As many visitors of this blog know, I attended Texas A&M University. Therefore, if I am online, I am usually on TexAgs.com reading threads, posting, etc. Anyway, I thought it was great that TexAgs.com got a "plug" in the New York Times, so I have posted it here.
The second article is one from two years ago. I think I posted it before but I figured I would re-post it again.
However, another reason I posted this is because I am very "beside myself" with where A&M's program currently is. I mean, here I am reading the NY Times, and they have A&M at No. 72 of 120 Teams. There are a lot of reasons why teams such as Oklahoma, Texas, and LSU are doing very well and why A&M is not. These teams are all in the same region and I guess something has to "give." Unfortunately, what has "given" is apparently A&M's football program.
On the other hand, if TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma State can continue to "grow" as programs, there is no reason that A&M shouldn't be doing better (instantly)!
In the first article (below) they have listed the A&M schedule for 2009. I have highlighted the teams in BLUE that I think A&M will beat this season. However, I have highlighted in RED the teams that are most likely (at least on paper) to be a loss. Finally, the teams in GREEN are the ones that I either have no idea, or are a toss-up. According to this...it doesn't look great, as my colors has A&M at 4-6-2 (2 being the 2 in green).
On the other hand, I think Sherman is the guy who will at least get A&M back to a consistent 8 wins per season. I don't know if that will happen in 2009, and I don't think it is likely, but then again, I really really really hope I am wrong.
June 21, 2009, 12:17 pm — (Updated: 1:24 pm)The Quad Countdown: No. 72 Texas A&MBy
Paul MyerbergWhat I predicted in last year’s preview: Looking at the Big 12 schedule, I see four wins in Kansas State, Iowa State, Colorado at home and Baylor. The other four are toss-ups, especially as A&M needs to go to Oklahoma State and Texas. What about the defense, you might ask? It is an area of concern, no question about it – but I see an improvement under Joe Kines, who has made a living out of creating top 10 defenses, especially against the pass. Over all, I expect an 8-4 season from A&M. I know many are projecting the Aggies to hover around .500, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Postseason re-ranking: No. 84.2008 record and recap: (4-8, 2-6). Horrible, simply horrible. Could Mike Sherman’s first season back with Texas A&M have gone any worse? Yes, it actually could have. A&M’s four wins came by a total of 31 points, including narrow victories in nonconference play over New Mexico and Army. The Aggies even lost their home opener – to Arkansas State – for the first time in 20 years, perhaps a harbinger of the setbacks yet to come. Texas A&M allowed at least 41 points in seven of its losses, including an embarrassing three-game stretch to end the season in which the Aggies were outscored, 156-58. Among those final three games? A humiliating 41-21 loss at Baylor, which all but assured A&M’s first winless season in South division play since the conference’s formation. All told, the 2008 season greatly resembled Dennis Franchione’s first season, 2003, when the Aggies also finished 4-8. Though the 2003 team may have been worse defensively, if that’s possible, it did do two things last year’s Aggies could not: beat Arkansas State and Baylor. Suffice to say, there are many questions regarding the future of this program. Maybe I shouldn’t give them “the benefit of the doubt” in 2009?
High point: Texas A&M went 2-1 against the Big 12 North, with wins coming by 49-35 at Iowa State and by 24-17 over Colorado. Four wins on the season, and only was actually worth writing home about. (If beating a 5-7 Colorado team is cause for celebration.)
Low point: The hits just kept on coming for Sherman and the Aggies, starting with the humbling loss to A.S.U. in the season opener. The trend continued with knee-to-the-groin losses to Oklahoma State (56-28), Kansas State (44-30), Oklahoma (66-28), Baylor and Texas (49-9).
Tidbit: A&M’s 40-points loss to
rival Texas was the program’s second-largest margin of defeat in the series, trailing only a 48-0 loss in 1898. A&M has recently experienced a measure of success in the series, in which Texas holds a commanding 74-36-5 advantage (two straight wins, 2006-7); however, it would take A&M’s combined margin from its last five victories over the Longhorns (1994, 1997, 1999, 2006-7) to better to the 40-point margin of a season ago.
Tidbit (U.T. edition): Or T.U., standing for “Texas University,” as A&M often refers to the rival Longhorns. The relationship between the two colleges, contentious on its best day, can be summed up in A&M’s fight song, the
Aggie War Hymn. The song has 23 lines, 13 of which (by my count) reference their neighbors in Austin. For example, the War Hymn (sung to the tune of “Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby”) starts “Goodbye to Texas University,” and continues with lines like “the eyes of Texas are upon you/That is the song they sing so well/Sounds Like Hell/So goodbye to Texas University/We’re going to beat you all to…”
Of course, the final stanza is great fun, as Aggie fans repeat “Saw varsity’s horns off” while locking arms and swaying in unison, replicating the motion of a blade. I shiver at the thought of what a group of Aggie students would do to
Bevo if they ever got their hands on him.
Former players in the N.F.L.: 29 – DT Michael Bennett (Seattle Seahawks), TE Martellus Bennett (Dallas Cowboys), DT Rocky Bernard (Giants), P Justin Brantly (Houston Texans), DT Red Bryant (Seattle Seahawks), CB Melvin Bullitt (Indianapolis Colts), TE Dan Campbell (New Orleans Saints), WR Jason Carter (Carolina Panthers), OT Corey Clark (San Diego Chargers), DT Ron Edwards (Kansas City Chiefs), CB Aaron Glenn (New Orleans Saints), WR Dante Hall (St. Louis Rams), C Geoff Hangartner (Buffalo Bills), LB Chris Harrington (Cincinnati Bengals), DT Johnny Jolly (Green Bay Packers), P Shane Lechler (Oakland Raiders), QB Stephen McGee (Dallas Cowboys), C Seth McKinney (Buffalo Bills), C Steve McKinney (Seattle Seahawks), DE Mike Montgomery (Green Bay Packers), C Don Muhlbach (Detroit Lions), DT Cyril Obiozor (Green Bay Packers), C Cody Wallace (San Francisco 49ers), DE Ty Warren (New England Patriots), CB Jason Webster (New England Patriots), DT Pat Williams (Minnesota Vikings), OG Billy Yates (New England Patriots).
Top five N.F.L. players from Texas A&M: I had been looking forward to this list for a while now because I really didn’t know what I was going to get from A&M. What do the Aggies have? One of the greats in Yale Lary, a memorable cornerback in Lester Hayes and a former M.V.P. in Moseley. Just missing the cut: linebackers Lee Roy Caffey and Jack Pardee and defensive end Jacob Green, among others.
This is a top-10 list so far, but not in the Countdown’s top three.
1. S Yale Lary (Detroit; 1952-64)
2. CB Lester Hayes (Oakland; 1977-86)
3. RB John David Crow (Chicago, St. Louis, S.F.; 1958-68)
4. DT Ray Childress (Houston, Dallas; 1985-96)
5. K Mark Moseley (Phi., Houston, Wash., Cleveland; 1970-86)
Team
Conference: Big 12, South division.Head coach: Mike Sherman (’78 Central Connecticut State), 4-8 after one season with the Aggies. Could his first season have gone any worse? No, probably not. Should fans keep the faith? In Sherman’s favor, he is no stranger to the Aggie program, having served two separate stints as R.C. Slocum’s offensive line coach (1989-93, 1995-96). As stated in last year’s preview, most coaches need a year to acclimate themselves to a new program, so Sherman entered last fall with a leg up over any other candidate A&M could have considered. Not that it did him much good. Still, the speed with which Texas A&M went after Sherman – he was hired three days after the besieged Dennis Franchione resigned – signals the faith the university’s administration has in his ability to turn the program around. That optimism has surely been tested after last fall.
Sherman’s impressive resume includes 12 seasons in the N.F.L. as an assistant, a head coach and an executive. His professional career started with a two-year stint as a Packers assistant (1997-98, tight ends/assistant offensive line) under Mike Holmgren, which was followed by one season as the Seahawks offensive coordinator, again under Holmgren. Green Bay, reeling from an 8-8 season under Ray Rhodes, tabbed Sherman as its head coach before the 2000 season, a position he held through 2005. Sherman had a six-year record of 59-43, though that was hampered by a 4-12 season in 2005; through five years, Sherman’s .640 winning percentage was second in Packers history to Vince Lombardi. His 59 wins represent the fourth-most in Packers history. Sherman held an executive post in the Packers front office each of his six seasons, including, like his professional mentor Holmgren, being general manager from 2001 to 2004. He was fired after the 2005 season, then moved to Houston, where he was the Texans assistant head coach from 2006 to 2007.
Returning starters: 13 (7 offense, 6 defense).
Key losses: The Aggies must replace the heart of their running game, though neither Mike Goodson nor Jorvorskie Lane performed to their lofty standards in 2008. Lane, despite being undervalued, underused and often injured as a senior (93 yards and 5 scores), finished his Aggie career as the program’s career leader in rushing touchdowns (49), total scores (50) and had the most career points by a non-kicker (302). From his freshman through junior seasons, Lane never once dipped below 119 carries, 595 yards or 9 touchdowns in a season; in 2006 and 2007, he combined for 1,505 yards and 35 rushing touchdowns. Last fall, though admittedly stymied by injuries, Lane only twice had more than five carries in a game (seven against New Mexico and Army). The outside runner to Lane’s bruising style was Mike Goodson, the team’s leading rusher in 2006 (847 yards) and 2008 (406).
Like Lane, Goodson’s worst season of his career came last fall, when he received more than eight carries in a game only three times. After posting only 38 yards in the team’s final six games – two of which he missed to injury – Goodson wisely opted to enter the N.F.L. draft, forgoing his final year of eligibility. An early-season injury cost quarterback Stephen McGee the starting job he had held the previous two seasons, and he threw for only 586 yards in his final season. His legacy at A&M, one reinforced by top-five career rankings in completion percentage (59.5), total offense (7,225 yards) and passing yards (5,475), was secured by back-to-back victories over rival Texas (2006-7). It may be true, as Texas Tech’s
Mike Leach proposed this off-season, that the Cowboys – the team that drafted McGee in the fourth round of April’s draft – like McGee more than Sherman did. Still, McGee’s limited senior season does not diminish his solid Aggies career.
Defensively, the Aggies lost both starting ends, Michael Bennett and Cyril Obiozor. In his first season as a starter, Bennett led all Aggies with 12 tackles for loss (adding two sacks and an interception). Obiozor, a two-year starter and a three-year contributor up front, led all A&M defensive linemen in tackles (45) and sacks (3) for the second straight season. Alton Dixon set a career high in tackles as a senior (94), when the coaching staff used him at the rover spot and at outside linebacker. The losses in the secondary continued with the graduation of cornerbacks Arkeith Brown (50 tackles, 1 interception) and Danny Gorrer and rover Devin Gregg (37 tackles). Gregg, whose 33 career starts at the end of the 2008 season led the team, moved back into the starting lineup when Dixon transitioned down to linebacker. In the kicking game, the Aggies lost perhaps the second-best punter in team history in Justin Brantly, who trails only the former Aggie great Shane Lechler in career punt average (44.4 yards) and career net average (39.9 yards).
Players to watch: Despite being thrown into the fire early into the 2008 season, the junior quarterback Jerrod Johnson responded with one of the best passing seasons in A&M history. On the year, Johnson threw for 2,435 yards (fifth on the team’s single-season list) and 21 touchdowns (a team record) while completing 59.5 percent of his passes (sixth in program history). Johnson started 10 games, sitting out the season opener and backing up McGee in the finale at Texas, setting a team record for passing yards in a game (419 against Kansas State) along the way. He did lose some of his effectiveness down the stretch, throwing 6 of his 10 interceptions against Oklahoma and Baylor, but Johnson showed himself to be a good fit for Sherman’s offense, and a piece on which to build the rest of the offense around. Not that his starting job is completely secure: Johnson will have to hold off the sophomore Ryan Tannehill, a record-setting receiver for the Aggies who aspires to return to his former position. Last fall, Tannehill set team freshman records for receptions (55) and yards (844); the Aggies would be better off keeping him at receiver. Tannehill teams with his electric fellow sophomore Jeff Fuller (50 receptions for 630 yards and an A&M freshman record 9 touchdown grabs) to give the Aggies one of the best young receiver tandems in the F.B.S. Fuller looks like a future N.F.L. draft pick. Rounding out a stellar receiving corps is the junior tight end Jamie McCoy, who finished third on the team with 43 receptions for 500 yards last fall, and McCoy’s younger brother, Terrence, a sophomore, who added 24 receptions for 237 yards.
Though four starters return up front, this unit needs to greatly improve in pass protection. Leading the way is the senior left tackle Michael Shumard, who will moved inside from left tackle to guard, and the senior center Kevin Matthews, a member of the 2009 Rimington Trophy watch list. Injuries decimated this group in the spring, so it will be important to get the returning starters as many snaps as possible in fall practice to prepare them for the season opener. Call me crazy, but I like this Aggie defense. Any improvement from this side of the ball will be a result of improved play from the line, which must replace both its starting ends. One end spot – the “jack” position in Joe Kines’s defense – will be filled by the athletic junior Von Miller, who the team moved down from outside linebacker. Though undersized, Miller showed his pass-rushing ability last fall, when he led the team with 3.5 sacks. I’m excited to see what he can do coming off the edge. The senior Matt Featherston, the team’s co-leading tackler last fall, will also get a good look at the jack spot.
The interior of the line will be manned by the talented sophomore Eddie Brown and Tony Jerod-Eddie, each of whom got their feet wet as part of the line rotation last fall. The secondary, not altogether terrible last fall, brings back the senior Jordan Pugh and the sophomore Trent Hunter at safety. Pugh (45 tackles, 1 interception) moves back to safety after starting at corner last fall. The second-year player Justin McQueen is penciled in at cornerback, as is fellow sophomore Terrence Frederick, who started six games as the team’s nickelback in 2008. The defensive backfield could be very good, but it will need strong performances from its underclassmen.
Position battle to watch: The position changes for Featherston and Miller means all three linebacker spots are open. As of now, the team hopes a tide of unproven freshmen and sophomores can step in and provide a boost to last year’s underperforming defense. The best of the bunch is the sophomore Garrick Williams, who posted 36 tackles and 1.5 sacks in five starts as a rookie. He’ll battle the senior Anthony Lewis for the starting role. Lewis was Featherston’s backup last fall, but seniority should mean little to a coaching staff in desperate need of playmakers. Currently atop the depth chart on the outside are the redshirt freshman Kyle Mangan and the sophomore Ricky Cavanaugh (seven tackles in five games last fall).
Sensing a need for more depth, Sherman and his staff signed five linebackers in the team’s 2009 recruiting class; one, Jonathan Stewart, may be good enough to push his way onto the field as a true freshman. Another position battle to watch is at running back, where the favorite to supplant Goodson is the sophomore Cyrus Gray (363 yards rushing). The sophomore Bradley Stephens is also in competition for the top job, but keep an eye out for the incoming freshman Christine Michael, one of the top high school running backs in the 2009 class and one of the highest-ranked recruits in recent A&M history.
2009 schedule:Sept. 5 New MexicoSept. 19 Utah StateSept. 26 U.A.B.Oct. 3 Arkansas (in Dallas)Oct. 10 Oklahoma StateOct. 17 @ Kansas StateOct. 24 @Texas TechOct. 31 Iowa StateNov. 7 @ ColoradoNov. 14 @ OklahomaNov. 21 BaylorNov. 26 TexasGame(s) to watch: In nonconference play, A&M meets its old SWC rival Arkansas for the first time since 1991. The two teams will meet every year through 2018, with the potential to extend the series even further. The Countdown is excited. In the Big 12, Aggie Nation always circles Texas as the game of the year, but the more important game in 2009 is Baylor, as that game will decide who finishes last in the South.
Season breakdown & prediction: Regardless of how poorly equipped Sherman may be to handle this job, or how inept the defense was a season ago, the Aggies should be able to roll out of bed and reach six wins this fall. Why? A 3-0 start should be a guarantee, for starters, despite last fall’s slip-up to Arkansas State. From there, Arkansas may be a toss-up, but A&M will have momentum and probably a pro-Aggie crowd in its favor. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, the Aggies lose to the Razorbacks, leaving them 3-1 as it enters Big 12 play. I give the team one win over Iowa State, one out of Kansas State and Colorado, and a third win over Baylor. Yes, the Baylor team that pushed the Aggies around a season ago. But this game is in College Station, where the Bears haven’t won since 1984. So that’s my prediction: 6-6, but no better. One thing is clear: A&M is as far off the two big dogs – Oklahoma and Texas – as it has been in some time.
Dream season: The tide turns in one season: 10-2, 6-2 in the Big 12, with wins over Baylor and Texas.
Nightmare season: It may not represent a worse record than last fall, but another 4-8 season and last-place finish in the South would be disastrous.
Where Texas A&M fans congregate: As one would expect with a bigger program, the independent sites are coming fast and furious: the best is
TexAgs.com, but don’t forget about
AgTimes.com and
AggiesFans.com. For recruiting news, visit
AggieYell.com and
AggieWebsider.com.
Who is No. 71?: The next time you visit this university, impress the locals by ordering a loco moco at any of the area’s many, many roadside eateries. If you’re like me, you order the loco moco with teriyaki chicken, and don’t skimp on that macaroni salad.
An earlier version misstated one of the years of Texas A&M’s last five victories over Texas.SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Internet Whistleblowers Go Where N.C.A.A. Fears to TreadBy SELENA ROBERTS
Published: July 15, 2007Photo: A Sense of Community The third Madison Square Garden, on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, with Nedick's next door. George Vecsey, Page 7. (Photograph by The New York Times, 1957)
The Buddy List of watchdogs for college sports operates under pseudonyms inside a message-board world that functions as group therapy for cathartic enthusiasts.
In technology speak, call them iFans. They descend upon wildly popular Web sites like TexAgs.com with their team musings and debates and, at times, the kind of insider information that can doom a rival to N.C.A.A. purgatory.
It was well past midnight in January 2006 when a user named aggiegrant06 dashed off a thread on TexAgs.com that detailed how his girlfriend handed out payroll checks for a car dealer in Norman, Okla. ''She didn't recognize several of the names,'' aggiegrant06 wrote. ''She thought it was fishy and asked me.''
The boyfriend knew the names in the blink of an instant message: They were football players at Oklahoma. Gotcha, Rhett Bomar. Six months later, after it was determined that Bomar, the Sooners' sainted quarterback, received money for a no-show job at Big Red Sports/Imports, Coach Bob Stoops tossed him from the team.
Last week, the N.C.A.A., citing Oklahoma's failure to monitor the employment of its players, handed down punishment, forcing the team to erase its victories from the 2005 season. Oklahoma will appeal.
Aggiegrant06 wasn't a spy hidden in the bushes, but a chat-room visitor who lurked among hard drives. He was a legitimate tipster, even though his postings on TexAgs.com were pulled by the administrator within two hours because the information lacked sufficient evidence.
How can a fan-site monitor measure Internet cred?
''We're in a strange situation,'' said Brandon Jones, the vigilant owner of TexAgs.com, a fan site independent of Texas A&M. ''We function as editors in trying to determine if something is valid.
''But you'd be surprised. It's rare when we see something that is blatantly dishonest.''
The iFan, armed with a BlackBerry or an iPhone, a cellphone camera or a text message, is actually better equipped to be a caretaker of college athletics than the sleuths at the N.C.A.A., whose water guns and magnifying glasses leave them best suited to guard a tip jar.
Exactly when is the N.C.A.A.'s investigation of Reggie Bush's luxury family digs while he was a star at the University of Southern California going to conclude?
The iFan, as an embedded member of the fight-song culture, can be considered more diligent in the oversight of a program than serially incurious university compliance officers who ignore the sudden appearance of Cadillac Escalades in the player parking lot.
Those earnest university officials don't self-police, they self-protect. The disingenuousness of authority figures on campus leaves those searching for real answers to try an alternate route that, in essence, violates the core tenet of childhood: go ahead, trust a stranger.
An anonymous post on a bulletin board can possess as much veracity as the selective account of an athletic department curator.
''What's interesting to me, and I've owned and operated this site since 1999, is that there is definitely a change in how the site is received,'' Jones said. ''And I'd say it was about three years ago when we started to cross into a realm of legitimacy.''
It was cyberfans, after all, who uncovered the kegger night indulgences of Larry Eustachy at Iowa State and ratted out Rick Neuheisel's dalliance in a March Madness pool at the University of Washington.
Team spirit has never been so deliciously interactive. How else would we know if Nick Saban had cozy conversations with prospects this spring -- a potential N.C.A.A. infraction for Alabama's newest Bear Bryant knockoff -- if not for a Miami Hurricanes fan site, canesport.com.
''I think it's funny it came from Miami,'' Saban recently told reporters.
An agenda might make a posting suspicious, but not necessarily bogus.
Internet meddlers aren't Web surfers without a day job killing time in their bathrobes anymore.
There are more than 200,000 unique visitors to TexAgs.com each month in what amounts to a survey of every demographic on subjects from the popularity of team uniforms to the unpopularity of a coach.
Fan sites are where athletic directors and coaches, boosters and players go to be in the know anonymously.
''It's the great equalizer,'' Jones said. ''No one knows who you are, whether you're wealthy or famous. Everyone is the person next door.''
The neighborhood is eclectic. Before Robert Gates took office as the nation's secretary of defense in 2006, he was the president at Texas A&M. People knew exactly who he was -- or did they?
On TexAgs.com, he blended into the fan forum with a secret identity: ranger65, according to The Dallas Morning News. Gates often began his posts with ''I'm told'' as he went into different issues with Aggies devotees.
Not everyone in a chat room is such an impeccable source of information. But more and more, the message board has become a place where news isn't made up, but made.
''It's a paradigm shift in how information is disseminated,'' Jones said. ''Our viewership continues to increase each year. People everywhere have become citizen reporters.''
Whistleblowers of the iFan crowd are now equipped to investigate what the N.C.A.A. can't -- or won't.
E-mail: selenasports@nytimes.com
