To Top of Page
| ____Texas A&M & Baseball _______________In No Particular Order |
Saturday December 4th, 2004
1:29amSaturday Football
It is the last big day of college football before the bowl season kicks off so here's a list of games, their kick-off times and the channel....
I'm feeling one BCS altering upset but I'm not sure who....Enjoy....and remember that the college football season IS a playoff....10am ESPN2 #21 Pitt at South Florida Noon ABC #11 V-Tech at #9 Miami 1:30 CBS Army v. Navy (neutral site) 3:30 ABC #1 USC at UCLA 5:00 CBS #3 Auburn v. #15 Tennessee (SEC Champ; neutral site) 6:45 ESPN #4 Cal at Southern Miss 7:00 ABC #2 Oklahoma v. Colorado (Big XII Champ; neutral site) times are CST & rankings are from Coaches Poll
Friday December 3rd, 2004
10:19amBusted
Happy Birthday Ryan, the baseball world as you know it has now been changed forever.
Barry Bonds. (click for link)
Gary Sheffield.
Back in February I strongly defended Bonds because there was no evidence and yet some were ready to string him up and lash him. I can no longer defend him.I still don't think that he was on anything last season, especially since all this BALCO stuff came out right before spring training but anything prior to 2004 could very well be tainted. There is no telling what seasons were legit and which weren't.
At least now we can yell "Cheaters!" at some Yankees and not get mad looks from Yankees fans.
All joking aside, this is quite possibly the worst thing that has happened to baseball since the strike.
Wednesday November 31st, 2004
1:28amA Look at the Bowls
I'm back again with some more of my own thoughts on the BCS and bowl games in general.
First off I want to start with my Aggies and what the possibilities are for them. Most likely the Ags will be taking a flight to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl (Jan 30) but we have just as much of a chance at the Cotton Bowl as texas does at the Fiesta Bowl....
Speaking of which....
After texas beat us on Thursday they creeped up on #4 Cal in the BCS polls and are now sitting a mere .0013 of a point behind them. The difference (according to yesterday's article in USA Today) in the two teams can be made up if EIGHT (8) voters in either the AP or Coaches Poll change their votes. That is close.
Even though I'm not a big texas supporter I really want them to make the jump so I can go to the Cotton Bowl....so if you're a voter in either of the two polls think about me before you cast your vote....think about how I was unfortunate enough to attend Texas A&M during the worst stretch of football since before I was in kindergarten and how the only two bowl games we've played in during this my time here were the Independence Bowl and the Houston Bowl....this would make the past 6-6 & 4-8 seasons worth while.
Of course a loss by Cal this weekend against Southern Miss would prevent anyone from having to make these "moral" votes (game is this Saturday (December 4th) at 6:30pm on ESPN)....and then again I wouldn't mind texas only taking a ~$3M payout from the Cotton Bowl with us getting a ~$2.2M payout compared to texas getting a $14M payout in the Fiesta Bowl and us getting a ~$3M payout in the Cotton Bowl.
As for the BCS, I still don't know what to make out of all of it. There are 8 teams who will be getting a $14M payout and only 2 of those will be playing for the National Championship. If the BCS is truly there to match up the #1 team v. the #2 team then why even have the other 3 games....oh yeah....$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Four Aggies Named Freshmen All-Americans
It was recently announced that four, yes four, Aggie freshman were named as All-Americans by Rivals.com.
Defensive tackle Red Bryant and center Chris Yoder were both named to the first team and safety Japhus Brown and defensive end Jason Jack were named to the second team.
WHOOOOOP! These boys have 3 seasons plus one bowl game left of eligibility!
Speaking of honors, former Aggie QB and soon-to-be Aggie grad, Dustin Long has been named as one of the three finalists for the Walter Payton Award (given to top Division I-AA offensive player).
(note: the article says that Long transferred before 2003 but he actually transferred before 2004)
tech Ahead of us in Coaches Poll???
I'm not really sure if anyone can explain this one to me. Both teams are 7-4 overall and 5-3 in conference but A&M beat tech in the head-to-head match-up just 2 games ago. It just so happens that A&M lost on the same weekend that tech won but the thing is that A&M lost to #5 texas (who already beat tech) and tech beat OSU (who A&M already beat).
Apparently some of the coaches are in fact idiots.
Owner of Northgate Bars Dies
Just before this past holiday weekend there was some sad news here in Aggieland. The one and only Don Ganter passed away after being hospitalized for back and heart problems. Ganter was the owner of the Dixie Chicken, Dry Bean Saloon, Hole in the Wall, Shadow Canyon on Northgate as well as the owner of Alfred T. Hornback's Pool Hall.
Tuesday November 30th, 2004
12:21amAgs Drop Lone Star Showdown 26-13
Well, things didn't work out exactly like I thought they would. We were just flat out beat by a good team.
There is some good news....I got a call on Wednesday from my Father-in-law asking me if I'd like to go to the game with him and Jennifer's brother, T.J. I had never been to a game in Austin and even though there were disappointed faces after the game it was still a great experience overall and I really enjoyed myself.
We left Dallas Wednesday night around 6:30pm so we could go to Midnight Yell on the steps of the Capital Building.
There were several thousand people in attendance, including fans from both teams. I didn't get to hear very much of what the Yell Leaders were saying because of some of the t-sips who were blowing horns and chanting things like "Aggies F&*# Sheep", "BAY-LOR", and of course "texas...fight". It was still really cool to see all those Ags out in Austin and to see the Aggie flag up on the Capital Building.
We got up early on Friday morning because T.J. is a freshman in the Corps and they were marching down Congress St. to the Capital Building at 9:30am. I was amazed at the number of Aggies who lined the street 2 and sometimes 3 deep for blocks and blocks....I was also amazed at the number of longhorn fans who lined the streets too (these ones were much more civil than those at Midnight Yell...and sober).
After T.J. marched we grabbed our stuff from the hotel and went to lunch. From there we headed down towards the stadium to pick up our tickets.
I wasn't sure what to expect inside the stadium....The only other college football stadiums I've been to outside of Kyle Field are Memorial Stadium in Nebraska and Rice Stadium in Houston. I wasn't very impressed with the aesthetics of the stadium but hey, it's there for football not a fashion show.
T.J. and I sat together while my father-in-law sat separately. We sat in section 108, row 53, seats 17 & 18 which if you are unfamiliar with Darrel K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium is in the alumni section. We took escalators up to the top getting some looks (I was decked out in my maroon and T.J. was wearing his corps uniform) but much to our relief we weren't subjected to any sort of taunting.
Once in our seats we surveyed who would be sitting around us....it was mostly orangebloods with about 6 fellow Aggies in our region.
We were quite well behaved throughout the game....we cheered and celebrated when things went our way, we sang The Spirit of Aggieland before the game and we WHOOPED at appropriate times during the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band's halftime performance. We wanted to support our team but still not be obnoxious.
I think my favorite part of the interaction between fans and seeing how other school's fans act was seeing a t-shirt that read "Come Early, Be Loud, Stay Late, Wear Orange". There were 3 people in my section wearing that shirt even though they showed up after kick-off, weren't loud (I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but they were too busy going downstairs for more food), and left after the longhorns scored their final TD....they did, however, get the "wear orange" part correct.
It was also interesting to see how a couple of the t-sips became a little bit bolder as the game progressed. One grey-haired fellow down one row and across the aisle from us told us to "Now sit down and shut up" after the band was finished performing....he also made mocking "Whoops" late in the game mimicking our senior wildcat. He was really the only person who directed anything at us specifically all day long and I figure there is always one bad apple in the bunch. We were showered with "POOOOOOOR AGGIES" as we headed down the 52 steps below our seats after the game but nothing so bad that I lost any sleep over.
I should take this time to also tell about the one gentleman in orange who stopped us on the ramp as we were exiting the stadium. He said, "I just wanted to tell you that the greatest thing I've ever seen on a football field is the Aggie Band. I still get chills every time they take the field." As we say in Aggieland, that's good bull.
As for the game itself there were a few things that you can point to that led to our demise.
I didn't give texas's defense enough credit in my preview. Their defensive line completely dominated our offensive line throughout the entire game. They limited Courtney Lewis to a mere 15 yards on 7 carries.
Not only that but our O-Line could not protect Reggie which led to 8 (eight) sacks after giving up only 20 in the previous 10 games.
Part of the problem was the fact that we continually used the play action pass even though we only rushed with our tailback 7 times. This overexposed t.u.'s defense to the fake and pretty much made us one dimensional. I will admit, I was surprised at the speed of their DL and LBers.
The longhorns also had 9 pass deflections....and only one was by a defensive back (5 were by D-Line and 2 were by Derrick Johnson).
Reggie finished the day 20-of-38 passing with 1 TD and 1 INT (it was on a 4th-and-22 on our last drive of the game so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing....it was just like a 44-yd punt). He ran for a total of 7 yards (45 positive and 38 negative) which pretty much killed our "Put in all on Reggie's shoulders" approach.
Of those 20 completed passes, 8 of them were to my boy, T-Murph, who finished with 77 yards. Tydrick Riley was next on the squad with 3 receptions and with 58 yards receiving.
I underestimated Cedric Benson.
That picture is pretty much a recap of the day.
He ran for 168 yards on 33 carries and a TD (he was only held to negative yardage on three carries....2 of which were on their first two possessions). I based my impression of Benson on his game against us last year but I thought it was more due to how bad we were and not as good as he was. That wasn't true. He can flat out break tackles and every time there is a pile he seems to fall forwards picking up an extra yard or two.
Vince Young, however, still does not really impress me as a QB....as an athlete, yes. He threw for 131 yards on 12-of-18 passing and ran for 93 yards and a TD on 19 carries. He also had 3 fumbles, one of which led to a 98-yard return by Jonte Buhl right before half-time. It will be interesting to see how he responds after losing Benson next season.
Their three leading receivers were Benson and their two tight-ends (David Thomas and Bo Scaife).
What frustrates me is that we knew exactly what they were going to do and we just couldn't stop them.
Our special teams sure didn't help make things any easier. We had a punt blocked and returned for a TD on the first drive of the second half (which pretty much killed all momentum we had from the TD fumble recovery before the half), we missed a 32 yard field goal, we missed an extra point, and we some how blocked an extra point backwards into t.u.'s end zone which led to a 1-point safety. This is an area that we greatly need to improve next season along with our kick and punt return blocking.
All in all it was an enjoyable weekend, which it most certainly would not have been had I simply watched the game on TV.
What the results of this game will do with regards to our bowl options remains to be seen. There are some pretty hairy situations that I'm going to take an attempt at for yall tomorrow...