Yep, 8-5 is a funny record in college football. You can be a great team, with huge signature wins, and able to go toe-to-toe witj anyone in the country, and go 8-5 after a few unlucky breaks.

You can also be a mediocre to bad team, get blown out by every decent opponant you face, beat the cream puffs, catch a few lucky breaks in the middling games, and end up 8-5.

9 or 10+ wins speaks for itself, 7 or less also speaks for itself. 8-5 requires more detail to make sense of.

Unfortunately Sumlin's 8-5 seasons thr past few years have been much closer to the second description.

La Bamba said:

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Spoken with a few Hs coaches/coordinators around the state who aren't tu guys at all but have been to a few Herman practices and all have raved about how he practices. In the past, tu teams have been characterized by being soft, coddled and entitled. Look for that to change with Herman. I think they may have made a pretty good hire as much as it pains me to say.

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So. His hire will effect us how? We don't play him. Our recruiting will stay sound with the SEC tag and facilities. Even with less than expected performance on the field. Last I checked, they only get 85 scholarships. How many recruits are there in the state... nearly 400. Not to mention, The Ags have become a national player in case you haven't noticed. Is it head to head battles because those will continue to be about even.

What is it!!?

Texas will be a force again no matter what. Only now we have the ability to do it right along with them. This little brother mentality should be gone.

Herman's gonna get his and we will get ours. That's what the 100 year decision created. Now we just got to find our coach. We are beyond due.

If the state of Florida can have 3 top powers then Texas can damn sure have 2. Sick of seeing a collective worry about what Texas does. Sad face emoticons when describing their situation is utterly pathetic.

rant over.

jblaschke said:

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luke7203 said:

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You could argue the same method that brought us Jackie also brought us Fran.

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Fran inherited a total ****pile. There was zero talent on that team. Hell, the 2002 team finished 6-6 with a TON of NFL draft pics, showing the depth was at an all time low.

If we continue to stick with 8-5, we will saddle the next head coach with a team similar to the 2003 team and make it damn near impossible for him to succeed.

Now, I'm not saying Fran was anything but crap. However, we need to make a change before Sumlin runs us totally in the ground like RC did.

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^^^^^^^ this. RC took what Jackie built up from nothing and killed it with death by a 1000 cuts......or inside handoffs if you want to be precise.

Agsuffering@bulaw said:

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Quote:

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Jackie averaged less than 8 wins a season. He was a great coach, but I fail to see how that is somehow obviously better than Sumlin.

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Conclusion ignores the context. Sumlin inherited an NFL OL, NFL WR, Hesiman QB, and some good seniors on defense. Jackie inherited a pile of crap. By his 4th year, Jackie had his people and system in place and was clicking. By Sumlin's 4th year, the wheels were falling off.

Sumlin's first five years

11-2, AP 5th
9-4, AP 18th
8-5, UR
8-5, UR
8-5, UR

Jackie's entire tenure:

5-6, UR
5-5-1, UR
6-5, UR
10-2, 6th
9-3, 13th
10-2, 10th
7-5, UR
Then RC's teams finished ranked from 89-96

Jackie came in when the sips and ou were both at the top the heap. When Sumlin arrived, Mack Brown was coming off back-to back dissappointing seasons. ou was still good, but Stoops was no longer big game bob.

JFF made Sumlin. Jackie made Jackie.

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ and this. If the sips and the Dallas Morning News hadn't fabricated a witch hunt, we wouldn't be concerned with 1939. Jackie would have got it done by 1990

DrHeadShrink said:

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I love that it tu got Herman. He does NOT impress me in the least bit - tu has been irrelevant for many years and will for the next 5 at least. Herman will be fired after 4 years with a winning percentage of 56%. Book it.

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Booked. Will be back in four years to hear your excuses.

Amazing Moves said:

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La Bamba said:

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Spoken with a few Hs coaches/coordinators around the state who aren't tu guys at all but have been to a few Herman practices and all have raved about how he practices. In the past, tu teams have been characterized by being soft, coddled and entitled. Look for that to change with Herman. I think they may have made a pretty good hire as much as it pains me to say.

---

So. His hire will effect us how? We don't play him. Our recruiting will stay sound with the SEC tag and facilities. Even with less than expected performance on the field. Last I checked, they only get 85 scholarships. How many recruits are there in the state... nearly 400. Not to mention, The Ags have become a national player in case you haven't noticed. Is it head to head battles because those will continue to be about even.

What is it!!?

Texas will be a force again no matter what. Only now we have the ability to do it right along with them. This little brother mentality should be gone.

Herman's gonna get his and we will get ours. That's what the 100 year decision created. Now we just got to find our coach. We are beyond due.

If the state of Florida can have 3 top powers then Texas can damn sure have 2. Sick of seeing a collective worry about what Texas does. Sad face emoticons when describing their situation is utterly pathetic.

rant over.

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Calm down you weirdo. My post was in reply to all the comments predicting that Herman is going to suck. Right now, no one knows of course but from what I've heard it sounds like it may not be a terrible hire. I made no mention of us. Of course our success is based upon our success alone. tu sucking is great but at the end of the day what matters is if we win or not. But you need to take a deep breather and step back from the ledge .

Bob Stoops. Maybe he will be rejuvenated after a year off ala Urban.

How can hean not be successful? He had one true team to compete with every year, a team he gets on a neutral field and who just lost their coach. Rest of big Xii sucks. If you can win over there then there is a major problem. I'd expect TU or OU to be winning the conference championship 8 out of 10 years or maybe 9 out of 10.

John Francis Donaghy said:

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I agree with OP. If we're going to look at what we did to take Sherrill from Pitt, I think we would do well to look at Narduzzi and try to take him from Pitt too.

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I'll be keeping up with PITT this year because I think Narduzzi is going to be a very good HC and would do well in the SEC, and I sure hope BMAs are paying attention. Same goes for Fuente and eventually Morris.

The Aggie football clown show is too rich for my tastes. I've got a family to do things with now that are simply more important than Aggie football. Maybe I'll return one day when work and family are less important, but for now I'll leave the teeth gnashing over something as inconsequential as football to those better suited for it.

Isn't this stating the obvious? Doesn't everyone do this? With TV money the way it is the game has changed. Most everyone can throw a lot of money at a coach. To get a great coach there have to be other reasons for him to be interested.

Agsuffering@bulaw said:

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Quote:

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Jackie averaged less than 8 wins a season. He was a great coach, but I fail to see how that is somehow obviously better than Sumlin.

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Conclusion ignores the context. Sumlin inherited an NFL OL, NFL WR, Hesiman QB, and some good seniors on defense. Jackie inherited a pile of crap. By his 4th year, Jackie had his people and system in place and was clicking. By Sumlin's 4th year, the wheels were falling off.

Sumlin's first five years

11-2, AP 5th
9-4, AP 18th
8-5, UR
8-5, UR
8-5, UR

Jackie's entire tenure:

5-6, UR
5-5-1, UR
6-5, UR
10-2, 6th
9-3, 13th
10-2, 10th
7-5, UR
Then RC's teams finished ranked from 89-96

Jackie came in when the sips and ou were both at the top the heap. When Sumlin arrived, Mack Brown was coming off back-to back dissappointing seasons. ou was still good, but Stoops was no longer big game bob.

JFF made Sumlin. Jackie made Jackie.

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Jackie did not inherit a pile of crap. Check out his first year roster and their future NFL careers. He had NFL talent all over the field.

I must admit. Sumlin needs to be gone. As an old former player I was his biggest supporter. Recruiting is going way down and will continue with his job insecurity. He was handed what most coaches only drink and think about. Players, money, facilities, TV and great educational facility and traditions. He doesn't fit. Everyone knows this. Just afraid to say it. He doesn't fit the Fighting Texas Ags!

please don't mention summon in the same breath with jackie. you are showing your ignorance. summon blew a once in a lifetime opportunity. i don't want to discuss him anymore. we need a new coach. the hire has to be a big one. as for herman he is going to win. he is also going to eat sumlin up in recruiting. just hide and watch on that one.

dog said:

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If things don't work out with Sumlin.....and I DO want them to work out, but if they don't.....

We need to revisit the Jackie Sherrill hiring. We had a deal with Bo Schembecler but a last second "pizza deal" kept him in Ann Arbor. We then went out and got Jackie, and we all know how that turned out, as he turned out to be A&M's best coach since the Bear. Did we get our money's worth?

So, what is this history? Simple, we opened up our wallets. We paid him $250,000, which made Sherrill the highest paid college coach ever.

I'm not saying we need to necessarily make a new coach the highest paid ever, but we do need to "buy" a very top notch coach.

Fisher

Peterson

Franklin

We need to do some preliminary work & contact their agents to get some ball park figures to see where we stand.

Did LSU not meet Fisher's asking price?

Will Peterson ever leave the NW?

Will Franklin leave PSU since he's from Pa?

Have no idea what their buyouts are.

There might be a few more like these out there, but they are FEW & FAR BETWEEN!!

Saban, Myer, Harbaugh.....don't think they are realistically available.

We might not be able to "hit the moon" but we sure need to shoot for it.

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IMHO we NEED to make it very difficult for a top notch established coach/s to say no to us.

Hopefully the administration feels the same way.

RPM said:

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The Aggie football clown show is too rich for my tastes. I've got a family to do things with now that are simply more important than Aggie football. Maybe I'll return one day when work and family are less important, but for now I'll leave the teeth gnashing over something as inconsequential as football to those better suited for it.

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FINE! JUST GO THEN! YOU'LL BE BACK!!! YOU CAN'T QUIT THIS BOARD!!! YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FIND ANYTHING BETTER THAN THIS!!!! Wait, wait, Waaaait! We're sorry. It's our fault. Give us another chance. Please don't go. Please?!? We can change. Things will get better. You'll see. WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE YOU STAY!!!!!!!!

jpbrad said:

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I must admit. Sumlin needs to be gone. As an old former player I was his biggest supporter. Recruiting is going way down and will continue with his job insecurity. He was handed what most coaches only drink and think about. Players, money, facilities, TV and great educational facility and traditions. He doesn't fit. Everyone knows this. Just afraid to say it. He doesn't fit the Fighting Texas Ags!

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No. That seems to be just fine. Everything else you said is right.

The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

RightWingConspirator said:

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The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

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Everyone loved our boosters when they went out and got Fran

For all the great things about the SEC West, I do wonder if it will make it harder to get coaches to come here, or at least make us have to pay much more than other conference divisions.

Do you really want a coach that is afraid to compete? Coaches are like fighter pilots. Cockier the better.

Quote:

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Do you really want a coach that is afraid to compete? Coaches are like fighter pilots. Cockier the better.

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There is a difference between cockiness and methodical confidence that you want from a leader. Will Muschamp is a cocky guy. Bill Belichick and Urban Meyer are methodically confident.

Urban Meyer got the hell out of the SEC. Do you not think other coaches see that and think "hmm, maybe it would be better to be in the Big 10, ACC, etc where I only have 2-4 truly tough top 25 match ups per year rather than the SEC meat grinder where it's so hard to last as a coach"?

That's not to say we should be going after coaches are fully afraid of the SEC, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think good, smart coaches won't recognize that having a long tenure at an SEC West school will be a much bigger challenge than other conference divisions.

Bayside Tiger Ag said:

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RightWingConspirator said:

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The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

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Everyone loved our boosters when they went out and got Fran

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For me, the main criticism is not necessarily the hires themselves. The major mistakes are made by whoever is negotiating and authorizing these nonsensical contract extensions. At that point any decision is dominated by the payout money as a primary and on field success secondary. Entering into a contract with little or no outs if things go south is just not smart - because they usually do at some point.

Champ Bailey said:

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A pick that I would absolutely be down for that I think could definitely happen is Gundy. He has done miracles at OK State and apparently hates how controlling Boone is.

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Only way that I would agree to this is if he loses the mullet.

Bayside Tiger Ag said:

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RightWingConspirator said:

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The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

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Everyone loved our boosters when they went out and got Fran

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That's a good point and I think it illustrates that there are no guarantees.

JodyMcD96 said:

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Champ Bailey said:

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A pick that I would absolutely be down for that I think could definitely happen is Gundy. He has done miracles at OK State and apparently hates how controlling Boone is.

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Only way that I would agree to this is if he loses the mullet.

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Hell no. The only thing better than the mullet would be if he came out with a California Penal League haircut.

If we are going to bust out our wallets, it should be to buy players not coaches. It's what all the championship teams do. Welcome to reality.

ghowe said:

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Bayside Tiger Ag said:

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RightWingConspirator said:

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The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

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Everyone loved our boosters when they went out and got Fran

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For me, the main criticism is not necessarily the hires themselves. The major mistakes are made by whoever is negotiating and authorizing these nonsensical contract extensions. At that point any decision is dominated by the payout money as a primary and on field success secondary. Entering into a contract with little or no outs if things go south is just not smart - because they usually do at some point.

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The coaches have more power than you realize in these negotiations.

JodyMcD96 said:

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Bayside Tiger Ag said:

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RightWingConspirator said:

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The coaches at A&M aren't the problem. They are the symptom or manifestation of the problem. The problem at A&M are the folks that hire the coaches and the mindset that leads them to choose said coaches. This will continue to be a problem. This is why I won't worry myself too much about A&M athletics going forward. It's just not worth the grief and frustration.

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Everyone loved our boosters when they went out and got Fran

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That's a good point and I think it illustrates that there are no guarantees.

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No.....what that illustrates is that we have a pack of wombats making football decisions, who have no clue WTF they're really doing, and a fan base who is too ignorant about the subject matter to tell the damn difference....

yes because our history shows we fire successful coaches just to hire the idiot flavor of the day....Like when we canned RC for Fran.....Sumlin has been successful...process of converting from a bad Big 12 tear to a consistent SEC West team isn't easy but we're on the right path.

The program was not in great shape when RC left BUT RC had been trying to get facilities upgrades for yrs and he was ignored. That was a significant factor in subpar recruiting and people seem to have forgotten about it.... if they ever knew it.

Whoever follows Sumlin won't have that issue.

cc10106 said:

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John Francis Donaghy said:

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I agree with OP. If we're going to look at what we did to take Sherrill from Pitt, I think we would do well to look at Narduzzi and try to take him from Pitt too.

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I'll be keeping up with PITT this year because I think Narduzzi is going to be a very good HC and would do well in the SEC, and I sure hope BMAs are paying attention. Same goes for Fuente and eventually Morris.

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Will be interesting to see how Pitt does with a new OC. Their old OC Matt Canada (now at LSU) is one of the most innovative offensive minds in the country.

rollingwoodaggie said:

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I think tu settled. Herman was their guy this time because a few years before they were humbled in their previous coaching search. They realized that they couldnlt money whip a proven championship coach like they thought they could.

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I wouldn't necessarily say they "settled." Charlie Strong on the other hand, that was something that blew up in their face from the very second they hired him.

Hard to say they settled considering other blue blood programs like LSU were also willing to throw a pretty penny at him, and even USC was talking about nabbing him before Helton turned it around

Agree that Texas was definitely humbled after they embarrassed themselves immensely back in December of '13