Saturday November 29th, 2003
12:40pm
Texas A&M 15 v. #5 texas 46
There was no Kyle Field Magic this year....no amazing comebacks....no legendary plays. This game was a recap for all of those who missed any games this entire season. 3 and outs, fumbled punts, settling for a field goal after being 1st and goal, great plays by Jaxson Appel, stud running by Courtney Lewis, missed extra points, giving up +30 points, out of bounds kick-offs, a couple of flashes of brilliance by our defense, missed tackles, back-breaking turnovers and too many mistakes. Things just didn't go the Aggie's way during this game, or all year. We just couldn't catch a break....and if we did, we just couldn't do anything with it.
Offense
We had 333 yards of total offense...121 yards rushing and 212 passing. #25 C-Lew had another productive day on the field picking up 84 yards on 17 carries and 1 TD. He needed 60 yards going into the game to reach the 1,000 yard plateau and he got that. He also finished the season with a team-high, 12 TDs.
My boy, #5 Terrence Murphy had another super star game. He had 7 catches for 150 yards, and 3 kick-off returns for 45 yards. I do not understand why we aren't showcasing him as the centerpiece of our offense? He finished with a team high 762 yards on the season and with his performance yesterday, he set the school record for receiving yards in a career with 1,879. He is also one reception away from tying the school's all-time reception record as well (he has 116). Speaking of records, T-Murph also set the school record in kick-off return yards with 626 yards. Can we say "Playmaker"? When we were marching down the field in the 3rd quarter, we were passing the ball extremely well. t.u. couldn't stop us. Then we threw an INT in the end zone (because once again, #16 Reggie doesn't really look before he throws) ending the great drive. Anyways, we have an incredible receiving corps and it seemed that every time we had a great drive this season it was because we were throwing the 8-10 yard pass consistently. As shown yesterday, and in the Mizzou game, if we can get the ball to our 3 playmakers (T-Murph, #7 Jason Carter, and C-Lew) in front of the line of scrimmage, they make things happen. During our drive in the 3rd quarter I just kept screaming to throw it to #5, and people around me were laughing because they thought I was trying to be funny. I was just trying to help the team win. The QBs....Well, we rotated QBs against texas and we got mixed results. #16 Reggie McNeal was 10-for-20 for 165 yards with 1 INT, a rushing TD and an average of 0 yards rushing. #17 Dustin Long was 7-for-17 for 47 yards and rushed for a net of 22 yards, two of which were huge 3rd and long runs. Both QBs will be back next season (currently Reggie is a Soph, and Dustin is a Jr). Is there any way we can still red shirt Reggie for his Jr. year and let Dustin be our QB next year. It just seems to be a waste having two quarterbacks who have both had equal success rotate playing time. I know, and I've said this before, that Reggie is the exciting athlete that everyone wants to see embarrass the opposing teams, but he just doesn't seem to read the defenses very well at all and it is possible that sitting down for a year could help him learn more. According to The Cycle, we will be peaking again from 2005-2008 and if we could red shirt Reggie next year, then we'd have him for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Just a thought from a Monday morning QB.... A final note about our offense....I think that our offensive line did improve tremendously over the course of the season. I'm not saying that anyone deserves 2nd or 3rd team All-Conference consideration, but they did get better. They're very young, with only 8 letters split between the 15 OL-men on the depth chart (and 6 of those letters came from 2 players). In two or three years, these guys will have a ton of experience between them and they will help both the passing game and the rushing game.
Defense
I don't really know where to start here. I guess with the numbers...texas had 490 yards of total offense....97 yards passing and 393 yards rushing. Everyone was worried about Vincent Young (myself included), but it seems that RB Cedric "It wasn't my weed" Benson was forgotten. He carried the ball 35 times for 283 yards and 4 TDS, averaging 8.1 yards/carry. 283 yards to one player in the most given up by an Aggie defense ever in one game. Young did rush for an additional 90 yards, but that wasn't a back breaker by any means. He attempted a mere total of 8 passes, completing 5 of them. texas ran the ball on the last 27 non-punting plays they ran. That was the entire second half. During that stretch they scored 26 points. There was a stretch where they gave the ball to Benson 19 out of 20 plays in a row, which ended when they sat him down for the remainder of the game. He still averaged 8.1 yards/carry in the game. On a positive note, we held Roy Williams to 2 receptions (a team high) and 13 yards. It was also nice to see a linebacker co-lead the Aggies in tackles for possibly the first time all season (Archie McDaniel tied with Marcus Jasmin with 8 total). Jaxson Appel had 7 and a fumble recovery. He finished 1 tackle away from setting the school record for a DB. Thank goodness he's a sophomore.
Other Notes
I was proud that the 12th Man stuck around till the end of this one. After seeing a picture of the stadium after the Kansas game, I was truly embarrassed. This was the first loss in the short history of the "Maroon Out" game. We were 5-0 going into the season....We had beaten:
- 1998: #2 Nebraska
- 1999: #5 texas
- 2000: #8 Kansas St.
- 2001: Notre Dame
- 2002: #1 Oklahoma
I guess some things can't last forever....
Baseball??
There have been some big things going on in the MLB, but I haven't had time to cover them because of all this darn football. I'll tackle (there's the football again) baseball in my next post....
Friday November 28th, 2003
12:00am
One Final Note
I was unaware of something that needs to be mentioned. My fiance's brother, T.J., pointed out to me that in 1979 the game was very similar to today's match up. The Aggies were 5-5 going into the game and t.u. was 9-2 and hoping for a big bowl. The Aggie knocked off the longhorns 13-7 sticking texas with their third loss of the season and knocking them to #11 in the nation and into the Sun Bowl against #13 Washington (where they lost 14-0). Just something to keep in mind....I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and drove safely....I'll give you the usual recap sometime this weekend and even a Midnight Yell recap as well....BTHO t.u.! Whoop!
Wednesday November 26th, 2003
1:16am
BEAT THE HELL OUTTA t.u.! WHOOP!
The Rivalry Continues
Texas A&M and texas university played their first football game against each other 109 years ago in 1894. Unfortunately, the longhorns prevailed 38-0. Since then, they have played 109 games against each other and every year the passion returns right around Thanksgiving. texas currently holds the lead in head-to-head games with a 70-34-5 record. Before you go and say anything, keep in mind that prior to the 1970s Texas A&M was a much, much smaller school, consisting of only Corps of Cadets members. Look at this for a minute:
- Between 1894-1908 the Aggies were 1-14-2 against the longhorns (remember, 1908 was when the Cubs last won the World Series)
- From 1940-1955 the Aggies were 1-14-1 against the longhorns
- From 1957-1974 the Aggies were 2-17
- Over those 3 spans of time, the Aggies were only able to defeat the longhorns 4 time while losing 45 times and tied 3 times
texas stomped us prior to 1975. Do keep in mind that of A&M's 34 wins against t.u., 16 of them have come since 1975. If you look at it like that, over the last 28 years A&M has a 16-12 record. I'm not going to focus as much on the events that occurred pre-Michael Jackson (the original one...you know, the Jackson 5 version)
.....but before I start getting letters from t-sips out there...
.....For those of you who were old enough to know anything about the rivalry in or before 1974, congratulations on your complete dominance....for those of you who weren't, quit hanging on to other's achievements. Since I arrived here on campus in the Fall of 2000, I've decided that A&M is good at football when texas is bad and vice-versa. It's a cycle that lasts anywhere from 3-5 years at a time. I've never looked up the actual facts until now to see how my theory works out. My time here at A&M is a perfect example....we're 25-22 from 2000-today....texas is 40-9 from 2000-today.... I used the time frame 1975-2002 and I looked up each team's records for every season and I compared each team to one another based on their winning percentage. Here's what I've found....
Texas A&M texas
| Year |
Record |
W%age |
|
Year |
Record |
W%age |
|
Winner of Rivalry |
Score |
| 1975 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1975 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
A&M |
20-10 |
| 1976 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1976 |
5-5-1 |
.500 |
|
A&M |
27-3 |
| 1977 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
1977 |
11-1 |
.917 |
|
texas |
57-28 |
| 1978 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
1978 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
texas |
22-7 |
| 1979 |
6-5 |
.545 |
|
1979 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
A&M |
13-7 |
| 1980 |
4-7 |
.364 |
|
1980 |
7-5 |
.583 |
|
A&M |
24-14 |
| 1981 |
7-5 |
.583 |
|
1981 |
10-1-1 |
.875 |
|
texas |
21-13 |
| 1982 |
5-6 |
.455 |
|
1982 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
texas |
53-16 |
| 1983 |
5-5-1 |
.500 |
|
1983 |
11-1 |
.917 |
|
texas |
45-13 |
| 1984 |
6-5 |
.545 |
|
1984 |
7-4-1 |
.625 |
|
A&M |
37-12 |
| 1985 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1985 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
A&M |
42-10 |
| 1986 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
1986 |
5-6 |
.455 |
|
A&M |
16-3 |
| 1987 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1987 |
7-5 |
.583 |
|
A&M |
20-13 |
| 1988 |
7-5 |
.583 |
|
1988 |
4-7 |
.364 |
|
A&M |
28-24 |
| 1989 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
1989 |
5-6 |
.455 |
|
A&M |
21-10 |
| 1990 |
9-3-1 |
.731 |
|
1990 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
texas |
28-27 |
| 1991 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1991 |
5-6 |
.455 |
|
A&M |
31-14 |
| 1992 |
12-1 |
.923 |
|
1992 |
6-5 |
.545 |
|
A&M |
34-13 |
| 1993 |
10-2 |
.833 |
|
1993 |
5-5-1 |
.500 |
|
A&M |
18-9 |
| 1994 |
10-0-1 |
.955 |
|
1994 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
A&M |
34-10 |
| 1995 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
1995 |
10-2-1 |
.808 |
|
texas |
16-6 |
| 1996 |
6-6 |
.500 |
|
1996 |
8-5 |
.615 |
|
texas |
51-15 |
| 1997 |
9-4 |
.692 |
|
1997 |
4-7 |
.364 |
|
A&M |
27-16 |
| 1998 |
11-3 |
.786 |
|
1998 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
texas |
26-24 |
| 1999 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
1999 |
9-5 |
.643 |
|
A&M |
20-16 |
| 2000 |
7-5 |
.583 |
|
2000 |
9-3 |
.750 |
|
texas |
43-17 |
| 2001 |
8-4 |
.667 |
|
2001 |
11-2 |
.846 |
|
texas |
21-7 |
| 2002 |
6-6 |
.500 |
|
2002 |
11-2 |
.846 |
|
texas |
50-20 |
| 2003 |
4-7 |
.364 |
|
2003 |
9-2 |
.818 |
|
???? |
?? |
It does seem that when texas has won over that span, they've stomped us and when we've won it was by just by a score or so. Their average margin of victory was 20 points over that span, while A&M's was 14.25 points.
In case anyone has been wondering why I've always referred to "The University of Texas" as t.u. or texas, I'll tell you. Here at Texas A&M, we do not consider the school in Austin "THE" university of the state of Texas. Hence, texas university or t.u. (I don't really know why it is in all lower case, I guess it's just to ruffle some feathers)....
Here is the information given above in the chart, given in graphical form (I used the winning percentages). I think it is much easier to visually see the cycles with the graph.
Click on Chart for Larger View
To start to prove my "Neither Team is Bad at the Same Time" Theory, notice that there is not once during that entire span when both teams have less than 7 losses. The two worst seasons collectively were 1980 (11-12 combined record), 1988 (11-12). Outside of those two years, every time that one school is sub-.600, the other school has been over .600. There have been several years when the schools shadow each other, but there is rarely a time when they overlap.
Coaching changes....I think that changing Head Coaches is something that impacts a team's record in that coach’s first season and sometimes into his second. A&M has now had 5 coaches since 1975 (Emory Bellard was the Aggie coach from 1972-mid-1978) and in the new coach's first full season with the team their records were: Tom Wilson (1979; 6-5-0), Jackie Sherrill (1982; 5-6-0), R.C. Slocum (1989; 8-4-0), Coach Fran (2003; 4-7 with one game left). At texas the situation doesn't quite run the same way (Darrell Royal was the coach from 1957-1976)....Fred Akers (1977; 11-1), David McWilliams (1987; 7-5), John Mackovic (1992; 6-5), Mack Brown (1998; 9-3).
I feel that the cycle affects the recruiting of each school and at the same time the recruiting affects in the cycle. Since hiring Mack Brown in 1998, the longhorn's recruiting has become much better which is why their team is topping out on the cycle right now. I think that once Coach Fran can get his own recruits into our system where he can run the offense and defensive schemes that he wants to we will have more success. What hurt A&M after winning the Big XII South in 1998 and 1999 was that R.C. wasn't able to capitalize on the team's success on the recruiting trails. I don't think this happened because of him, but because 1998 was Mac Brown's first year and he was successful and 1999 was Bob "The Conqueror" Stoops's first year and he took a bit out of the talent pool as well.
Something else that must be considered when looking at the cycle is Pre & Post-"The Conqueror". We all know that since Stoops came to reign at Oklahoma many young Texas blue chipper high school recruits have been running across the Red River like lemmings. Currently, this is hurting Texas A&M much more than it is texas because instead of texas & Texas A&M being the top 2 schools in the region, it has been texas and OU as the top 2 schools in the region. I think that for a few more years we have to include OU in the cycle because of that factor. It really stinks that I came to A&M during the wrong time in the cycle, but at least I can see that things will get better in the future (remember reading this in 2005-2008 when we're awesome again). I'd also like to point out to all of my t-sip buddies that you should enjoy your time on top, because it's not always like that. Don't forget that you were 4-7 in 1997 a short 6 seasons ago....REMEMBER THE CYCLE....
Good luck on Friday, and remember that in rivalry games you can throw rankings out the window because anything can happen...may the best team win....and let that team be Texas A&M! WHOOP!
Tuesday November 25th, 2003
12:59am
Schilling to Red Sox?
This would be Awesome! Two of my favorite 4 teams will have made a big move to improve last year's squad (both made the playoffs last year too....the A's and the BoSox). According to ESPN.com, Curt Schilling (yeah, the 2001 World Series MVP) would be headed to Boston in exchange for a plethora of youngsters headlined by Casey Fossum (yeah, the former Fightin' Texas Aggie stud). The other players include Jorge De La Rosa, Brandon Lyon, & Michael Gross. De La Rosa is a pretty decent pitching prospect while Lyon is a 3-year veteran with a 10-14 record and a 4.99 career ERA. There is however a 5pm deadline this Friday, which may not give Schill enough time to make his decision. Here are the stats for the player's involved over the last 3 years and career-wise.
Curt Schilling-RHP
| Year |
Team |
Age |
W-L |
G |
GS |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
SO/BB |
ERA |
OBA |
AGs |
| 2001 |
Ari |
34 |
22-6 |
35 |
35 |
256.2 |
237 |
86 |
85 |
293/39 |
2.98 |
.245 |
- |
| 2002 |
Ari |
35 |
23-7 |
36 |
35 |
259.1 |
218 |
95 |
93 |
316/33 |
3.23 |
.224 |
64.1 |
| 2003 |
Ari |
36 |
8-9 |
24 |
24 |
168.0 |
144 |
58 |
55 |
194/32 |
2.95 |
.230 |
62.3 |
| Career |
16-Yr |
|
163-117 |
450 |
338 |
2586.0 |
2286 |
1017 |
957 |
2542/603 |
3.33 |
.236 |
- |
FOR
Casey Fossum-RHP
| Year |
Team |
Age |
W-L |
G |
GS |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
SO/BB |
ERA |
OBA |
AGs |
| 2001 |
Bos |
23 |
3-2 |
13 |
7 |
44.1 |
44 |
26 |
24 |
26/20 |
4.87 |
.259 |
- |
| 2002 |
Bos |
24 |
5-4 |
43 |
12 |
106.2 |
113 |
56 |
41 |
101/30 |
3.46 |
.268 |
50 |
| 2003 |
Bos |
25 |
6-5 |
19 |
14 |
79.0 |
82 |
55 |
48 |
63/34 |
5.47 |
.270 |
46 |
| Totals |
3-Yrs |
|
14-11 |
75 |
33 |
230.0 |
239 |
55 |
48 |
190/84 |
4.42 |
.267 |
- |
Brandon Lyon-RHP
| Year |
Team |
Age |
W-L |
S |
G |
GS |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
SO/BB |
ERA |
OBA |
| 2001 |
Tor |
22 |
5-4 |
0 |
11 |
11 |
63.0 |
63 |
31 |
30 |
35/15 |
4.29 |
.266 |
| 2002 |
Tor |
23 |
1-4 |
0 |
15 |
10 |
62.0 |
78 |
47 |
45 |
30/19 |
6.53 |
.308 |
| 2003 |
Bos |
24 |
4-6 |
9 |
49 |
0 |
59.0 |
73 |
33 |
27 |
50/19 |
4.12 |
.296 |
| Totals |
3-Yrs |
|
10-14 |
9 |
75 |
21 |
184.0 |
214 |
111 |
102 |
115/53 |
4.99 |
.290 |
Jorge De La Rosa-LHP
| Year |
Team |
Level |
Age |
W-L |
G |
GS |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
SO/BB |
ERA |
| 2003 |
Portland |
AA |
22 |
6-3 |
22 |
20 |
99.2 |
87 |
39 |
31 |
102/36 |
2.80 |
|
Pawtucket |
AAA |
22 |
1-2 |
5 |
5 |
24.0 |
27 |
14 |
10 |
17/12 |
3.75 |
| 2003 |
Totals |
|
7-5 |
27 |
25 |
123.0 |
114 |
53 |
41 |
119/48 |
3.00 |
Michael Goss-OF
| Year |
Team |
Level |
Age |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
HR |
SO/BB |
BA |
OBP |
SLUG |
OPS |
| 2002 |
Lowell |
A |
22 |
21 |
83 |
9 |
33 |
10 |
0 |
15/4 |
.398 |
.438 |
.446 |
.884 |
| 2003 |
Augusta |
A |
23 |
100 |
319 |
45 |
78 |
28 |
1 |
71/34 |
.245 |
.327 |
.295 |
.622 |
| Totals |
2-Yrs |
Minors |
|
121 |
402 |
54 |
111 |
38 |
1 |
86/38 |
.276 |
.349 |
.295 |
.675 |
The reason that Schilling only threw in 24 games this past season was because of a broken bone in his hand (after punching a QuesTec camera at the end of May) and he had an emergency appendectomy in mid-April. Regardless, his AGs (Average Game Score) was still #4 in the major leagues this year and he would be teamed up with #3 for a pretty crazy 1-2 punch with Pedro Martinez (not that the Schilling-Randy Johnson duo was too bad either). Curt also had two of the Top 10 single game GSc's (that would be Game Scores...) with #1 (96 vs. Philly in May) and #T8 (90 vs. Atl in August). His 90 vs. Atl. would have tied him for first place in the American League. Curt finished #3 in the major league in AGs in 2002 behind his teammate, Randy Johnson (67.1), & his possible future teammate, Pedro (64.8). In 2002 Curt also had the best single game GSc in the major leagues, when he scored a 100 against Milwaukee in April. That means that he pitched the best game out of the 4,860 starts made in the major leagues 2003 AND he pitched the best game out of the 4,860 starts made in the major leagues in 2002. Fossum, thus far in his young career, has pretty much been a AAAA player (a guy who is between Triple-A and the Majors). In 2002 & 2003, Casey pitched in 13 games in the minor leagues (10 in AAA & 3 in AA) and has posted a 1-5 record with a 10.5 K/9IP mark with a 4.07 ERA. He's a pretty small guy (6'1" and 160 lbs) but he can rack up those K's...in fact he owns the Texas A&M career record (404; 1997-1999) single season record with 162 on his was to being a 1st Team All-American in 1999.
Tomorrow!
Tomorrow, I will be posting my "Texas A&M v. texas" thoughts. It won't be a preview as it has been just like every other week, but more of a comparison between schools....football only....through the years. I've been working on it slowly for about 4-5 days, and I've been thinking about it since I started the site....so tune in for that....WHOOP!
Monday November 24th, 2003
12:01am
Updates
I didn't have time to throw up a new post for today because I spent a long time editing and making some new features for the site....check them out in the "What's New" section off the tool bar....
Pat Green Update
Some of you more devoted readers may remember back during the summer when I wrote about Pat Green's new CD, Wave on Wave. Well, I was listening to the radio this morning and it turns out that the single, "Wave on Wave" off that cd, is currently at #4 on the Country Music Charts! That's awesome for Pat, and for Texas Country music in general. I just wanted to throw that out there because I thought it was pretty cool.
Something Else That is Cool
...is if you go to Yahoo and type in "Texas A&M Baseball", my site, the site you're reading right now, comes up as the second link! That's pretty sweet! Just thought I'd throw that out there too....
Sunday November 23rd, 2003
2:33am
ESPN the Magazine
I've been a subscriber to ESPN the Mag for somewhere in the neighborhood of a year and I just realized something with this past week's issue. The magazine is 148 pages long (150 if you count the inside covers, which I will not). To my count there is only 81.25 pages of real actual ESPN magazine. The rest is advertisements. 66.75 pages of advertisements. I've broken the ads into categories as follow: TV, Vehicles, Clothes, Shoes, Food/Drink, Electronics, & Etc. Here is the breakdown of each of those categories:
| Category |
# of pgs |
| TV |
4.25 |
| Vehicles |
12.5 |
| Clothes |
5.25 |
| Shoes |
12 |
| Food/Drink |
4 |
| Electronics |
24.75 |
| ETC. |
5 |
I was quite shocked at the number of different cars that were included. Pontiac, Harley Davidson, Chevy, Ford, Suzuki, Acura, Mazda, & Toyota were those included. Some of them were sponsoring different events, such as Pontiac with the "Vote for your all-time Pontiac High Performance Play", which is basically the best play in college football history. Others were just trying to sell cars. With the "Shoes" ads there were Converse, Reebok, Jumpman (Jordan's brand), Timberland, Adidas, Nike, and the shoe store Foot Action which was sponsoring the new Nike Vince Carter shoe. Jumpman led the way with 3 pages all dedicated to one ad. I think the most diverse category was the "Electronics", which would make sense. I'll split that up for you:
| Category |
Product |
Pages |
| Stores |
Best Buy |
1.25 |
|
Circuit City |
1 |
| Cameras |
Samsung |
1 |
|
Kodak |
1 |
| Video Games |
Kill Switch |
1 |
|
S.W.A.T. |
1 |
|
Ratchet Clank |
1 |
|
Top Spin (tennis) |
1 |
|
Various EA Sports |
4 |
|
NBA Shootout (989 Sports) |
1 |
|
Ngage Video Game System |
1 |
| Cell Phones |
AT&T Wireless |
2 |
|
Motorola |
.5 |
|
Sony |
1 |
| Music |
Ipod |
2 |
|
Napster |
1 |
| Computer |
Microsoft Office |
2 |
|
HP Printer |
2 |
Very interesting that in a sports magazine that there are so many non-sports video games, but I guess that it is still targeting the male population with violent games....I'm also surprised that Microsoft has only 2 pages...... I suppose that the moral of the story is really the answer to the question everyone asks: "How they can give you a FREE fleece pullover when you subscribe for only $1 per issue for 26 issues?".....well, that and you can get a subscription for $15 without the fleece.....
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