Class of 2003....I reckon my 'caring' began in 1998 as a high school senior when I went to the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City and saw Sir Parker's overtime TD...here is how things have gone since...
1999: Eager freshman. I think we're going to win everything, high expectations after winning the conference. Mediocre 8-4 season but I don't really care that much because of the girls. Bonfire game.
2000: High expectations again. If I recall, we had a buttload of talent and a lot of guys drafted high. Mark Farris era...cracks starting to show with RC. Its clear that at least offensively, the game has passed us by. 7-5 Jackie Sherill's Miss State beats us down in the snow....
2001: 8-4. Here we go again...at least we won the Gallery Furniture Bowl!
2002: Well...the call for change is finally heard. There is a TON of excitement for team due to a young freshman five start QB named Reggie McNeal who goes in the game in replacement of Mark Farris and casually beats #1 OU but its not enough to save RC's job. I think the brass looks at the talent and assumes RC will blow it so they go out and make a splash hire....6-6
2003: Fran Era Begins..4-8. Wow. That's historically bad for the Aggies. The worst finishing record for the Aggies since 1980. This is, however, chopped up to Fran not having 'his guys' and that RC "left the cupboard bare." We're all convinced that this is a rebuilding year. 77-0 thumping from OU though...
2004: 7-5. What an amazing turn around! We're on the right track now! Highlight was finally getting over the hump and beating Tech again at Kyle. However...our offense is starting to look a little gimmicky. Why are we running the wishbone out of the shot gun?
2005: 5-6. Uh Oh. What happened? I care A LOT around this time. I devote every Saturday to Aggie football. This lasts for almost a decade. Low point was seeing Todd Blyth (giant white WR for Iowa State) absolutely demolish us. Iowa State was NEVER supposed to beat Texas A&M. We're so much bigger than them! Tech absolutely crushed us in revenge game. Reggie's talents clearly wasted.
2006: Ok. Maybe things aren't as bad as they appeared last year. 9-4. Respectable bounce-back. We are 8-1 through the first 9 games but then have a late season collapse. Was it injuries? I don't really remember. Steven McGee and Javorskie Lane flat out WILLED us to some of those wins. Fran beats Texas. Future looks bright again.
2007: High expectations. Things are finally looking bright in Aggieland. 7-6 is the result. Massive letdown. Fresno State game was pretty amazing - Javorskie and McGee basically are abused. We run the ball 70 times per game with those two guys. Another mediocre season. The big cigars have had enough. Fran is let go...after inexplicably beating a much better t.u. team in his finale.
2008: Mike Sherman Era....4-8. Its a repeat of Fran's first year. Once again, its all chalked up to a rebuilding because Fran left the cupboard bare.
2009: 6-7 but if feels a little better than that because we're finally washing off the stink of Fran and one of our wins was taking Tech to the woodshed. Jerrod Johnson looks really good and is a great Aggie all-around.
2010: We get to 9-4 again! Ok. This thing has legs. Sherman is clearly the answer. We played some tough games and beat some good teams. We almost caused Bo Pelini to have a heart attack. Jerrod Johnson looks hurt. We lose some games we should have won because of that. Tanny takes over. We finish season on 6 game win streak with wins against Tech, OU, Nebraska and t.u. before losing to LSU in the Cotton Bowl.
2011: Pivotal year. Brass makes a deal to move to the SEC. Is Sherman good enough for the SEC? This is his chance to prove it. We finish 7-6 and every game we lost was razor-close and all of those losses were games where we went into halftime ahead comfortably. Sherman is a good coach but not good enough apparently...(Edit - I personally think Sherman should have been given another season.)
2012: Johnny. SEC. Sumlin. 11-2. We're back where we belong. Heisman. Hair on fire. We have a freshman world beater. We're poised for absolute greatness for years to come! The way we curb stomp OU in the Cotton Bowl is so delicious...
2013: 9-4. Good I guess, but golly, should have been a lot better right! What happened? Scandal with our freshman getting paid to sign autographs? He parties too much? Sumlin isn't enforcing discipline? 9-4 is a let down...
2014: Kenny "Trill" era begins...and ends. We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
2015: We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
2016: We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
This is about where I really stop caring....
2017: The first game of the season, the monumental collapse against UCLA was a microcosm of the Sumlin era. 7-6. Sumlin is justifiably fired. He's great at starting strong but finishes incredibly poorly over and over again. Mond era begins....
2018: Jimbo. 9-4. Finished a season strong for once. He's saying all the right things. Lets give him an extension NOW before the NFL or Bama wants him! Banner win against LSU finally.
2019: 8-5...that's not great. We're back to being a middling conference team...LSU gets its revenge.
2020: 9-1 in 10 game season. Hey, that's great. Orange Bowl. We're back. If this had been a normal non-Covid stupid season than we'd have been in the playoff. Amazing. Bravo. I guess we've finally arrived to the upper echelons of college football again.
2021: And...we're back to where we belong. Middling team. An 'also ran.' 8-4. Sheesh. What a let-down. On the bright side, we beat Alabama finally....which we follow up with losses to Ole Miss and LSU. We had 10-2 in the cross hairs but flopped.
2022: 5-7. Wow. We're almost back to where we started. That's pretty terrible. Its all Jimbo's guys. No excuse. If there is a silver lining its the finale LSU game which we won with a true freshman QB that looked pretty sharp....
********************************
And....
That's it. That's my life as an Aggie FB fan.
In 24 years the Aggies have managed a record of 177-121. 68.36% winning percentage. That includes of course, a lot of early season cream puff wins. Conference record is closer to 50%.
The program has been the definition of mediocre up to this point.
Give me one reason to believe that anything is going to be any different any time soon....
1999: Eager freshman. I think we're going to win everything, high expectations after winning the conference. Mediocre 8-4 season but I don't really care that much because of the girls. Bonfire game.
2000: High expectations again. If I recall, we had a buttload of talent and a lot of guys drafted high. Mark Farris era...cracks starting to show with RC. Its clear that at least offensively, the game has passed us by. 7-5 Jackie Sherill's Miss State beats us down in the snow....
2001: 8-4. Here we go again...at least we won the Gallery Furniture Bowl!
2002: Well...the call for change is finally heard. There is a TON of excitement for team due to a young freshman five start QB named Reggie McNeal who goes in the game in replacement of Mark Farris and casually beats #1 OU but its not enough to save RC's job. I think the brass looks at the talent and assumes RC will blow it so they go out and make a splash hire....6-6
2003: Fran Era Begins..4-8. Wow. That's historically bad for the Aggies. The worst finishing record for the Aggies since 1980. This is, however, chopped up to Fran not having 'his guys' and that RC "left the cupboard bare." We're all convinced that this is a rebuilding year. 77-0 thumping from OU though...
2004: 7-5. What an amazing turn around! We're on the right track now! Highlight was finally getting over the hump and beating Tech again at Kyle. However...our offense is starting to look a little gimmicky. Why are we running the wishbone out of the shot gun?
2005: 5-6. Uh Oh. What happened? I care A LOT around this time. I devote every Saturday to Aggie football. This lasts for almost a decade. Low point was seeing Todd Blyth (giant white WR for Iowa State) absolutely demolish us. Iowa State was NEVER supposed to beat Texas A&M. We're so much bigger than them! Tech absolutely crushed us in revenge game. Reggie's talents clearly wasted.
2006: Ok. Maybe things aren't as bad as they appeared last year. 9-4. Respectable bounce-back. We are 8-1 through the first 9 games but then have a late season collapse. Was it injuries? I don't really remember. Steven McGee and Javorskie Lane flat out WILLED us to some of those wins. Fran beats Texas. Future looks bright again.
2007: High expectations. Things are finally looking bright in Aggieland. 7-6 is the result. Massive letdown. Fresno State game was pretty amazing - Javorskie and McGee basically are abused. We run the ball 70 times per game with those two guys. Another mediocre season. The big cigars have had enough. Fran is let go...after inexplicably beating a much better t.u. team in his finale.
2008: Mike Sherman Era....4-8. Its a repeat of Fran's first year. Once again, its all chalked up to a rebuilding because Fran left the cupboard bare.
2009: 6-7 but if feels a little better than that because we're finally washing off the stink of Fran and one of our wins was taking Tech to the woodshed. Jerrod Johnson looks really good and is a great Aggie all-around.
2010: We get to 9-4 again! Ok. This thing has legs. Sherman is clearly the answer. We played some tough games and beat some good teams. We almost caused Bo Pelini to have a heart attack. Jerrod Johnson looks hurt. We lose some games we should have won because of that. Tanny takes over. We finish season on 6 game win streak with wins against Tech, OU, Nebraska and t.u. before losing to LSU in the Cotton Bowl.
2011: Pivotal year. Brass makes a deal to move to the SEC. Is Sherman good enough for the SEC? This is his chance to prove it. We finish 7-6 and every game we lost was razor-close and all of those losses were games where we went into halftime ahead comfortably. Sherman is a good coach but not good enough apparently...(Edit - I personally think Sherman should have been given another season.)
2012: Johnny. SEC. Sumlin. 11-2. We're back where we belong. Heisman. Hair on fire. We have a freshman world beater. We're poised for absolute greatness for years to come! The way we curb stomp OU in the Cotton Bowl is so delicious...
2013: 9-4. Good I guess, but golly, should have been a lot better right! What happened? Scandal with our freshman getting paid to sign autographs? He parties too much? Sumlin isn't enforcing discipline? 9-4 is a let down...
2014: Kenny "Trill" era begins...and ends. We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
2015: We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
2016: We look like national champs through the first half of the season...then collapse. 8-5.
This is about where I really stop caring....
2017: The first game of the season, the monumental collapse against UCLA was a microcosm of the Sumlin era. 7-6. Sumlin is justifiably fired. He's great at starting strong but finishes incredibly poorly over and over again. Mond era begins....
2018: Jimbo. 9-4. Finished a season strong for once. He's saying all the right things. Lets give him an extension NOW before the NFL or Bama wants him! Banner win against LSU finally.
2019: 8-5...that's not great. We're back to being a middling conference team...LSU gets its revenge.
2020: 9-1 in 10 game season. Hey, that's great. Orange Bowl. We're back. If this had been a normal non-Covid stupid season than we'd have been in the playoff. Amazing. Bravo. I guess we've finally arrived to the upper echelons of college football again.
2021: And...we're back to where we belong. Middling team. An 'also ran.' 8-4. Sheesh. What a let-down. On the bright side, we beat Alabama finally....which we follow up with losses to Ole Miss and LSU. We had 10-2 in the cross hairs but flopped.
2022: 5-7. Wow. We're almost back to where we started. That's pretty terrible. Its all Jimbo's guys. No excuse. If there is a silver lining its the finale LSU game which we won with a true freshman QB that looked pretty sharp....
********************************
And....
That's it. That's my life as an Aggie FB fan.
In 24 years the Aggies have managed a record of 177-121. 68.36% winning percentage. That includes of course, a lot of early season cream puff wins. Conference record is closer to 50%.
The program has been the definition of mediocre up to this point.
Give me one reason to believe that anything is going to be any different any time soon....
