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2015 Music City Bowl Prediction

In trying to figure out my bowl prediction it’s really hard to guess what’s going to happen. Across the board A&M is the better team from a pure talent standpoint. Obviously we have a major question at quarterback considering it’s Hubenak’s first start but outside of that our only real weakness is across the offensive line and linebacker. Every other group of players is good enough to compete against anyone we play and win more than 75% of the time. Unfortunately this season we only won 67% of the time.

The thing that I can’t quite get over is coaching. I still don’t trust Spav to call plays and the fact he’s using a first time starting quarterback who took VERY limited snaps only makes it worse. With Kyle Allen’s first start last season he went really conservative and in Kyler’s first start this season it was the exact same offense as he had run for a year and a half with no new wrinkles. Kyler has great mobility but Spav still seemed to run the same offense so I don’t expect too many offensive wrinkles with Hubenak under center. I think we all want to be surprised by Hubenak but Spav’s body of work as an OC says to expect otherwise. While Jake Hubenak is no slouch he hasn’t seen a lot of live action and the Louisville D will have a really solid idea of what to expect and be ready. Big difference between practicing against guys you know and a live game against guys scheming against you every play.

Louisville while not as talented has some really solid coaching at the top level. Bobby Petrino is a great offensive mind. Our defense will get the better of Louisville most of the game but I have a feeling Petrino will have a few tricks along with making adjustments to move the ball into field goal scoring positon. Todd Grantham was a really solid DC at Georgia and is the kind of DC that giggles going up against someone like Spavital. I have a feeling Grantham will have watched a ton of film and have his defense ready for Spav’s tendencies.

Louisville got blown out in their bowl game last season but they played a pretty solid Georgia team that just ran Nick Chubb down their throat. Georgia won that game 37-14 while Chubb carried the ball 33 times for 269 yards and two scores. I love Tra Carson but he and our offensive line are no Nick Chubb even if Spav does give him the ball 33 times. I don’t think their bowl game last year is a great comparison for what to expect in our game.

Louisville was 7-5 this season but their losses were at the hands of Auburn, UH, Clemson, Florida State, and Pittsburgh. The losses to Pittsburgh and Auburn are questionable but there is no shame in losing to UH, Clemson, and Florida State this season. I think A&M and UH would be a toss up but I’m positive we’d have lost to Clemson and Florida State as well. We obviously lost to Auburn so that’s kind of equal and Louisville lost to Pitt on the road. That’s really the difference in these two team’s season.  A&M is one win better than Louisville against what can be perceived as better opponents but our record is not all that better than Louisville when you really look at it. So all things considered Louisville is not too terribly far behind us performance wise this season. A&M has the talent to be better than 8-4 but our record is indicative of what we actually did.

I see this game playing out much like the ASU game to start the season with two main differences. We won’t get the amount of sacks or turnovers which allowed us to blow out ASU towards the end. That ASU game was in question until about midway through the 4th quarter when we were finally able to pull away. Louisville has some inexperienced offensive tackles like ASU but I don’t think Petrino will allow his QB to be a punching bag like ASU did with theirs. I think we’ll get 3-5 sacks but we won’t have 9 like against ASU.

I expect us to be up 10-7 at half. Our defense will contain Louisville except for a big play likely on a screen or mis-direction where they’ve detected a blitz. Offensively we’ll move the ball for the most part but won’t sustain most drives except a couple that allow us to get a touchdown and field goal.

It’s the second half that has me concerned. I think their defense will mostly shut down our offense except for a couple drives where we get into the red zone but come away with field goals. We didn’t score a TD in the second half of the Vandy or LSU game hence my concern. I think Louisville gets a couple turnovers thanks to Hubenak’s inexperience and Spav’s predictability. Much like Kyle Allen threw a pick six in last year’s bowl game I think Hubenak throws one was well. We’ll also have a turnover on our side of the field that sets up a field goal. Along the way they’ll bust a big run for another field goal. The final result will be a 20-16 Louisville win. I hope I’m wrong but that’s just how I see things shaking out.

Now if Spav comes out forcing up tempo with wrinkles Louisville hasn’t seen then we can win this game walking away. If we can get up by two scores early that will allow our defense to bring pressure and tee off on Louisville where we get the turnovers. If we play it close and predictable I just don’t see how we get the breaks to win. Spav will be scared with Hubenak in his first game and call a very conservative game I have a feeling. It’s just who he is. There’s a chance of a 2014 opener against South Carolina in Spav but I only see that as a 25% chance.

A&M has the talent to win this game in convincing fashion but it’s hard to believe that will happen based on the offensive play calling the last two seasons. It’s just not good and has held this team back for 2 seasons now. This has Auburn written all over it where the lesser talented team with better coaching pulled off the win. I hope Sumlin and Co. proof me wrong as I’ll be cheering for the Aggies to do just that.

BTHO Louisville!

The Case of Kevin Sumlin

First off, I’m not advocating the firing of Kevin Sumlin. My intentions in doing this was to take as an objective look as possible at Sumlin’s head coaching career. Based on the results of this season and especially the Kyle Allen transfer there’s a whole lot of emotion and concern with Aggie Football right now. Is it justified? It sure feels that way but maybe it’s not.

From my standpoint college football is based on wins and losses. Nothing else matters. Rankings, players, style, and everything else is just window dressing. Wins get you to conference championships which in this day and age get you to the College Football Playoffs. Sure it’s possible to win it all without winning your conference but it’s really rare. You have to win games. Plain and simple.

So with that I decided to take a look at some various aspects of Sumlin’s win and loss record. Here’s the various categories below:

Overall at UH – 35-17 (.673)
Record with Keenum – 32-11 (.744)
Record without Keenum – 3-6 (.333)
Overall at A&M – 36-15 (.706)
Record with Manziel – 20-6 (.769)
Record without Manziel – 16-9 (.640)
SEC Record Overall – 17-15 (.531)
SEC with Manziel – 10-6 (.625)
SEC without Manziel – 7-9 (.438)
SEC Record at Home – 6-9 (.400)
SEC Record on Road – 9-6 (.600)
SEC Record Neutral – 2-0 (1.000)
UH Bowl Record – 1-1 (.500)
A&M Bowl Record – 3-0 (1.000)
Conference Championship Game (CUSA) – 0-2 (.000)
Highest SEC West Rank – Tied for 2nd with Manziel. 4th, 6th, and T-5th in other seasons.

 

So what does all of this mean? For me it means Sumlin is not as bad as it seems right now. My main concern in doing this was to check and see if he’s the product of a two great QBs in Keenum and Manziel. It’s certainly the case with Keenum at UH but the overall A&M record with and without Manziel weren’t as stark as I thought it might be. It’s definitely improved with Manziel but not as much as I thought. The SEC record with and without Manziel is pretty concerning though. So looking at the various win and loss isolations doesn’t show cause for major concern but he’s definitely a much better coach with Keenum and Manziel. How much better with Manziel is up for debate. Keenum is not. The SEC record at home is just embarrassing and needs to be fixed immediately.

Tossing all the win/loss stuff aside I think the most concerning thing right now is the perceived negative trend of the Aggie offense and it does seem justified. The main culprit is Jake Spavital as OC. Our offense the last two seasons has been woefully inconsistent and flat out not productive at times. We’ve shuffled through three different starting QBs and our line play has regressed the last two seasons. There’s been a definite drop in talent with the loss of NFL tackles but the line has not even been serviceable at times. If you can’t compete at the line of scrimmage you’re not going to win very many games. While Spav is the QB coach the line still falls under him as the OC has to understand its ability so he can design and call plays in accordance with how the line performs. Spav seems clueless of any issues with the offensive line. It seems he’s calling plays in a vacuum of a struggling offensive line. That’s a concern beyond the offensive line struggling itself.

There have been a lot of flags with the offense the past two seasons but I’ll point out two in the last two games. Against Vandy we had one touchdown and it was a 95 yard bomb where Kyle Allen was able to throw deep to Josh Reynolds. Kyle Allen has an NFL arm and we have a bevy of deep threats at receiver so any OC in the country could design a play to get man coverage for a deep ball. Hell, any of us could do it. It’s the staple of Thanksgiving games everywhere. In that game we kicked SIX field goals but only scored one TD on that 95 yard bomb. We were in field goal territory SIX times but couldn’t sustain a single one of those drives to score a TD. Now the Vandy defense is decent but not that great to keep our offense in field goal range SIX times and prevent us from scoring a SINGLE touchdown. That’s on the OC for not being able to call plays to score a SINGLE TD.

Against LSU we scored 7 points. Now most people probably don’t see the issue in that as we’ve struggled against LSU since joining the SEC. However this is the first time we’ve ever had single digits against LSU. Even worse we were the ONLY team in 2015 that didn’t score double digits against LSU. Actually, the next lowest amount of points given up by LSU in 2015 was 19. We were 12 points off the second lowest amount of points given up. The likes of Syracuse, Eastern Michigan, South Carolina, Florida, and Western Kentucky scored at least 12 more points than Jake Spavital’s highly vaunted offense. Unreal.

In games 11 and 12 of this season our offense is still sputtering along against decent but by no means outstanding defenses. With the weapons we have at receiver and the arm of Kyle Allen there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have scored 3 touchdowns in each of those games. I’m dead serious about that. Based on Spav’s two year body of work I don’t know how Sumlin could not let him go a day or two after the LSU game. Spav is just not getting it done but yet Sumlin appears to be unsure of his next move unless he’s working in some stealth mode that even the United States Air Force wouldn’t know how he’s doing it.

To make it worse this week comes the transfer of Kyle Allen. Despite what you think of Kyle Allen there is no doubt that at this current moment he’s the most productive QB on the roster. Maybe Kyler turns the corner but if you look at the production of Kyle and Kyler objectively up to this point it’s not even close. Kyle has been the better quarterback by far. Kyle would be going into his third season in the program so it’s safe to assume he would continue to progress as a QB. Kyle is likely going to be a first round draft pick and play for a long time on Sundays. He has that kind of talent and at times showed he can read a defense. Now he’s gone.

The rumored stories of the reason for his transfer are concerning. He got hurt in the Bama game but gutted it out because of the issues with Kyler and Spav apparently. He then had to play hurt in the Ole Miss game due to Kyler’s double secret suspension but Kyler still traveled with the team. That still boggles my mind why Kyler traveled if he wasn’t going to play. Kyle got hung out in the Ole Miss game WAY too long because Kyler couldn’t play. I think Spav was afraid to go to Hubenak when it was clear something was wrong with Kyle. Kyle was then relegated to third string against South Carolina and Auburn while his injury was kind of hidden for whatever reason. He comes in the Western Carolina going for 6/6 and looking stellar. He gets the starting job back and plays the entire game against Vandy and LSU. It was actually Hubenak and not Kyler who closed out the LSU game. Sumlin and Spav TOTALLY botched how they handled the QBs this season. TOTALLY BOTCHED.

Sumlin is apparently wavering in what he’s going to do offensively next season. To make it worse two weeks after the last game Kyle shocks the staff and says peace out. I don’t blame Kyle at all based on the way they handled him this season. I think we all knew there was a chance Kyle or Kyler would transfer but Kyle seemed to have the starting job locked down but he still decided to move on. He should be moving into his third season with a roster full of guys he knows but instead will transfer somewhere he’s unsure of and sit out a season. It makes no sense on the surface.

So here Aggie football stands with no proven QB under center no matter what we do at OC. Kyler was a stud in high school and can flat out move but his passing has been less than stellar this season. He definitely doesn’t have the arm of Kyle Allen so having a fleet of stud WRs doesn’t mean as much as with Kyle. I will also say it was maddening to watch Spav run the same offense with Kyle and Kyler. They both have different skill sets so some of Kyler’s struggles are on the lack of an OC that should have designed and called plays to Kyler’s strengths. Once again what does Spav see with his players? I don’t get it.

If I’m the A&M AD I tell Sumlin he has to remove Spav ENTIRELY from the staff. He’s had three seasons on staff and hasn’t developed as a QB coach and OC. Both starting QBs to open the last two seasons have now transferred. That’s pretty damning as one is okay but both shows the lack of development the last two years offensively. They transferred because they weren’t entrenched as the starter. You can’t have a QB carousel with guys that aren’t seniors. I’m fine with the Baylor approach of developing a kid on the roster for a couple of years and then plugging them as a junior or senior and never missing a beat. That’s not what’s going on at A&M right now. It’s utter confusion by staff and players at the QB position. The most important position in the program has no identity.

I don’t really want to go 8-4 again next season but that’s my bar for Sumlin in 2016. Anything less and A&M is going to have to make a tough financial decision. Sumlin should probably go but it’s going to cost A&M a ton of money to move on. 8-4 or better and it would be tough to justify firing Sumlin despite more of the same.

My biggest fear on Sumlin is waiting too long with him and losing Chavis as well. Chavis is the most valuable person associated with the football program. I know there were frustrating moments with the defense this year but if you truly watched the defense you saw a defense that never quit and made adjustments throughout the game to improve. Chavis was a flat out miracle worked compared to what Snyder had done. Without Chavis we’re probably 6-6 and the heat is cranked on Sumlin despite what goes on with Spav and Kyle Allen. If it becomes clear Sumlin is not a great head coach I don’t want to wait too long. The ideal scenario would be to hire an offensive mind like Chad Morris or Tom Herman to pair with Chavis as DC. Not saying Morris or Herman is the answer but finding a true offensive minded coach that works with Chavis would be ideal. Dude is at worst a Top 5 defensive coordinator in the country. I think he’s the best. Dude can flat out coach a defense.

If Sumlin does decide to keep Spavital I think next year will be his last season. I can seriously see us going 1-3 to start out losing to UCLA , Auburn, and Arkansas. There’s a good chance we could go 1-6 losing to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Bama as Muschamp at home against Spav is not a matchup I have much faith in. Tennessee is super talented and we all know about Bama. Miss St. loses Prescott so that game won’t be as tough even on the road and we get Ole Miss and LSU at home. No idea right now how tough those games will be. Although Sumlin has shown playing SEC games at Kyle is not an advantage for his squads. I could see us going anywhere from 4-8 to 7-5 but not much better with Spav as OC. Yes, he’s that bad.

Conversely, if Sumlin brings in a bona fide OC and QB coach along with getting an improved offensive line then 8-10 wins is very doable. With a stud OC and Kyle Allen coming back I think we’re a potential threat to win the SEC. But that’s not the case anymore. I just don’t see wining the SEC even if the new OC is a true stud without Kyle. Developing Kyler will be tough as he’ll likely only have him over the summer as during the Spring Kyler will be playing baseball. 2016 is all of a sudden a major question due to Kyle Allen transferring.

Right now is truly a swing moment for Sumlin . If he can turn Kyle Field into an SEC home field advantage and hold his other tendencies we’re all of sudden an SEC West contender praying Bama stubs it toe more than once a season. I have no idea which way it will go but I can see it going either way assuming Sumlin makes some hard decisions about his offensive staff. What he has now isn’t working or even close to working. If he sticks with the current staff he’s a dead man walking and we’ll be looking for a new coach 12 months from now. I personally hope Sumlin pulls it off and contends for the SEC in the next season or two as the only thing worse than a QB carousel in a program is a coaching carousel.

If Sumlin does get let go it will be a fascinating tale of luck to amazing wealth. To the best of my research he might not be the offensive guru he is portrayed as. It looks like he only called plays for half a season at A&M. He basically leveraged one win with Reggie McNeal over OU to get a job on OU’s staff. He sat on the OU staff eventually getting to Co-OC but he wasn’t working with the QBs or calling plays. He was the wide receiver coach. He leveraged that Co-OC gig to the HC gig at UH where Keenum was already on the roster. He made some nice hires in Holgersen and Kingsbury as OCs and rode Keenum’s success to the HC gig at A&M where Manziel was on roster. We all know about the 2012 football season which Sumlin leveraged for $5 million a year and the second highest paid coach in the SEC. Maybe he’s Dennis Franchione 2.0 being in the right place at the right time before his ineptness caught up with him. I hope not but we’ll find out in the next 12 months. Sumlin’s coaching seat is officially hot.

San Fran Marathon Thoughts

Executive Summary – In my typical fashion my words ran long. If you’re wondering if you should run the San Fran Marathon as a casual runner I HIGHLY encourage you to run the first Half for the scenery. There are some hills but it’s really not bad if you can handle hills. If you absolutely hate hills then you won’t like it but I found the hills on the first half to be challenging but not demoralizing.

The second half is another story. All 26.2 are an amazing accomplishment but the second half was something I was not mentally prepared for based on looking at the course map and elevation map along with having some knowledge of Golden Gate Park. If you want to be challenged for 26.2 miles I encourage you to give it a go. I have nothing to compare it to but there was no training in Houston I could have done to prepare me for it.

If you have time to kill feel free to read on. My apologies for the length but I got to writing and couldn’t stop.

Prior Marathon Experience – Zero. Nada. Zilch. Prior to running the SF Marathon I’d run one long race my entire life. In high school I HATED it when coach made us run a mile. Seriously. Was painful. Let’s run 10 gassers rather than a mile. So in college a bunch of girls signed up for a 5K and asked me if I wanted to run so I said sure. I ran a 21:30 5K and felt really good about it but never felt the need to run any distance race again. I would run 3 miles off and on but nothing I was ever passionate about. I say that to let you know 3 miles was about the longest I’d ever run before deciding to run a marathon some 15 years later.

Why the SF Marathon? – San Fran is my favorite city to visit in the U.S. It’s got the same character of New York but smaller and more manageable. I love New York for business but for leisure I’ve just always preferred San Fran. I was out there 3 years ago for work when the Marathon was going on. I’ve always thought about running a Marathon but never seriously. Something struck me that weekend I should do it and do San Fran because it would be scenic and the weather fantastic for a fat kid like me. If you’ve never been to San Fran in July it’s usually REALLY cold for July. With all my insulation I thought it would be perfect.

That weekend I got out the course map and saw the elevation map and saw the steepest climb was up to and across the Golden Gate. So I laced up my shoes and took off for the Golden Gate and hit the hills up to and across. A little more than 6 miles. No doubt it was tough but the weather was AWESOME and running the Golden Gate was amazing. I was hooked and was in. How hard could the other 20 miles be? Piece. Of. Cake.

It would take me another three years to do it due to work stuff and moving back to Houston from Fort Worth but it was always a goal. When work stuff finally worked out where it wouldn’t be an issue to train and travel, I was all in. As for deciding to go from a 5K some 15 years ago to a Full marathon rather than a Half it was all about go big or go home. Seriously. If I’m going to commit to running a long distance then let’s just nut up and do the whole damn thing. I figured this would be the only one I ever did so might as well do the whole enchilada. Plus, I wanted to be able snicker at those people with “13.1” on their cars. Just kidding Halfers!!! A Half is still an amazing accomplishment!

Training – Real quick on training. I trained for the thing by myself. It’s just kind of how I am for something like this. I need to be left alone and work out my issues by myself. I need to figure out what works to convince my body and brain to live in harmony for something as painful as running that far. No amount of encouragement from anyone is going to change my thoughts. I got a training plan from my buddy that owns a running store in Cincinnati with daily miles and took off running. A little like Forest Gump but no one ever joined me on my long runs. Looking back that would have been kind of cool.

Part of my training psyche was that I’d be training in Houston in May, June, and July and would be trading heat for hills in San Fran. I had to REALLY slow down my training pace when I hit June and July on my long runs due to the heat. I was running early on Sat mornings but it was still just too humid and hot to run the pace I wanted. Kind of frustrating but I worked through it.

As for what finally worked for me mentally was I treated it like all those drives I made between Fort Worth and Houston moving back. I’d put on Randy Rogers Band Pandora and zone out for the most part. Pay attention to my surroundings but get lost in every other thought besides the idiotic thing I was currently training for. In the book Lone Survivor there was a quote that always stuck with me while Marcus was in SEAL training. One of the SEAL trainers tells Marcus, “Marcus, the body can take damn near anything. It’s the mind that needs training.” That quote struck me when I read it. I’d remember that quote when I thought I was fool for attempting to do this and keep going. The body can handle more than you can imagine. It’s the brain you have to convince you can do it. Seriously. The mental hurdle was the toughest because it would have been so easy to quit.

My goal was to run sub 4 hours which is a little more than a 9:00 pace. I was able to do it on my 10-13 mile runs in May but when it hit June I had to drop back to a 10:00 and then an 11:00 pace to make it the distances I needed in the heat. My longest run was 22 miles on July 4th 3 weeks before the race which I finished at a 10:30 average but finished the last 6 miles at an 8:30 pace with a negative split the entire run and had lots of kick at the end. Tapered off the distances after that and was hitting sub 9:00 pace on every run and felt I was ready to bust 4 hours.

The Weather that Weekend – Remember when I said this fat kid decided to run SF because it’s REALLY cold this time of year? Yeah, well, Mother Nature wasn’t smiling on the fat kid.  It was UNBELIEVABLY hot that weekend. Normally that time of year you’re wearing long sleeves and pants at all times and a decent sized jacket at night and still feeling cold. Not that weekend. Got off BART in Union Square in shorts and t-shirt and it was hot. I never wore sleeves or pants all damn weekend. This would be a HUGE factor for me. It would cool down at night and was DEFINITELY cooler than Texas but honestly about 20 degrees hotter than normal and had me worried about busting 4 hours.

The Race – I was never really nervous or anxious about the race. I had already run it several times in my mind. I actually built spreadsheets with paces per mile tied to the elevation so I knew where I needed to be to bust 4 hours based on my training. I just needed to run the race based on my training and those spreadsheets and I’d break 4 hours and never run another again. I went to SF alone and was just fine with that. I met up with my cousins Friday night and spent Saturday bumming around the city but I wanted to focus on the race and busting 4 hours.

On race day I walked down to the starting area from my hotel which is another reason I chose SF. I could stay in the city and not have to mess with parking and all that. Just walked the 15 minutes or so and got in my flight stall and waited like cattle at an auction until we were free to take off. It was cool that morning but I was in shorts and t-shirt and never once felt cold like I normally would. My only hope was that the sun would hold off until after I was done. We’ll get to the part about the sun eventually.

The first 3 miles are flat as can be. Great way to warm up without being pushed. The worst part of those first three miles was passing the Boudin sourdough factory about at mile 2. They were clearly baking sourdough that morning and I clearly wanted to stop. So unfair to do that to marathoners. At mile 2.5 there’s a pretty steep climb at Fort Mason but not too bad. Short hills are actually my strength as I found myself passing lots of folks and only got passed by one fool I’d quickly pass when he ran out of gas. After that little climb it levels back off for another couple of miles running along the bay with the Golden Gate in sight. About that time the sun is starting to appear and it’s just beautiful.

At mile 5 the climb to the Golden Gate begins. The first 5 miles I had gone from a 9:30 pace the first couple of miles as I let things get stretched out and settled to slowly increasing the pace to where I was about 9:15 at mile 5. The initial climb up the Golden Gate is pretty steep and probably 500 to 600 yards long. Lots of people were struggling up it but I was able to maintain my pace and pass lots of people and only got passed by that one yahoo that thought he was Rocky. Getting to the top of that hill was a moment I’ll never forget. When you get up the top you turn to the right. If you look to your right you can see Alcatraz. I looked over and there was the sun just peeking up right next to The Rock. It was gorgeous. I laughed out loud how amazing it looked. Turned towards the Golden Gate and started the smaller climbs up to the bridge.

Running the Golden Gate is AWESOME. Just AWESOME. The only really bad part is there’s only one lane going out and one lane going back in. It sucks if you’re trying to stay on a pace or like me decided to let the adrenaline push you a little as you’ll get caught up behind people as it’s not wide enough with only one car lane each way. I did a lot of slowing down and darting in and out of people to keep up my pace and not get slowed down. In a way it was kind of fun but took lots of concentration to find the gaps and not be rude to another runner. I wish they would use three lanes total and open up it a little bit.

Two of the coolest things for me running the bridge was hearing other Aggies give me a “Howdy” or “Gig ‘Em!” and even high fived another Aggie as we passed next to each other as I was going back and she was heading out. Pretty cool moments being in the SF Marathon and having Aggies acknowledge one another. Saw a kid in a Longhorn shirt so I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes and smirked so I gave him a thumbs up and a “Gig ‘Em” since he was clearly bothered by my Aggie shirt. The other AWESOME moment was making the turn to head back across and there’s a lookout point back to San Fran. You see the full city and it just looked awesome. In fact one of the pictures is of me bringing my eyes back to the course because I turned my head to look for such a long time to stare at the city.

Getting to the end of the Golden Gate is about mile 10. Not gonna lie that’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. Weird to say that about running 10 miles at a non competitive pace but just the scenery and energy from the other runners pushes you. The other exhilarating part for me was I passed the 4:10 pacers about mile 7ish so I thought I’d have no problem busting 4 hours. I had even gotten my pace right under 9:00 so I was in good shape at mile 10.  I wasn’t worn out at all and my breath wasn’t even struggling.

There’s some annoying people taking selfies on the bridge but most of them stayed to the side or even hit the pedestrian part of the bridge. I don’t care if people take selfies but its just way too tight on the Golden Gate to do it. I think the SF Marathon should divert people that want to take selfies to the pedestrian part of the bridge on the way out. Everyone could live in harmony that way. Just a quick notice if you run it there’s lots to pay attention to on the Golden Gate because it’s so tight.

After mile 10 it set in for me I was no longer on an amusement park run with great scenery and I was running a marathon. It’s still scenic at mile 10 but the adrenaline definitely slows down as coming off the Golden Gate there’s a pretty long climb in the Presidio that’s not as steep as the others but its long and foreshadows what a good portion of the remaining course will be like for the marathoners. Coming off the climb is a really nice decline with the Pacific Ocean to the right which once again was just beautiful.

At about mile 11 you come down a decline from the Presidio with the ocean on your right to a very San Fran type neighborhood. There’s a pretty steady climb for a couple miles into Golden Gate Park but I was still running on adrenaline and there would be some plateaus and declines so those hills really didn’t bother me. This was the first neighborhood so it was a decent change of scenery and pretty cool.

At about Mile 12.5 you enter into Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate Park is BEAUTIFUL to visit and awesome when you first come into it. However, it would fell like my prison after a while. I hit Mile 13 right under a 9:00 pace and everything felt great. It was a little warmer than I would have liked but the lungs felt great and the sun was nowhere to be found. I remember being so thankful it looked like the sun would stay hidden until the end of the race. I hate full sun when I’m running. The park was beautiful for the first couple of miles to about mile 14.5 and then for me everything would change.

What I didn’t realize was happening is that I was on a STEADY ~2-3 mile climb that wasn’t steep at all but just never a flat spot or decline to let my lungs catch up. Legs were hurting just a bit but the lungs were slowly starting to work a lot more to keep my 9:00 pace I was still on. I was unaware the toll this slow climb would have on me. The photos I posted on FB are in chronological order and it’s not hard to tell which photos were taken during this stretch. The pain is all over my face and it HURT.

At about Mile 16 I wanted the hell out of the park. Honestly. There was nothing around. No spectators for the most part, no encouragement, and worst of all there seemed to be missing mile markers. I had no clue where I was on the course and was making a steady climb. It was MISERABLE. I’m very claustrophobic and it really felt like the forest was closing around me. I was still on my 9:00 pace and doing fine but honestly mentally I was breaking down because I felt lost and didn’t know where I was. I had my run tracker on my phone letting me know where but it still felt like prison because I didn’t know really where I was and didn’t know when I was getting out.

The park kind of levels out almost at the 18 mile mark so I did have a chance to recover some. However, I was working pretty hard at that point after climbing ever so slightly for most of 5 miles. I chatted briefly with an Aggie girl who was class of ’09 and from Fort Worth of all places on a level part and got some enthusiasm there. I was still on my 9:00 pace but I was struggling. Those pictures show just how much.

The end of the park is at Mile 19 and the cruelest of all things happens. You go through a tunnel and up a short but fairly steep incline into Haight Ashbury. I hit the incline into Haight Ashbury and the full sun hit me and I looked ahead and saw more inclines. Wasn’t steep at all but man I was worn out. At Mile 19 and still on my 9:00 pace and out of the park I let the monkey get me. I walked for the first time the entire race. There was no marine breeze like SF normally has and it was hot. Probably in the mid 70s about that time.

On my long runs I was able to walk for about 5 minutes to catch my breath and then re-start at a slower pace to recover before getting close to my desired pace. That’s what I was hoping for but I just couldn’t do it. My lungs were done. Legs were barking but the lungs couldn’t make a go of it. It was just too hot for me to keep any decent pace but I kept trying. For the remaining 7.2 miles I would walk and run. Probably an equal mix between the two. Every time I ran I was trying to get back to my 9:00 pace but I just couldn’t hold it.

Those last 7.2 miles aren’t bad at all as there’s not a lot of climbing and a LOT of downhill running. I was hoping the downhills would let me recover but honestly I was doing just as much work going down the hills and my lungs couldn’t do it. You spend most of the time after the park running through the city which is pretty cool. Lots of energy and encouragement through that part but I just couldn’t muster the energy to get back to my 9:00 pace and hold it. And to be honest when I knew I wasn’t breaking 4 hours I didn’t really want to push as my back started cramping at times and I really felt like I was fighting dehydration. I didn’t realize how much I sweated out on the course and those little cups of water they give you just weren’t enough for me looking back.

I did hit a slow steady pace for the last 1.2 miles to bring it in where I wasn’t walking. Since that was my first marathon, the last .2 miles is the LONGEST distance I’ve ever run in my life. Seriously, placing a mile marker at 26 is the CRUELEST thing ever in my book. I hit Mile 26 and thought, “Are you kidding me??? I really have to run the .2 miles??? Can’t we just call it good???” So cruel.

Even though I struggled the last 7.2 miles, hitting the finish felt like an amazing accomplishment and a huge sense of relief. 26.2 miles covered over 4:16:27. Pretty damn awesome to put the body through that and not pass out. Especially on that course with those hills and views. It was amazingly hot at the end and probably in the low 80s. I was fighting dehydration pretty bad I think as I was getting dizzy and my lips were tingling. So I grabbed two big waters and found some shade where I sat for 15 minutes. Felt back to normal mentally so I hit the beer garden and camped out for a good hour talking with other runners about their experience. Many of them echoed my sentiment about the park being the worst part for the steady climb, missing mile markers, and the last incline out of the park was really tough.

If you asked me in the first hour after I was done if I would ever run another the answer would be, “HELL NO!!!!!” My plan all along was to run this one and call it good. However, being so close to breaking 4 hours coupled with the difficulty of the hills and heat and I’m thinking sub 4 hours is in me on another course. I want to make a go for it. I have my eye on the Cowtown at the end of March. Would be cool to do it in a town I also love but I have to get through football season and see if I can get in the training groove again. No serious cardio training during football season as I focus on a strict workout of 12 oz curls and protein loading.

For those of you that have never done any distance (including a 5K) I encourage you to do it. I used to make all the excuses I wasn’t built for a marathon and could never do it. However it’s all a mind over matter. That’s one of the funniest things about all of this. I can’t tell you the number of people in the last 6 months that have said to me, “You’re running (ran) a marathon? No offense, but you don’t look like a marathoner?” Uh, is that a compliment of some kind??? Either way it’s an awesome accomplishment and if you have a distance you’d like to do I assure you that you can do it. GO FOR IT!!!!

Thanks for reading and feel free to hit me up with any questions.

Thoughts From the Games

Thoughts from the Games
Florida, SMU, and SC State

I’ve been holding off writing this again because the new gig has been taking up a lot of time but mainly I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at with this Aggie team. An amazing first half against Florida followed by an offensive turd in the second half. The turd continued through the first quarter against SMU before getting flushed. Then we struggle in the first couple of series against SC State before really opening it up. Through it all I feel like I started seeing what’s going with this team.

The La. Tech Game:

I’m still torn on if the lack of the La. Tech game has hurt us or helped us. As we get further along I think it’s actually helped us. They’re a good team and there’s a good chance we would have gotten beat as our offense would have struggled being on the road for the first time. Make no mistake we came out against Florida on emotion and surprise due to our first game in the SEC. I honestly can’t think of a time when campus and Kyle was fired up for a 2:30 game like that. There were a couple of the OU games in the early 2000s that had a 2:30 start and Kyle was rocking but they’re few and far between. I can’t help but think that carried over to the team and that’s part of the reason we jumped out to a great start.

Plus, with the element of surprise Florida had no idea what to look for offensively. Had they had film of us against La. Tech I think you might have seen our offense struggle the entire game as we’ll get to in a bit. I really do think we might have lost to both La. Tech and Florida had we played that game. As it stands I think we can now go into Shreveport and win that game and the result of the Florida game would have been the same and maybe even actually worse. We lost that Florida game but we all walked out of there thinking we could in fact compete against SEC teams. Let’s not underestimate the result of that. So, I think we dodged a bullet not playing La. Tech as this season is shaping up.

Offense:

I think we’ve all figured out what happened in the second half of the Florida game. I remember noticing it in the game and the quotes after confirmed it. Florida stopped sending their backers and just relied on their front four to apply pressure. That eliminated the open lanes due to over pursuit that our running backs and Manziel were able to exploit in the first half. Since that change our running game has been non-existent. Sadly, I think it’s going to continue that way until we start hitting passes down the middle of the field to pull linebackers from attacking the line of scrimmage or implement a true tight end or fullback.

What happened on Saturday night confirms what I believe as we couldn’t establish a rushing attack against a much inferior front 7. If we can’t establish a running game against this crew even without CMike we’re not going to do it against anyone. Much like Florida, SC State implemented the same scheme against the run. The used their front four to engage our offensive line and then the backers would simply scrape and fill holes. Not aggressively but basically seeing the same thing that the running back on the other side is seeing. The end result is their backers and our running backs are meeting at the LOS. I watched the SMU game on TV so it’s hard to tell but I’m guessing we did the same because we didn’t start moving the ball until Manziel made plays when the defense broke down on the ground and he was able to exploit it through the air in addition to his running. Other than Manziel we really didn’t have a running game against SMU either. Not good.

The reason this is happening this year and not last year is because we don’t have a true TE or fullback. What’s essentially happening is that our 5 offensive linemen are engaging the defensive front four leaving the 3 linebackers to fill the hole that’s created. In addition, because there’s no TE the outside linebackers are playing back off the line of scrimmage and just outside the tackles shoulder looking inside to fill those holes between the tackles. Normally they’d be lined up further outside on a TE and much closer to the line of scrimmage trying to avoid being sealed inside on a block. Without the concern of being sealed inside they can play both the inside and outside assuming they read the offense correctly.

Certainly our offense line has struggled early on with assignments but on Saturday night against SC State I watched our offensive lineman handle the front four of the defense only to have the LB fill the hole and meet out RB at the line of scrimmage. It’s not the line’s fault as much as it is the scheme’s fault. With a fullback they block the linebacker filling the gap and clear them out or at least engage them so the running back has a chance. It’s simple numbers working against us and no matter how well you execute you can’t block 7 guys with five guys. And they’re obviously going to leave their 7th guy home since we essentially have 2 RBs in the backfield with Manziel. So it’s basic 7 on 7 inside the box and I don’t see it changing if SC State can stymie our running game.

The other reason we’re struggling to establish a running game is we’re asking our lineman to run block without a hand on the ground. Without a hand on the ground it’s harder to keep lower leverage as well as fire out off the ball. Think of why track sprinters launch with their hands on the ground instead of on two feet. It’s much harder for our linemen to displace the defensive line so the best they can do is engage the defender and try and move them a little bit.

With all that I just don’t see us establishing a running game in this offense. At least between the tackles like we’ve seen in the past. What’s really lacking that I think we should be able to do is being able to establish an outside run. I would love to see us do overload sets to one side to see if we could seal an edge. Run some sweeps, screens, and zone reads to see if we can get those OLBs to focus outside more or exploit them if they’re hell bent on helping inside. I’d like to see Christine Michael get involved more in the running game so let’s hope he’s got his head clear and realized he’s costing himself money by doing whatever he’s doing to limit his playing time. He can actually take on a linebacker in the hole and get yards after contact. We’ll find out this weekend hopefully.

At receiver it’s hard to figure out what we have. We all know Swope and EZ but it seems like the staff is trying to figure out what they have in the others. It’s quite clear they’re trying to establish Mike Evans as the outside guy if you leave one on one he’s going to make you regret it. It seems we’ve tried to establish that without success and that’s why we can’t exploit the middle of the field with seam routes that Swope is perfect for. Manziel is also missing a bunch of open guys across the middle. Maybe he’s focused too much on the pocket pressure and not looking down field soon enough for fear he misses the pressure. However, it does seem Manziel is getting more familiar with his receivers as he’s been spreading the ball around the last two games. The receiver rotation has also been a little inconsistent so I’m not sure what all is going on and what we’re trying to accomplish with who. We’ll call the receiving corps a work in progress. There’s certainly talent there but it seems everyone including this coaching staff is still trying to figure who’s who and what’s what.

Alright, let’s get to Johnny Football. The kid is electric no doubt. There’s also little doubt he won’t be able to do what he’s done against SMU and SC State on the ground against our conference opponents. I think we’re going to find out that we played the weakest two teams we have on our schedule so it only gets tougher for Johnny Football from here. He has gotten much better about trying to stay in the pocket and when he scrambles keeping his eyes down the field and throw the ball rather than run. Still, there’s times when space is there and the kid should in fact take off and run. He did it against Florida until they took it away from him and he’ll learn over time as he gets more experience when it’s there and when it’s not. He’s just a work in progress.

Don’t forget ultimate success in college football happens because of one of two things or both. Those things are a suffocating defense and/or an electric player on the offensive side of the ball. You know the defenses of Alabama and LSU and even Florida’s first championship under Meyer but the times those teams haven’t won it you know the names of Vince Young, Tim Tebow, and Cam Newton. Now, I’m not saying Manziel is on the level of those guys but it’s pretty clear to me if you want to win it all you need someone that can transcend the offensive side of the ball if you don’t have a strong defense. Looking back there’s never been a “system” offense to win a National Championship. Oregon tried against a fairly average Auburn defense and couldn’t do it. Even Mike Leach’s vaunted offense often stalled against better defenses which is why he rarely beat Texas or OU and struggled in both Cotton Bowls he made it to with what might have been the SEC’s third or fourth best team.

I say all that in hopes that our offense is evolving from game to game as the coaches and players learn one another. I’d rather see that happen than the coaching staff stand headstrong and try to install their “system.” I’d really like to see Kingsbury evolve beyond what appears to be his “Air Raid” roots at Tech and UH. Nothing against Kingsbury but I’m beginning to see his roots won’t do well week in and week out against the SEC defenses.

As for what happens from here it’s not ideal but I think we can have a run of 3 games against Arkansas, Ole Miss, and La. Tech where can have some learning curves and still win. Now, I’m not saying we can win those games with major hiccups because we can’t but I think we can have some growing pains in those games and still win. Mainly because I think our offensive line is getting more comfortable in this system and receivers are learning what to do when the play breaks down and Manziel is able to extend the play with his legs.

So, in summary we’re not going to establish a running game between the tackles. Because of that let’s hope that Manziel and this coaching staff can learn from each other and craft the offense to the strengths of the talent we have on that side of the ball. It’s our only hope Luke.

Defense:

“The one constant through this season so far, Ray, has been defense. Aggie Football has rolled by like an army of steamrollers remaining competitive because of defense. The Wrecking Crew had been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again by men that go by the names of Fran and Sherm. But defense has marked the time and Aggie fans have waited for its return. Kyle Field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” I adjusted the quote from Field of Dreams to reflect somewhat of how our defense has really carried this team so far. It feels good to have a defense that looks like it knows what its doing and can respond when needed.

Without our defense we get blown out by Florida and probably even play SMU close. Make no mistake this is no Wrecking Crew. Not even close outside of Demontre Moore. Dude is a one man Wrecking Crew so he definitely can be called that but there’s no one else. What this defense is doing is playing assignment football REALLY well. People are executing their assignment which allows all 11 defenders to cover the entire field and line of scrimmage. I think as we get more comfortable with the base defense and continue to execute it in our sleep we’ll see it get more aggressive. Until then I hope Snyder doesn’t change a thing as it’s absolutely marvelous to watch even if it’s not the old Wrecking Crew we know and love.

It’s also not on the level of Bama or LSU simply because we don’t have the athletes but it reminds me a lot of TCU’s defense. Now, don’t get me wrong in that we haven’t played an offensive juggernaut as Florida was very basic on offense, Garrett Gilbert couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, and SC State missed a lot of open receivers or dropped balls that hit them in the hands. However, rarely is a receiver running wide screaming open like we saw with the litany of DCs that came before Snyder. Our LBs seem to understand their gap assignments and not overrun the ball carrier and the DLine understands engaging the OLine to free up others to make plays. Then there’s DeMonster who just wrecks shop all over the field. What’s impressed me the most is not what he’s done in the backfield but his pursuit all over the field. Time and time again he’s making tackles on the sideline simply because he’s pursuing the ball carrier the entire time. He must realize he can get paid like Von one day.

We are weak in a couple of areas and those include screen recognition and runs to the outside. Our defensive line will get sucked in by a screen and our LBs will either be slow to react or get up in the blocking or trash. Florida and SC State both ran some plays to the outside and gained positive yards. I think the weakness on these two things is our focus of not getting gutted up the middle and focusing our attention inside. I hold out faith that as our defense gets more comfortable with base assignments they’ll recognize screens and outside runs quicker and be quicker to react.

Despite how bad they’re playing as a team right now a Tyler Wilson lead offense can move the ball so we’ll find out where this defense really is on Saturday. Let’s hope we’re still proud.

Special Teams:

I have no clue what we have on special teams. No clue at all. We seem to be getting better each week but I’m still not sure as a whole. Our kicker hasn’t seen a tough field goal and he’s 1 of 2 making a 27 yarder and missing a 23 yarder. Doesn’t exactly instill much confidence does it? Epperson punts either like an old man playing golf that hits a shot 120 yards in the air but gets no trajectory so it rolls another 60 yards for a somewhat respectable drive or he punts like those rugby guys that rely on a roll except Epperson isn’t running before kicking. Whatever he’s doing it’s working for the most part so we’ll take it.

As for returns Dustin Harris has looked pretty decent returning punts but let’s be real in that he’s not an explosive returner. He’s got decent straight away speed but he’s no Dante Hall unless he’s jumping the curb and parking on the grass next to Kleberg that we don’t know about. Kick return wise our blocking was TERRIBLE against Florida and we haven’t seen many kicks in the other games thanks to our defense. However, with the new rules we shouldn’t be returning kicks on anything 2 yards or deeper in the end zone. Just take a knee and take it out to the 25 and be done with it. You get caught at the 15 yard line and then stall on a three and out all of sudden you’re behind on field position and that stuff matters.

There are just still a lot of unanswered questions about everything to be honest. Looking forward to Arkansas I’m DEATHLY afraid of this game. Tyler Wilson can still move the ball so they’re going to have the best day of any team against our defense so far. If our offense stalls a few times like it did against Florida we could be looking at being on the short of a shootout. I’d like to think we could win 35-21 but I can also see us losing 28-24 which would result in John L. Smith streaking on Kyle Field. Nobody wants that. Nobody.

If we can in semi-convincing fashion and our offense doesn’t stumble for the most part and our defense can hold Wilson and their offense mostly in check than I think we can go 8-4 with conference wins over Ole Miss, Auburn, and Mizzou in addition to our non-conference games. Arkansas reminds me of A&M last year. In total disarray as a team but there’s still enough talent that if it all clicks then they can beat a lot of people.

I’m somewhere between 8-4 and 6-6 with this team with all the clarity coming over the next three games.  When we get to the mid-point of the schedule we’ll have a good idea of what we have despite still having LSU and Bama on the schedule.

2011 Fightin’ Texas Aggie Season Prediction

I’ve been trying to resist getting caught up in the blowhard’s pre-season predictions because to be quite honest I don’t care about pre-season predictions and talk.  I only care about the end of the season.  Well, here we sit on the Monday of game week and I can’t focus on work because I’m looking forward to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning when I roll out of Cowtown with the new travel trailer in tow for opening weekend in Aggieland.  I’ve got a pretty good “weekend” planned.  I’ll be dove hunting on Thursday, Baylor/TCU on Friday, and then Aggieland for the rest of the weekend.  The only downfall is class is in session on Monday so PTTS says I have to be out of the RV lot by 7:00 a.m. on Monday morning.  I never really had anything against PTTS but they’ll be getting the angry shaking fist as I roll out Monday morning with cobwebs in my head.

Since I can’t focus on work I decided I’d take a stab at predicting the 2011 season for the Fightin’ Texas Aggies.  I figure my opinion is worth as much as anyone else’s because it’s all guesswork at this point.  For you first timers on this list I used to blog my thoughts on each game but quit last year.  I took a new job the first of September and lost my train commute which is where I would do the write ups.  I’ve been asked to do it again so I’ll be opining after each game this season if you’re interested.

Before I get to my prediction of each game, I want to touch on each facet of the team.

OFFENSE – I don’t think this offense is as loaded as people think.  When I say loaded I’m talking about an offense that just torches teams for over 500 yards a game and 40 points.  This is a VERY good offense but Tanny is a game manager and not a playmaker.  That’s not a bad thing at all but don’t expect Tanny to light it up deep very often.  This offense is built to keep the defense guessing either by pounding the ball or quick read passes/play actions.  The center piece is clearly the backfield of Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael.  Cyrus is perfect for the blocking scheme and Christine is just a home run hitter.  The line is still developing with youth but the interior guys are better at displacing lineman than pass blocking so you’ll see a lot of runs up the middle.  Not saying we can’t pass block but it’s pretty clear our guys are better at zone blocking which is fine.  Our receivers are VERY solid but Tanny is just not a big arm QB.  Not trying to knock him as he’ll be VERY good when it’s all said and done but don’t expect him to be firing downfield like a Ryan Mallett.  He’s not going to be on stage in New York for the Heisman so don’t expect it.  I’d rather win games than put up yards and lose because you’re playing behind so just sit tight during games and know the outcome should be just fine.  The offense will keep us close in the first half but should start to pull away in the second half in most games.

DEFENSE – On defense I think we’ll be less aggressive.  Much of it will be due to the loss of Von but I think our LBs are the most questionable part of our defense.  I think Coach D will be less aggressive between the 20s leaving his LBs in positions to slow down the offense and not necessarily make plays.  When you miss on trying to make a play the results are usually good for the offense.  I think he’ll definitely dial it up from time to time but I think he’s going to be careful unless a true playmaker really emerges.  The most experience and talent is clearly in the DL and secondary.  I don’t think any of them are All-Americans except for maybe Coryell Judie but they’re all solid players with a year’s worth of experience in Coach D’s scheme.  I don’t know that this defense will be as good as it was in the last six games but I don’t think it falls off very much at all.  It’ll just be more consistent rather than aggressive.  With our offense I’m just fine with that.  I think our offense and defense will compliment each other very well.

SPECIAL TEAMS – The ghost of Frank Beamer weeps every time he watches the Aggies on special teams.  For various reasons we’ve just really sucked on special teams for what seems like 10 years.  Not sure this year will be any different.  I think we’ll be fine in the field goal department with Randy Bullock back for his 12th season and Judie should be just fine on kickoff returns.  I have no idea if we’ll have a serviceable punter but I know for CERTAIN it’ll be better than last year.  It can’t get any worse.  Any of you reading this could punt and not do worse.  As for punt returns just pray we hold onto the ball and worry about yards second.

Here’s how I think the games shake out:

 

SMU – I know Mike Sherman got a rude awakening against Arkie State his first season and I PRAY that never happens again.  I don’t think it happens here.  SMU is a MUCH better team than most people think but I don’t think SMU has the ponies (damn right pun intended) to keep up with A&M’s horsepower.  SMU will score some points as DeRuyter teaches some youngsters his defense but the Aggie offense will roll.  I think we go up at halftime 21-14 causing Aggies everywhere to want to jump off the third deck.  SMU will score very quickly due to June Jones spotting something in film and then score another TD on a defensive brain fart sometime in the 2nd quarter.  Offensively Sherman will try to work all facets of the game and we’ll have a couple drives stall out.  Pass/Run will be 50/50 as he lets Tanny work on his passes and hopefully learning to hit Jeff Fuller deep which is Tanny’s glaring weakness.  Tanny is going to have to show on film he can hit Fuller deep or good teams will play Fuller man on man tempting him to throw deep and cheat safeties to cut off all those underneath crossing routes that Tanny and Sherm love.  At least that’s what a smart DC will do.  In the first half I expect Tanny to hit Fuller deep, hit Swopes in the slot, and then have Cyrus bust off a 20 yarder.  In the second half Coach D will make adjustments and June Jones will be out of tricks so they might score 1-2 more touchdowns in the 4th quarter when the second stringers are in.  Offensively Sherm leans much more heavily to the run and we score another 3-4 touchdowns walking away with an easy victory.  Score – Aggies 45, Mustangs, 24.  The other score is PTTS 1, Chewy 0 due to the 7:00 a.m. exit time.  Come on Loftin, call a snow day and let me sleep in.

 

IDAHO – I honestly don’t know much about the Vandals other than they play in a big ass gym.  Seriously.  It’s like the Alamodome had relations with the McFerrin Facility and produced some half field house half Alamodome structure of amazement.  Think I’m joking, check this thing out.  It’s unreal – http://www.govandals.com//pdf4/414253.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=17100  I also know that the Vandals (reminds me of my youth)  have improved over the recent few years where they get some mention from time to time for having a decent record but I also know they haven’t upset anyone and tend to shy away from bigger games.  Think a Nuevo Wyoming if you will.  Boise trucked them in that whatever the hell it is venue last season so it’s pretty clear they just don’t have the talent of the better programs in college football.  I expect much of the same from the SMU game but a better defensive effort.  We’ll go into half 28-3 and pretty much replicate it in the second half.  Wish we had a better tune up game for Okie State but you take what Bill Byrne and Dan Beebe schedule.  Score – Aggies 55, Vandals 6.  This is also when I get back to owning PTTS because I can sleep late in the trailer and roll out of Dodge when the Gatorade and ibuprofen finally kicks in.

 

OKIE STATE – Third game of the year and the Pokies from Okie roll into town thanks to our new 9 game B12 schedule.  Wait, maybe I should say our ONLY 9 game B12 schedule.  Suck it Dan and DeLoss!  For some reason I’m not too nervous about this game.  OSU is ranked much like us hovering right around the Top 10 depending on the poll you look at.  It’s going to be a tough game no doubt but we know exactly what OSU is.  We’ve played them tough the last two seasons and legitimately should have beaten them last year.  Blame JJ all you want but the reality is we came out flat in the 3rd quarter on both sides of the ball and that’s the real reason we lost.  Turnovers hurt no doubt but if we don’t come out flat in the 3rd quarter those turnovers just don’t happen.  Because of that I think the Aggies win this game.  OSU has a suspect defense, lost their genius OC, and lost the very underrated Kendall Hunter.  I think Coach D brackets Blackmon and runs a few blitzes that get to Weeden to slow them down.  Offensively I wouldn’t be surprised to see a run/pass ratio of 70/30.  There’s no reason not to.  OSU can and will score points, so in an ode to the great R.C. Slocum, Sherm plays ball control offense just pounding the ground and controlling the clock.  If Sherm has appeared to have learned one thing in his past three years it’s that he can’t abandon the run game like he’s done a few times.  He’s got a seasoned line and two DAMN good backs so there’s no reason he shouldn’t lean on them and we win.  Score – Aggies 31, Pokes 17.

 

ARKANSAS – One of our new conference rivals.  Now all of a sudden the game in JerryWorld makes more sense but I don’t think it’s what Byrne had in mind back in the day.  Now this is a game that makes me nervous.  Real nervous.  It looks like Arkansas should be “worse” with the loss of Mallett and Kniles Davis but don’t let Bobby Petrino fool you.  Dude is an offensive mastermind.  Tyler Wilson is no slouch and I think he’ll actually be more productive than Mallett.  Mallett had all the talent in the world but much like gunslinging quarterbacks he made some costly mistakes in the 4th quarter in the Bama and Sugar Bowl costing his team a chance at a victory.  Mallett doesn’t make those mistakes and Arkie could be 12-1 with their only loss being to Auburn.  Speaking of the Auburn game, Tyler Wilson filled in admirably on the road and actually lead Arkie to a lead early in the 4th quarter over the eventual national champions.  Auburn just had too much but Wilson looked pretty good in a true baptism by fire.  Then again, Garrett Gilbert didn’t actually look all that bad as a non-experienced true freshman when he had to replace Colt McCoy in the national championship game and completely spit the bit last season.  Then again, Bobby Petrino certainly isn’t Greg Davis and Mack Brown.  I fully expect this to be a complete chess game that will be VERY close.  I think the difference is that Petrino will know when to take his shots and get them.  You’ll see a lot of ball control on both sides of the offense with neither coach wanting to make a mistake but for some reason I think Petrino will get a couple big scores.  Sherm is going to do what he should have done in the Cotton Bowl which is to lean on the running game so I think we’ll have a real punchers chance needing Cyrus and Christine to deliver a couple big blows.  We get those big blows and I think we win.  However, the beat down Aggie in me says Arkie gets them and we lose.  Score – Aggies 16, Arkie 20.

 

TEXAS TECH  – Our first true road game and at Tech no less.  For some reason I don’t worry about Tech under Sherman like I do with Fran and R.C.’s late years.  I love Tubbs as a head coach because the man can flat out recruit but his talent is still lacking.  I think Sherm comes in and just absolutely leans on Tech’s new 4-2-5 defense.  It won’t be a blow out by any stretch but I think A&M establishes their dominance early and often.  Coming off the Arkie game the Aggies will find the Red Raiders much less talented and like what Sherman is going to try and do all season is establish the run early and often.  No reason not to with the team he has assembled.  I think defensively we’ll be fine in this game as I don’t think Tech has near the offense they had under Leach.  I know that’s like saying water is wet but that’s a huge difference in our ability to compete.  Our offense leans on their defense hopefully getting up by a couple of scores and then all of a sudden Coach D knows they’re going to try and go through the air and has a cushion to blitz with.  They’ll get some yards but Coach D will really tighten up in the red zones limiting Tech to lots of field goal chances.  Score – Aggies 31, Tech 16.

 

BAYLOR – The final Battle of the Brazos?  Could be.  Make sure to keep your ticket stub and get a picture of you and your wife/girlfriend/mistress/buddy’s girlfriend/paid escort with the scoreboard in the background as a memento.  You’ll always want to remember where you where for the last installment.  I know I should be afraid of Baylor but for some reason I’m not this year.  We’re in Kyle and I think Sherm and Coach D really figured them out in the second half.  I think RGIII is a tremendous athlete but I think his late season performance showed what kind of QB he really is.  If you can get to him, it REALLY affects him.  Getting to him is easier said than done but I think we will.  Like Sherman will try and do all year I think he’ll lean on Baylor’s defense early and keep the game in control.  Griffin is going to get his but we’ll try to limit him as much as possible by keeping him on the bench.  I also can’t get the image of Baylor spitting the bit against Illinois in the Texas Bowl out of my mind.  Baylor got down early and they showed no resolve in wanting to get back in the game.  I love Phil Bennett as a DC and it’ll help Baylor in other games but I just really believe in our line and running backs.  Especially at home.  We establish a decent lead and hit Griffin a few times and we’ll cruise to victory.  I don’t think the scoreboard will reflect a true dominating effort but we’ll always feel in control of this one.  Score – Aggies 34, Baylor 24.

 

IOWA STATE – Uh, uh, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, uh, uhhhhhhhhhh.  Not sure what to write other than to say it’s on the road and let’s not hope we have a letdown in this game.  It’s a definite trap game but what most people don’t realize or forget is that trap games tend to happen to passing teams and turnover prone teams.  Sometimes you just can’t get in rhythm through the air or the turnovers just go completely against you.  Now, ISU is a pretty decent team so I don’t think we blow them out and wouldn’t be shocked to see us go into halftime only up 14-10.  However, like most good running teams you just continue to lean on them and running gets easier in the second half.  If we lose I wouldn’t be shocked but I certainly would be really surprised.  Score – Aggies 35, Cyclones 16.

 

MIZZOU – I’ve always considered Gary Pinkel to be the more handsome, successful version of Dennis Franchione.  People talk really great about him because along the way he wins a big game here and there but can never string it together.  For some reason he’s also had REALLY talented quarterbacks.  I don’t think it’s anything he’s doing but with the likes of Brad Smith, Chase Daniels, and Blaine Gabbert it sure makes coaching a heck of a lot easier.  Pinkel looked like he was going to have a great season beating OU after destroying us at Kyle but then lost to Nebraska and Tech in back to back weeks and then capping the season off with a loss to Iowa in the Insight Bowl.  He gets to come back to Kyle and I don’t think Sherman will forget the embarrassment from the season before.  Once again, Sherman will stick to his script of run the ball, run the ball, and run the ball with success.  I know it sounds REALLY boring that we’re just going to run the ball down people’s throats but one thing Sherman has consistently said in his losses is that he regrets abandoning the run too soon.  Now, maybe my maroon tinted glasses are too maroon but I can’t help but thinking this line is going to be better and our running backs are studly so why do anything else.  Now, this assumes a healthy season which it’s hard to factor in with these predictions.  Like I said, Tannys is not a playmaker and is a game manager through and through which is just fine.  We’ll no doubt throw the ball to keep it mixed up but I fully expect to see run/pass ratios in the 60/40 range and even 70/30 range.  There’s no reason not to expect Sherman to commit to the ground game and be patient with it allowing it to do what it do which is keep the game fairly close in the first half and pull away in the second half.  I don’t think we’ll roll over Mizzou but you’ll see more of the same where we hold the ball at least 35 minutes and keep the Mizzou offense off the field.  Score – Aggies 31, Tigers 19.

 

OKLAHOMA – Bob Stoops has lost TWICE in Norman during his tenure.  TWICE.  Once to Les Miles and once to Gary Patterson.  Rick Perry has served more terms in the Governor’s Mansion than Bob Stoops has lost games in Norman.  Now, Mack Brown has never had to march into Norman so it’s skewed ever so slightly because even if Mack had pulled off one win a piece with a Vince or Colt team we’d be looking at FOUR.  Would that have really changed much?  Don’t think so.  Mack wasn’t winning in Norman with Chris Simms.  Quite simply put, OU is REALLY tough to win at home against.  I just don’t know if this A&M team is ready to take that step.  I’d like to think they can but damn the numbers say we can’t.  I do expect a close game and more of the same from Sherm where he’s going to try and lean on the OU defense on the ground and find some success.  I can’t help but think Ryan Broyles is going to have a REALLY solid game both through the air and on punt returns.  He’s probably the best overall player in the conference and something says he’s going to shine in this game.  We won’t be embarrassed by our performance but sometimes the best player on the field makes the difference and I just can’t help but see Broyles making a statement.  I think Landry Jones is a little overrated in the QB department but he’ll get the ball to Broyles enough and he’ll do the rest.  I could even see us going up 17-14 at halftime but at some point special teams will rear its ugly head and Broyles will capitalize.  Yes, I’m the beat down Aggie.  Score – Aggies 24, Sooners 28.  It’ll be close but it’s gonna hurt.

 

KANSAS STATE – So after a heartbreaking loss to the Sooners we have to get on a plane and visit the location of one of the most embarrassing losses in recent Aggie memory.  It sucks to have KSU thump you two years ago but when Bill Snyder makes his triumphant return to college football at the age of 105 you expect to win these games.  Especially since A&M for some reason always had Snyder’s number.  Two years ago we laid a serious steamer at Snyder’s self named stadium, field, fieldhouse, or whatever they named after the guy who might honestly be the most amazing coach in college football for what he did his first time through Manhattan.  However, I just see this time being different because Sherm can go back to his preferred formula of leaning on the defense and limiting the other teams offense.  Sherman will get back to basics after the OU loss and remind his team how they win football games in workman like fashion.  Plus, I can’t help but think there are enough guys that still remember the game two years ago and won’t let an ambush happen.  I think we win this game in convincing fashion.  Score – Aggies 35, Wildcats 17.

 

KANSAS – Like Iowa State I’m not sure what to write here.  I think just to keep his team interested Sherm goes to a more 50/50 mix and Coach D dials up some fresh blitzes.  This one could be a blood bath similar to last year’s game in Lawrence.  This should honestly be the easiest game on our schedule even though the boys will be tired.  Sure, it could be a trap/let down game but I just don’t see Kansas being any better than last year and being in Kyle will be a big help.  Hopefully many of the starters can rest in the 3rd quarter for the following week’s game.  Sure, the looking ahead factor could also be there but I just don’t see it.  This just appears to be the biggest gimme which is never a given but I just don’t see it turning out badly for us.  SCORE – Aggies 37, Jayhawks 10.

 

TEXAS – Now, here’s a trap game.  Big time trap game.  You know the old cliché of when rivals meet throw out the records.  I do expect Texas to be better than last year but the atmosphere at Kyle Field should be absolutely electric that night.  Make no mistake that if the season unfolds like it should this will be the Aggies game to lose and I just don’t see it happening.  Then again, in 1995 I didn’t expect Texas to beat A&M in our last matchup of the SWC at Kyle Field.  That game stung me big time seeing that damn big white flag with the horn logo being waved at Kyle Field in victory.  I think you’ll see more of the same in this game with Sherm leaning run.  There’s just no reason not to.  Texas is loaded with talent like always and I think by the time we face them they might have an offensive identity under their new OC.  I think that actually works in our favor as Coach D and staff will have plenty of film to look at and identify tendencies.  It’s also a short week on the road so Texas will be hard pressed to install many new wrinkles with so little time.  Defensively I find it interesting they can lose Muschamp and bring a virtually unknown in Manny Diaz to improve their defense over last year.  Sure, their team fully quit after the KSU game but Muschamp is a legit Top 5 DC and you’re just going to replace him and improve?  I just don’t see it.  I certainly don’t see this as being a blowout by any stretch but I think the Aggies should control this game unless special teams and turnovers rear their ugly heads which is always possible in these games.  Still, I think A&M is the better team at this point and should win.  Score Aggies 31, Texas 17.

 

There you have it, based on my glass globe the Aggies are going 10-2 and will place second in the B12 due to the OU loss.  It won’t be all bad as OU will lose to FSU and with one loss won’t make the BCS Championship game as they get jumped by a team that played a conference championship game.  This will make the B12 look like idiots for touting how not having the conference championship game is an easier path to the BCS game but you’ll have FSU with one loss winning the ACC, Arkansas winning the SEC with one loss, Wisconsin with one loss winning the B10, and Oregon with one loss winning the P12.  All four of those teams will have one more win than OU and will trump them for this BCS Championship game while OU and Dan Beebe scream, “Look at us!” but to no avail.  Stoops gets mad and OU goes West to the new P16.  Sure, it’s a dream but if we’re not going to win the BCS Championship game (and we’re not there yet) I want to see the B12 embarrassed for their incredible short sightedness in building a stable/competitive conference.

It won’t be all bad as OU will be forced to go to the Fiesta Bowl to play TCU or Boise while the Aggies head to the Sugar Bowl and beat the Georgia Bulldogs.  Arkansas will beat Wisconsin in the BCS Championship game and the SEC West will be reinforced as the toughest division in all the land which is where exactly the Aggies are heading.  As Ric Flair used to say, “To be the man you have to beat the man!”  Woooooooooooooooooooooo!  A dude can dream can’t he?

Gig ‘Em!

BTHO SMU!!!!!!!!

Oklahoma Game Thoughts

Before I get to this week’s write up I should first tell me about my trip to Soonerland.  10 of us took the AmTrak up from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City on Friday evening.  About 30 minutes into the trip we got our own private car for everyone’s sake because were congregating in the aisles.  I think they realized we were professional drinkers and it was best to separate us from Gen Pop.  If you’ve never taken an AmTrak I strongly recommend the journey from Fort Worth to OKC.  It’s about 4 hours long dumping you right off in Bricktown.  Get you a good group of people and make that trip.  Lots of fun.

 

Anyway, on Saturday we all loaded up in a 15 passenger van and made the short jaunt from OKC to Norman.  The end result of a loss was what I expected but how it played out was not what I expected.  I expected OU to simply grind it out and wear us down pulling away in the late 3rd quarter.  What happened was OU wound up pulling away in the 2nd quarter thanks to our mistakes.  This caused our group of 11 people (a few hard core Aggie fans) to agree that leaving after the band and finding a bar was a very reasonable course of action.  This is what we did.

 

I’m changing the format of how I write this up because the game was such a debacle.

 

1st Quarter:

We won the first quarter hands down from a performance standpoint.  We were moving the ball on the ground and hitting some passes here and there.  Christine fumbled and OU jumped on the board first which put us in a hole which had me worried but something similar happened in Lubbock so I thought we might be okay.  OU jumped out 14-0 off a nifty reverse by a great athlete but we clawed back to 14-10 and then all hell broke loose.

 

Offense:

  • I don’t know what to say.  I really don’t but I’ll try.
  • JJ had a bad game plain and simple.  Even early on when the offense was moving the ball he was missing short passes.  He had 2-3 plays where he could have hit his guys but missed.  After the 1st quarter he started running for his life and he just can’t pass like that.  He can scramble but he can’t throw running to his right.  He just can’t.
  • Something else I noticed about Jerrod was on two 3rd down plays in the first quarter he was scrambling up the field to the sideline but simply stepped out of bounds 3 yards from the stick.  He made no effort to get the first down.  3 yards is a long ways but at least break down and try to get up field.  He was completely avoiding contact there.  Maybe it’s for the best when your QB does that but when defenses start picking up on that they’ll give him running room on third and long only to force him out short of the stick.  A good DC picks up on that and tells his defense to watch for it.  When he runs, sell out to flush him out of bounds because he’ll avoid contact.
  • On the fumble JJ made no move for the loose ball and made no move to tackle the defender picking it up.  I understand the QB protecting himself but in instances like that you have to go for the ball and even make a play on the defender.  He just stood there not knowing what to do and not wanting to make contact.  Now, I think a QB has to be more careful than what McGee used to do but JJ should occasionally want to mix it up but he didn’t on Saturday night.  He’s great on shedding defenders in the pocket but I was kind of surprised to see him shying away from so much contact on Saturday night.
  • Cyrus made a few good cuts as did Christine.  I think they’re solid backs (Christine especially) but they can only do so much when it all falls apart.
  • The offensive line did a decent job of creating holes to move the ball in the 1st but that all fell apart when we had to play from behind because we can’t pass block.  OU pinned their ears back and the route was on.
  • Jeff Fuller made a fine TD catch.  He’s going to be a great pro.  He’s just a baller.
  • I saw Bradley Stephens make a couple decent runs in the 3rd quarter on TV at the bar but it’s hard to tell what was really going on.
  • We left the bar in the 4th so I don’t know what else happened.

 

Defense:

  • This is such a hard unit to gauge because they’re so different from the start of the game until the end of the game.  They ALWAYS start off strong but then falter in the end depending on offensive turnovers or ineptitude.
  • In OUs first six possessions our defense only gave up one TD and forced either a punt or interception.  That ain’t bad.
  • However, the next possessions were the complete opposite as OU scored TDs in the next five possessions and the defense didn’t force a punt or get a turnover the rest of the game.  I just don’t know what to say.  This defense is a like a person with low self-esteem.  You can talk them up and give them some confidence and they’ll do really good but when the bad stuff they’re used to surfaces again they go into their shell like a turtle.
  • Von Miller is not ready for the NFL.  If NFL talent evaluators watch him against NFL level tackles they’ll realize he needs more work.  He’s a freak but he’s only dominating against lesser opponents where his speed throws them off.  Not saying he won’t ever be great but it’s clear he needs another season to truly learn more moves as a pass rusher.  Now, if he thinks he’ll go in the first round then I don’t blame him for leaving.  It’s just clear he’s not ready for the next level right now.  He tried all night to run around Trent Williams and couldn’t get to Landry Jones.  When he did try and make a move on Williams, Williams wouldn’t bite.  You could tell Von was getting very frustrated because he’s not used to that.
  • We’re still much better against the pass than the run.  Not sure if that means anything as we’re not great against the pass but we’re better.
  • Our freshman LBs have hit a wall.
  • Garrick Williams is probably our best overall defender including Von.

 

Special Teams:

  • Jeebus where to begin here.
  • I think at one point in the game OU kicked the ball (punt or kickoff) five times and five straight times we botched the handling of the ball.  Unreal.
  • The wind was blowing decently during the game but not so much that it made catching the ball impossible.
  • If I remember correctly T-Fred dropped a punt in the 1st quarter but was able to pick it up because no one was around him because OU was kicking with the wind at it’s back and coverage wasn’t there.  At that point I knew that when we turned around and the OU guy was kicking into the wind something bad was going to happen and it did.  I heard we got screwed on the punt they ruled a fumble but the reality is we were trying to catch the ball but couldn’t.  That’s the only problem with being at the game is you don’t get to see multiple replay angles.
  • I won’t berate the point we have issues with punts anymore as we all know it but if I’m Sherman I tell Doll that we do nothing but fair catches from here on out.  I’m not kidding.  I don’t want to see a punt attempted to be returned the rest of the season.  Wave your hand and learn to catch the ball first.  You can earn the right to return the ball next season.
  • Kirk Doll needs to be fired.  Someone needs to be held accountable for this and it’s on him.  If you don’t have confidence in your guys then you have to scheme to help them even it means telling them to fair catch.  Hell, tell your returner you’re going after the ball every time so if they don’t fair catch then they’re not going anywhere anyway and they might even get their head ripped off if they don’t fair catch.  Sometimes the fear of decapitation does wonders.  It worked in Europe for centuries and it could work for the 2009 Aggie special teams.

 

Rest of the Season:

  • Feels strange to say that the Baylor game is Mike Sherman’s most pivotal game in his first two years but it is.  We don’t make a bowl game while losing to Baylor will make this program implode worse than it is now.  You’ll see 4-5 of our biggest recruits likely jump ship before signing day.
  • I’ve said it all along and it’s unfortunate but if Sherman gets to a bowl game then he deserves another year.  I think it’s become painfully obvious he’s never going to get us to where we want to be.  The sample set is getting bigger and his win over Tech appears to be the outlier and not the turning point.  Remember Tech’s season last year?  That’s the absolute best we can expect with Sherman I believe.  I don’t ever see us as a consistent Top 25 program with Sherman.  Maybe I’m wrong but great coaches don’t get embarrassed as many times as he has in two years.
  • I’m really interested to see how we do against Baylor.  As bad as we’ve been there’s no reason to think we can’t do to Baylor what they did to us last year.  Art Briles had his team cranked up to play us to essentially save their season and Mike Sherman needs to do the same for his team this year.  He needs a throttling of Baylor at home to get to a bowl and keep momentum going.
  • The other interesting thing about Baylor is we got worse as the season went on last year mainly because I don’t think Sherm adjusted offensively and other teams picked up on it.  If I were Baylor I would load up back side support and force JJ out of the pocket running right.  He’s simply not accurate rolling right and it’s his Achilles heal.  It’ll be interesting to see if Baylor can figure this out and execute it.
  • Kirk Doll needs to go as already discussed.
  • As much as it pains me to say this Joe Kines needs to go.  I think he gets a bad rap as a horrible DC but he’s not.  He’s pretty decent but when our offense can’t move the ball then we have no shot as our defense just gets gashed in the second half.  Some of it’s on talent and some of it’s on him.  Most importantly though I want Kines gone to see what Sherman does with the hire.  Remember when Fran fired Burt Reynolds and hired Gary Busey?  That was a HUGE indicator of what Fran was like.  Well, it’s time to see what Sherm does when he has to make a big hire.  It looks like a guy like Jon Tenuta will be available.  Would Sherman go after him or would he tap his NFL circle, try and talk someone not in demand to take the reigns, promote someone from within, or make a splash hire like Mack did with Muschamp?  If Sherm is going to hang around we need to see what he’s learned from a staff standpoint in 2 years of the college game.  We need to find out.  If it means Kines gets sacrificed then I’m fine with it although I’ll miss his quotes and gravely voice.
  • Wow, that last bullet hurt.  I love Joe Kines but we must make sacrifices.  Did you know that Joe Kines was born on a train?  Seriously.  Since I took my first train trip this past weekend I feel like I’ve come full circle with Joe and can cut the ties.  Doesn’t make it right and doesn’t make it easy, but it must be done.

 

 

Aggies 34 – Bears 24

 

That’s right folks, get on your bowling shoes!!!

Thoughts From KSU

If you didn’t see the game, consider yourself lucky.  Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreal lucky.  Let’s get to my normal analysis.

Coaching:

  • Sucked

Offense:

  • Sucked

Defense:

  • Sucked

Special Teams:

  • Sucked, but our punter did have an amusing play where he went flying by Brandon Banks and took him down with his face mask.  I’m glad Banks is okay but it pretty much summed up our day where our punter makes the biggest play thanks to grabbing a face mask.

Game Analogy:

Since I can’t really critique the game because it was just so horrible and I like analogies I’m going to try and compare this to something.  I really thought about critiquing the game but I honestly don’t know where to start.  Honestly.  It was bad.

The word that comes to my mind when thinking about this game is “Desecration.”  Emasculated is also a good word but I don’t have a good analogy for emasculated other than when Jackie Sherrill cut the nuts off a calf before Miss. St. played tu one year.  We’ve all heard that story.

The worst desecration I’ve ever seen in my life was when I was maybe 5 or 6 years old.  It was New Year’s night and the family was watching the Orange Bowl.  Earlier that evening we had Popeye’s for dinner (we were poor, okay?) and for reasons I can’t explain today we decided to give our cat, Frosty, some of that glorious fried chicken.  We would pay for that move later so let the story play out.

Like all good Christians we still had our Christmas Tree up not because we were waiting on The Epiphany but because we were lazy.  As part of that tree was a tree skirt that my Mom had made herself that I thought was always pretty neat.  During half time of the Orange Bowl Frosty crawled up under the tree and started making these strange sounds.  She was groaning and making some other strange sounds but we didn’t think much of it as we were all tuned into the laser lights and amazing sounds of the Orange Bowl halftime show.  This is the early, early 80s so it was pretty much all we had at that time besides Ronald Reagan as our President.  Frosty making strange sounds under the Christmas Tree wasn’t going to distract us from our once a year enjoyment of the Orange Bowl halftime show.

Well, about five minutes later the most gawd awful smell we had ever smelt started filling the living room.  I mean this was a HORRIBLE smell.  HORRIBLE.  We all kind of looked at each other like who made that smell or where was it coming from?  Finally, someone snapped that it was coming from under the tree.  Someone boldly looked under the tree to see that Frosty had just DESECRATED Mom’s tree skirt with the help of Popeye’s Fried Chicken.  You know how horrible cat poop stinks anyway?  Popeye’s makes it smell at least 100 times worse.  I still shudder just thinking about it right now.  I took a peek to find that as bad as it smelled, it looked just as bad.  My memory is fuzzy on what happened next as I think my brother and I hauled ass out of there to let my parents deal with the ramifications of what that fried chicken did to Frosty’s intestines.  It was foul.  Real foul.

So why did I make you read that story?  Well, Saturday night reminded me of that incident.  We didn’t know it at the time but Bill Snyder was loading up on Popeye’s Fried Chicken before the game so he could come out and just DESECRATE Mike Sherman with the most foul smelling and looking results I’ve ever seen.  77-0 was one thing but that was Fran’s first year against a strong Oklahoma team.  We got DESECRATED by a half ass KSU team in Bill Snyder’s first year of his return to glory.  It was embarrassing.  Truly embarrassing.  That’s right, what happened to us is the same as a cat’s intestines loaded with the goodness of Popeye’s.  Frosty and Bill Snyder will always have indelible marks on my brain and I never want to experience either again.

Rest of the Season:

I honestly don’t know if we can get to a bowl game at this point.  I’ve been saying all along the minute that Dan Hawkins values his job over nepotism then the Colorado game becomes a very losable game.  Well, Colorado with their non-Hawkins QB just upset a ranked Kansas team in Boulder which we’re going to need to win to get our sixth win.  We have six games left needing three to get to a bowl and I don’t see us getting there.  I don’t see us getting a win over Tech, OU, or the sips.  I just don’t.  We’ll actually probably get blown out by 21 points or more.  That means we’ll need to beat BU and ISU at home which is VERY possible but I don’t see how we can march into Boulder and pull that one out after Saturday night.  I don’t even know if we can beat ISU at home the way they’ve played of late.  Thanks to Bob Griffin’s injury I think Baylor is beatable but don’t count out Art Briles and a Baylor team that thinks playing A&M is their Super Bowl.  Don’t be shocked by another 4-8 season or even 3-9.  I won’t be making ISU and don’t know about Baylor yet.  Saturday night took it all out of me.  If my seats weren’t so good then I would likely not renew next year but one day A&M will be good and I really like my seats so I’ll continue to renew but it’s not worth the almost 6 hours of driving back and forth for each game.

What to Do with Sherman:

If he doesn’t make a bowl game then I think it’s clear that he needs to be let go without a doubt.  I’ve done lots of research on college coaches and one of the most consistent things I’ve seen is they don’t get blown out.  They just don’t.  They sure as hell don’t get blown out.in a game they were favored to win where Bill Snyder doesn’t even have them stocked with JUCO talent yet.

This was a KState team coming off a 62-14 beat down in Lubbock.  They barely beat UMass by 4 points at home, lost to Louisiana Lafayette on the road, and barely beat Iowa St. by 1 at a neutral site.  Make no mistake that this is not a very good team.  It’s very likely they won’t win another game this season winding up at 4-8.  Unreal.

If Sherm does get to a bowl game then I don’t think you have any choice but to bring him back unfortunately.  It’s becoming clear Sherm is not a great coach.  Maybe he proves us wrong but Aggie fans are like someone that’s been abused as we’re ALWAYS going to flinch when Sherm leads us on the field.  He’s not a great recruiter (although he’s done well this year) and it’s likely only going to get worse if we don’t make a bowl game.

I know I was very pleased with the results from the OSU game but last night was an absolute pounding that I’m not sure we can overcome.  There’s time to cut bait and I think it’s now.  I know we’re tied into a 7 year deal with Sherman but I don’t think we can afford to keep him if we don’t go bowling.  Recruiting and ticket sales will take an absolute dive.

Don’t blame youth for this crap.  Sherm doesn’t know what he’s doing in the college game.  He was never a great NFL coach and he’s so confused on the college game right now.  He’s turned his offensive line until a revolving door when that’s supposed to be his specialty.  Its obvious Bill Snyder watched the film of us and was able to exploit every weakness against the team.  Sherm has no answer.  Remember, we were a team that actually got worse last season as opposing staffs identified and exploited our weaknesses.  Early results are that it’s happening again.  Maybe he can turn it around but he DESPERATELY needed a win over KSU to go bowling and I don’t think it’s there.  There’s no excuse for that.

Against Texas Tech:

I’m going to spend my Saturday cleaning out the garage.  Around 4:00 I’ll go take a shower.  After that, I’ll hang my flat screen on the back deck, fire up the pit, crack a beer, and get ready to put on the ribs followed by chicken wings for my barbeque wing and rib feast.  Around 6:00 I’ll turn on the confusing ramblings of Dave and Dave while I watch other good college football on the flat screen.  I figure around half time I’ll turn off the radio and focus on what’s on the screen.  If all goes well I’ll pass out on the deck to be awoken around 11:30 by the water sprinklers.

We don’t stand a chance in hell of beating Texas Tech.  This is the first time Sherm will travel to Lubbock as a head coach and his first trip in probably 15 years so he has NO idea of what Lubbock has become for us.  I kind of wish it were on TV so I could see Sherman’s reaction.  We opened at 24 point dogs and I don’t that’s enough.  I really don’t.

Nugget Stat of the Week:

Kevin Sumlin has 3 wins over BCS conference schools in 4 chances winning two of those on the road.  Mike Sherman has 2 wins over BCS conference schools in 12 chances.

Thoughts from the Ok. St. Game

I drove home from the game on Saturday scratching my head.  Some of it was due to the head lice that I can’t seem to shake but most of it was from not really understanding what I saw.  I saw a team that made a great effort and seemed to come up with plays when they were needed but in the end just fell short.  I know the reality is that we’re supposedly in for a rebuilding process that will take a few seasons but deep down inside I was secretly hoping for a 2004 season where Fran in his second year took Kyle Field back with wins over Clemson, KSU, Colorado, and Tech.  I was secretly hoping Sherm could go 6-1 at Kyle Field with the only loss coming against the Longhorns.  I firmly believe in order to get A&M back you have to learn to defend Kyle before everything else happens.  This was a great year to do it and we missed.  Fran also had a statement win against OSU on the road in 2004.  Man, what a great season that was except for BU and the Cotton.

In the end what I think I saw was what I saw in 2006 when we lost to Tech at Kyle Field.  I really feel that was a game that Fran put the players in a position to win but we just fell short due to execution on the players’ behalf.  Same thing here as I think Sherm and Co. coached well enough to win but just missed some execution.  Now, I don’t think Sherm was immune in this game as Bill Young had his number often in the first half.  Still, I don’t want to fault Sherm as he had the nads to go for it on some 4th downs where he could have played it safe and did get enough offense to score 31 points on a decent defense.  We all got on Fran throughout his time here for kicking field goals and even on Sherm last year when he punted late in the game against Tech.  Kudos to Sherm for coaching to win against a ranked opponent where even without Dez Bryant we were outmatched from a personnel standpoint when it comes to the starters.  At least Sherm went for it and acted like he wanted to win the game instead of just getting a moral victory.

Defense:

I want to start with the defense as they did such a GREAT job in the first half but ultimately faded in the second half like they’ve done all season.  Say what you want but that defense played one helluva first half.  It’s what they’ve done all season.  They have consistently forced three and outs on the first few series but for whatever reason our offense can’t really just jump out in front to help the defense out as our defense just doesn’t have the experience to keep it up for 60 minutes of football.

Let’s get to some bullets:

  • That goal-line stand in the 1st quarter was one of the most beautiful things you’ll ever see.  I absolutely loved it.  Without the defense’s efforts in the 1st half then we get our asses blown out.  I don’t want to discount anything the defense did as they did plenty to get us our win but we just couldn’t put two complete halves together to win in the end.  I agree with Sherman’s decision to kick off instead of onside late in the game as the odds for getting an onside are so low and there was almost 4 minutes left and we had all of our timeouts.  You have to give your defense a chance to redeem themselves at that point in the game.  They just didn’t have it but Kyle Field was ready for it.
  • Youth reared its ugly head on Saturday.  I can’t count the number of guys I saw not wanting to hit someone in the second half.  They were just worn out and it makes sense as most of them were playing high school football last year.  It’s evident they did great against lesser opponents but now that they’re playing BCS conference talent they just can’t last for 60 minutes.  I don’t think it’s going to get any better as this season is going to drag on and they’re not going to get any stronger.  Get ready for more great football in the first half and declining play in the first half.  Our offense is going to have to come out and drop the hammer from the get go if we’re going to win 7 games.
  • We still have problems stopping the run.  On the crucial last series where we needed to stop OSU we had no answer for a simple cut back run to the left side.  This happened repeatedly throughout the game where OSU would just simply hand off to the left side waiting for the cut back lane to show and it always did with nothing filling it.   If there’s one problem I have with Joe Kines is that he can’t scheme to stop the run when it’s obvious it’s coming.  This could come back to bite us in the butt against teams like KSU and CU when we desperately need a win against those teams on the road.  Not saying we lose but if we do it’s going to be because they pounded the ball on us on the road.
  • Our MLB play is not very good.  I had high hopes for Kyle Mangan but now that we’re playing better competition he’s just not getting it done against the run.  He’s fine on pass protection (and in fact he’s pretty damn good there) but he just can’t fill to support the run.  With our DTs that’s needed in a bad way.  Not to take anything away from our DTs as I love what Eddie Brown and TJE bring to the table in effort but they’re not your prototypical run stoppers.  Because of that we desperately need a ball busting MLB and we don’t have it.  It showed late in the game when he was able to hit the OSU RB right at the line of scrimmage on 3rd and goal from the one but couldn’t drive him back like a big ball busting MLB does so they got the score which pretty much iced the game for them as they would go up by 11 instead of 7 as I think Gundy would have had to kick there if they didn’t get in on 3rd down.  I think that was Mangan on that play..
  • We missed Jordan Pugh in a big way on Saturday.
  • Poor Dustin Harris got picked on Saturday and it’s to be expected considering he’s a true fish and T-Fred is a decent sophomore corner.  Dustin actually had decent position much of the game but just ran into a QB that you have to have perfect position against because he’s pretty damn good.  I’m sure Dustin is going to be having nightmares about that pick that went through his hands and into the end zone for 6.  Still, you don’t make that play unless you have position and he had it.  I think he’s going to be pretty good in the long run but let’s remember he was in high school this time last year playing quarterback for his team.
  • I like what I see on the defensive side of the ball in the first half but we just don’t have the depth or experience to play great football for 4 quarters.  I don’t necessarily blame the players as its just reality.  I hope like hell they prove me wrong but we’re going to need some flying to the ball in the second half as it’s just not happening now.
  • Kudos to Matt Moss for stepping up and picking off that ball when we DESPERATELY needed it the most.  You’re talking about a point in the game where OSU was about to swing the momentum in their favor and potentially blow that thing open but he came up with an amazing play.

Special Teams:

  • Outside of Randy Bullock’s 50 yard field goal our special teams were awful.  Just awful.
  • Our punting sucks.
  • Our deep snapping is questionable.
  • Our kickoffs are short and not covered the best.
  • Our punt returner likes to go sideways instead of up-field.
  • Our kick returners appear to lack burst.
  • I have no idea why we didn’t load up when we had OSU pinned in their end zone a couple of times and tell Harris just to fair catch it.  I don’t get it at all.  Especially with they have those wide spreads.  Someone needs to send Kirk Doll the video of the 2005 t.u. game where Texas loaded those splits with big fast linebackers and overcame that “wall” and blocked one of our punts early in the 3rd quarter which ultimately changed the momentum of that game.  Oh wait, I said big, fast linebackers.  Maybe I answered my own question.
  • If Frank Beamer offers a special teams clinic this summer then we should  send some of our staff.  Keep your eyes peeled for some brochure and send them to Sherm and Doll.
  • We talk about the offense and defense but honestly, if our special teams had been better we probably win this game.

Offense:

  • I think besides the head lice the offense is what had me scratching my head the most on the way back.  There were some great plays but some plays when we just couldn’t do anything.  It was just a very confusing offensive performance.
  • Stephen Barrera and Patrick Lewis started but got pulled in the 2nd quarter for reasons I can’t figure out.  The only thing I can think is that Sherm wanted guys that can pull and block and those two just don’t have experience doing it.  Barrera didn’t look bad at all in the limited time he was in there.  Wasn’t dominating but he didn’t look bad.  For whatever reason Danny Baker came in at LT and Evan Eike came in at LG to move Matt Allen back to RG.
  • Danny Baker didn’t do so well as there were multiple times where he’d be looking to the outside where no one existed only to have a LB go flying by him on a delayed blitz.  Maybe that was by design for a RB to pick up but he could have at least put a hand on the guy to slow him down since no one was coming from the outside.  I’m no OL expert but it appears to me that Barrera is our best option at LT despite his youth.  Kid is the most talented of the lot and seems to be pretty heady but just needs experience.  Don’t know what Sherm is going to do but I’d keep playing the kid considering we have KSU, TTU, ISU, and CU next on the schedule before hitting OU, BU, and tu.  Play the kid.
  • All in all I thought the offensive line did a decent job on Saturday.  By decent I mean getting a 72 in remedial math when you’ve been scoring 50s and 60s all year.  Sherm finally schemed to help slow down the aggressiveness and move the pocket around to a certain degree.  We definitely did more in the second half than in the first half and a lot of that was scheme so kudos to Sherm.  As much kudos as you give him considering he’s supposed to be an Oline guru.
  • I’m not sure what kind of game Jerrod had.  I don’t know if the guy should be dumping the ball sooner or always looking downfield.  Dude has a knack for the big play and can shed defenders like no other but sometimes he’d be better served getting rid of it.  I guess it’s good as he made some passes that I still don’t know if it was skill or luck.  He put some balls in some mighty small windows but also missed some short stuff.  I know he is often running for his life but he can’t throw on the run at all.  He really needs to set his feet because at that point he becomes deadly accurate.  You just can’t do it on a dead sprint very well.  I know I said earlier in the year that I thought Tannehill might ultimately take his gig but there’s no way Tannehill could do better with this offensive line.  He doesn’t have JJ’s size or deep ball arm strength which is keeping drives alive.  JJ is putting up gaudy numbers with a HORRIBLE OLine so I don’t think there’s much more you can ask.
  • Sherm says CMike is 100% but I don’t think he is.  Maybe it’s just that like the fish on defense he’s not as dominant against better competition.  I’m now torn on if CMike or Gray should be playing more.  I know CMike is a bigger homerun threat but I don’t know if there’s a running homerun to be had with this offensive line.  Gray is the better cutter, receiver, and blocker.  We might just have to realize we’re not going to have a 100 yard rusher this year because the OLine is so bad.  Gray does a nice job of juking and jiving to 3-4 yards a carry and that might be honestly what we need right now.  Only thing with CMike is he’s definitely a better sweep runner than Gray.  I do wish we’d run a quick pitch to CMike to the wide side as all we’ve done so far is run power sweep to the short side.  It’s great for a short gain but it’s never going to get busted.  I’d love to see what CMike could do with a wide side and a head of steam.
  • As far as WRs go there’s little doubt that EZ is the best of the freshman bunch.  We hardly talk about it but it’s going to be interesting to see what happens when Fuller comes back.  It’s like we’ve almost forgotten about him and he is JJ’s go to guy.
  • We had an interesting mix of guys this past weekend with Morrow and the the elder McCoy getting one TD each.  Too bad Jamie didn’t get his second.  You really need guys like them to step up when the defense is beginning to focus on guys like EZ and ultimately Fuller along with Tannehill on 3rd downs.
  • All in all this was a pretty solid showing against a decent defense but then again, some guy named Sumlin took his team into Stillwater and beat this same team.

What Happens from Here:

I know it’s easy to get down on this team after a loss but I think it’s becoming more and more apparent what kind of team this is.  I used to think we were a 7-5 team with no questions but I think I have to move it to 6-6 based on the fact that Dan Hawkins finally pulled his head and realized nepotism is not worth getting fired over.  I think we beat KSU, ISU, and Baylor but that’s going to be about it.  I still question Baylor even without Griffin is Briles is kind of crazy and he’ll pull ALL the stops to try and beat us at home just to use it on the recruiting trail.

I was thinking there was an outside chance we could beat Tech with Potts as he’s just not built for that system but Mike Leach would be a fool to play Potts with the way Sheffield is playing for them.  Couple that with the fact that it’s a 6:00 p.m. game in Lubbock and I don’t think there’s a chance in hell we can win it considering it will be the first time for many of these coaches to visit the high plains.

If we’re lucky, Sherm is gonna get a new weedeater from Poulan at this year’s bowl game.

Prediction for the week – A&M 38, KSU 24

Thoughts from the Arkansas Game

Most of you saw the game so there’s really no need to break down like I normally do.  Plus, my seats didn’t really allow me to see what was going on.  I was on the lower level at about the 5 yard line of the Texas A&M end zone.  I couldn’t see the whole field and watch plays develop like I could with my normal seats at Kyle.  I didn’t realize it was Barrera getting destroyed in the 2nd quarter until someone texted me.  They were on the other side of the 50 and Barrera was on the Arkansas bench side so I really couldn’t see him at all.  Just want to throw that out there that my analysis might not be as thorough as normal.

Also, I did update my prediction to 38-34 in favor of Arkansas on Thursday morning.  I did it on my blog but didn’t feel the need to e-mail all of you.

JerryWorld and the Atmosphere:

  • I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into the game.  I’d been in JerryWorld multiple times prior to the game so I was familiar with it but had never seen a game.
  • Outside the stadium was tremendous.  I started off at the pre-game party at Olenjack’s and then headed over to the stadium around 4:00ish.  The tailgating scene was outstanding.  So much so that I decided that it’s clearly worth it to pay for a tailgating spot if you have the set up to do it.  No one tailgates like the SEC so even though we lost, hopefully we get a few tailgating tips from the Arkansas fans.  They do need more porta-potties though.
  • We got to our seats about 15 minutes to kick and I have to say that the whole entire atmosphere was like a bowl game.  Half the stadium in one color and half the stadium in another with everyone making noise.  Clearly no home field advantage and its neat to see that.  I really liked that.
  • The best way to describe JerryWorld is that it’s an NBA atmosphere in a football sized venue.  The video board is way over the top in my mind.  I found myself watching it more than the game and it’s a distraction for a real football fan.  They keep the shot tight so it’s hard to see the entire play no matter where you’re sitting if you decide to watch it.  It really is like a damn amusement park in there and I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.  I think in a few years it’s going to wind up being like the SkyDome in Toronto.
  • I’ve never been to OU/Texas but no way would I move it to JerryWorld I don’t think as I have to imagine Cotton Bowl Stadium is better now that they’ve redone it and it’s all about tradition at that place.
  • On the same lines, if the Cotton Bowl (game itself) can’t get into the BCS Championship rotation in a few years then they need to get a new committee leading that group.  That stadium is built for a BCS game.
  • I sat in the lower level club seats and wasn’t impressed with the set up for it.  To get to the seats you have to go through the main club level which is on the second level.  That’s a very impressive area but then you have to go down this star/tunnel to get to your seats.  That’s all fine and dandy but to get concessions you have to go back up to the main club level.  I never actually left my seat because I didn’t want to miss too much of the game.  The seats were very comfy but it just seemed strange that there’s no concessions on that level for fans.  I will say I would NEVER get seats in the end zone to have to deal with Party Plaza people.
  • It’s an amazing venue but it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like in 10 years.  Heinz Field is the best new football venue I’ve been to because it’s built for football and nothing else.  The focus is on the fan and its fun for football fans to go to.  Of course, it probably doesn’t make the money like JerryWorld does.
  • I’m not knocking the venue at all as it was a great experience and glad I went and see no reason to change anything in the interim except for ticket prices.  I didn’t spend $300 for my clubs seats but I can assure you I never would after my experience.  I might pay $125 but only if I knew those seats would between the 40s.  Wouldn’t pay $85 to be in the end zone.

Coach Sherman/Offense:

I’m grouping these two together since I really think they’re synonymous.  Like I said earlier I’m not going to break down position by position or player by player as you all saw the game.  I just want to hit on some points about what I saw in coaching the offense.

  • On the way to the game we heard Bob Davie talking about the game on ESPN Radio.  Davie’s comments were basically about not knowing how good A&M was but did know that Arkansas would be 3-0 had they played our schedule.  He also went on to say that Von Miller did look impressive but he thought the Arkansas DEs looked good and basically implied they would have a bigger night.  Dude nailed it.
  • Building on Davie’s comments, Von Miller had the quarter of his life in the 1st quarter.  In the end though it was the Arkansas DEs that stood out.  Why?  Arkansas schemed to slow down Von Miller while A&M didn’t do the same for the Arkansas DEs.  That’s getting out coached.  I still can’t fathom how Sherman CONTINUALLY let his OL get exposed by giving his true freshman LT ZERO help.  I feel bad for the kid.
  • RANT TIME – Let’s get over blaming Fran for the lack of talent on the offensive line.  True, he didn’t do a good job of recruiting for the position.  Wait, he did a HORRENDOUS job of recruiting for it but Sherman is in his 16th game and should know what he has and what he doesn’t have.  He’s supposed to be the offensive line guru and he’s now cycled through at least four people at LT by my count in games this season.  If you don’t have the talent then you have to scheme to help that area of weakness.  I equate his desire to leave his LT unassisted to him trying to run the freakin’ I formation last year with no fullback and a weak offensive line.  He’s being stubborn and it’s going to cost him.  A great coach recognizes that weakness and helps out just like the opposing coach is going to exploit it.  I don’t get why he can’t recognize the weakness that he has at LT and address it through help rather than sift through the talent that he has when it’s obvious it’s not there.  Why does he not get taken to task for this?  Everyone wants to point to him being a great OLine coach but I’m just not seeing it right now.  The OLine is not good but he’s not doing a DAMN thing to take the focus of it.
  • There is one thing that I’m not seeing talked about in this game that was an obvious difference than in his first three games.  We continued to run the no huddle but we didn’t push the tempo like we did in the first three games.  In the first three games we would quickly line up, get the play in, and then off we went.  Not only were we locking in the defensive personnel but we were pushing them on their heels.  In this game we did the no huddle where you lineup and then adjust the play call to the defensive alignment by looking to the sideline.  To me this gave the Arkansas defense a chance to regroup and apply pressure.  Not saying we win if we push the tempo but I just found it strange that Sherman decide to play cat and mouse trying to out scheme a defense with such a weak offensive line.  Let’s hope he comes out against OSU and tries to move the ball with a quick tempo, no huddle offense.  I really think slowing the tempo killed us once we got the lead.  I think Sherman got too comfortable and went all NFL trying to protect a lead and never recovered when that lead was lost.  If your OL is in shape (why wouldn’t they be if they’re so weak as that would be your only advantage) it gives them a unique advantage to just line up every time and fire off engaging someone that’s trying to catch their breath.  I really think Sherm needs to go back to this.
  • JJ is HORRIBLE at throwing to his right if he can’t set is feet.  Kid is crazy athletic but if he’s rolling to his right he sails his passes unless he can set.  As long as he can set his feet he’s fine but this was the first time I’ve ever seen him try to throw rolling right and he was sailing every ball.  I don’t think it was him trying to throw the ball away as it was relatively close for the receiver but still out of reach.  All of these were sideline passes.
  • Sherman should be strung up for running JJ out there with 15 seconds left in the game and attempting passes.  It was very Fran-esque to try and get some more passing in there in a blowout with only 15 seconds left.  Of course, JJ almost got decapitated so I hope Sherman NEVER does it again.  NEVER.  You don’t have to kneel it but run the damn ball and end the misery.
  • Christine Michael is not 100%.  Cyrus looked pretty good after I essentially bashed him last week.  He can flat out cut back and forth which looking at it might be the best style from here on out.  Not saying Christine shouldn’t be getting lots of touches but Cyrus might be better served than I originally thought.
  • The poor freshman WRs had a rude awakening playing someone with legit D1 talent.  Powder Puffs no more.  Not sure what else to say as no one stood out and I’m not covering the drop we all know about.
  • All in all, Sherman laid a real stinker in this game.  This is his biggest problem of not coming from the college ranks.  I don’t care that he “gets” A&M as I care more about getting the college game and winning games.  It was clear in that game that Petrino was the better coach.  His team was better prepared for four quarters meaning he picked up more in film than Sherman did to make in game adjustments and knew how to manage the entire game unlike Sherman.

Defense/Special Teams:

  • Won’t hit a ton here but good lord Joe Kines had this unit ready to go from the start.  THREE three and outs is DAMN impressive.  DAMN impressive.  Too bad this gets overlooked.  We knew Arkansas was going to score points but the defense did everything they could to let us get in out in front and control the game.  Unfortunately the offense didn’t oblige.
  • One VERY IMPORTANT turnover.  Once again, the turnover we got gets discounted as it should have been a game changer but the offense sputtered.  I commented when the defense was going out there that we needed a turnover now down by 4 points.  We get that gift and the offense does nothing with it.  Special teams then gets the ball back and the offense turns it over for a TD the other way.  Game, set, match.
  • Our defense is young and they’re going to get better but our offense HAS to help them.  The best defenses have an offense that gives them rest and keeps them in the game.  Our offense did actually win the TOP battle but they couldn’t score any points to force Arkansas into some offensive sets they didn’t want to be in but our offense didn’t do it.
  • Punting sucked.
  • Kick returns were decent but Arkansas actually forced Lionel Smith down the sideline they wanted by kicking short to his side.  Smith did a nice job returning but he was never going to bust one the way Arkansas was kicking to him.  Nice job of coaching by the Arkansas staff as a kick return could have been detrimental to them.  They felt comfortable that their defense had figured out the A&M offense so it looked like they were willing to give up yards on the kick to not have a big return.

Ryan Mallett:

  • Want to give this kid his own section because he’s that damn good.  He’s got to be the best pure passing QB I’ve ever seen in college.  He goes about 6’7” and has an effortless motion with zip.  In addition he has this unbelievably quick release.  He’s a Top 10 pick if he keeps this up.  I sorry that he pounded our ass but it was a real treat watching him sling it around.

Where to go from here:

There is no reason to NOT win 7 games.  That’s four wins over KSU, ISU, CU, and Baylor.  A good coach wins those four games based on what we’ve seen.  A great coach picks one out of OSU or Tech to win and go 8-4 on the season.

I think we win 7 but I don’t see Sherman winning 8 as he’s just not aggressive enough to try and take it to OSU or Tech.  He’ll do the EXACT same thing against OSU and Tech where we’ll come out and do pretty well but the other coaching staff will adjust after figuring out his game plan and Sherman will stick to what he thinks he can do and lose in the end.

I really think we have the talent to surprise OSU or Tech as I don’t think they’re as good as they’re made out to be but I don’t see Sherman rolling the dice.  He’s got too much NFL in him and he thinks he’s too smart in scheming four quarters and never making the in game adjustments.

In the end I think Sherman is going to turn out to be very Fran-esque winning 8 and 10 games a season but never more.  I know it’s only one game but we’ll just have to see.  I got blinded by one great game over UAB but that might have been his high point.  I hope not but we’ll see.  Sherman deserves no credit as to date he still hasn’t done anything at A&M when you really think about it.

Colorado vs. West Virginia

This is the third game that I’ve watched Colorado this season and I just want to go on record to say that Colorado will be MUCH improved if/when Hawkins is replaced by CU.

Hawkins has one pass and it’s to Scotty McKnight.  He gets in McKnight’s range and McKnight does the rest.  McKnight got knocked out cold against Colorado St. but he’s come back and is a solid possession guy along the lines of Ryan Tannehill.

I still don’t feel good about our game in Boulder just yet.  Lot’s of football but paint me skeptical on 10/01/2009.