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Why did we fire Emory Bellard mid way through 78 season?

17,356 Views | 110 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by ashley
SinKiller
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maroongoon95 said:

Slocum was run, run, incomplete pass, punt towards the end. Fran was incomplete pass, incomplete pass, 2 yard run, punt. Then he would scratch his head in confusion.


Oh to own Kyle Field again…
ontheway
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This!!!!
W
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one thing...among others...that Mike Sherman deserves credit for...

he brought A&M football out of the dark ages offensively --- and began featuring the passing game...10-15 years after it had started to become popular in the mid-90's elsewhere
5-2 Stew 84
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I have scrapbooks of Aggie football since 1972.
This sums it up.
Houstonag
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We have had a history of stubborn (hard headed) coaches that could not adapt to recruiting competition, offense and defensive schemes, etc. In my memory it started with the departure of Bryant, hiring Stallings then firing him, Bellard, Slocum (forgive me), Fran, Sherman, and Sumlin. Everyone of these guys had faults, but being able to adapt and compete at the then current needs was the eventual downfall of all.

Jimbo is a great coach and he will do well. The key here is the players and other coaches need to perform. It is tough today to win a NC. A lot depends on luck, injuries, officials, etc.
halfastros81
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Bear at A & M was Before my time. I recall Ballard's offense being pure wishbone . I remember splitting out a halfback in the slot now and then - broken bone I believe they called it. Never remember halfbacks even with the fullback. Been a long time tho so maybe my memory is no good
NyAggie
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Houstonag said:

We have had a history of stubborn (hard headed) coaches that could not adapt to recruiting competition, offense and defensive schemes, etc. In my memory it started with the departure of Bryant, hiring Stallings then firing him, Bellard, Slocum (forgive me), Fran, Sherman, and Sumlin. Everyone of these guys had faults, but being able to adapt and compete at the then current needs was the eventual downfall of all.

Jimbo is a great coach and he will do well. The key here is the players and other coaches need to perform. It is tough today to win a NC. A lot depends on luck, injuries, officials, etc.
biggest factor is having great players, and jimbo is building a roster of elite talent.

much like Smart at UGA, if Jimbo keeps brining in the type of talent he is, he'll win a natty simply because his team is so talented.

Aggie_Nuke
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Simple answer was Bellard sucked at the concept of "team", and would not yield on his wishbone "invention"......


The ONLY valid ANNUAL goal for ALL Aggie Sports is a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

Gig'em !
FTAC '73
81fisch
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We never would have got Jackie without Bum Bright. Bum told me the story of how he wanted to get the best coach available. He called several luminaries in the coaching circles. Tom Landry, Gene Stallings, Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal( may be wrong about that but he wanted a list of the best coach for A&M. The names on the list would not surprise you EXCEPT One. The best consensus was Bobby Bowden… He was the first contacted. Bobby got back and said that FSU had such a bankroll for athletics and Facilites that A&M could not match. I think the number was 48 million at the time. Ours was less than half of that. Bobby said "I would have to devote so much time to fundraising that it would take away from on field time". He was honored to be called and thanked him. Second on the list was Bo Schembeckler… who ACCEPTED the job after spending a weekend with Bum and his wife… then the agent for Bo said he wanted guaranteed money from the personal estate of Bum… deal off.. Here is the name that will blow you away… someone said there was a brilliant mind that had talked football and the guy had some position at Indiana.. I do not know if he had any credentials in football Coaching at All .. but several said to talk with Delos's Dodd.. Deloss was humbled at the offer… told Bum thank you but I am telling you so you will be the first to know.. that I am to be named AD at tu. Then came a call from Bear. Bear said to Bum… I'm here in a bar with a guy you need to hire. Jackie Sherrill. Bum said I am not interested in hiring someone who played at Alabama. You left us for BAMA and we never recovered. I do not want to have BAMA call him and have him leave. Jackie got on the phone and promised that if given the opportunity.. he would never leave A&M to go directly to Alabama. They met and the deal was done to give us the championship coach from Pittsburgh
greg.w.h
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81fisch said:

We never would have got Jackie without Bum Bright. Bum told me the story of how he wanted to get the best coach available. He called several luminaries in the coaching circles. Tom Landry, Gene Stallings, Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal( may be wrong about that but he wanted a list of the best coach for A&M. The names on the list would not surprise you EXCEPT One. The best consensus was Bobby Bowden… He was the first contacted. Bobby got back and said that FSU had such a bankroll for athletics and Facilites that A&M could not match. I think the number was 48 million at the time. Ours was less than half of that. Bobby said "I would have to devote so much time to fundraising that it would take away from on field time". He was honored to be called and thanked him. Second on the list was Bo Schembeckler… who ACCEPTED the job after spending a weekend with Bum and his wife… then the agent for Bo said he wanted guaranteed money from the personal estate of Bum… deal off.. Here is the name that will blow you away… someone said there was a brilliant mind that had talked football and the guy had some position at Indiana.. I do not know if he had any credentials in football Coaching at All .. but several said to talk with Delos's Dodd.. Deloss was humbled at the offer… told Bum thank you but I am telling you so you will be the first to know.. that I am to be named AD at tu. Then came a call from Bear. Bear said to Bum… I'm here in a bar with a guy you need to hire. Jackie Sherrill. Bum said I am not interested in hiring someone who played at Alabama. You left us for BAMA and we never recovered. I do not want to have BAMA call him and have him leave. Jackie got on the phone and promised that if given the opportunity.. he would never leave A&M to go directly to Alabama. They met and the deal was done to give us the championship coach from Pittsburgh
I hadn't heard that story, just that Bum was THE guy in the room that made it happen. Probably part of the L-6 suite info where my President's Endowed Scholarship sponsor invited me up regularly.
81fisch
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That is Great… Bum loved everything A&M… he told me about the time he wrote a check for a half million to give to Dr Robert Walker ( Bob told me about it also).. Bob tore the check up and said he knew Bum wanted to give more. I think he walked out with a million
JPAg88
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Bluecat_Aggie94 said:

Carter was in the White House. It was a difficult time for everyone.
Amen!

But as bad as Jimmy Carter was, I'd trade him for the senile, corrupt, inept clown Joe Biden in a heartbeat.
JPAg88
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AgDad121619 said:

And then we managed to run off Sherrill.
The **** storm stirred up by the biased, corrupt sip media led by the Dallas Morning News coupled with a weak A&M president in William Mobley is what got Jackie Sherrill…………and I'M STILL PISSED ABOUT IT!!!
greg.w.h
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81fisch said:

That is Great… Bum loved everything A&M… he told me about the time he wrote a check for a half million to give to Dr Robert Walker ( Bob told me about it also).. Bob tore the check up and said he knew Bum wanted to give more. I think he walked out with a million
That's Bob!!! He was a regular in the suites as you might imagine. I was just some kid.
81fisch
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Doug Bedell. Dallas Morning News. My blood still boils
LesterHaze
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SinKiller said:

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

I was there. The week before UH had lost to Tulsa 50-7. We were down 33-0 at the half.
Sterling82
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LesterHaze said:

SinKiller said:

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

I was there. The week before UH had lost to Tulsa 50-7. We were down 33-0 at the half.

UH was actually in the midst of an 8 game winning streak and had beaten #10 FSU a couple of weeks before. They did, however, lose to Memphis in their opener. UH was always erratic. They ultimately played ND in the ice bowl that year, stormed out to an "insurmountable" lead then blew it in the second half.
ashley
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halfastros81 said:

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.



The wishbone is the veer with three backs instead of two. Royal made no secret of the fact that wanted to copy Houston's offense and he told Bellard to figure out a way to run it with three backs instead of two since he had three backs coming back the next year and he wanted all of them in the game at the same time.
ashley
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Sterling82 said:

LesterHaze said:

SinKiller said:

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

I was there. The week before UH had lost to Tulsa 50-7. We were down 33-0 at the half.

UH was actually in the midst of an 8 game winning streak and had beaten #10 FSU a couple of weeks before. They did, however, lose to Memphis in their opener. UH was always erratic. They ultimately played ND in the ice bowl that year, stormed out to an "insurmountable" lead then blew it in the second half.

History tells us that always being erratic back the is not exactly true. For three years in the late sixties the led the nation in offense averaging over 400 yards a game and 42.5 points.
redleg82
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Bryanisbest said:

We didn't fire Bellard. He quit in President Jarvis Miller's office after he heard from Miller that there was a movement afoot among the Board to fire him.
Close to the situation, he didn't hear what he wanted to hear about his situation from those in charge. He quit, pure and simple. I think, in retrospect, he regretted the decision. I think in his mind, A&M owed him a bit of leeway, considering he brought A&M out of CFB obscurity.
halfastros81
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Yes but not having 3 backs in the backfield opens up more possibilities elsewhere in the passing game and that was I believe the point that my source was making . The veer made it easier to open things up even tho it was still fundamentally an option based attack. If the point you are making is that they aren't all that different and they shouldn't have been shy about switching to the veer in the off-season then I would probably have to agree with you. I was just passing on what someone close to the situation told me.
Sterling82
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ashley said:

Sterling82 said:

LesterHaze said:

SinKiller said:

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

I was there. The week before UH had lost to Tulsa 50-7. We were down 33-0 at the half.

UH was actually in the midst of an 8 game winning streak and had beaten #10 FSU a couple of weeks before. They did, however, lose to Memphis in their opener. UH was always erratic. They ultimately played ND in the ice bowl that year, stormed out to an "insurmountable" lead then blew it in the second half.

History tells us that always being erratic back the is not exactly true. For three years in the late sixties the led the nation in offense averaging over 400 yards a game and 42.5 points.

Yes they had some great teams and talent. But they had a propensity to have bad losses in out of conference play then come back and win the SWC. That's what I mean by erratic...the loss to Memphis, a team we smoked, followed by them smoking us is evidence of that.
offenseguru
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I played HS ball for Tom after he left A&M. I loved him as a coach and offensive mind. He would bring us film from all his college coaching buddies like Dan Gibbs Redskins, Grant Teaff, Fred Akers even SMU would send us film. And I don't know that A&M got the full benefit of Tom's offensive mind as I think he was constrained by Emory's prior philosophy and personnel and to a very large extent alumni meddling including Bright.

I say that because day 1 post A&M at both Palestine and Corsicana he was zone blocking scheme, rules base blocking scheme, turn back Pass pro, spread, shotgun, motion, all kinds of offenses for a given personnel group and opponent. etc... very thick playbook. Probably too much for high school. But we loved it on offense.

Actually very similar to Jimbo.

I showed up at A&M as a student and I couldn't stand the offense that was run. We had waaay more under Tom in high school.

ashley
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halfastros81 said:

Yes but not having 3 backs in the backfield opens up more possibilities elsewhere in the passing game and that was I believe the point that my source was making . The veer made it easier to open things up even tho it was still fundamentally an option based attack. If the point you are making is that they aren't all that different and they shouldn't have been shy about switching to the veer in the off-season then I would probably have to agree with you. I was just passing on what someone close to the situation told me.
Yes, preferred a 2 run with two back offense because that give you 2 wide receivers. Plus it takes 5 backs to run the wishbone and only three for a two back off and I thought it be hard to find five.
Figure that out and I'll give you a coaching hat.
halfastros81
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Well the qb is basically another rb in the wishbon e so that gets you to 4. I'm going to guess the backup qb is #5 since the QB gets hit a lot and also runs a lot.

Also in the wishbone the halfbacks and qb run a lot
Of yards laterally as well . Total yards run in a game are probably significantly more than a 2 back offense even tho they aren't necessarily yards up and down the field so having an extra quality rb has even more of a premium just due to fatigue.
ashley
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I should have said running backs.
ontheway
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Would that apply to baseball….see vols in SR?
ontheway
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Not true.absurd.
NyAggie
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ontheway said:

Would that apply to baseball….see vols in SR?
it could

I never considered joe torre a great manager, the yankees just had the best players.

when torre managed the mets they were one of the worst teams in all of MLB because their roster sucked.

cc10106
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Aggie_Nuke said:

Simple answer was Bellard sucked at the concept of "team", and would not yield on his wishbone "invention"......
Well i know seemingly everyone here loves Jimbo, but his offense is falling behind the times as well, and I don't see him budging on anything especially calling plays.
halfastros81
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So the 5 rb's are because with all of the lateral yards they run in a game they need 2 sets of halfbacks to keep them fresh. Since the fullback doesn't run all of those lateral yards only need 1 fb other than injuries of course.

Do I get my coaching hat?
halfastros81
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I don't think it's so much the offensive design as it is the execution . I think it's very complex and needs experienced people to run it effectively which begs the question should it be simplified when you don't have the experience?
aggiejim70
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NyAggie said:

ontheway said:

Would that apply to baseball….see vols in SR?
it could

I never considered joe torre a great manager, the yankees just had the best players.

when torre managed the mets they were one of the worst teams in all of MLB because their roster sucked.


That must be true of a number of sports. Old Coach Pop, here in San Antonio, seemed to be a better coach when he had 4 Hall of Famers on the roster.
The person that is not willing to fight and die, if need be, for his country has no right to life.

James Earl Rudder '32
January 31, 1945
NyAggie
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aggiejim70 said:

NyAggie said:

ontheway said:

Would that apply to baseball….see vols in SR?
it could

I never considered joe torre a great manager, the yankees just had the best players.

when torre managed the mets they were one of the worst teams in all of MLB because their roster sucked.


That must be true of a number of sports. Old Coach Pop, here in San Antonio, seemed to be a better coach when he had 4 Hall of Famers on the roster.
jimmies and joes vs x's and o's

X's and o's can only take you so far; you need the horses to get over the hump

it's the reason why a dope like barry switzer won a super bowl as the cowboys head coach

Jimbo4win
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greg.w.h said:

Jimbo4win said:

greg.w.h said:

Amateur Hour at Texas A&M when Bellard was fired. It was the usual including the complaining that motivated Bear to leave (or at least his complaints about the delusion of the alumni seem to suggest that was part of why he left.)


How about win at A&M like you did at Bama? Solves the complaining issue
How about A&M be less delusional??


So if Bear Bryant won at A&M like he did at Alabama, A&M fans would have still been complaining? Not a chance..Or is A&M being delusional more of the usual "know your place Aggies. Winning belongs at Alabama not A&M. ". Why was it delusional for A&M fans to expect a national championship when Bear Bryant was coaching at A&M? When he took over, it had only been 14 season since the previous national championship. Not to mention, Bear had a top 5(and undefeated finish in 1956). A&M fans had every damn right to expect a national championship or multiple from Bear Bryant. There was nothing delusional about that at all. For what it's worth, every fan base in America is and has always been delusional. Imagine Bama without Bear-their history would be putrid but their expectations would still be high as they should be.
 
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