Thanksgiving Football Feast

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. Of course, Thanksgiving means a great day of football. I am thankful for the aTm-t.u. football game being moved to Thaksgiving night. I am not thankful that it may end up t.u. 80-aTm 20. Ugh. At least the Cowboys should be able to pull this one out. Official prediction Cowboys 31, Seahawks 17.

Ok kids, Happy Thanksgiving football!!!

Press The Reset Button

Remember those times you very playing a video game and the computer was beating you?  You would get real mad, say it isn't fair and then press the reset button.  It was the easiest thing to do.  You would start over, maybe even a couple of more times, then eventually end up winning the game.

After the a Baylor 41-21 victory over the Ags Saturday, I am officially calling for Bill Byrne to press the reset button. I have fallen off whatever Mike Sherman band wagon I might have been on this past Saturday.  He is just not going to be the coach that this school needs.

I can handle the loss to OU.  Though embarrassing, aTm just did not have the horses to compete.   Baylor is a different story.  Sherman has some talent on this team.  Certainly enough to complete with the likes of Baylor. The fact that that team Saturday took the field and systematically got destroyed by that school is unacceptable. That is a direct indictment of poor coaching.  It was not absurd to think that Baylor could have won the game, that is not the point.  The point is the fact that Baylor was winning the game 41-7 until two cheapo touchdowns were scored in the fourth.  The game was over in the first 4 minutes of the third quarter.  

Mike Sherman brought in an NFL pedigree that he and Bill Byrne were very quick to mention at every turn.  That pedigree has now gotten us a loss to the equivalent of a high school team and a loss to a school that really has no business being in the Big 12.

Good coaches coach players up.  Mike Sherman has not been able to do that. An offense that is inconsistent at best and a defense that most high school JV teams could score 14 on every game.  THAT IS A JOKE!!

It's not too late though.  Pull the trigger while the ashes are still smoldering.  Don't wait to build another average house only to set it on fire again.  Texas A&M has already had their John Mackovic, we don't need to replace him with another Bill Callahan.  

 

Probably the last aTm football post this year.  I have just had enough. Hopefully the Cowboys have pressed the rest button for the last time this season and will get everything on track.  Tough fourth quarter that they played and an awesome catch for "Mr. Money B" Martellus Bennett.  More to come.  Hopefully they won't go out and mess up all the good things they did Sunday night. 

NOW GO TO BED!!  or GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!

Leaders Make The Difference

When choosing a new leader, you really don't ever know what you are really going to get.  Tuesday, the majority of the nation selected a new leader of the free world.  The funny thing with leaders are that while you think you know what you are going to get you may not really know. No, I am not talking about what you will get with Obama as President but what may happen when you hire the wrong coach.

Whom is this coach that you speak of?  The coach that, at half time of what was turning into a blow out, couldn't decide if he wanted to pull the 40 year old bag of dust he had throwing interceptions under center.  The same coach that dubbed himself "Mr. Fix-It" for a defense that still cannot cover receivers of get true pressure on the quarterback.  That coach is Wade Philips. 

Big Wade is just a few losses away from being the worst coach in Cowboys history.  Dave Campo was bad, but he was bad because he had no talent on the field, not because he could not motivate a team with insane amounts of talent.  I am officially jumping on the fire Wade bandwagon!!! 

Wade has no control of this team.  He has yet to demonstrate that he can fire up the troops when the going gets tough.  It makes you wonder what pictures he had of Jerry that he threatened to use if he didn’t get hired.  Really though, this is as much Jerry's fault as anyone.  Parcells left outside the fray and Jerry had to get back in the mix. What better of a person to have coaching your team than a good ‘ole country boy like Wade. We should have known better though, each place that Wade has coached has been a carbon copy of what we have seen here in Dallas. Great first year, mediocre second year, bad third year, fired. Though this year, that three year steak will be broken when he is fired at the end of the year. See what happens when you choose the wrong leader?

By the way, give T.O. credit. If I were him, I would have shot up the place by now!!

Fearless weekend predictions:

aTm 28, OU 789.235—The Ags two game winning streak comes to a close. I am so glad though that they actually did not adhere to my not winning another game prediction.

tech rejects 48 Okie Lite 49—those morons are too spent mentally to put it together. tech will still continue to never really win at anything.

LSU 28 Bama 27

Coming soon, dedicated posts to why the Mavs are beyond mediocre.

 

Here is appropriate song to characterize the Cowboy's season so far:

 

I pay to complain.....

No one has ever accused me of being an optimists.  I am just not wired that way.  I am a planner always looking to play out worst case scenarios and developing plans to deal with them.  It's just what I do. 

Two weeks ago, aTm vs. K-State.  # minutes into the game it is 7-0.  I have been known to be vocal at football games and made my displeasure known with a simple phrase, "This team sucks."   A woman who has shared season tickets in out area over the last several years turns to a couple behind her and asks, "why does he even come to the games?"  Of course, my gut tells me to go down there and tell her in no uncertain terms why I come.  A few years ago, I would have.  My wisdom and the woman who seems to follow me everywhere I go told me to check myself.  SO I did, continued to watch the game and called it like I saw it.  NO incident, but another loss

Fast forward to last weekend.  tech scores a meaningless touchdown at the end of the game to "run up the score."  We Aggies are mad.  Especially the little lady that sits two rows in front of me.  She, her son and husband begin to attack a couple dressed in tech gear sitting on the row in front of them.  They of course cheer, when the touchdown is scored and this lovely family goes as far as to have grandpa flip off the tech couple with grandchild in lap.  Classy.  It is the first time in my life I felt bad for someone from tech.  Believe me, I am not getting soft.  As soon as we start winning again, I will be all up in everyone's business telling them about it.  I have endured too much for too long not to do that.  But, the lady, the lazy, I did have something to tell her. 

Why do I come to the games.  Because I love me team.  You vote with your wallet and my wallet tells me that I love me some Aggie.  Money for season tickets, gas, lodging, food, beer, scotch, scotch, scotch, and 12 seasons of this tells me that I can pretty much say as I please about this program. I pay for it and I have earned it.

Calling it like it is does not constitute as a lack of support, but a statement of fact.   Just becasue I am not happy with watching a Division 1 college football tem play like the Central High School freshman D team does not mean I don't love Aggie football.  It just is what it is.  So lady, just remember that the next time you want to question me about my loyalty to a team I want to remind you that the pot should never call the kettle black.  Besides, it has been a good three seasons since I have visibly flipped someone off anyway so SCOREBOARD GRANDMA!!!!!!

 

TO the weekend predictions:

aTm 31 ISU 24

Cowboys 20 Bucs 17--If the Cowboys lose this one, season over!!!

sips 45 okie lite 44.  okie lite blows a 44 point 4th quarter lead thanks to Mike Gundy being a man and 41!!!

P.S. Thanks Tampa Bay for ruining the World Series for me!!!!!!!

Becoming Irrelevant

How does something become irrelevant?  There are probably many ways to answer this question. It happens when you gimmick gets old, your competition catches up with you, when you are resistant to change, or your perception is much higher than what reality reveals to you.

How do people react to you when you are truly irrelevant?  They may poke fun at you for a minute, but it is mostly an act of actually being polite.  Two seconds later, its as if they never knew you existed. When you become irrelevant, people just don't care, unless they just absolutely hated you in the first place.  The casual person either feels sorry for you or they never knew you were there.

Why as this talk?  Because I think I saw something become irrelevant right before my eyes and it started last Saturday night.  Ark. State 18 aTm 14.  Quite possibly the worst loss in Texas A&M football history.  How could this be the worst loss ever?  Didn't you watch 77-0?  I did.  While that loss was embarrassing, it never made me feel the way this loss made me feel this week.   5 years ago right after the 77-0 blowout to OU, my phone rang consistently for an hour.  My whole office was more than happy to post pictures of the scoreboard, send me email of news articles, and harass me well into March of 2004.   It took all of my Aggieness to be strong and endure. 

Fast forward to 2008. Things changed dramatically.  I did receive phone calls.  Two to be exact.  One from J.P. telling me I was right not to attend the game and another from a friend (t.u. fan) who talked about it for a grand total of two minutes.  The rest of our normally rival related talked shifted to talk of the Food Network and how I now like living in an apartment again.  Work was not the same either.  Normally over energetic co workers ready to pounce on any aTm loss seemed subdued.  I got one appropriate dose of ridicule followed by a few people acknowledging the loss with as much enthusiasm as one might have when watching paint dry on a wall. 

Which now confirms in my mind how this is the worst loss in aTm football history.  On August 30th, 2008, a loss to Ark. State on Kyle Field deemed this era of aTm football irrelevant.  Our gimmick got old (3-4, The Wrecking Crew), our competition caught up with us (have you seen recruiting lately?), we were resistant to change (1950 called, it wants its playbook back), and our perception of this program is higher than the rest of the world tells us it is (we think that we are a step away from Texas or OU, when we may be instep with Ok. State and a step ahead of Baylor).

Does that make me insane to continue to buy tickets year after year?  God help us all!!