NorthTexasAg22 said:

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To me this glosses over the fact we're still losing to the same type of teams/schools that I firmly believe we should beat. We've out recruited them and have a bigger budget. So what's the deal? Seems like we're just happy to be included.

Big12: Tech, Okie St., Missouri
SEC: Ole Miss, Mississippi St., Missouri

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absolutely biggest indictment of our program over the last 35 plus years. it's not losing to the bamas of the world it's losing to miss st, ole miss, tech, osu, etc. if we just took care of business against the schools we have significantly better resources and recruiting talent we would be 9-3 to 10-2 every year. the issue is we lose at least one if not more to the other programs and do so routinely. that to me is coaching. not board of regents, not talent that's coaching.

if by the grace if god we don't step on our own feet against teams we should beat we taste a bit of success and then fold like a wet napkin. we cannot handle pressure at all.

i believe ultimately its all coaching hopefully elko is the guy but one way or the other we won't taste the success we all want until we get a great coach. it can't be just a good to slightly above average one.

Bjork was a disaster here and was run out of town with the mob behind him. He went to OSU and won the National Championship 2 years later. What is going on behind the scenes in the administration that we don't know about? Something is wrong. Why are we so inept over and over. Just frustrated.

WC94 said:

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I might be dead in two decades. We need to win now!

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I am a short timer,class of `66.

"… under Donnan, Richt, and finally Kirby Smart…"

Unfortunately, Elko ain't our Kirby Smart!

We won our one NC when Hitler was is power

AGDAD14 said:

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"… under Donnan, Richt, and finally Kirby Smart…"

Unfortunately, Elko ain't our Kirby Smart!

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Dude, it's wayyyyyyyyy too early to tell, either direction.

Kirby walked into a better situation than Elko did here.
Kirby also went 8-5 in his 1st season.
Granted, he went 10+ wins every year afterward (Covid aside), but he didn't win it all until Year #6 and #7.

I seriously doubt Elko's gonna go 10+ wins from here on out, he's got a much steeper mountain to climb given where he's starting from.
And while Saban may be gone now, the Portal and the NIL situations present much different challenges, too.

I'm not saying he's our Kirby....but i'm also not saying he's not....
All I'm saying is that it's way too early to tell.

He's our coach. Let's see how this thing plays out.

TxAg76 said:

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the most cool guy said:

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JPK89 said:

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the most cool guy said:

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texastexastexas said:

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the most cool guy said:

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roughtuff98 said:

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the most cool guy said:

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If you're trying to sound insightful and smart, at least spell holistic right.

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Nobody said I was. They can be used interchangeably lol

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Anything can be used interchangeably with anything. That doesn't make it correct. Holistic is correct. Wholistic is not.

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Kinda feels like you're shooting from the hip and not checking any sources on this take. While holistic is the preferred form in most writing, according to Merriam-Webster, wholistic is also acceptable.

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Nah. I have a 1997 Merriam-Webster's dictionary in my office. It has holistic. It does not have wholistic, because wholistic is not a word. Merriam-Webster online has added a whole lot of slang and non-words over the years simply because people have gotten dumber and less literate and use non-words informally.

For example, Merriam-Webster online also now contains "irregardless" and claims it has the same meaning as "regardless," which is objectively false. The prefix "ir" denotes the negative of the word it is affixed to. Saying that "irregardless" means "regardless" is like saying that "irrelevant" means "relevant" or that "irregular" means "regular." It's false. To justify its inclusion of "irregardless" as a word, Merriam-Webster online references three other examples of words where "ir" is used to emphasize the word it follows rather than import a negative. The problem? None of the three examples are actually contained in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, because they aren't ****ing words. "Irregardless" was coined from people confusing and combining the words "regardless" and "irrespective" and then pretending they made up a new word.

Conclusions:

(1) The mere fact that people with low literacy skills say something incorrect over and over again does not magically make it correct.

(2) The mere fact that an online dictionary is updated to include a non-word to placate those with low literacy skills does not magically make it a real word.

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Username doesn't check out. Nerd.

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Well my mom says I am cool, so hah!!

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yeah, well, you don't wanna know what your mom said about me last weekend....

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No I want to know! What did she say??

I'll be willing to eat crow if he turns out to be as good or better than Kirby no matter how many years he's given.

KyleAg said:

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Bjork was a disaster here and was run out of town with the mob behind him. He went to OSU and won the National Championship 2 years later. What is going on behind the scenes in the administration that we don't know about? Something is wrong. Why are we so inept over and over. Just frustrated.

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Bjork went to Ohio State 7 months ago. I don't know why you keep spreading this false narrative. Bjork was a fool and a puppet and everyone knew it. He had no plan, he spent too much money because he had no plan, and refused to take any real leadership role as AD. Typical front man dedicated to spending certain booster's money so they can get their kickbacks instead of focusing on building winning programs.

Bottom line is A&M has been looking for the next Coach Homer Norton since 1939 and still looking. I hope Coach Elko is the one but time will tell.

Graduated in '77. was told by Jackie Sherrill at an Elks meeting in '83 that we were right on the cusp.
That cusp must be huge.

TxAg76 said:

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AGDAD14 said:

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"… under Donnan, Richt, and finally Kirby Smart…"

Unfortunately, Elko ain't our Kirby Smart!

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Dude, it's wayyyyyyyyy too early to tell, either direction.

Kirby walked into a better situation than Elko did here.
Kirby also went 8-5 in his 1st season.
Granted, he went 10+ wins every year afterward (Covid aside), but he didn't win it all until Year #6 and #7.

I seriously doubt Elko's gonna go 10+ wins from here on out, he's got a much steeper mountain to climb given where he's starting from.
And while Saban may be gone now, the Portal and the NIL situations present much different challenges, too.

I'm not saying he's our Kirby....but i'm also not saying he's not....
All I'm saying is that it's way too early to tell.

He's our coach. Let's see how this thing plays out.

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This.

Nick Saban went 7-6 his first year at Bama with a brutal loss to a Louisiana directional.

Kirby Smart went 8-5 hist first year at Georgia taking over a team that was 10-3 the previous year.

Elko went 8-5 following up seasons of 5-7 and 7-6. He went over .500 in the SEC which we hadn't done in a non-COVID year since 2018. He may or may not be the answer. But give him time. I know on this board it is seen as fun to be negative. A lot of you probably secretly root against the team so you can say I told you so. But actually rooting for your coach who sounds like a good guy from all accounts can be fun too.

mjhhawk said:

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TxAg76 said:

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AGDAD14 said:

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"… under Donnan, Richt, and finally Kirby Smart…"

Unfortunately, Elko ain't our Kirby Smart!

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Dude, it's wayyyyyyyyy too early to tell, either direction.

Kirby walked into a better situation than Elko did here.
Kirby also went 8-5 in his 1st season.
Granted, he went 10+ wins every year afterward (Covid aside), but he didn't win it all until Year #6 and #7.

I seriously doubt Elko's gonna go 10+ wins from here on out, he's got a much steeper mountain to climb given where he's starting from.
And while Saban may be gone now, the Portal and the NIL situations present much different challenges, too.

I'm not saying he's our Kirby....but i'm also not saying he's not....
All I'm saying is that it's way too early to tell.

He's our coach. Let's see how this thing plays out.

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This.

Nick Saban went 7-6 his first year at Bama with a brutal loss to a Louisiana directional.

Kirby Smart went 8-5 hist first year at Georgia taking over a team that was 10-3 the previous year.

Elko went 8-5 following up seasons of 5-7 and 7-6. He went over .500 in the SEC which we hadn't done in a non-COVID year since 2018. He may or may not be the answer. But give him time. I know on this board it is seen as fun to be negative. A lot of you probably secretly root against the team so you can say I told you so. But actually rooting for your coach who sounds like a good guy from all accounts can be fun too.

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Good post. I dont know what to think about Elko but I do for a fact our 2025 is a coaches dream; return 16 starters, every experienced opponents comes to Kyle, all road SEC games are against teams that lost double digit starters with LSU/Mizz/tu losing all OL. Yea it is hard to win on the road but veteran teams that have a top 10 roster in terms of talent should beat teams full of 18-19 year olds even if they are talented too. If we cannot make hay in 2025 we are likely looking for a new coach in December 2026.

Since winning the Big 12 in 1998, we have lost 4+ games in 24 of 26 years, and the only exceptions were when we finished 11-2 (6-2 SEC) in 2012 and 9-1 (8-1 SEC) in 2020. We finished with 7 or 8 wins in 14 of the last 26 years.

We finished 8-4 or 8-5 eight times: 1999, 2001, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024.

We finished 7-5 or 7-6 six times: 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2017, and 2023.

We finished 9-4 four times: bowl losses in 2006 and 2010 and bowl wins in 2013 and 2018.

We finished 6-6 or 6-7 twice: 2002 and 2009.

We missed bowl eligibility just 4 times: 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2022.

Next year, we will have a tougher home/away split because our toughest games against Notre Dame, LSU, Missouri, and Texas will all be on the road instead of at home. We will play a true road game at Arkansas for the first time since 2013 and at LSU the very next week. Also, our schedule is very unbalanced with 3 straight SEC home games against Auburn on 9/27, Mississippi State on 10/4, and Florida on 10/11 before a stretch of 3 straight SEC road games against Arkansas on 10/18, LSU on 10/25, and Missouri on 11/8 in span of 4 weeks. With that schedule, I think we will have a floor of 7-5 and a ceiling of 9-3 with likely road losses at Notre Dame, LSU, and Texas. The 5 road games at Notre Dame, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, and Texas will make or break our season.

Mike Elko and his coaching staff need to get this team to get team to finish games throughout the season, especially November SEC games. I would like to see 9+ wins next year, a bowl win, and a 2-1 November SEC record with wins against Missouri (away) and South Carolina (home). If we can achieve these goals, Elko will show that he has this team headed in the right direction. A 10-3 would be a great year because it would be our first 10+ win season since 2012.

In the words of the late Al Davis: "Just win, baby"

Who here is sick of the hype? Sick of the mental gymnastics to prove we are really great or about to be?

Just go f'in WIN BALLGAMES!!!!

the most cool guy said:

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If you're trying to sound insightful and smart, at least spell holistic right.

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I came here just for this.

roughtuff98 said:

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To anyone planning to comment that this post is too long: feel free to skip it and move on. For those who enjoy a detailed read, continue below.

Many Aggie fans are frustrated with our recent history of 8-4 seasons. It's tough to watch, and it's hard to see the program stuck in this cycle. However, it's important to view Texas A&M football through the lens of our broader history and appreciate where we've come from, especially after joining the SEC.

A Perspective on Our History:
Our football history marked by sporadic brilliance surrounded by mediocrity. Older fans recall the challenges of being an all-male military school, a lopsided record against Texas, and struggles in the Southwest Conference. Yes, R.C. Slocum gave us dominance in the 1990s, but in the Big 12, we were often on the level of Texas Tech or Oklahoma Statenot Texas or Oklahoma. We were an afterthought in many respects.

That changed in 2012. By the grace of the SEC's expansion, we secured a spot in the most prestigious conference in college football. This was a turning point.

The Impact of the SEC Move:
Johnny Manziel undoubtedly revolutionized our football brand, but it's important to remember that he achieved greatness without the world-class facilities we have today. His documentary highlights how far behind our program was back then. Since joining the SEC, the university has invested heavily in the program, transforming it into one of the best-funded in the nation.
Despite two poor coaching hires, A&M's profile and recruiting have skyrocketed. We're now in national discussions year-round. Our recruiting efforts routinely bring in top talent, which was not always the case. In the Big 12, bad coaching meant seasons with eight losses. In the SEC, even in tough years, we hover around 8-4. That's progress.

Patience in the Process:
Fans need to see the long game. Programs like Georgia show us the blueprint. It took nearly two decades under Donnan, Richt, and finally Kirby Smart to reach the top of the SEC. Success takes time, especially in the hyper-competitive SEC. A&M has the resources and now the national profile to sustain this journey. With time and the right leadership, the investment will pay off.

Final Thoughts:
While 8-4 seasons are frustrating, the SEC has elevated Texas A&M football to a level we've never consistently seen before. We're no longer fighting for relevance; we're fighting for excellence. It's a long road, but with continued investment and patience, we'll get there.

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'While 8-4 seasons are frustrating, the SEC has elevated Texas A&M football to a level we've never consistently seen before."

It has??!! Since when??!! I've been watching A&M football all my life, 77 yoa, It's still the same ol' stink, stank, stunk!!!