It seems Coach Bellard had us at least on a positive track compared to the dismal many decades before he was hired. It looked like he put us on the map for becoming a competitive college football program. It's kind of baffling why he was let go and replaced with Tom Wilson mid way through the season, and it seems like it was too impulsive of a decision without a solid plan for success. Did he piss off somebody? Was there a scandal?? But, I guess we never would have gotten Jackie if weren't for Tom Wilson. in argument, wonder how far Bellard would have taken us if we would have kept him 5 more seasons?

Quote:

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"Winning seasons and bowl games didn't seem to satisfy people. Coach Bellard just got fed up with it. He'd fought the battle for years and he felt the best thing to do is get out oft his now. He was not forced out. It was just a decision he made at this time," Tate said. "The only thing he told me is that he's going to get out of athletics."

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Mid-season firings should be the norm with our resources.

I was at 33-0...Houston Ags don't take kindly to being woodshedded by the Coogs. Just a gut-punch of a game.

SinKiller said:

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I was at 33-0...Houston Ags don't take kindly to being woodshedded by the Coogs. Just a gut-punch of a game.

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I was at that game and it was a humiliating defeat.
I'll never forget that late in the fourth quarter on third and long we were still running Woodard up the middle which had not been successful all night long.
Without looking at the schedule from that year I believe we lost the next weekend rather badly to Baylor as well.
I think it was after that game that Bellard quit.

TAMU74 said:

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SinKiller said:

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I was at 33-0...Houston Ags don't take kindly to being woodshedded by the Coogs. Just a gut-punch of a game.

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I was at that game and it was a humiliating defeat.
I'll never forget that late in the fourth quarter on third and long we were still running Woodard up the middle which had not been successful all night long.
Without looking at the schedule from that year I believe we lost the next weekend rather badly to Baylor as well.
I think it was after that game that Bellard quit.

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Correct, resigned after Baylor...Woo Woo up the middle is what did it for a lot of folks.

I remember a lot of controversy surrounding the Wishbone offense Bellard ran. A lot of people thought opposing defenses had figured out how to stop it.

Of course Bellard "invented" the Wishbone offense while he was an assistant at tu. (Although Bill Yeoman claimed Bellard basically copied Yeoman's Veer offense, which Yeoman invented by accident by virtue of a missed hand-off to the fullback by Danny Davis and Davis' successful run around the end -- but that's another story).

Anyway, A LOT of A&M folks we're fed up with A&M's Wishbone offense, and people believed Bellard would never open up the offense with passing. I think maybe our O-line just wasn't as good that year as it'd been... Oklahoma continued to run the Wishbone successfully for a few more years, IIFC.

halfastros81 said:

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If memory serves we lost to Baylor 24-6 the week after the Cougar high blowout loss. Expectations were high and Bellard was hearing it from the big cigars and had enough. Seemed like Mike Singletary made about 35 tackles in the Baylor game.

Keeping Tom Wilson on as permanent HC after the season proved to be a poor decision .

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Yes. We finished 8-4 with a bowl win. The Cougar High game was an example of a team that didn't want to play, wasn't motivated, or had an issue with the coach. As was said, it was embarrassing.

Mississippi State fired Bellard after 7 seasons.

It sounds like those 2 losses contributed to the transformation of our football program. 2 losses= Bellard resignation = Tom.Wilson hire = Jackie Sherril hire= the rest is history. The college football God's were on our side in their own bizarre way

I was 6 and remember watching the Cougar High debacle at G. Rollie White.

For New Army, you used to only get 1 or 2 games on tv each season. Sometimes you got 0 and were okay with that because you didn't know any better.

Whaler said:

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I remember a lot of controversy surrounding the Wishbone offense Bellard ran. A lot of people thought opposing defenses had figured out how to stop it.

Of course Bellard "invented" the Wishbone offense while he was an assistant at tu. (Although Bill Yeoman claimed Bellard basically copied Yeoman's Veer offense, which Yeoman invented by accident by virtue of a missed hand-off to the fullback by Danny Davis and Davis' successful run around the end -- but that's another story).

Anyway, A LOT of A&M folks we're fed up with A&M's Wishbone offense, and people believed Bellard would never open up the offense with passing. I think maybe our O-line just wasn't as good that year as it'd been... Oklahoma continued to run the Wishbone successfully for a few more years, IIFC.

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OU and NU were still running it in the mid 80's with Holloway as their QB.

nu awlins ag said:

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Whaler said:

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I remember a lot of controversy surrounding the Wishbone offense Bellard ran. A lot of people thought opposing defenses had figured out how to stop it.

Of course Bellard "invented" the Wishbone offense while he was an assistant at tu. (Although Bill Yeoman claimed Bellard basically copied Yeoman's Veer offense, which Yeoman invented by accident by virtue of a missed hand-off to the fullback by Danny Davis and Davis' successful run around the end -- but that's another story).

Anyway, A LOT of A&M folks we're fed up with A&M's Wishbone offense, and people believed Bellard would never open up the offense with passing. I think maybe our O-line just wasn't as good that year as it'd been... Oklahoma continued to run the Wishbone successfully for a few more years, IIFC.

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OU and NU were still running it in the mid 80's with Holloway as their QB.

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In 1978 Alabama won the National Championship running the wishbone and OU was number 3. After Broyles showed teams how to stop A&M's offense, other team caught on as we had no threat of a downfield passing game..

I remember after Bellard left we played Rice the next game. Tom Wilson's first play was to break the bone and throw a deep pass for a TD. The next year we went 6-5 but beat Texas, which cost them a chance to play Alabama in the Sugar Bowl for the National Title. Then the next year we lost at home to Rice. I feel confident that Tom Wilson will be the first and last Tech grad to be head coach at Texas A&M.

Baylor ran the hideout play for a long bomb TD on Kyle Field. i was screaming to get someone on him. Firing followed. Good coach and good man.

Could have fast forwarded it by skipping Wilson's tenure tho.

Former player told me that the team had illegal summer workouts to install the veer offense and that it worked well in Preseason workouts in August against our defense but the coaches got cold feet because they were concerned they'd get burned if the illegal workouts were outed so they went back to the wishbone . Not sure if that was pre 1977 or pre 1978 season . Credible source imo that had no reason to lie.

I was at that 0-33 game in the Astrodome. Remember seeing the BMA's heading for the Shamrock bar. I had a feeling that was the end.

Somebody mentioned Bellard at MSU. I was also at Texas Stadium in 1980 when our kicking game died and went to hell in a terrible loss to SMU. They couldn't help themselves from flashing the score over and over that MSU had beaten Alabama.

I remember going to the special yell practice that was held at Coach Bellard's house that Saturday morning before the Rice game. Coach Bellard's wife would shoo us off the grass in the front yard and the cops would shoo us off the street back into the yard.

This is my understanding of what happened:

The Administration had grown frustrated with Bellard's conservative Tbone offense, a minor variation of the Wishbone, and its perceived limitations on offensive output. Offensive coordinator Tom Wilson advocated opening up the offense but Bellard was adamant about keeping the Tbone.

The Administration met with Bellard and asked him to resign as head coach and stay on as Athletic Director. Bellard refused and resigned.

Wilson was popular with the offensive players and a group of them threatened to quit if he were not named Head Coach. The Administration succumbed and hired Wilson. There was no coaching search that I recall. Wilson coached the final six games of the season, winning four, and finished the year ranked 19th by the AP. None of his successive three teams ended the year ranked. His overall record as head coach was 21-19. He was fired at the end of 1981.

I don't recall it being a tbone at all. Halfbacks were at least a yard behind the fullback

It's simple. That year
Memphis beat Houston 33-0.
Aggies beat Memphis 33-0.
(final scores may not be accurate but you get gist)
Therefore
Aggies should beat Houston 66-0.
Ags lost to Houston 33-0; the half and final score.
That was the worst showing until we showed up at Miami with Franchione thereafter.

We run off capable coaches. It's what we do…

halfastros81 said:

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I don't recall it being a tbone at all. Halfbacks were at least a yard behind the fullback

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You're describing the Wishbone formation, which Bellard used from 1972-1975. In 1976, the two halfbacks were moved up directly beside the fullback. With this minor modification, the formation became called the Tbone.

JustisWalkert said:

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This is my understanding of what happened:

The Administration had grown frustrated with Bellard's conservative Tbone offense, a minor variation of the Wishbone, and its perceived limitations on offensive output. Offensive coordinator Tom Wilson advocated opening up the offense but Bellard was adamant about keeping the Tbone.

The Administration met with Bellard and asked him to resign as head coach and stay on as Athletic Director. Bellard refused and resigned.

Wilson was popular with the offensive players and a group of them threatened to quit if he were not named Head Coach. The Administration succumbed and hired Wilson. There was no coaching search that I recall. Wilson coached the final six games of the season, winning four, and finished the year ranked 19th by the AP. None of his successive three teams ended the year ranked. His overall record as head coach was 21-19. He was fired at the end of 1981.

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To add to this, there were reports that Wilson was politicking alumni for the move and had Tate and Miller in his corner. The schism in the coaching staff started boiling over in the locker room and impacting the team. As is usually the case backstabbers don't end up producing what they promise and A&M football was in decline throughout Wilson's tenure. The firing of Bellard was a big setback for the program and certainly did not demonstrate the virtue of mid-season firings.

Not long ago I watched some highlight of the 73 Arkansas game. I was struck by how stodgy Bellard had let the offense become over the years. In 73 we would move the HBs into the slot and put backs in motion to get them into pass patterns. That had disappeared by 1977.

Tech alumnus Tom Wilson was not an upgrade…

Sterling82 said:

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To add to this, there were reports that Wilson was politicking alumni for the move and had Tate and Miller in his corner. The schism in the coaching staff started boiling over in the locker room and impacting the team. As is usually the case backstabbers don't end up producing what they promise and A&M football was in decline throughout Wilson's tenure. The firing of Bellard was a big setback for the program and certainly did not demonstrate the virtue of mid-season firings.

Not long ago I watched some highlight of the 73 Arkansas game. I was struck by how stodgy Bellard had let the offense become over the years. In 73 we would move the HBs into the slot and put backs in motion to get them into pass patterns. That had disappeared by 1977.

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Wilson went 6-5, 4-7, and 7-5 including an Independence Bowl win in his last three seasons. That equates to a 46% win percentage. Bellard went 74-27, or 64%, in his tenure. That includes losing seasons in his first two years. Wilson did open up the offense but never finished higher than 5th place in the SWC. Bellard finished tied for 2nd in 1974 and tied for 1st in 1975, his two best years.

But then came Jackie Sherrill

I don't remember any T-bone offense at A&M, just the Wishbone. But that was a lot of years ago, so I could be wrong

halfastros81 said:

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If memory serves we lost to Baylor 24-6 the week after the Cougar high blowout loss. Expectations were high and Bellard was hearing it from the big cigars and had enough. Seemed like Mike Singletary made about 35 tackles in the Baylor game.

Keeping Tom Wilson on as permanent HC after the season proved to be a poor decision .

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If I read the article above correctly he was forced out which is fine if you are headed in the wrong direction and you have a better guy lined up ready to go. Turns out we were far from bottom and Wilson was a disaster. I'm going to give this move an F in the hindsight grading category.

The BOR had previously discussed in a closed door session the firing of Bellard. One of the academic advisors was in tight with one of the Regents and got the scoop from the Regent. The advisor was also close to Bellar and told him what was coming down. Bellard immediately turned in his resignation and wouldn't stay to the end of the season. What most people don't remember team is moral at that time was at an all time low and recruiting had not gone well. The program was headed down hill, even more so with Tom Wilson.

Whaler said:

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I don't remember any T-bone offense at A&M, just the Wishbone. But that was a lot of years ago, so I could be wrong

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Bear Bryant ran a T formation.

greg.w.h said:

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Tech alumnus Tom Wilson was not an upgrade…

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The big T was quarterback when Donny Anderson played at tech/