37 replies to this topic

[houstontexan]

loved last year's class, but shit isn't looking too good right now.

is tim cassidy still dressing up like a sailor and walking around campus with his same pompous attitude? is this hurting recruiting?

[BohunkAg]

loved last year's class, but shit isn't looking too good right now.

is tim cassidy still dressing up like a sailor and walking around campus with his same pompous attitude? is this hurting recruiting?

I still maintain we have to win on the field to start winning some recruiting battles. I think last year's tumult on the field hurt us with this recruiting class.

[surf]

been awfully quiet. i think recruits are taking a wait and see approach with A&M. if they don't do well on the field this year, recruiting's gonna really fall off. recruit's want to win and win now and they are going to think it's fran v.2 if A&M struggles.

seriously, take the blinders off and ask yourself the question: if i was a star recruit and could go to any school in the nation, would A&M be the one i choose? i'm not saying this as smack. if you weren't a die hard fan and/or had ties to A&M, what would be your motivation to go there when you can go to texas, OU or lsu and play for a top flight program right now that has a chance to run the table and win the mnc?

[houstontexan]

really hope you're right.

i don't follow it too closely is why i ask, but just seems that every thread on TA is "_______ is now out of the picture" or whatever.

just wish sherman had one fucking TE and just a couple returning starters on the OL. he's really got his work cut out for him this year.

[houstontexan]

oh, no...surf, i completely understand.

if i were from texas, i'd consider a&m....good school, close to home, great atmosphere, sherman, but there's absolutely an unknown factor that would scare the shit out of me as well, especially after fran.

[surf]

ht. i have a gut feeling that sherm will do alright this year. his team will be ready to play and there will be a marked difference in the way they play compared to fran's teams. i also think there will be major improvement too even if the record doesn't indicate it. 8 wins is attainable and should be the mark to aim for this year

[BohunkAg]

just wish sherman had one fucking TE and just a couple returning starters on the OL. he's really got his work cut out for him this year.

No shit. We're not as devoid of talent as we were during the last coaching change, but the lack of depth on the OL, and in the defensive front 7 is just astounding. Makes me hate Fran even more.

[houstontexan]

i'd be ecstatic with 8 wins.

bohunk, completely agree. not as bad, but its just horrible in a couple key places.

who do we have back on the DL? heard, patterson, bennett? i think rod davis will make some noise...

LB is going to be a bitch yet again and the OL has what, 4 fucking combined starts coming back?

the game i want most is miami @ a&m....winnable game over big name at kyle, surely with many recruits in attendance.

[surf]

game i want to win the most is army. they lost to clemson the last time i saw them in person. funny thing is the year before clemson missed all kinds of opportunities to win it against A&M with all the drops and dumb shit. then A&M turned around and did the same fucking thing in the rematch. they should have won in clemson by at least 2 touchdowns

[Pink Care Bear]

We have 8 commits in May....that's fine. People are freaking out because Texas has a lot more, but there are plenty of programs better than them that have around our same number or less right now. Don't worry about it. I think our team will be fine next year. Not great, but fine. I think we'll win some games some think we shouldn't, Tech being one example.

[houstontexan]

i'm freaking out b/c guys we're going after hard are dropping us.

has nothing to do with the sheer # of commits.

[houstontexan]

and i wouldn't say i'm "freaking out" at this point....but it is a cause for conern.

[Pink Care Bear]

Whatever. Just let it play out, and everything will be fine. This is the right guy for the job. You seem to give other teams too much credit, while giving your own too little. That's pretty common of course, but just wait it out and we'll see. I'm looking at this from a long-term perspective, i.e., I think over the next 4-5 years, we'll be glad we hired him.

[HeyMoe]

i'd be ecstatic with 8 wins.

bohunk, completely agree. not as bad, but its just horrible in a couple key places.

who do we have back on the DL? heard, patterson, bennett? i think rod davis will make some noise...

LB is going to be a bitch yet again and the OL has what, 4 fucking combined starts coming back?

the game i want most is miami @ a&m....winnable game over big name at kyle, surely with many recruits in attendance.

The biggest problem we've had the last 6 years is that every time we've been on the big stage (meaning a nationally televised game against a good opponent), we've shit the bed. And we've also had the bad luck that our two biggest wins against texas were either too early in the morning (2006) or overshadowed by another game (2007) to make the national splash they might otherwise.

I don't have real high hopes for this year, but Sherm is going to have a big stage win, something that will make recruits sit up and take notice. Beating Baylor and OSU ain't gonna do it.

Edited by HeyMoe, 14 May 2008 - 11:19 AM.

[HeyMoe]

I also found it interesting that Mack said last week that he was not going to redshirt as much. This might be something that Sherm should do too. If you've got a 4-star linebacker you're recruiting, tell him he'll play right away. I'm sure a coach would rather redshirt and work em in slowly but I'm not sure recruits will stand for that as much. The want to play right away.

[surf]

I also found it interesting that Mack said last week that he was not going to redshirt as much. This might be something that Sherm should do too. If you've got a 4-star linebacker you're recruiting, tell him he'll play right away. I'm sure a coach would rather redshirt and work em in slowly but I'm not sure recruits will stand for that as much. The want to play right away.

if they're ready you play them. if not you better sit their ass and get them ready. i think what mac means by this is that if you're ready and will make a meaningful imact, he won't shirt you. i think that's pretty much standard practice at every school unless it's out of necessity

[houstontexan]

lea, what exactly have we done since 99 that deserves any "credit"? what, the gf.com win over a giant TCU?

i remember the 01 and 02 classes all too well...."don't worry, RC knows....we don't need to win head to heads with LSU, ou, ut...everything'll be fine."

we saw how that worked out.

i call them like i see them and i'm pretty unbiased. we had a good class for 08, but we had a couple disappointments before and this one isn't shaping up the way you'd like to see either. at some point, you can't pat yourself on the back for getting ass raped by tech and winning 7 a year with the obligatory bowl cumshot.

[Pink Care Bear]

I didn't say we'd done anything to deserve any credit for a while-that wasn't the point. You prove me right when you go on and on about how good you think Tech will be despite what they actually do on the field, which is not much. If you look at them objectively, you'd see that they're bringing back a lot of people from a team that was fortunate to go .500 in conference last year. That's a FACT. How much is bringing back all those guys with more experience really worth with a tougher schedule? 5-3 maybe? You'll say "look at what they're doing to shore up their defensive line"....when all they've done is bring in some good prospects who've never proven anything. The point is that if it were A&M, you'd focus on how lucky we got to win those final 2 games of the year, and how the juco's we're bringing in are unproven. If it's another team, like Tech in this case, them improving and what they're bringing in to shore up their holes is just a given. That's what I mean. A&M hasn't done much to deserve credit the last several years, but neither has Tech. The only overall difference has been them being successful in mediocre bowls....nothing to warrant championship run talk.

I'm not trying to argue with you. You and I are on the same team, bud.

Edited by Pink Care Bear, 14 May 2008 - 12:22 PM.

[surf]

RC's downfall began when he did the panic move and fired toledo after the cotton against ucla. he really got it going that year he only took gamble on defense

[Pink Care Bear]

RC's downfall began when he did the panic move and fired toledo after the cotton against ucla. he really got it going that year he only took gamble on defense

That was Steve Elmsfinger. Toledo was fired after the '93 season.

[houstontexan]

The biggest problem we've had the last 20 years is that every time we've been on the big stage (meaning a nationally televised game against a good opponent), we've shit the bed.

fify

and lea, the difference is tech has made some changes, brought in some new personnel on D. its a hunch but everyone has to start somewhere.

what i'm saying is that our recruiting has been subpar and that we're not bringing in a scheme where we're going to be slinging it around. our game is still going to heavily rely on what we can do up front, which is severely limited with lack of experience on both sides of the ball.

no we can play the "don't worry about recruiting game", but 02 and 03 proved just how that stuff catches up to you. i'm not ready to shit myself just yet, but getting beat on that many guys you're keying on is never a good thing. we absolutely need a strong class this year to shore up this program.

and i know we're on the same team, but every time i have someone tell me "don't worry" we get our fucking asses beat down and finish below expectations.

[BohunkAg]

the game i want most is miami @ a&m....winnable game over big name at kyle, surely with many recruits in attendance.

Yeah, no shit. Before the Miami game last year I said it was the biggest game of the year, and maybe in a decade or so when it comes to recruiting on the national scene....and we went in and laid a big turd in a VERY winnable game. I think that game marked the point where anyone that was on the Franwagon jumped off, even his most vocal supporters. You still saw some support for him on Texags, but I think most of that was people who just didn't want to totally out and out bash our coach in a public forum. That was the poorest coached game I've seen in my life, having watched A&M football since about the mid-80s.

[BohunkAg]

I also found it interesting that Mack said last week that he was not going to redshirt as much. This might be something that Sherm should do too. If you've got a 4-star linebacker you're recruiting, tell him he'll play right away. I'm sure a coach would rather redshirt and work em in slowly but I'm not sure recruits will stand for that as much. The want to play right away.

My old man hated Fran from the get go because of this. He said (and maybe rightfully so) that he tanked the 2003 season on purpose by not playing all the true freshmen he had to make himself look better in '04 and make RC look worse. Looking back, it's hard to disagree with that. I say if they have the talent, play 'em as true freshmen. One of the biggest downfalls of Fran was that when deciding to burn a guy's redshirt, he always seemed to make the EXACT opposite decision that common sense said he should make. He burned a lot of guys' redshirts he shouldn't have (Arkeith Brown), and redshirted quite a few guys he should've played right away.

Edited by BohunkAg, 14 May 2008 - 01:05 PM.

[surf]

i didn't think the miami games was winnable. A&M played right to their strenghts (speed, speed and more speed) with the option attack. why everyone got pissed off was because miami isn't the miami of old but they're still fucking nasty on defense. A&M couldn't handle that speed on either side and they didn't help matters by giving up neither. the rematch this year could end up the same way. they are returning a lot of the same players from a year ago and they have a huge chip on their shoulder based off last year's meltdown. that's the one game i'm concerned with the most off the schedule next year. they're loaded. it's just a matter of getting it to all come out together at the same time

[houstontexan]

i think the option attack can work....the best example was navy under paul johnson. they legitimized the threat of misdirection and passes over the top. with all this, guys still had to stay home and respect the other threats.

under fran with scout mcgee at QB, the biggest threat outside the option was mcgee throwing a 3 yd out with the receiver/TE heading OOB while making the grab. basically you just let everyone pin their ears back and go ape shit. if the fucker had just kept the scheme from 04, he'd still have his job and probably would have won 10 games last season.

God, i hate that fucker.

i think that was the game where everyone's talk about "opening it up" and that "fran was sangbagging" were proven wrong. the guy's job was on the line and he still couldn't bring himself or mcgee to utilize the numerous weapons he had his disposal. good WR corps, one of the best TE duos in the nation....just unfucking believeable.

[surf]

that game last year was a mini miami-neb national champ rematch from '01. A&M was big and slow, miami was lightning quick and explosive. speed kills. they were all over A&M before they could even get the play off

[HeyMoe]

I do think that the move to the West Coast Offense will help. At least rival recruiters won't be able to say " all the Aggies do is run the ball" to every QB and WR in the state. And the way the game is played today if we can build a good passing attack we should be able to win, and hopefully beat one of the big dogs when it counts.

[HeyMoe]

that game last year was a mini miami-neb national champ rematch from '01. A&M was big and slow, miami was lightning quick and explosive. speed kills. they were all over A&M before they could even get the play off

The lack of speed, more so than just about anything else, including Fran's gameday decisions, is what's killed this program the last few years. We still look slower than just about everyone else each week, even against Baylor for Chrissakes.

[surf]

a well balanced offense and a good defense will win the majority of the time. there's a misconception about the well balanced part though. just because you average around the same passing and running doesn't equate to you being truly well balanced. if you light up the stat sheet against weak competition and struggle in one phase against good or great competition then your ass isn't well balanced. you need to be able to throw when you have to and same with running. i've seen a lot of 'well balanced' teams get their ass beat in cause the stats lied. see Ohio State last year. that and no one thought about crossing passes into the spot vacated by laurinitis when he dropped back into his zone. been there for years actually but no one picked up on it until lsu came along

[BohunkAg]

i think the option attack can work....the best example was navy under paul johnson. they legitimized the threat of misdirection and passes over the top. with all this, guys still had to stay home and respect the other threats.

under fran with scout mcgee at QB, the biggest threat outside the option was mcgee throwing a 3 yd out with the receiver/TE heading OOB while making the grab. basically you just let everyone pin their ears back and go ape shit. if the fucker had just kept the scheme from 04, he'd still have his job and probably would have won 10 games last season.

God, i hate that fucker.

i think that was the game where everyone's talk about "opening it up" and that "fran was sangbagging" were proven wrong. the guy's job was on the line and he still couldn't bring himself or mcgee to utilize the numerous weapons he had his disposal. good WR corps, one of the best TE duos in the nation....just unfucking believeable.

Couldn't agree more. The change in offensive philosophy is yet another example of where Fran out-thought himself. He thought he was being smarter than everyone else, but in reality, it made no sense. Hell, that kind of shit happened at least 3-4 times per game (the most egregious example is not running Lane on the goal line against OU).

Edited by BohunkAg, 14 May 2008 - 01:56 PM.