Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order

Saturday October 8th, 2005

2:15am

Just a Couple More Tidbits

OK, there are a few things I want to add....

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Friday October 7th, 2005

1:10pm

Aggie Football Preview: Colorado

Alright Ags, this week we're changing things up a bit. The boys from Buffs.tv and I have written each other's previews for the week. It's safe to say that they know more about Colorado than I do and viceversa. That old BlogPoll thing is coming in handy isn't it?

If somehow you still need your fix of me check it out over there.

One more thing before I let you go....please don't call or email me regarding the game this week until after I give clearance. Jennifer's birthday is tomorrow and I'm going to have to tape the game and watch it on Sunday morning. If you see before then, I'll be the guy humming with his hands over his ears as to not accidentally hear the score.

Enjoy....

The Buffs must win this game for three people.

Win it for Bobby Purify - Last year in College Station the Buffs dominated the first three quarters of play. Then they managed to give up 16 4th quarter points to the Aggies and Reggie McNeal to force the game to overtime. The Buffs defense held to a field goal on the Aggies initial overtime possession. On the next play Lee Foliaki forced a Bobby Purify fumble to end the game. Let me restate. On the next play former CU Buffalo commitment Lee Foliaki forced sure handed MVP Bobby Purify to fumble the ball to lose the game. Bobby Purify still carries the weight of that fumble on his shoulders even as he practices with the Packers this season.

Ouch that game was a turn around game for the Buffs. They were 4-2 heading into College Station. And before we even knew what happened we were 4-4 in the middle of a mediocre season. The loss to the Aggies hurt last year.

Win it for Vaka Manupuna - Vaka is Lee Foliaki’s cousin. Not only was he crushed when Foliaki chose to go to Texas A&M after junior college. He also hasn’t heard the end of it since last year. The family bickering has turned into a festering wound for Manupuna and he plans to remedy it this weekend. Under the lights, on national TV, in front of a sell out crowd would seem to be the best place to do it. (Brent Musberger will not be telecasting this game so it might actually be OK to listen to the broadcast as well as watch)

Win it for Gary Barnett - It’s been quite a while since Gary Barnett’s has posted an eye catching performance. It seems that I can no longer remember the last time we were ranked nationally. Not quite sure about the last time we beat a ranked team. And yes we did beat Oklahoma State last week, but it was our first win against the South division in ten tries. We even lost to Baylor, but I’m sure you Aggies know all about that. The point is Gary Barnett’s job is on the line and every game is a must win for him this season. Every player knows that is willing to leave everything they have on the field to ensure Barnett is the man for years to come in Boulder.

The only problem is that there are some obstacles on the way to a quality win. First and for most is Reggie McNeal - The Buffs allowed McNeal to have his way with them last year. He produced some 390 yards of total offense, that is more than any single team has been able to put up on the Buffaloes this year. Gary Barnett seems to think that the Aggies “run much of the same system that we saw last week (against Oklahoma State)” And the Aggies do, but they do it much much better. And McNeal adds a huge option threat too.

The Buffs have been tough against the run this year ranking in the top fifteen nationally. So I am in hopes that we can shut down McNeal and Courtney Lewis and force McNeal to air it out. We throw Tyrone Henderson, Lorenzo Sims, Gerret Burl, and JJ Billingsley out there as DBs and every game this year they seem to be able to come up with the big plays when we need them. Unlike last year they are not prone to giving up big plays all day long. Of course with the short yardage help they get from our all star linebacker crew it is a lot easier to focus on your receiver.

Penalties - Hooray we are in the top 10 nationally, in penalty yards. And not for game play mistakes. Offsides, false starts and miscues have plagued us. These are mental mistakes that we cannot afford. Come on guys get your head in the game and let’s play some football

Shawn Watson - For the unaware, Shawn Watson is the Colorado offensive coordinator. He is neither an offensive genius nor a creative mastermind. There is no need to detail his past efforts, but I will give you a quick glimpse into the game plan this week. The first 10-15 plays will be scripted, they will be varied and quite effective. They might actually scare the Aggies/excite the Buffs. After that, look for off-tackle running on first down. Quick outs to the receivers, which will be quickly stuffed on second down. Then either off-tackle runs on 3rd and long or routes that are run one yard short of the first down. That’s it, pretty simple. One more thing, don’t look for our three best offensive weapons Joel Klopfenstein, Quinn Sypnewski, and Lawrence Vickers to get the ball on crucial downs. And there you go, the Buffs game plan in black and white. One more thing you can tell the cornerbacks to lay off the deep ball, we don’t throw one.

All joking aside, this a very winnable game for the Buffs. We have to look downfield to capitalize on the Aggies poor pass defense. Quarterback Joel Klatt has to be licking his chops after going over the videos. Running back Hugh Charles needs to have another big day hopefully finding some holes for huge gains like he did last week. And the Buffs need to have another solid defensive effort. With two shutouts under their belt, the Colorado defense is on their way to earning themselves a nickname. That’s something our defensive coordinator, Mike Hankwitz knows all about.

Prediction: Buffs 24 – A&M 17

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Wednesday October 5th, 2005

12:20am

TAMABINPO Week 6 Rankings

Here is my newest ranking for the BlogPoll.... 

TAMABINPO's Week 6 Rankings
Rk. TEAM (LW; Record)
 1. Southern Cal (1; 4-0)
 2. texas (2; 4-0)
 3. Virginia Tech (3; 4-0)
 4. Ohio State (5; 3-1)
 5. Georgia (6; 4-0)
 6. Florida State (7; 4-0)
 7. Miami (Florida) (8; 3-1)
 8. Tennessee (9; 3-1)
 9. Alabama (13; 5-0)
10. Wisconsin (11; 5-0)
11. Louisiana State (12; 2-1)
12. Florida (4; 4-1)
13. Notre Dame (15; 4-1)
14. Cal (16; 5-0) 
15. Arizona State (10; 3-2)
16. UCLA (18; 4-0)
17. Louisville (24; 3-1)
18. Michigan State (14; 4-1)
19. Boston College (22; 4-1)
20. texas tech (21; 4-0)
21. Georgia Tech (23; 3-1)
22. Penn State (NR; 5-0)
23. Auburn (NR; 4-1)
24. Michigan (NR; 3-2)
25. Minnesota (17; 4-1)

OUT: Purdue (19; 2-2)
     Virginia (20; 3-1)
     Texas A&M (25; 3-1)

The only game I watched this weekend was ours (live)....It's been a crazy past few days cause I've got my STAT midterm this evening as soon as I get home from work and I've been studying for that a lot this weekend/early week.

I hit Florida pretty hard, maybe too hard but I can't move 'Bama up any higher yet but they certainly need to be well behind them....Enjoy this now 'Bama, the SI Cover Jinx is looking you right in the eyes....Arizona State has two losses but they've been against LSU & USC so I can't hurt them too badly....A&M finally fell out....It was a tough week to rank because lots of my low-teen teams from last week lost and I don't know as much about them as I do the upper-tier so it's harder for me to judge where they should be.

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Monday October 3rd, 2005

9:35pm

T-Murph Is Down

Terrence Murphy, my favorite Aggie football player, just took a helmet-to-helmet blow on Monday Night Football from a Carolina Panther defender. He was carried off the field on a stretcher with his helmet still on but with the facemask removed.

I'll keep you posted as best I can. I can only hope that it wasn't as serious as it looked.

10:35pm: ESPN Report

1:18am: Update Link

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9:18pm

Mixed Emotions Come After 16-13 OT Victory

Box Score
Recap

I have to admit, Baylor came into Kyle Field ready to play. I honestly thought that we would just completely wail on them but I was incorrect. It certainly wasn't a win that I'm ever going to brag about although it is one I am certainly thankful for. Can you imagine having to put up with Baylor running their mouth for second year? Two days after we won and I'm still getting trash talking email from people I don't even know.

Regardless, a win is a win and I'll take it any way we can get it.

It was certainly better than attending my STAT 651 review. I'm taking the class online and my professor decided to hold it from 11-noon on Saturday. Thankfully, it is recorded and I was able to d/l it and watched it yesterday. She couldn't figure out why only 8 or 9 people logged on for the live version. I had already sent her a message letting her know that it probably wasn't a good idea because our game was at 11:30....but oh well. I just realized that we have 18 more lectures & ~11 more Q&A sessions (at ~70 minutes each)....yeah, over the next 2 1/2 months I get to spend about a day and half of my life sitting at my computer listening to a professor that I can't even see (it's just audio and a visual of what is on the professor's computer screen). Eh, it was a pick your poison....online or drive up to College Station an extra two times per week to sit in a class for the same lecture.

Anyways, I think this game reminded everyone about how vital Reggie McNeal's success is in relation to our offense's success. Reggie had his worst game in recent memory (coming in just ahead of his '03 Nebraska game) and our offense, the same offense that was #8 in the nation heading into the weekend, showed it.

Here's the weekly breakdown of his stats: 

            PASSING                     RUSHING
-------------------------------      ------------
          Att Com  Yds  TD  INT      Att  Yds  TD
1st Half:  11   4   43   0   2        4     3   0
2nd Half:  20   8   89   0   0        7    72   0
Overtime:   0   0    0   0   0        1     8   0
===============================      ============
Totals:    31  12  132   0   3       12    83   0

The first INT he threw was one of those, "Holy crap who was that one supposed to go to" but his second one was due to his arm being hit while he was throwing. He did throw another pass right into a Baylor defender's hands but he couldn't hold on to it....so I guess they balance out.

I think the biggest problem was that his timing was off because he was throwing just behind his receivers a lot. It also seemed that he was trying to force it to Jason Carter a bit more than he should have because Jason was drawing double teams for most of the game. Carter ended up with a team high 4 receptions for 48 yards.

One interesting note is that Reggie wore a shield on his facemask for the first time (that I'm aware of). Hopefully we don't ever see that thing again.

I thought that our play selection seemed as if it was not at its best....although that may have been limited by Reggie being off. Sometimes I feel as if we put so much emphasis on being balanced 50-50 that it hurts us. But like I always say, I'm just a fan and I don't know a lick about the X's and O's.

I've posted this on message boards but I'll certainly use it again here....these kids are human and every human has a bad day. It doesn't mean that our whole season is down the drain or that they should be replaced. Albert Pujols went 0-fer in three consecutive games last week and Tom Brady was not at his best yesterday....these guys are not only professionals but are the best in the world at what they do. Just wanted to point that out so everyone can just calm down a tad.

I'm curious how much of an impact the loss of Earvin Taylor's blocking is having. Losing both him and Riley, our two big chain movers, is rough.

I've got to hand it to Baylor, they were ranked highly defensively (in the top 25 in rush d, total d, & scoring d) and I completely blew it off but they put up. We were held to 287 yards (132 passing & 155 rushing) and only 16 points. They did a good job containing the option and as a result we had a difficult time getting out and turning the corner.

As poorly as the offense played, we got it together on the final drive of regulation as we went 84 yards on 17 plays to kick the tying FG. Reggie wasn't able to get it done in the air at the beginning of the drive so he did it with his legs, picking up 52 yards on 3 carries before the passing game started to click. Not only was it a long drive but we converted two 4th down conversions (one was 4th & 1 and the other was 4th & 7). The 4th & 7 was a pass to Chad "TD Machine" Schroeder who is carving his name into Aggie legendry with his play this season. The catch he made to save our drive was simply awesome (Click for video)!

Also on that drive Pierre Brown picked up his first Aggie reception....a 10 yard first down

Here's a quick rundown of the things we looked at a couple of weeks ago to see how important they were: 

Off 3DC  5-of-16
Def 3DC  9-of-19
T.O.P.   -9:20
O-Plays    65
D-Plays    90
T.O.      even

Special team....Pegram was 1-for-2 on FGs with the missed one coming on a bounced snap and the made one being the game tying one. Justin Brantley punted well again with an average of 43.1 on 7 punts (58, 61, 42, 40, 30, 40, 31-this last one was inside the 15). Ray Ray Jones, who has seemingly lost his starting job at CB, has played extremely well on special teams and it continued again on this day as he forced a fumble on a punt return. I'm glad that he's still playing hard and contributing to the team because it's always good to see your senior step up and play well.

Defensively we played better than we did the week before. We gave up 222 yards in the air on 45 attempts and 125 on the ground (their leading rusher was RB Paul Mosley with 133 yards). The biggest difference was that we pressured the QB and came up with 5 sacks, a forced fumble, and an almost INT that our DLman, Johnny Jolly, just couldn't quite get a handle on. Speaking of Jolly, he played a brilliant game picking up 11 tackles including three for a loss (two were sacks) and deflecting/hitting the QB's arm on two more (that I can recall). Justin Warren played well too picking up 13 sacks and recovering the QB fumble.

Baylor only scored 1 TD which is amazing considering that they started at their own 37 or better 8 times (including 4 times from midfield or better). I'm going to go back and look at our season numbers later in the week but I know our red-zone defense has been incredible, as we were on Saturday. Baylor scored 1 TD and kicked 2 FGs in their 5 red-zone attempts.

Just as a reminder to those of you who are already looking for the next A&M head coach, I thought this was interesting. I took a look through our depth chart and I noticed:

Yep, pretty much everyone except our top few skill players and our LBers are sophomores or younger. These guys are Coach Fran's recruits and I know that it isn't fun hearing "we're still young" but it is still true. I'm not at all making excuses and I am still disappointed that we haven't played as well as I had hoped, but seeing that helped put it into perspective a little bit more for me.

I'm hoping that we build from this game and go into Colorado and take a tough road game.

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