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Friday November 30th, 2007
12:11amHow is this OK?
This is totally unrelated to anything you're interested in but it just blows me away so you're going to have to deal with it.
Jennifer and I were waiting on a package to be delivered by FedEx to our house. We tracked it with our tracking number but still weren't sure what day it would be arriving.
As it turns out that day was yesterday. They came sometime in the middle of the day when no one was home but instead of leaving the package at the door or by the garage they left it with one of our neighbors and left a note on the door telling us the address that now had our delivery.
Can someone tell me why it is OK for FedEx to deliver my package (of value) to someone just because they live near my house? Is that all the qualification needed?
We had to go over to this random person's house and ring the bell, apologize, and then load my truck up with these two huge boxes. I've never met or spoken to this person before.
What if the neighbor is my arch-nemesis? What if the neighbor refuses to give it to us? What if the neighbor lies and says they don't know what we're talking about? What if the neighbor is out of town? What if I don't have a truck to move these two huge boxes? What if the neighbor attacks us?
Check this out. Not only did they deliver it to a neighbor but they picked a house all the way down the street. We had to drive slowly and look at the address numbers on the mailboxes to find it.
Here's a scary thought. If they had delivered it three houses to the right then we would have had to go visit a registered sex offender to pick up our package.
I was pissed. (as if you couldn't tell)
Wednesday November 28th, 2007
10:11pmAggie Football News
"I believe in this university. I believe in it from Hullabaloo Canek Canek to Muster to Elephant Walk to the Aggie Ring. Everything about this university I believe in. There is so much to this university beyond football. Football is a part of it, it's not "it". This university is bigger than football and there are many facets to it that make it so special."
--Mike Sherman in his Press ConferenceThere's a whole lot to talk about. Sherman is here. His assistants are not. I definitely jumped the gun talking about Kevin Sumlin but he was really the only name I had been hearing. Hopefully, we'll know both the OC & DC relatively soon.
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Sherman understands Aggieland and his love for the school will carry him right into the hearts of fans.
"When I was at Texas A&M, I dreamed of being the head football coach of the Texas Aggies when R.C. was done. When I went to Green Bay I dreamed of being the head coach of the Green Bay Packers and those are the only two teams I ever wanted to be the head coach of."
I love that....I love winning too....Both would be great!
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Byrne inked Sherman for $1.8M for 7 years. He took less money so he could go out and hire the best staff he possibly could. If Nebraska goes a direction different from Bo Pelini it would be a nice reunion from their Green Bay days, wouldn't it? ;) I can keep wishing....I found a penny heads-up today.
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I would also like to proclaim my support for hiring Terrence Murphy as an assistant. His middle name should be "Badass". This past spring he went up to Green Bay as a Coach Intern up through the third week of training camp where he helped with the running backs. After that he returned to Trinity Valley CC where he just finished up his first season (along with Archie McDaniel) as the WR & Kick Return coach.
His goal is to become an offensive coordinator, and I have no doubt that he will be one. I hope that he gets a chance to come back and work his way up in our program.
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I listen to John Lopez (Ag who used to write for the Houston Chronicle) on the radio everyday because I'm in my truck for most of the afternoon. He said that Sherman was R.C.'s best recruiter. I don't have any way to validate that but I liked to hear it.
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Speaking of recruiting....Sherman is making phone calls this week to touch base with the solid class Fran had put together (#13 rank by Rivals including four 4* DLmen). He is going to work with the Texans until the NFL season is over but will spend all his free time recruiting and working on his staff.
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I thought that Robert Cessna wrote an excellent column on Fran. He really put a human element to Fran that I think a lot of fans either forget about or just choose to ignore.
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One last thing on Fran before I turn the page. Did you see him booty bump Kirk Elder after we scored on the fake FG? It was hilarious. I'm glad he got to enjoy himself on Friday. After all the media blitzes and pressure it was a nice note to end on.
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I heard Coach Slocum on the radio the other day and I found out that Sherman's press conference was the first time he had been in the new Bright Complex. He said he had never been invited before.
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The Big 12 All-Conference team was named and we had fairly nice representation. Cody Wallace was named co-Offensive Lineman of the Year which is a nice award. He is a national semi-finalist for the Rimington Trophy .
1st Team: 2nd Team:
OL Cody Wallace FB Chris Alexander
DL Chris Harrington
LB Misi Tupe
P Justin Brantly
Honorable Mention:
CB Marquis Carpenter OL Kirk Elder
DL Michael Bennett QB Stephen McGee
DL Red Bryant RB Jorvorskie Lane
LB Mark Dodge TE Martellus Bennett
OL Corey Clark
Fourteen selections was the most during the Fran era (4 in '03, 11 in '04, 8 in '05, 13 in '06). A special congrats to my boy, Brantly!
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We'll find out on Sunday where we're heading bowl-wise. A lot of it depends on how many teams the Big 12 sends to BCS games. I'm guessing two teams will make it, but a Mizzou loss to OU in the Big 12 Championship could screw that up. I'd love to see an Aggie/Michigan match-up in the Alamo Bowl. Byrne has come out and said that Gary Darnell will coach us in our bowl game.
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That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.
Oh, Aggie basketball plays at Arizona on Sunday night (5pm on FSN) so keep your evening open. That'll be a GREAT game.
The press conference is set up for 11am this morning and barring some sort of crazy last minute snag Bill Byrne has selected Mike Sherman as the next head coach at Texas A&M.
I've got to admit, this is going to be a controversial hiring. Most Ags wanted someone with some flash to his name that would swoop in, win some big recruiting battles immediately, and scare Mack Brown and Bob Stoops. I'm not sure this hiring does that.
With controversy comes a split in the fan support. If a quarter or even a tenth of the fans are leery of the hiring then I think the honeymoon is going to be short lived.
I think the thing that bothers me is that there isn't anything tangible that we can look at. He has no previous head coaching experience at the collegiate level and he was never an offensive coordinator at the collegiate level. There isn't any way to look back at the recruiting from back in the day so we don't even know what he is capable of there. There are lots of unknowns, at least unknowns to me.
Here is what we do know about Sherman. He will be 53 years old in December and he played DE and OL at Central Connecticut State. He got his start in coaching as a part-time coach under Jackie Sherrill at Pitt in Sherrill's last season there. He got his first coordinator job as the OC at Holy Cross before taking the OL coaching gig here at A&M in 1989.
He did two stints at A&M, from '89-'93 and from '95-'96 (in '94 he was OL coach at UCLA). In '97 he left for the NFL taking a spot on Mike Holmgren's staff as the TE/Assistant OL coach. When Holmgren left to take the Seattle Seahawks job in '99, Sherman followed and became his OC.
NFL Rank Off Def W-L W% Scr Tot Scr Tot ================================= 2000 9-7 .563 11 13 14 15 2001 12-4 .750 5 7 5 14 2002 12-4 .750 6 13 12 11 2003 10-6 .625 4 4 11 16 2004 10-6 .625 5 4 23 25 2005 4-12 .250 22 18 20 6 NFL Rank as Offensive Coordinator ================================= RushO PassO TotO ScorO 1998 Sea 22 24 23 10 -- Before 1999 Sea 24 16 24 12 -- With 2000 Sea 22 21 20 19 -- After ----------------------------------------- 2006 Hou 21 26 28 28 -- Before 2007 Hou 23 7 9 11 -- WithThen Sherman left and took the Packer's head coaching gig in 2000. His first 5 years as the Packer's HC were good ones as he won the NFC North title back-to-back-to-back from '02-'04 but in 2005 things went bad and after his first losing season he was out of a job. Brett Farve threatened to retire if the Packers fired Sherman, which I take as a pretty good vote of confidence.
Some of what he did offensively has to be attributed to having one of the greatest QBs of all time, Brett Farve. But I don't know how to factor that out because there isn't any other point of reference.
In 2006 he was hired by Gary Kubiak as an assistant head coach and in 2007 he was named offensive coordinator/assistant head coach.
According to the '93 media guide I know that he recruited the Houston & Golden Triangle area but several of the other coaches also recruited Houston so I don't know how to figure out which players he brought in. I think that the recruiting aspect of his hiring is the scariest thing for me. Recruiting is hands-down the most important aspect of this job and it has been well over a decade since he last hit the recruiting trails. The game has changed and even more so, the kids have changed. Internet rumors, Rivals.com, myspace, and text messaging....these are things that he is going to have to get up to speed on quickly. Very quickly.
I'm not really sure how to judge Sherman based on his previous collegiate experience. I'm not sure what statistics I need to look at from an offensive line coach. I suppose I could look at QB sacks and rushing yardage but I don't have any point of reference to compare sacks to. I suppose the best thing to do is to look at All-Conference selections from under his watch....
Sherman's All-Conference OLmen ============================== Richmond Webb '89 Tyler Harrison '93 Mike Arthur '90 Jason Mathews '93 Matt McCall '90 Dexter Wesley '93 Keith Alex '91 Jonathan Ogden '94* *at UCLA John Ellisor '91, '92 Mike Flanagan '94* Calvin Collins '93, '96 Hunter Goodwin '95 Chris Dausin '93That is 13 different players in 8 years. That is quite impressive.
Rumor has it that Sherman is going to bring at least one familiar face with his top two coordinators. Kevin Sumlin is going to be the OC and either Jon Hoke or Johnny Holland will be the DC.
Sumlin was here from '01-'02 under R.C. He was our assistant head coach/WR coach and then took over the OC position after the third game of the season when Dino Babers was demoted. When RC left Sumlin went to OU where he was the TE/Special Team coach from '03-'05 and the Co-Offensive Coordinator/WR Coach in '06 & '07. Here are some numbers to look at:
2002 Pre- & Post- Sumlin-to-OC RushO PassO TotO ScorO ================================= Before 100 187 287 16.0 After 124 295 419 33.0 At OU as co-OC RushO PassO TotO ScorO ================================= 2005 178 178 355 26.9 Pre-Sumlin co-OC --------------------------------- 2006 177 192 369 30.3 Sumlin co-OC 2007 194 264 458 43.8I think this is a genius hire and is the most important cog in this coaching package. Not only has he done a good job as an OC, he will be the most experienced Big 12 coach of the group. He has been in the Big 12 for 7 years, has recruited in the Big 12, and knows what kind of football it takes to win in the Big 12.
It doesn't hurt that he has experience with special teams because there are a couple of aspects we really need to improve. Our place-kicker is struggling mightily and as long as I can remember the only goal our punt returner has is to simply not muff the catch.
I'll write about the DC tomorrow (or later tonight) because I'm not sure who it will be. I'm hearing it is going to be Hoke but earlier in the weekend I was hearing Holland. Look for "updated" in the time stamp at the top and you'll know when the DC info is included.
From what I've read, the Texans expect Sherman to stay with the team through the end of the season. I'm not sure what they expect from Hoke/Holland (both are also with the Texans) or what OU will allow Sumlin to do. Hopefully all the phone calls are being made to the right recruits and those players that are on the fence. We have a very nice recruiting class in line and I would hate to see it dissipate. That wouldn't be a good start.
Officially, I'm not wow-ed by Sherman but I trust Bill Byrne and if Bill Byrne thinks he is the best option then I'm on board.
Here's to a new beginning. Gig'em Sherman!
It appears that Bill Byrne is working a little overtime this weekend. In addition to searching for a new head coach he has A&M is close to signing a deal with former SWC foe, Arkansas, to start a series up in Dallas at Jerry Jones's new stadium. It could start as soon as 2009 and of course there are more details to come out once the announcement is made official.
I really like this move. It gives us a solid non-conference game against a team that we have some history with. As an added bonus it also means that we will not have to worry about moving the tech game to Dallas anymore. Oh yeah, and Darren McFadden will be gone by then too.
I'm looking forward to starting this series up again.
Good move BB.