Scor 0   22.8 (86)         44         33        14      30.3 (46)

Rush D  167.0 (88)        156         84       138     126.0 (57)
Pass D  262.9 (108)       235        353       413     333.7 (118)
 Tot D  429.9 (106)       391        437       551     459.7 (110)
Scor D   31.3 (95)         24         35        27      28.7 (90)

Since the opener against Rice, things have been glum for the Fire Breathers. The next week the stumbled against mighty SMU and Webb threw 4 INTs and had a fumble.

Webb leads the team in rushing, by a long shot, but Dexter Barnett and David Isabelle have split the majority of other carries out of the RB position with 15 for 58 yards and 10 for 75 yards, respectively.

Webb's top two targets are WR Frantrell Forrest (10 receptions for 165 yards and 3 TDs) and TE Jeffery Anderson (9 for 136 and 2).

On the defensive side of the ball Terrell Springs (SO/DB; 17 tackles and 4 PBU), Chase Daniel (SO/S; 15 tackles & 3 INT), and Brandon Carlisle (SR/DB; 15 tackles, 1 INT, 5 PBU) are their top 3 defenders. All defensive backs.

Basically, this is a game we should win. We need to be careful of their QB.

BTHO UAB! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Monday September 21st, 2009

We got word today that the A&M v. Arkansas game on October 3rd will be broadcast on ESPN2 and will kickoff at 6:30pm.

WHOOP!

| Where are you?

I was reading an old SI article by Bear Bryant and a paragraph jumped out at me....

When I went out to Texas A&M I heard a lot about the aerial circus in that league, how wonderful it was, and we hardly threw a pass that first year, hanging in there, getting beat every game by a couple points or a touchdown. People started saying, why don't you throw, why don't you open up? I said, because if we throw we're liable to get beat 50-0. The weaker you are the more conservative you play. You try to make fewer mistakes, and maybe then you'll luck into a win. You try to make your team do something they're not capable of and you get murdered.

I read that and all I could think was that sentence summed up Coach Fran in a nutshell. We just tried to luck ourselves into wins because we didn't have the defensive talent to win consistently.

| Where are you?

Sunday September 20th, 2009

Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees: Roddy Osborne, Greg Hill, John Roper, & Quentin Coryatt (l to r)

I certainly don't feel as good after this week's game as I did before it.

I think it's safe to say that our defense's weakness was exploited....we struggled mightily against the run. At some point in the second quarter they mysteriously went away from the run. They were gashing us and all of a sudden - "Hey let's throw the ball." Thank you Utah State.

Let's back it up a bit. Saturday morning my father came over and we started work on putting down some Pergo in our formal living room, which we are in the middle of remodeling into a study. We got about 60% of the room done in 2-1/2 hours before calling it quits so we could shower and get up to College Station for 3pm.

The reason we were shooting for 3pm is because the athletes who were inducted into the A&M Hall of Fame were signing autographs. This group included Greg Hill, Quentin Coryatt, Roddy Osborne (c/o '57), and Winston Crite (basketball legend from the 80s). As it turns out they weren't signing until 4pm so our pre-game Wing-N-More ritual kinda got squeezed out because we had to kill some time on campus while we were waiting for 4pm.

Ok, back to the field.

After struggling in the 1st quarter we took charge in the second and really broke the game open in the third quarter. I think the big turning point was when we were out on defense. Matt Featherston completely blew up the Utah State running back on a zone read play where their QB kept the handoff - and we stuffed the QB as well. We picked up a big sack after that and forced a punt. It was that play, I think, that really shook the fog out and we started to roll.

You probably noticed that the title of this recap said "Holds Off" so you would imagine that there was a swing the other direction - and there was. With 10 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter we were sitting on a 21 point lead. We had the ball on Utah State's 27 yard line and JJ hit Ryan Tannehill at the three yard line. The play was called back on an offensive PI from a WR that wasn't even in on the play. We went 3-and-out from there and had to punt.

Utah State started on their own 4 yard line and drove the entire field against our 2nd/3rd team defense and scored bringing it to a 15 point game (I noted to Sean that we had only 2 upperclassmen on the field for almost every snap). We missed a long FG and Utah State got the ball back and marched the field again to make it an 8 point game.

THEN they recovered an on-side kick and my stomach started to turn. I've seen this before.

Thankfully, we had brought our first team defense back into the game on the previous drive once they got into the redzone and we were able to force two incomplete passes on this final drive and then Von Miller forced a sack and fumble that we recovered to wrap up the win.

Von had another three sacks bringing his total to six in two games.

Initially, I thought that their starting field position was a big factor but after I got home and looked at the box score I realized it really wasn't. Our special team defense was pretty terrible and they had a handful of big returns or decent returns that were aided by penalties. They started with the ball at their 40 or better on four different occasions but only scored 3 points on those 4 drives. They actually had two TD drives of 94 and 96 yards.

Penalties were a factor. A big factor.

I didn't mention after the first game because part of me thought, "Eh, why rain on the parade?" and then another part of me though, "Eh, it was the first game of the year." After two weeks of it, it needs to be mentioned - we have a big problem with penalties.

Against New Mexico we were flagged 14 times for 123 yards and then against Utah State we were flagged for another 16 times for 147 yards. We're not good enough on either side of the ball to be giving up that kind of yardage. We are officially the most penalized team in the nation.

I also thought we tackled MUCH more poorly than we did in week 1. We gave up over 520 yards of defense. It looked like 2008 again.

Jerrod Johnson had another big game statistically. He threw for 322 yards and 4 TDs on 21-of-41 passing and again didn't turn the ball over. It was his fourth career 300+ yard performance, which is a school record.

Even with those great numbers, JJ wasn't his sharpest. Made a couple of bad decisions - one on the first drive of the game throwing into triple coverage down field on a 3rd & long when he had someone wide open closer in. Looking at the box score in this game doesn't give the whole story because his throws weren't as accurate as you'd like, having our receivers having to stop routes or to leave the ground or turn around to make the catch. He had good numbers but just looking at them isn't going to give you an accurate picture.

If we had our WR corps from two years ago we would have ended up with 60% of the passing yardage because the talent of the WRs has increased exponentially and we're making great plays while the ball is in the air.

Speaking of that....true freshman Uzoma Nwachukwu (EZ) had a game of a lifetime type night with 3 TD receptions, 101 yards receiving and a 39 yard TD run on an end around. Four touches with four TDs. I've been VERY impressed with him.

Some more bad news....we got hit by the injury bug. Jeff Fuller broke his fibula (leg) and is supposedly out 6-8 weeks or might take a redshirt for the year. Lee Grimes (no surprise - the guy is a walking bruise) hurt his ribs and Christine Michael came out in the 3rd quarter with a calf strain.

The injury to Michael just kept him from reaching the 100 yard plateau once again as he finished with 94 yards. He has played essentially 3 quarters in each game and has finished just a touch under 100 yards in each. He is going to be great.

All in all, I just want to win, and style points don't really matter when you're looking for a bowl bid. Honestly, this was more like what I was expecting for us to look like but after looking so good against New Mexico I raised my expectations - dangerous.

I do have a funny story from after the game that I'm sure my brother is thrilled for me to share. Sean, his roommate, and I were walking to the south-east corner of the Bright Complex to meet our Dad (it was the pre-determined meeting point). He was sitting on the steps waiting for us and must not have seen us coming so Sean thought it would be funny to run up and startle him. Sean took off, circled around and made a bee-line at our old man. Unfortunately, at full speed, Sean didn't realize that there was a curb about 4 feet in front of the steps and his left foot caught the curb and he hurtled through the air into Dad's lap.

He actually looked about as smooth as someone could when they trip but that didn't help the fact that he broke his big toe and had to hop from Kyle Field back to his house. He probably won't laugh about it when he reads this, but he will in a couple of months. Maybe he can get a handicap pass and we can get some sort of wicked parking at Jerry-World for the Arkansas game!?!

| Where are you?

Thursday September 17th, 2009

After a bye week this past weekend, our Ags are going to face off against the Aggies of Utah State. There is some cheesy Aggie v. Aggie joke in there somewhere that I'm not even going to attempt because it has probably already been printed in a real newspaper headline.

Utah State is coming off of a 3-9 season - their best since 2005. They are also under the leadership of a new head coach, Gary Anderson, who was previously the DC and Assistant HC at Utah for several years. They are slated to finish in the middle of the pack in the WAC.

Utah State  
           2008         v.Utah
        ==========      ======
Rush O  137.8 (68)        221
Pass O  196.5 (78)        121
 Tot O  334.3 (84)        342
Scor 0   24.0 (78)         17

Rush D  161.6 (82)        233
Pass D  251.1 (98)        286
 Tot D  412.7 (99)        519
Scor D   34.7 (107)        35

Looking at the numbers it would appear they got lit up by #19 Utah, however, the game was MUCH closer than those numbers indicate (final score was 35-17) because of a +2 TO margin in the Aggies favor. It was actually much closer in the first half when they went into the locker room down by a manageable 9 points....and then they also only gave up one TD in the second half.

Their offense is led by second year starter, Diondre Borel who is a very good runner (lead the team in '08). In 2008 he threw for 1705 yards and 11 TDs (to 10 INTs) with a 56.2% completion percentage. Against Utah he threw for 121 yards with an INT and then ran for 55 yards and a TD.

RB Robert Turbin

Borel's ground game is complimented by Robert Turbin who ran for 148 yards in their opener to add to his 485 yards he picked up in '08 (avg 4.6 ypc and had 8 TDs).

The only offensive starter that they aren't returning is their top WR. In the opener Stanley Morrison, who was their second leading receiver last year, led the team with 3 catches for 57 yards.

The defense wasn't very good last year with one of the worst total defenses and scoring defenses in the country. They do return their top defender, LBer Paul Igboeli who had 78 tackles and an INT last year. Against Utah their top defenders were S James Brindley who had 14 tackles and an INT and LBer Bobby Wagener who had 12 tackles and a fumble recovery.

On our side of the field there are a couple of notes I wanted to pass along....

True freshman, Ryan Swope, should make his Aggie debut and I'm looking forward to that. He'll be used in the return game and in a RB/WR role, similar to the way Mike Goodson was used last season.

We are also moving Michael Shumard from his natural position of LG back to LT, where he played out of necessity last year. Looks like he's playing there out of necessity again. I'm not sure if Baker will be moving over to take Shumard's spot or if it will be Evan Eike or even one of the freshmen.

This is a game that we should win fairly easily, but after seeing how Tulsa wholloped New Mexico this past weekend (44-10), we should probably temper some of our expanded expectations we picked up from our season opener.

I also want to advise that while you're at the game you're going to want to have pre-set your DVR for ESPN at 6:45pm on Saturday night to record Arkansas v. Georgia. Hopefully, you can record two shows at once because texas v. texas tech play at 7:00pm on ABC. I like to watch future opponents, particularly ones that we don't play regularly so I can have an idea of what we're going to see. The week after that they play at Alabama so we'll probably get to see that one on TV as well.

That's all I've got....

B.T.H.O. Utah State! WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Friday September 11th, 2009

Enjoy your freedoms, be thankful for the sacrifices that have been made for you, and never forget. 9-11-01.

| Where are you?

Tuesday September 8th, 2009

The B/CS Eagle put together a pretty nice highlight reel of the game from Saturday....

Gig'em!

| Where are you?

Monday September 7th, 2009

The day started off pretty well. My father and I drove up early and we picked up my brother, Sean, and headed to our traditional game day lunch location, Wings-N-More, for a delicious and nutritious lunch. From there we headed to Sean's house to work on hanging some drywall in his tiny bathroom. It's too bad we don't have any pictures....but then again, it's probably best you not see it. Let's say that we'll be working on it again before the Utah State game.

After we took off our hard hats we sat down to watch the Oklahoma State v. Georgia game only to discover that in College Station they were getting the regional coverage of Baylor/Wake Forest. Eh.

Instead of suffering through a green and gold game we headed up to campus because I needed to pick up an Association of Former Student stickers for my truck and grab a new one for Jennifer's car. I hadn't been in the Clayton Williams Building on game day for years and I was really impressed with the set up. They had an enormous, gorgeous TV set up with chairs and couches showing all the games that were televised, a tailgate out back, and a bar set up at the front. We walked a little bit around the Aggie Fan Zone before heading back to the a/c in the Clayton Williams Building, which is where we stayed until heading into Kyle Field for kickoff.

Once inside we enjoyed our seats on the second deck, row 3 at the south 45 yard line. Life is good.

I think most Ags anticipated a victory against New Mexico but I'm not sure how many were expecting such a satisfying one. We were in complete control the entire game and I think there were a tremendous number of positives.

I think that there was one aspect of each side of the ball that really jumped out at me.

On defense, we tackled better than any other time I can remember. Solo tackles, open field tackles, guys sticking their nose in there and wrapping up, shoe string tackles, violent tackles. We saw it all. I think there were maybe one or two missed tackles on the entire night.

On offense it was just how good Christine Michael looked. He looked spectacular with 11 carries for 93 yards (that's an average of 8.5 ypc) and a TD. I saw him in the M&W game but I didn't realize just how explosive and fast he actually is.

I thought it kind of sucked that no one saw his first career carry because we were in the middle of a Yell....and why am I the only one who notices when this sort of thing happens? If we're on offense and our QB is about to snap the ball, why don't we just stop the yell?

Cyrus Gray got the start at RB (14 carries for 52 yards and a TD) but Sherman was rotating the him with Michael on each possession. If Michael can improve his pass protection blocking a little bit I think that by the time Arkansas comes around we're going to have a new starter at RB.

Bradley Stephens looked good in the opportunities he was given (6 carries for 49 yards - an avg of 8.2 ypc). I know it was in garbage time but he ran very hard, successfully, when everyone in the stadium knew we were going to hand him the ball.

Something I thought was interesting was after Stephens big run down the sideline he went back to our sideline and tapped his helmet to come out and C-Mike started to run out on the field but the coaching staff grabbed him and sent Cyrus back out. I though it was interesting for two reasons; (1) You don't normally put your starter back in when up by 35+ when your third string guy comes out, and (2) C-Mike was 7 yards short of 100 yards in his collegiate debut. I don't know if the coaching staff knew he was that close to 100 yards and held him back deliberately or if they just wanted to give Cyrus a couple more touches.

Even so, his 93 yards was the most by a true freshman in his debut since Bucky and Darren Lewis did it against Brett Farve's Southern Miss in '87.

JJ had a good night, but I thought he had a few too many throws that were close but not quite where they should have been. He finished the night 31-of-41 for 349 yards and 2 TDs. On top of that he ran 13 times for 57 and a TD. His 406 yards of total offense was 6th the highest in school history (he now owns the #1 and #6 slot on that list in only 10 career starts).

The main target of the passing game was the great Jeff Fuller who had career highs in both receptions (11) and yards (111) and a nice TD. I thought it was funny that no one I spoke to or read on message boards talked about how great he was - simply because we know how great he is and we just expect big numbers.

The defense "WOW-ed" me. And not a Torbush WOW, a good one.

I say that with a touch of reality....New Mexico isn't very good. However, we didn't play defense that well against ANYBODY last year.

We talked about the tackling and I really think that helps tremendously. UNM picked up only 231 yards of offense which was the fewest yards we've given up since the texas game in 2006 (by a yard). That was 27 games ago.

You probably also noticed we only gave up 6 points - which was on a pair of field goals. It was the first time we held an opponent's offense out of the endzone since '06 Citadel (and before that '05 Clemson). Tip of the hat to you Mr. Joe Kines.

Von Miller was great, picking up 3 sacks. The last player to do that was Jerrod Penright. He graduated pre-Fran.

Opposite Von we started Matt Moss but I was more impressed with freshman, Spencer Nealy. After I noticed him in the M&W game I was watching for him in the opener and I was pleased/surprised to see that Nealy split time almost equally with Moss.

The other big thing I wanted to touch base on was all of the freshmen. 18 freshmen made their Aggie debuts on Saturday (13 true freshmen & 5 RS freshmen/7 offense & 11 defense).

• True Freshmen
• Kenric McNeal - WR
• Uzoma Nwachukwu - WR (started)
• Brandal Jackson - WR
• Christine Michael - RB
• Patrick Lewis - C
• Sean Porter - LB
• Jonathan Stewart - LB (started)
• Colton Valencia - S
• Steven Campbell - S
• Dustin Harris - CB/PR (started)
• Steven Terrell - CB
• Kirby Ennis - DT
• Spencer Nealy - DE
• Redshirt Freshmen
• Tommy Dorman - QB
• Brian Thomas - OG
• Adren Dorsey - DT
• Blane Cheatham - DB
• Kyle Mangan - LB (started)

I was surprised to not see a couple of guys....DT Rod Davis, RB/WR Ryan Swope, OT Stephen Barrera, OT Rhonte Scales, TE Hutson Prioleau. From what I could tell, Swope wasn't dressed out so I imagine he is a little banged up. I think that the coaches are going to try their darndest to keep redshirts on Barrera, Scales and Prioleau but I only see Prioleau being able to keep it on.

Just a couple other bullet point notes:

• Lionel Smith blew up a UNM punt returner - you're going to see that one on highlight reels for years
• We had 4 drives of 85 yards or more ending in TDs
• Brandal Jackson changed his number from 23 to 84
• Jamie McCoy lined up at FB quite a bit - almost every situation that wasn't in junk time.....he had a solid game with 5 receptions for 44 yards
• Dorman got snaps in garbage time instead of Tannehill
• Sean Porter looked to get good pressure on several occasions

That's all I got....nice win for a team that needed a nice win.

We've got an off-weekend next weekend and then we host Utah State on the 18th.

WHOOP!

| Where are you?

Friday September 4th, 2009

(Preview in it's entirety can be found here)

Defense

The coaching staff has really focused on putting speed, speed, speed on the field and in the next couple of years you're going to see it with our recruiting classes. We're going to be better from a talent standpoint but experience is going to hurt us. The coaches have all said in some form or another the same thing, "We're going to play hard and play fast.... but we might be running the wrong direction on some plays."

It also came out that the staff has been picked the brain of Florida D-Coordinator, Charlie Strong this past spring. I'm sure the X's and O's help but I'm pretty sure he didn't hand over any 5* recruits.

I'm not sure what the official name of the formation is, and I'm sure you'll find 10 different things to call it. You'll hear lots of people calling it a 3-4 and lots calling it a 4-3 but basically we're running a 3-3-1-4. We'll have 3 DL, 3 true LBers, a JACK, and 4 DBs. The JACK is a hybrid defensive end/LB. His job is to cause disruption with either his hand on or off the ground. We're trying to get more speed on the field to combat all the spread offenses.

As a result of last year (and the previous seasons), I have no expectations for the defense. Although we have a handful of talented guys I have major concerns with all three units as a whole (DL, LB, DB) with regards to both depth and experience. I just want to see improvement showing that we're going in the right direction. It is going to take several years to turn this defense into a respectable bunch - but it can be done and I think we're on the right track.

The biggest thing that leaped up at me in our final three games of last year was that our defense didn't force a single turnover. I went back through my old box scores back to 2001 and discovered that we had never had three consecutive games without forcing a turnover and that our record is 0-19 when we don't force a turnover. There's a big key for you. That is how Baylor beat us - we coughed it up 5 times and they didn't. There aren't enough snaps in a football game to overcome having five fewer possessions.

Defensive Line

This year Bennett graduated and Heard left the football team (but will stay in school to graduate). Cyril Obiozor was the other starter at DE going into last season and he graduated as well. Paul Freeney had to retire due to an eye injury and Ben Bass, who moved back to the DL from TE thsi spring, is no longer on the squad.

Uh oh.

This year's defensive line is last year's offensive line....our biggest hole.

This is a VERY young group of players. We have a total of 22 career starts returning....7 are from sophomore Tony Jerod-Eddie who looks to be starting ahead of Lucas Patterson (who has 12 of the other starts).

During the off-season I spent some time and documented how we got to this point with our DL.

At defensive tackle we have the sophomore duo of Tony Jerod-Eddie and Eddie Brown (who started the final two games of his freshman season) and Lucas Patterson. Behind them all we have are freshmen - Adren Dorsey (FR-R), Andrew Wolridge (FR-R), Rod Davis (FR-R), Chris Lathrop (FR-R), Kirby Ennis(FR-H), and Spencer Nealy (FR-H).

Clearly the freshmen, particularly the ones that redshirted last year, haven't impressed the coaching staff which played a part in the decision to move Patterson back to the DL after spending most of the summer working out at OL. That concerns me.

At DE we bring back senior Matt Moss....and inexperience (Cody Wallace, Michael Ebbitt, and KJ Williams - who made the move from TE).

Defensive line scares me a bit.

The Jack

Von Miller

The mysterious JACK position was apparently designed specifically for Von Miller, who tried his hand at LBer for the first part of 2008 before moving back to DE. Von was the talk of spring camp (he was a freak in the M&W game) and I really hope that this move is successful.

Here is Coach Sherman's discription:

"The jack position depends on what front we’re in. He could be an end, he could be an outside linebacker, we could move him around and use him in a blitz mode like what we used to call a “spinner” in the NFL. It’s a linebacker playing defensive end and linebacker. He can rush the quarterback. Von Miller has a lot of potential as a pass rusher and as a linebacker so we want to be able put him in a position to be able to do both. We want him to be able to blitz him off the edge in a 30 front, be able to flip him over to the field and bring him off the field side in an overload, and be able to put him down in a 4-3 and rush as well. It’s usually a stand up position."

My fear is that since the DL is going to be so weak, Von is going to be non-factored by getting a constant double team from our opponent's OL.

Senior Matt Featherston and true freshmen Andrew Weaver and Aaron Artebaum are Miller's backups at the JACK.

Linebackers

Like the OL and the DL, I took a look at how we got to this point at the linebacker position during the offseason.

Here is how we're going to lineup at LBer:

WILL - R.Cavanaugh/J.Stewert
MIKE - K.Magnum/A.Lewis/Lamothe
 SAM - G.Williams/S.Porter/Dumas/Thomas 

That is almost a totally different group of players from last year. We were forced to move Alton Dixon from safety to LBer mid-season and he's gone. Matt Featherston is the only guy who started more games than Dixon did and he's moved to the JACK position....ditto for Von Miller. Only sophomore Garrick Williams started a game for us last year, but he was the one replaced by Alton Dixon.

The linebacker position is one that the coaching staff has worked very hard to improve through recruiting and we'll start to see those efforts pay off in a year or so....but not quite yet.

We only return one upperclassman in Anthony Lewis and going into the season he only has one more career start than any of the freshman will. Garrick Williams is the most experienced LBer we have with 5 career starts and behind him only Ricky Cavanaugh has stepped foot on the field before (as his RS was, in my opinion, completely wasted last year). Walk-on transfer from Air Force, Michael Hodges, also got a lot of looks this spring with the first team but missed 2-a-days with an injury and isn't currently listed on the 2-deep.

You get the point. We're really inexperienced.

All the returning guys have been told that their spots are wide open and that all the freshmen will have a chance to play. Fr-R Kyle Mangan created some excitement this spring and summer as did true freshman Jonathan Stewart, who was a big get in this past year's recruiting class. You might also see Michael Lamothe (Fr-H), Sean Porter (Fr-H), Charlie Thomas (Fr-H), or Aaron Arterburn (Fr-H). The only freshman you won't see will be Malcolm Johnson who ought to redshirt coming off a knee injury. In fact, I'm willing to guarantee that there will be at least one time this season when we have 3 freshman LBers on the field at once.

One thing that is pleasing to see is that our freshmen are guys who played LBer in high school. It has been a long time since we had a linebacker who wasn't moved to the position from somewhere else.

LBer scares me too. We're a long way from those Wrecking Crew days.

Defensive Backs

Sophomore Trent Hunter

Our defensive backfield is another area that is a concern. We finished 95th in the nation in pass defense....and that includes Army completing one pass for four yards in our game against them.

Safety, I feel, is hands down the strongest defensive position we have. Senior Jordan Pugh and All-Big 12 sophomore Trent Hunter will start at free safety and strong safety, respectively, and should be backed up by senior Chevar Bryson and two freshmen, Colton Valencia and Steven Campbell.

It is at cornerback that we are really thin. Sophomore Terrence Frederick will start at one of the corner positions and either Justin McQueen (walk-on) or JUCO transfer Coryel Judie should start at the other. Behind them is whomever isn't starting between Judie/McQueen, walk-on Marcus Gold, senior Jordan Peterson (who has the most experience of any of the CBs) and freshmen Steven Terrell, Dustin Harris, Desmond Gardiner. It looks like Harris is the highest regarded thus far of that group as he was listed on the official 2-deep behind Frederick.

It is never good when you have two walk-ons in your two-deep rotation.

The defensive backs will be better than they should be IF our DL puts pressure on the opponent - but I'm not so sure how well that will work out for us. Von Miller becomes that much more important.

Special Teams

We have one huge hole to fill, and that is at punter after Justin Brantly, the second best to ever punt at A&M - and one of my favorite all-time players, has graduated. He will be replaced by one of three gentlemen: Ken Wood (SO-T from Montana), and true freshman Ryan Epperson. I have no clue who is the lead guy for the job - but it'll be one of those three.

At kicker we bring back sophomore Randy Bullock, who was pretty solid for us last year as a freshman. His only miss was a 49 yards attempt in the texas game.

FIELD GOALS     FGM-FGA  Pct 01-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-99 Lg Blk
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bullock, Randy    6-7   85.7  1-1   2-2   2-2   1-2   0-0  46   0

FG SEQUENCE          R.Bullock
-----------------------------------
Kansas State         (26)          
Texas Tech           (46),(28),(18)
Iowa State           -             
Colorado             (39)          
Oklahoma             -             
Baylor               -             
Texas                (37),49       

Numbers in (parentheses) indicate field goal was made.

Those are some pretty solid numbers, particularly for a freshman. He was also 20-of-21 on PATs.

Our backup kicker is

Our return game should continue to improve greatly.

PUNT RETURNS          No.  Yds   Avg TD Long
--------------------------------------------
Pugh, Jordan           11   61   5.5  0   22
Brown, Kenny            1   24  24.0  0    0
Total..........        13   95   7.3  0   22

The punt return game has been pretty bad for us for years and years. Jordan Pugh was serviceable last year but I expect to see the electric freshman Dustin Harris back there this season.

KICK RETURNS          No.  Yds   Avg TD Long
--------------------------------------------
Gray, Cyrus            49 1169  23.9  1   98
Stephens, Bradley      13  210  16.2  0   26
Pugh, Jordan            1    0   0.0  0    0
Total..........        64 1380  21.6  1   98

Cyrus Gray broke a bunch of records as our KR last year, but most of those records were as result of the number of chances he had (1,169 kickoff return yards was a school record, so was his 49 returns - shoot he is only 40 KR yards and 10 returns shy of the all-time school records - AND HE HASN'T EVEN PLAYED HIS SOPHOMORE SEASON YET). He did run one back against OU, which was, I believe, only the third non-blocked special teams TD we've had to go the house this decade ('06 Kerry Franks - texas tech; '03 Jason Carter - Nebraska was the other).

SHOCKER: Cyrus didn't make the 2-deep at kick-return. True freshmen Dustin Harris and Ryan Swope will start the season bringing back the ball.

Up Next....

| Where are you?
12:01am

Ag Football Preview: New Mexico

It has been 10 full months since we last met up with friends and filled Kyle Field. A lot has happened since the last time we gathered. We have gone through changes in our personal life, changes and worries in our professional world, we have found a way to tread water with the change in our economy, we have seen changes in our own school....but the one constant, year in and year out, is that when the fall rolls around Aggie football is there for us.

The start of football season is always exciting because no matter what, every team in the country has hope.

This season we kick off against New Mexico. Last year I had a fun trip going out to Albuquerque to see us take on the Lobos and I hope the game goes as well for us as it did then.

Of course, the first game of the season is always a terrible projection of what kind of team you have. Lots of tinkering with the 2-deep, lots of youngsters getting playing time, too many mistakes and rust - usually a result of too much emotion and nerves. On top of that we're usually playing a complete powder-puff opponent and then the coaches keep the game plan pretty vanilla so we don't really ever know what we actually have.

We've each spent time this off-season discussing our team with friends, reading reports, scrounging for a photograph of practice, etc. Today we're going to take some time and take a look at our first opponent, New Mexico.

This is a new squad with a new coach and a new slogan.

This instantly reminded me of one of my favorite t-shirts.

The Lobos are being guided by a new head coach this season after Rocky Long, the HC for the last 11 years, stepped down. In his place they have brought in Mike Locksley who was the OC at Illinois for the last 4 years and in the 2 years before that he was the RB Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at Florida (both jobs under Ron Zook).

"Lock", as they call him, got himself into a little sexual discrimination trouble last month but I doubt that will have any impact on the product on the field.

Here is how the Lobos stacked up last season (national rankings in parenthesis):

New Mexico in 2008
=======================================
Rush O 208.3 (16)     Rush D 122.3 (26)
Pass O 131.3 (110)    Pass D 213.5 (70)
 Tot O 355.6 (64)      Tot D 335.8 (45)
Scor 0  21.1 (94)     Scor D  22.8 (46)

The offense is going to change from a running offense to a no huddle; very similar to what Illinois has been running since Zook landed there.

The quarterback situation is a little bit of a controversy and as of Sunday night Lock hadn't named his starters. He returns two starting QBs in Donovan Porterie (who injured his knee in the 4th game of last year) and Brad Gruner who took his place. They have two others in the mix Tate Smith - not THAT Tate Smith - and B.R. Holbrook.

             G/GS Cmp-Att-Int  Pct   Yds TD Avg/G
=================================================
B.Gruner.... 10/8  99-184-6   53.8 1,037  3 103.7
D.Porterie.. 4/4   50-75-5    66.7   372  0  93.0
T.Smith..... 4/0    7-21-2    33.3    82  0  20.5

Here is what Lock said in regards to how he would be picking his starter:

"I'll be looking at empirical data," said Locksley. "I'm big on what you see is what you get. We'll be going off data and statistics from practice. How you practice is indicative of what you'll do in games. These guys will be graded on everything from how they stretch to start practice from how they walk off the field."

If that's how it's going to work then get me some pads and a helmet cause I don't walk off the field - I run off the field. What a terrible way of picking your QB.

Porterie must have been a good stretcher because he was re-named the starter.

Side note: former University of Tennessee National Championship QB Tee Martin is NM's QB coach.

Under Long they had 7 consecutive seasons with 1,000 yard rushers....and only two players combined for that stretch - DonTrell Moore (2002-2005) and Rodney Ferguson (2006-2008) who ran for 135 yards and 2 TDs against us last year. They're both out of eligibility.

Demond (#1) & Butler (#34)

This season they bring sophomore James Wright, RS-F A.J. Butler, and freshman Dennis Demond in as part of the running game. Porterie). Wright is one of 19 Texas players on the roster - they are almost all from Dallas, Houston and East Texas.

           Att Yds Avg TD Avg/G
===============================
  J.Wright  54 361 6.4  2  49.7
  B.Gruner  76 331 4.4  3  33.1
D.Porterie  23  47 2.0  0  11.8

The only thing I saw that was noteworthy from the WRs was they've got a guy named Roland Bruno - I hope he isn't as bad as the movie....well, maybe I do.

The defense is changing from Long's 3-3-5 to a more traditional 4-3. This is also a defense that loses 4 of its top 6 tacklers including the two sack leaders and the team's best defender when the ball is in the air. They do return the team tackling leader, Clint McPeek who had 103 tackles.

That's all I've got. Drive safely, Gig'em, and B.T.H.O. New Mexico! WHOOP!

Season Preview Part II is coming up later tonight when I get home from work.

| Where are you?

Thursday September 3rd, 2009

text

Every year it happens at some point during the summer, although it is not always the same way.

On my desk in my construction trailer I have a desk calendar that I end up scribbling lots of notes and phone numbers on. I was on the phone the other day and I noticed "M.Gold" scrawled in blue ink. "M.Gold" is short for Morgans Gold, which is a street in the neighborhood that I build in. For that moment in time, I started to think about our walk-on cornerback Marcus Gold - are we really so thin at CB that we could be playing two walk-ons for a second year in a row?

It was at that moment that I realized I had the itch.

This is going to be my 10th season of Aggie football. That really hit me when I realized that. Once you can say, "I've only missed two home games in the last 10 years" it really drives home the point that you're a complete Aggie football fanatic.

The craziest part....I've never sat anywhere but in the student section.

The thing I love is the passion and the tradition and the history of college football, which is what has made it an almost perfect fit for me to be an Aggie.

I didn't really follow football until I got to Aggieland. I think I had been to two Rice games....and I went to a ton of high school games, but it was because that was what you do in Texas on a Friday night....and that was about it.

I don't know much about the X's and O's of the game but I love it as a fan and that's what I try to bring to this website.

With Justin Brantly now graduated, I have to figure out who my new favorite player is going to be. My freshman year it was Toooooombs, then from '01-'04 it was T-Murph, and then Brantly from '05-'08. It's not really something I can just announce: So-and-SO is now going to be my favorite player. It has to be a feeling that kind of creeps up on me during the first few games. We're got so many youngsters that it should be fun to pick out someone to follow for the next 3 or 4 years.

Here's to the 2009 season....may it be better than 2008.

Schedule

The schedule doesn't work out quite as well for our Ags and Coach Sherman as it did last year. The home schedule is ok with a lot of fluff plus two Top 10s (oSu & t.u.) but we have some really rough road games at tech & OU with others at KSU and CU and then we have Arkansas at a neutral site. The last time we had this conference schedule (same home/away with same Big 12 north opponents) was in 2005 - which most of us don't remember because we have spent 4 long years working on getting it blocked out of our memory.

        2009 Fightin' Texas Aggie Schedule

         Date Opponent        Time    TV
        ==================================
        09/05 New Mexico     6:00pm    -  
        09/19 Utah State     6:00pm    -
        09/26 UAB            6:00pm    -  
        10/03 v. Arkansas     TBA     TBA  
        10/10 Oklahoma St    2:30pm    - 
        10/17 @ Kansas State  TBA      -  
        10/24 @ texas tech    TBA      -  
        10/31 Iowa State     2:30pm    -  
        11/07 @ Colorado      TBA      -
        11/14 @ Oklahoma      TBA      -
        11/21 Baylor         2:30pm    -  
        11/26 texas          7:00pm  ESPN 

Hopefully, we're going to have more televised games than that but at this point in time we don't know what networks are going to pick them up. As those networks make their decisions I expect a majority of those game time slots, particularly the Big 12 games, to shift in-order to fit the network's schedule.

I'll run through our non-conference opponents quickly....

New Mexico was our big road win from last season, and they were a lot worse than I thought they'd be.

Utah State is just a fluff home game....but it will pit the Aggies v. the Aggies. They were 3-9 last year, which was their best record since 2005 and they're picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the WAC.

Alabama-Birmingham is the same. They play in C-USA and they have one winning season since 2001 and are projected to finish at the bottom of their conference.

Arkansas is going to be a fun series for us to restart. By the end of this contract there is going to be some bad blood between the two schools, which is fine with me. They play a strange schedule where they spread their OoC games throughout the season, starting with Missouri State but jumping right into SEC play with Georgia (9/19 on ESPN) and Alabama (9/26) before us - so we should have a good idea of what to expect from them before we get'em.

I'd be comfortable if we go 3-1 in our OoC....unless the loss isn't against Arkansas.

In Big 12 play it's hard to say because we were so bad last year and we lost some games that we shouldn't have. At Kyle Field - we should beat Iowa State and Baylor but OkSt and tu are both Top 10 preseason and I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say we "should" beat them. Can we, yeah, but we'll be big underdogs in both of those games.

Our road games are rough at tech and OU with CU and KSU our Big 12 north opponents. Even though tech should drop fairly dramatically from last year we have always struggled in the friendly atmosphere in lubbock - haven't won there since I was 12 years old....and OU has lost only twice at home since Stoops took over. I feel like we should win at KSU and CU but after last year, they're certainly not gimmies - I project we split them and end up 1-3 on the road in Big 12.

That gives us an overall regular season record of 6-6, which is about where we should be.

Coach Sherman

Sherman came under a good bit of heat last season as we fell to the bottom of the Big 12 and finished 4-8, a record that was worse than Fran's the previous season. Of course I didn't like losing to Arkansas State and the Baylor game was the worst I've ever seen, but in year one I don't think it defines the coach.

That said, there were a few things I disagreed with Sherman on like the use of Jorvorskie Lane, kicking a FG in the texas game, etc. but there isn't a coach out there that I would agree with everything on.

We all know that the lifeblood of a program is recruiting and I think that Sherman has done an excellent job there. He was able to hold together a strong class last spring (c/o '08), and added to it some great players (Cyrus Gray, Jeff Fuller, Trent Hunter, Terrence Fredricks). He filled a tremendous number of need positions with his first full recruiting class (this past February) and was able to do so only losing one player who couldn't qualify....and also without a single decommit after our horrific on-field 2008 season. We loaded up on at OL, LBer, and DB - our three largest holes - and stocked up the freak athlete WR category....and oh yeah, landed 5* RB Christine Michaels.

The 2010 class is already stacking up to be one of our best in recent memory and we still have a couple of scholarships in reserve to make a run at someone else at signing day (or pick up an unexpected transfer). I'm not going to get into it too much because they haven't officially signed their letters of intent yet and that won't happen until February but Sherman & Co. have really gone out and landed some great talent.

Newcomers & Jersey Number Changes

I don't normally include this as a section in my annual previews, but I think it will be beneficial. Coach Sherman said that 60-65% of the freshman will contribute so there are going to be a lot of people trying to figure out who is running around on the field.

NUMBER CHANGES
==========================
Trent Hunter     22 -->  1
KJ Williams      14 -->  6
Garrick Williams 32 -->  8
Cody Beyer       88 -->  9
Terrence McCoy   83 --> 11
Chris Caflisch   87 --> 17

New Faces
          OFFENSE                                DEFENSE
=============================         =============================
 7 Nwachukwu, Uzoma   WR Fr-H          4 Judie, Coryell     DB Jr-T 
14 Furtch, Keon       TE Fr-H          9 Thomas, Charlie    DB Fr-H
23 Jackson, Brandal   WR Fr-H         10 Porter, Sean       LB Fr-H
25 Swope, Ryan        WR Fr-H         11 Stewart, Jonathan  LB Fr-H 
33 Christine, Michael RB Fr-R         13 Gardiner, Desmond  DB Fr-H
34 Tolliver, Jay      RB Fr-R         18 Mangan, Kyle       LB Fr-R
35 Graybill, Cole     FB Jr-T         20 Campbell, Stephen  DB Fr-H
44 Guyton, Kalvin     RB Fr-H         22 Harris, Dustin     DB Fr-H
61 Lewis, Patrick     OL Fr-H         23 Terrell, Steven    DB Fr-H
62 Hyde, Jeffrey      OL Fr-R         24 Johnson, Malcolm   LB Fr-H
64 Barrera, Stephen   OL Fr-H         26 Valencia, Colton   DB Fr-H
68 Naron, Clint       OL Fr-H         29 Cheatham, Blane    DB Fr-R
70 Allen, Matt        OL Jr-T         37 Hodges, Michael    LB Jr-T
71 Thomas, Brian      OL Fr-R         42 Ennis, Kirby       DL Fr-H
72 Ayers, Josh        OL Fr-R         43 Arteburn, Aaron    LB Fr-H
73 Scales, Rhontae    OL Fr-H         44 Wolridge, Andrew   DL Fr-R
78 Lathrop, Chris     OL Fr-R         45 Michael Lamothe    LB Fr-H
80 Prioleau, Hutson   TE Fr-H         50 Rod Davis          DL Fr-R
85 McNeal, Kenric     WR Fr-H         80 Dorsey, Adren      DL Fr-R
                                      90 Weaver, Andrew     DL Fr-H
26 Wood, Ken           P So-T         99 Nealy, Spencer     DL Fr-H
36 Ryan Epperson       P Fr-R

Offense

Cyrus The Great

The offense is going to be better than last year simply because of the experience - at all positions.

Under Coach Fran in 2007 we ran the ball 61% of the time and threw only 39% of the time but Coach Sherman changed things up balancing the offense out at 47% rush & 53% pass. If we stay in that neighborhood of balance, which I imagine we will, and with somewhere right around 65-70 snaps per game that gives us ~32 rushes and ~36 pass attempts per game.

Quarterbacks

Last season, when Coach Sherman moved Ryan Tannehill to WR, he promised that he would give him a legitimate shot at playing QB. Then this spring Tannehill had surgery on his shoulder and couldn't take any reps at QB. Sherman continued to hold that stance this summer saying that there would be a competition for the starting QB spot.

I just couldn't buy that. First of all, Jerrod Johnson was very good last year for us as a sophomore QB. Second of all, Tannehill was a BEAST at wideout. Third of all, I didn't think Tannehill - right now - was a better QB than JJ....he would likely be our first back-up. Then he went out in camp and really impressed. I'll be the first to say that I was quite surprised that he made it such a heated competition.

The issue now boils down to the value of Tannehill as a WR compared to his value as the #2 QB. The problem arises - who is our #2 QB? Tommy Dorman or walk-on transfers Winston Gamso (SMU) or Giovanni Vizza (North Texas)? I'm not sure that any of those guys are capable at this time of stepping into the huddle and beating a Big 12 South opponent.

Ok, so we've established that Jerrod Johnson is our starting QB and we have no depth at backup. So long as health is in our favor you have to be pleased with his sophomore campaign. Even with the tail off at the end of 2008, JJ had one of the better passing seasons in school history.

        A-C-Int TD  Yds  Pct
=============================
ArkS    <----- DNP QB ----->
NMex    19-10-0  3  124 52.6
 Mia    32-19-1  3  275 59.4 *
Army     10-6-1  1   53 60.0       *started at QB
 oSu    43-24-2  2  218 55.8 *
 KSU    41-29-0  2  419 70.7 *     
  tt    39-26-0  0  283 66.7 *
 ISU    39-31-0  4  381 79.5 *
  CU    31-15-0  3  214 48.4 *
  OU    31-11-2  1  162 35.5 *
  BU    30-19-4  1  244 63.3 *
  tu     11-4-0  1   62 36.4 *

I'm willing to say that JJ had ONE OF THE BEST passing seasons in school history. Not one of the best overall QBed seasons ever but from a passing standpoint I don't think there is an argument. He broke the single season school record with 21 TD passes and he threw for 2,435 yards, which was 345 yards shy of the school's single season record....and he only started 9 games at QB (remember he started the beginning of the year at WR). Against Kansas State and Iowa State he put his name in the school record books throwing for the most and fourth most yards in a single game, respectively, with 419 & 381 yards. He also sits currently second on the school's career completion percentage list (58.9%).

JJ's record 21 TD passes

Our offense is much more pass-oriented now than it has been in the long term history of the program but comparing the last few seasons with Farris, Long, Reggie, and McGee - who all seem to be atop all of our passing record lists, JJ broke their records with fewer chances.

 
Top Passing Seasons in A&M History (chronologically)
                G Att-Cmp-Int TD   Pct   Yds    YPG  
===================================================
1968 E.Hargett. 10 348-169-14  16  48.6  2321  232.1
1982 G.Kubiak.. 10 324-181-11  19  55.8  1948  177.0
1986 K.Murray.. 11 349-212-8   17  60.7  2463  223.9
1999 R.McCown.. 11 295-152-10  14  51.5  2374  215.8
2000 M.Farris.. 11 347-208-9   10  59.9  2551  231.9 
2002 D.Long.... 12 333-177-16  19  53.2  2509  209.1
2004 R.McNeal.. 12 344-200-4   14  58.1  2791  232.6
2005 R.McNeal.. 10 265-141-9   16  53.2  1963  196.3
2006 S.McGee... 13 313-194-2   12  62.0  2295  176.5
2007 S.McGee... 13 364-211-8   12  58.0  2311  177.8
2008 J.Johnson. 11 326-194-10  21  59.5  2435  221.4*

(*JJ played some QB in 11 of our 12 games but I want to note that the YPG stat kept by the school did not take that into account when dividing his season total of yards by the number of games played. They used all 12 games he appeared in to calculate his YPG at 202.9. He came off the bench at WR in the Arkansas State game and did not play any QB & he started at WR in the Army game but did play some QB)

I think that it is fairly clear from the numbers that he had one of the top seasons throwing the football in A&M history. I think that Reggie's junior season of 2004 was THE best passing season we've seen but I think that as a sophomore JJ was more polished than Reggie was at that point in his career (read: his sophomore year - 2003) so I'm kind of excited to see if he can take the big leap as a junior as well.

One thing that was apparent to all was that JJ seemed to struggle in our final three games - HOWEVER - there were a few huge factors.

• The first was that two of those games were against top 5 nationally ranked teams (OU and texas) and we were expected to get slaughtered (I have no explanation for BU). I know that isn't what everyone wants to hear but it is a factor.
• The second was that he didn't have a healthy WR corps (two starters, Fuller and T.McCoy, both missed the OU game).
• The third was the fact that the offensive line was (a) very bad & inexperienced to start the season (we had seven OLmen who made their first career start - and if that wasn't bad enough those seven accounted for 2/3 of our starts throughout the season); and (b) completely decimated by that point in the season (we had to pull a RS off of Joe Villavisencio simply because we had to have 5 guys on the line to field a team).

I believe I made a comment sometime towards the middle of the season that if JJ had the protection that Cart McCoy and Graham Harrell had he'd be better than they were. Maybe I was a little ahead of myself but we'll find out in 2010 when we can see what he can do with an experienced OL.

Offensive Line

Last year, to put it nicely, our O-Line was terrible. We returned two All-Conference tailbacks (Goodson & Lane) and added two 4* freshmen backs (Stephens & Gray) and then went out and ran for a 43 year low, 88.5 yards per game. That was good for 114th in the nation (out of 119 teams).

We also allowed 39 sacks which was had the highest sack total given up since 1998 when we were sacked 41 times. More than those horrific early Fran years.

As I mentioned previously, we had no experience and no depth and we were beat up.

This year the depth should be better, and we have some experience but the talent will improve and as the talent improves it will come with flashes of youth. Shoot, the guru Phil Steele has our OL unit ranked #18 in the nation.

This offseason I took a pretty detailed look at our OL and how it got to the point we're at now where Sherman is digging us out of.

Coach Sherman was quoted after the spring game and again at the end of July on his thoughts on the OL:

At end of spring: "We struggled in the offensive line, I thought," Sherman said. "We're going to try to coach them up and try to get them to a point where they play like we want them to play."

At the end of July: "I think they have made a lot of progress," Sherman said. "We need to improve our tempo, but as far as blocking, they are doing pretty well. From where they came from, they have made a lot of progress."

Michael Shumard will move back to his natural position of LG (from LT), Lee Grimes will move to RT (from RG), Kevin Matthews will return at center, Danny Baker took Lucas Patterson's spot at LT (putting him back on the defensive side of the ball), and we'll have Matt Allen at RG, backed up by returning starter Evan Eike. Robbie Frost will not be returning for his senior year, taking a medical scholarship after suffering a career ending injury(ies).

In addition to those guys coming back, I imagine that we will see at least one of either Rhonte Scales or Stephen Barrera not RS this year and play as a true freshman. As I mentioned we're going to add LSU transfer, Matt Allen - who sat out 2008 due to NCAA transfer rules, and a slew of freshmen (redshirt and true) who indicate the start of the new talent coming into the system. That depth is the night & day difference from last year.

                 Prior
2008 OL           Exp   2008
============================
D.Baker.........  1/0    9/1  (T/C)
E.Eike..........  0/0   12/12 (OG)
L.Grimes........  8/0   12/12 (OT)
K.Matthews......  9/0   12/12 (C)
J.Russell.......  0/0    1/0
M.Shumard....... 17/5   12/12 (OG)
J.Villavisencio.  0/0    2/1  (OG)
V.Williams......  5/0    9/1  (OT)
----------------------------
RS Freshmen:
J.Ayers (T/G), J.Hyde (OT), B.Thomas (OG)
True Freshmen:
S.Barrera (OT), P.Lewis (C), C.Naron (OG), R.Scales (OT)

(G/GS) 

Of the redshirt freshmen we have lost LeRoy Chevalier who suffered a career ending back injury. I was really looking forward to big Chevy getting onto the field.

2008 was similar to 2003 in terms of experience (and our final season record) so will 2009 be similar to 2004? I think most Ags would be thrilled with that, although I think the schedule will keep us from a Cotton Bowl trip.

While we will see improvement, I still think we're a year or two away from having a really good OL. The 2010 recruiting class is looking to be the best OL haul we've had in about 15 years.

Running backs

Christine Michael

We calculated earlier that with the more balanced offense under Coach Sherman we'd have ~32 rushing attempts per game. Our QBs ran somewhere right around 9 times per game which cuts us down to 23 attempts to split between the running backs.

Last year was one of the worst rushing seasons we've experienced in the last 50 years but it was much more a result of the blocking than the talent with the ball.

So who will be toting the rock? We lost 3 of our top 4 runners (Goodson - NFL, J-Train - graduation, Keondra Smith - left team to concentrate on his degree). Even so, we have a handful of highly recruited runners.

            Att Net Avg TD 
==========================
C.Gray.....  75 363 4.8  1
B.Stephens.  15  68 4.5  0
J.Johnson..  94 114 1.2  3

Add to those two big runners the crown jewel of Coach Sherman's recruiting efforts thus far - 5* Christine Michael.

Mike Goodson had some problems making it to class and as a result he saw his playing time diminish, which opened up touches for Gray. I really thought that as the season went on, he got much better.

I also really like Bradley Stephens but he had some trouble keeping a handle on the ball. I know it was something that he worked hard on this past spring and I know that Coach Sherman said that he would get carries so long as the other team didn't end up with the ball.

We really don't feature the fullback very much but when he is on the field he still plays a vital role in the offense blocking. As the season progressed last year we morphed more into a spread offense to keep JJ off his back so I don't know exactly what Coach has in mind in terms of formations for this season. When we do use the fullback I think we'll probably see Anthony Vila with a backup combination of Cole Graybill, a LBer transfer from Arizona, along with RS-F Jay Toliver.

Alright so we have 3 tailbacks to split up 23 carries. I imagine the fullback will get at least 1 touch per game so that brings us down to 22 carries. To start the season I think Gray will get 10-11 touches with Stephens and Michaels spitting the other 11-12. As the season progresses the guy who produces will get more touches....as it should be.

Wide Receivers

             No Yds TD       
======================
R.Tannehill. 55 844  5
J.Fuller.... 50 630  9
J.McCoy..... 43 500  5
T.McCoy..... 24 237  1
H.Morrow.... 10 147  0
C.Gray...... 10  60  0
B.Stephens..  3  18  0

Jerrod wasn't just throwing all those TD passes to himself.

I expected Jeff Fuller to step in and contribute as a true freshman but I don't think we expected him to excel as much as he did. He set not just the freshman record, but the school record with 9 TD receptions....even after he had one stolen by a phantom holding call. At the M&W Game this past spring I told my father-in-law that T-Murph is one of my favorite players ever but Jeff Fuller is the best WR we've ever had.

While I expected contribution from Fuller, I had no clue that Ryan Tannehill would put up the numbers he did. He caught everything thrown his way, spun out of a couple of tackles, and came 41 yards shy of setting the school receiving yards record - even though he missed at least a game and a half due to injury.

We also bring back Terrence McCoy, our third starter, and Howard Morrow - a guy who I've been touting since he arrived on campus but has simply not been able to excel, for reasons unknown to me. I talked about Morrow quite a bit in last year's preview and he has received a good bit of ink from the local media in terms of improvement and being in great shape (lost 23 lbs).

We will also bring in one of the most talent-packed freshman WR classes we've seen in Aggieland. Ryan Swope (who ran a 10.70 in the 100-meters at the state UIL as a senior) will play a little bit of the A-Back role - catching passes out of the backfield as well as lining up in the slot as a receiver. Uzoma Nwachukwu (who from here out will be referred to as EZ), Brandal Jackson, and Kenric McNeal are the other three freshman WRs and each one of them has a chance to be big-time players for us over the years. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of them play as true freshmen, but I do think I would be surprised to see all of them play without someone taking a redshirt.

At tight end we return Jamie McCoy and add to it Kenny Brown, who has played about a dozen positions and is one of those guys that seems like should have graduated 3 years ago but is still only a junior. Both are almost pure pass-catching mismatch TEs.

They'll be backed up by RS-F Keon Furtch (who was recruited as a DB) and true freshman Hutson Prioleau, who is the most traditional TE of the bunch. I don't think I read anything on Furtch during the team practices but Prioleau apparently turned some heads.

Coming Up....

Friday morning: New Mexico Preview Friday evening: Ag Football Preview Part II

| Where are you?

Tuesday September 1st, 2009

Make sure your wife grabs your maroon shirt when she sets out your outfit on Friday.

| Where are you?