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The curse of firing Slocum too early...

20,805 Views | 140 Replies | Last: 2 mo ago by Texas A&M
pinche gringo
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Midnight Rider said:

If anything it's the curse of firing RC too late.


Bingo!
deer corn
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Satellite of Love said:

A curse implies we were some kind of power house at the time…lolz.


Not at the time, but the early 90s were a good time for Aggie fans.
BTHOB-98
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In 1995 we should have lost to an smu team that was playing walk in's. The only reason we did not is because Albert Connell made a game saving catch in the corner of the south end zone. If Slocum had lost that game it would have been the worst loss in school history. I could have played for smu back then.
Texas A&M
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The curse continues.....
rondis23
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Slocum was appropriate. Anyone that had to sit through the 2001 and 2002 season would agree.
HoustonAg2021
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Slocum didn't win a Natty.
ac
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RC's time had come and gone. Plus since he struggled in the Big 12, how could he coach in the SEC?

Now, why none of the coaches hired since him have been a good fit is truly a mystery.

infinity ag
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The curse of Allah. You infidel doAgs will suffer eternal hellfire!
OKC~Ag
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superunknown said:

He would have been gone sooner if not for that '98 season where everyone assumed "we're back" and it was actually a dead cat bounce.
how i wish even a dead cat bounce around here with jimbo...we got nothing
William_C_G
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The curse is the Bonfire collapse of 1999 and kicking Bonfire off campus after that. We have not won a conference championship since then.
Frederick Palowaski
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Texas A&M said:

Even Johnny wasn't strong enough to break the curse.




We found Panhandle Slim. Tell us how much he was willing to adapt. I'll hang up and listen.
phatty26
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BTHOB-98 said:

In 1995 we should have lost to an smu team that was playing walk in's. The only reason we did not is because Albert Connell made a game saving catch in the corner of the south end zone. If Slocum had lost that game it would have been the worst loss in school history. I could have played for smu back then.


That smu team was pathetic
phatty26
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deer corn said:

Satellite of Love said:

A curse implies we were some kind of power house at the time…lolz.


Not at the time, but the early 90s were a good time for Aggie fans.


We won a bad conference then RC lost any decent bowl game and or road game against any average team. He was always confused at tech by 11 man fronts, but continued running at them. Should've been gone sooner and panhandle slum with facilities bs argument.

We were the only decent team and when other schools got better coaches RC twas done. He was average and won when all the good schools were all bad. Ou tu lsu tcu osu only uh decent. Facilities or not he was done and it was awful watching routinely pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
Houstonag
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Please do not give us this bologna.

We still must look at those coaches who have built a lasting program. We have to give Saban credit for building a program and it starts with an organization of good coaches. When one gets hired away as they have he fills it with another competent coach such as a DC or OC and of course special teams. Jimbo needs to be a general not a captain or lieutenant .
SteveA
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If rc had the resources that we have now, he would have been much more successful.
Emilio Fantastico
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The curse is a result of joining the facilities arms race too late.

It is that simple.
The Dirty Sock
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If all coaches had more resources they'd do better. rc was losing to teams with less.
ac
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BTHOB-98 said:

In 1995 we should have lost to an smu team that was playing walk in's. The only reason we did not is because Albert Connell made a game saving catch in the corner of the south end zone. If Slocum had lost that game it would have been the worst loss in school history. I could have played for smu back then.
One that I always think gets overlooked is the '91 loss at Tulsa. That cost A&M a chance at the MNC.
terata
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Slocum was not the miracle some perpetually in the deep old ruts fans seem to think. He played the little sisters of the poor, hell any coach can win those.
Divining Rod
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C@LAg said:

loved Slocum at the time, but it WAAS time to move on from him.

we have just made a series of really bad coaching choices and then offering ridiculous extensions over the last 20+ years.


The coaching hires werent bad- it was the EXTENSIONS which were all RIDICULOUS AND BAD
A. G. Pennypacker
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Slocum pushed internally hard for improvements to facilties to compete in recruiting with tu primarily and Oklahoma and LSU as well. It wasn't until after he was fired that some of these improvements were finally realized. I just wonder what Slocum would have been able to do if our facilities had been on even footing with tu.
A wealthy American industrialist looking to open a silver mine in the mountains of Peru.
aggiebrad94
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1996 - BYU collapse and USL debacle

Should have been let go then.
Emilio Fantastico
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He probably would've maintained his pretty good but never good enough to win it all level. Except with the higher level of competition in the Big 12, he probably would've lost 2-3 games a year instead of 1.

The real question about RC was the offensive struggles. There has been so much speculation through the years on what the issue was (RC meddling, no money to keep good OC, etc). If we had been in the 'money is no object' mode back then, would the results have been different?
Agsrback12
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The curse is the people making the decisions. They are still meddling and or making bad decisions. It's all behind the scenes. The common denominator is Texas A&M.

Until these "smart" guys making decisions are worked out of the equation, we will continue to be a joke.
infinity ag
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Oh enough with Slocum already.

He was good but his time passed. Let's move on.
rootube
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We probably fired RC about 3-4 years too late.
Artimus Gordon
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Rootube is right we did wait too long to fire slocum.

We did the same with Jo Evans and are now following the same path with coach G and Bird!
greg.w.h
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The curse of superstition much???
NyAggie
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had we kept RC we may have avoided the fran/sherman disaters, but he still likely would have not won anything else of significance.

stoops and mack owned him in recruiting. we were the boring, has-been program while tu and ou were the hip programs. it was over for him.

our problem is we hired fran the fraud

then we hired average-joe sherman

then slick Sumlin who gave us a great season on sherman's offensive talent

now it appears we have another fraud in jimbo

everyone ignored the 5-6 season at fsu when we hired him - all we saw was the natty, but true championship coaches don't have losing seasons 8 years into their tenures





AggieRob93
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It's the curse of inept leadership at the top.

92_Ag
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RC would have benefited from the kind of investment that's now being put into the program.

However, he just couldn't muster consistently great offenses like he could defenses.

Anyone remember

Toledo
Kragthorpe
Marshall
Ensminger
Babers
Sumlin

I recall Toledo doing pretty well offensively at UCLA for a while and Babers/Sumlin's history is well known.

I don't know if it was the head coach stifling the offense then like Jimbo seems to be now, and my memory may not be bulletproof on this but I seem to recall being frustrated just as much with the lack of offensive consistency then as now.

RC was a good coach though, regardless of the revisionist history - he just couldn't seem to get over the hump of getting the teams from good to great.
spherical
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terata said:

BULL*****!!! RC was owned by Leach....not much has changed. RC was a good coach, he was never, ever gonna be a "great" coach....get over it.


Disagree- he was a good coach with almost zero support in terms of facilities while other programs were building up. If we had starting throwing the money at improvements back then I think he could have turned it back around.
ac
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spherical said:

terata said:

BULL*****!!! RC was owned by Leach....not much has changed. RC was a good coach, he was never, ever gonna be a "great" coach....get over it.


Disagree- he was a good coach with almost zero support in terms of facilities while other programs were building up. If we had starting throwing the money at improvements back then I think he could have turned it back around.
It's a long closed book, but here's my take on it:

RC was at his best when he was competing in a dying SWC and his main recruiting rivals (Texas, OU, LSU) were in down periods. The move to the Big 12 and the arrivals of Mack Brown, Bob Stoops & Nick Saban changed things. Even with better facilities, RC was never going to be able to keep up with the aforementioned in recruiting. He had to go.

Again, it is a total mystery why every single coach since then hasn't worked out. But keeping RC would not have been any better.
agracer
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92_Ag said:

RC would have benefited from the kind of investment that's now being put into the program.

However, he just couldn't muster consistently great offenses like he could defenses.

Anyone remember

Toledo
Kragthorpe
Marshall
Ensminger
Babers
Sumlin

I recall Toledo doing pretty well offensively at UCLA for a while and Babers/Sumlin's history is well known.

I don't know if it was the head coach stifling the offense then like Jimbo seems to be now, and my memory may not be bulletproof on this but I seem to recall being frustrated just as much with the lack of offensive consistency then as now.

RC was a good coach though, regardless of the revisionist history - he just couldn't seem to get over the hump of getting the teams from good to great.
RC said his biggest regret was firing Toledo.

And when Sumlin took over play calling from Babers, the 9-games he called plays the offense scored more points, yards, etc. than the 15-games Babers called. Sumlin was NOT the problem with that offense.
MD20/20
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treated Emory worse
Cooter Brown is my designated driver.
 
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