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Saturday December 8th, 2007
5:54pmPray for Mrs. Murphy
T-Murph with Parents on Senior Day '04It has been passed along to me via TexAgs and Facebook, that Terrence Murphy's mother is in a hospital in Tyler and that she is not doing well.
As you well know, T-Murph is my all-time favorite Aggie football player, not only for what he did on the field but for the great example he set off the field.
Please keep Mrs. Murphy and their family in your thoughts this weekend.
Board of Regents Are Busy
It came out yesterday that the Board of Regents met and took care of a lot of business.
Most importantly, they elected a new full-time president of the university....Elsa Murano. The BOR voted in favor of her with an 8-to-1 vote, with old Bebes Stallings the only to vote against her. She is A&M's first female president, as well as the first Hispanic president.
Next on the list of importance, in my opinion, was a nice renegotiation for baseball coach Rob Childress. He originally signed (July 1st, 2005) a 5 year deal at $185K with a $40K supplimental payment.
His new contract keeps him here until 2012 and gives him a raise to $215K, with a signing bonus of $75K, plus supplimental payments of $80K for each of the first 3 years and 75K for the final two years. There are also some incentives that could reach up to $40K. Great move Bill Byrne. Lock him down at Olsen Field.
Thirdly, they approved Coach Sherman's contract at $1.8M/year for seven years. A copy of this contract can be found here (courtesy of the Austin American-Statesman).
Finally, the one the rest of the country would be interested in was that they approved Coach Fran's buyout. Overall he is getting $4.4M, which will be payed over three years at $1.7M in years 1 and 2 and $1M in year 3. His contract called for $1.7M per year through 2012, which adds up to $8.5M, but due to his NCAA infractions that stemmed from the VIP Connection deal we were able to negotiate it.
Lots of ink was used on Friday in College Station.
Thursday December 6th, 2007
10:47pmTwo Ags Arrested
Every season between the announcement of the bowl games and kick-off there are always stories of players getting into trouble with the law. This season it was two of our own.
Junior OT Yemi Babaloa & freshman DE Brandon Joiner were both arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated robbery. This is a first-degree felony and if this all turns out to be legitimate then these boys are going to be facing a situation a lot more difficult than third-and-long.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the two entered an apartment, struck the person who came to the door, and bound him/her up with tape (along with a second victim) and threatened them with an semi-automatic handgun. Then they robbed the place.
After search warrents were issued drugs were found at both player's residences.
If all of this holds up, these guys don't deserve to wear the maroon & white. I have no tolerance for stories like this. It will be interesting to see how/if Coach Sherman handles this situation or if Bill Byrne even lets it get into his hands.
Not only is this an embarrasment to the school, but it puts us in a very tight spot next season, particularly with Yemi. Four of our five starting offensive linemen are seniors which left Yemi as the only returning starter. Now we'll be seeing a whole new crew of OLmen. We barely have 5 returning players who have seen any playing time at OL. This is going to significantly hurt our offense.
2008 OLine G/GS 2008 DLine G/GS ================= ================= R.Frost 11/0 M.Bennett 35/5 L.Grimes 7/0 P.Freeney 12/0 K.Matthews 9/0 A.Gbunblee 34/1 T.Schneider 22/15 K.Heard 23/0 M.Shumard 16/4 V.Miller 8/0 V.Williams 5/0 C.Obiozor 35/14 L.Patterson 12/0 C.Smith 17/0We are paper thin at OLine and DLine isn't much better. We have two linemen (both sides of the ball) coming back with more than 5 career starts. I know that Mike Sherman is an OL genious but that doesn't mean he is a miracle worker. It's a bad situation for a new head coach to be put into.
Sunday December 2nd, 2007
10:11pmSan Antone Here We Come
It's official, we have accepted a bid to the Alamo Bowl to play Penn State.
JoePa's excited. I'm excited. The Alamo Bowl is excited (cause A&M makes them a lot of money when we play there).
This is a rematch of the '99 Alamo Bowl, which was the second Aggie football game I ever watched. LaVar Arrington wrecked shop on us. Thankfully, he has been out of eligability for 3/4 of a decade.
In other news....it will be Ohio State vs. LSU for the national title....Mizzou got screwed out of a BCS game because they beat two BCS teams, KU & Illinois (who was an at-large bid at #13!?!)....and Bo Pelini will be Nebraska's next HC....
That is all.
2:07pmAgs Bring Back Cassidy, horns Are Thieves, WTF to do with BCS?
First news is that Mike Sherman's first hiring was to bring back Tim Cassidy as the associate athletic director for football. This will be Cassidy's third stint with A&M and I feel this is an excellent move. He will shore up the recruiting while Sherman finishes up with the Texans and frankly, he's been a pretty dog-on good recruiter everywhere he's been so this isn't just a short-term stop gap.
Cassidy's Career: ================= '83-'84 A&M Grad Assistant in Recruiting '85-'86 A&M Recruiting Coordinator '87-'88 Florida Director of Recruiting '89-'91 A&M Recruiting Coordinator '92-'02 A&M Assistant Athletic Director for Recruiting '03-'03 A&M Associate Athletic Director for Football '04-'07 Nebraska Associate Athletic Director for FootballJust think of all those freak recruiting classes we had with Jackie and R.C. When I read the book Seven Seasons of Sherrill by Joe Hatcher there were lots of recruiting rankings given. I don't know the source of those rankings but the author said that we had the #1 recruiting class in the SWC in '83, '84, '86, '87, & '88 with the '83 class being ranked 5th nationally and the '87 class being ranked #1 nationally. He didn't list any other national rankings.
Nebraska Recruiting Rankings (rivals.com): Before With ------- ------------------- '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 40 42 27 5 20 13 12And just think that on the field this last 4 or 5 year stretch at Nebraska has been the worst anyone can remember in Lincoln.
I think this was a solid hire.
....
The other night when Jennifer and I were picking up our packages from our neighbors I noticed that my A&M flag was stolen out of the flowerbed. The wire frame was still there but someone swiped the flag right off it. I'm going to replace it with one that says, "t-sips steal for drug money". I can't believe it. I could understand it if I knew the neighbors and one of them went to t.u. and we had some good natured ribbing going on but I don't know a sole on my street. Flat out thuggery.
I guess that's the price of victory.
....
What on earth is going on with the BCS? #1 Mizzou lost to Oklahoma yesterday in the Big 12 Championship and #2 West Virginia lost to Pitt. It doesn't seem as if anyone wants to play for the crystal football this season.
With those two losses it marks the 11th time the #1 or #2 team has lost since week 6 of this season. That's nuts. Ohio State is the biggest winner here (idle since 11/17) they are expected to leap back up to #1 because they are the only 1-loss team left in a BCS conference. Who will they play?
Some will argue undefeated Hawaii. They've had a nice season but they haven't played anyone. They have defeated two teams with winning records and have played one BCS opponent (4-9 Washington in Hawaii). I'm ok with them getting a BCS birth but there is no reason they should be allowed near the national championship this year. There are probably 10-15 other teams that could go undefeated against Hawaii's schedule.
That just leaves the slew of 2-loss teams: Oklahoma, LSU, Georgia, Virginia Tech, USC, Mizzou....this could be the first 2-loss national champion I could remember.
You could even argue that Ohio State doesn't deserve a shot because of their relatively weak schedule. The highest ranked team they faced was ranked #21 at the time they played. The only team on their schedule that is currently ranked is the team that defeated them at home (Illinios). All that, plus they didn't have to play a conference championship game.
- Georgia is probably the hottest team right now. Their two losses were at the hands of South Carolina in week 2 and at SEC East Champ Tennessee in mid-October. They've won their last 6 games including 3 over ranked opponents....but they didn't even play in their conference championship, let alone win it. Yes, Nebraska got in under those circumstances back in '01 but had the BCS formula been what it is now they wouldn't have.
- LSU just won the SEC and its only two losses were in OT (at Kentucky & at home against Arkansas). They're my pick.
- Oklahoma fell to Colorado in Boulder on a last second FG and then again in lubbock without their starting QB (a game in which they still almost won). They just stomped a hole in #1 Mizzou, 38-17.
- Virgina Tech just won the ACC but they have a loss to LSU so I can't put them in over the Tigers....mostly because it wasn't just a loss, it was a 41 point loss.
- USC won the Pac-10....but played two teams all season with a winning record. Sorry Pete.
- Mizzou....you just got murdered by OU. It was your second loss to the Sooners this season so there is no way getting in over the Sooners.
What a crazy season. How about a Plus-1? That would certainly help.
We'll find out tonight who gets in and also where A&M will be going. I'm still guessing the Alamo Bowl, who already has JoePa's Penn State Nittony Lions lined up. That'll be a great game.