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3) If all this is true *and* Fran's plan was to kick the FG if it failed, then he should have told McGee that. It was obvious that McGee didn't know we wouldn't go for it on 4th down because he would have tried to duck his head and run it in (no matter how futile) instead of throwing the ball away to protect field position (a 25yd FG isn't much different than a 19yd FG).

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Another great point and another example of why Fran is not a fit for this school, this team, this conference, and the overall level of preparation, coaching, and play needed.

It's painfully obvious to anyone that knows anything about football that Fran is a lousy game day coach. However, if he can recruit outstanding players and surround himself with coaches that can manage a game for him then he/we have a chance to turn this program around and succeed.

we all know you want to be politician when you grow up Keegan99, and i hate to ruin your glorious decision day 06, but get over your fancy rhetoric. this is a football forum, not a political debate. do you dress up in a suit and tie to write your posts?

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It's painfully obvious to anyone that knows anything about football that Fran is a lousy game day coach. However, if he can recruit outstanding players and surround himself with coaches that can manage a game for him then he/we have a chance to turn this program around and succeed.

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I just don't believe this. Not only does a coach have to recruit and manage a game, but he also has to "coach up" his players. Very few players have significantly improved from their very first game under Fran's tutilege--actually, IMO, McNeal, McGee (as a passer), and C. Lewis are all players who have become worse. Whereas, R.C. (although, I thought it was time for him to go) did take his players and significantly improve their abilities--as evidenced by the number of players he sent to the NFL.

Rosco, how many QB's did RC send to the NFL? How many players from RC's last 3 seasons made it to the NFL?

I am on the Fran plan for at least another year, because the man needs time. Yeah I disagree with some of his playcalling too, but every coach gets 2nd guessed on that...what happened to playing conservative at home/aggresive on the road? I think that's what Fran was doing....trusting in his defense and the 12th man.

Many forget how bad this team was when he got here and don't realize how much of a cancer the star player(Reggie) was more than a leader. This is Fran's first year with all of his guys and his QB and despite the easy schedule, this team has shown me something. Turnarounds aren't overnight especially when you have to catch up to OU and Texas and especially when taking over a program that was on a rapid downslide beginning with Sirr Parker's touchdown against K-State!! That play combined with our 1997 Big 12 South championship (during the OU and Texas bad years) ironically set our program back 4 years instead of forward because RC saved his job when he should have been fired after 1996.....we need to be patient.

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we all know you want to be politician when you grow up Keegan99, and i hate to ruin your glorious decision day 06, but get over your fancy rhetoric. this is a football forum, not a political debate. do you dress up in a suit and tie to write your posts?

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Wow. An anonymous poster registered and made his first post just to fire off a personal attack on me and add nothing to the discussion!

I'm FLATTERED!

Keegan -

So, do you have same opinion of Stoops not knowing if he would punt or go for it on 4th?

Lameo! Looking for reasons to hate.

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So, do you have same opinion of Stoops not knowing if he would punt or go for it on 4th?

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If Stoops is to be believed, he already knew he was going to punt.

The "What if we don't convert on 3rd down?" question had been asked internally and answered in his mind. Then he reconsidered after consulting with his players.

Regardless, I think Stoops was in a situation where either call was highly favorable in regard to the likelihood of his team winning the game.

I have a great idea! Use an offensive coordinator to call plays, like coach Brown does. Need someone to be able to think 2 or 3 plays ahead. First you put three backs in the backfield, give the Defense something to think about. THEN RUN LANE, it's a no-brainer.

You are right keegan, my thought exactly when they were running it and I was yelling, "NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!".

And to have not thought giving it on 3rd, and 4th down if needed, to J-train that late in a game when you have a defense tired is asinine. After reading his answers, I swear he has learned absolutely nothing at all since J-train arrived.

Seems that Stoops is stupid as well, as he didn't know he'd go for it on 4th until that play came up.

Just another reason to question our coaching staff. Oh and all of you calling Keegan out are retards. He is one of the most level-headed posters on Texags. His posts actually add to the discussions.

Keegan,

I am frequently impressed with your analysis. Have you ever coached before?

I agree 100% that Fran is too involved in the play calling to be a good game-decision manager. He needs to relinquish one of the roles. Like you said, either someone else calls plays or he gets someone to "crunch numbers" for him in game-decisons.

10-2, HULLABALOO!

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I am frequently impressed with your analysis.

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Agreed. Good posts, Keegan.

4 years ago, I can remember hearing the 'he's not a game day coach, but he can recruit' tag assigned to Mack. Anyone holding out hope that Fran follows suit? I'm having a hard time deciding whether we are watching the Peter Principle in action, or if you have to give greatness time to gel.

4 years ago, Fran was touted as a gameday coach.

this is just mind boggling, hell I knew it was 4 down territory and I don't come close to making 2 mil

good post Keegan

BTHO NEBRASKA

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Seems that Stoops is stupid as well, as he didn't know he'd go for it on 4th until that play came up.

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Reading comprehension Muy. You might try it rather than just trying to push your really old and pathetic agenda against the majority of ags. Stoops had already thought ahead as to what he would do on the next down. Fran had not. Before you pull that itchy trigger finger to make your truly sad little attacks you may want to know what you are talking about.

Good detective work. K'money.
This is the offensive equivalent of..."Wow."

[This message has been edited by TexAgs staff (edited 11/8/2006 8:37a).]

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Reading comprehension Muy. You might try it rather than just trying to push your really old and pathetic agenda against the majority of ags. Stoops had already thought ahead as to what he would do on the next down. Fran had not. Before you pull that itchy trigger finger to make your truly sad little attacks you may want to know what you are talking about.

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Listening skills, try it. The ABC announcers even said Stoops made the wrong call prior to it working. Just because it worked doesn't mean it was the right call.

If it does, then you prove my theory that most of you are just hindsight armchair QB's, and have no effing clue what you're talking about.

once again...

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Keegan99
posted 8:36p, 11/07/06

If Stoops is to be believed, he already knew he was going to punt.

The "What if we don't convert on 3rd down?" question had been asked internally and answered in his mind. Then he reconsidered after consulting with his players.

Regardless, I think Stoops was in a situation where either call was highly favorable in regard to the likelihood of his team winning the game.

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10-2, HULLABALOO!

Stoops made a snap decision. Said he didn't know what to call until he looked his Offensive players in the eyes. Even after that he called a time out, unsure of his call. Seems that he is just as bad of a coach as you make Fran out to be. I imagine if they did not convert their 4th down, the Oklahoma press and fans would not have thought any less of Stoops if he admitted not knowing what his next call would be.

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Listening skills, try it. The ABC announcers even said Stoops made the wrong call prior to it working. Just because it worked doesn't mean it was the right call.

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I believe the argument was whether or not Stoops had thought ahead to what he would do if they didn't convert on 3rd down, not if it was actually the correct call. I thought at the time that Stoops made the wrong decision, but he it worked out for him so he gets praised. It does disturb me that Fran was not thinking ahead when the 3rd and goal from the 2 play was called.

I'm hoping that he meant to say he couldn't be sure until the play was run. If it is 4th and inches, we go for it. If it is 4th and 4 after the play, we kick it.

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It's painfully obvious to anyone that knows anything about football that Fran is a lousy game day coach. However, if he can recruit outstanding players and surround himself with coaches that can manage a game for him then he/we have a chance to turn this program around and succeed.

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The problem with this scenario is it won't work. In the WAC you might be able to get away with destroying everyone else with your overwhelmingly superior talent. In the Big 12 the best recruiting haul you are going to be able to make will have you roughly at parity with tu and OU.

Parity, with Fran, = a loss. There's a short and rather nasty equation for you.

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I am on the Fran plan for at least another year, because the man needs time. Yeah I disagree with some of his playcalling too, but every coach gets 2nd guessed on that...what happened to playing conservative at home/aggresive on the road? I think that's what Fran was doing....trusting in his defense and the 12th man.

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Well, if we're going to keep giving Fran time, why did we not just keep RC? It's been 4 yrs. Fran ALMOST has our team back to the level of RC's so-so years. The likelihood of us winning the Big 12 any time soon is much reduced from what it was with RC at the helm.

If you are going to keep giving Fran time, you might as well sign over a blank check to him and make him head coach for life. He has done nothing to earn retention. Turnarounds seldom...practically NEVER...take the amount of time Fran has been given. There is no reason to expect we are seeing a turnaround this year or that we will ever see one with Fran.

No, what we are seeing is a replay of the 2004 season, only with a softer non conference schedule which gives us the additional win (victory over the mighty Citadel instead of the loss to Utah).

Next year the schecule turns nasty again, and the possibility that we will see 2005 again is
certainly there. Can't happen, you say? McGee is much better than McNeal was? Well chew on this, Hoss.....McGee has not been looking real good throwing the football as of late. Maybe that's because the effort is being made to turn him in to an option QB. When that doesn't work, or when we lose our ability to effectively pass on a regular basis, the jackals on here will be calling for Branyon or someone else. There's always a scapegoat waiting in the wings, as long as you have Fran.

Please object to footballfan's post. It ruins this thread by having to scroll over.

Muy,

Stoops had already decided to punt if he didn't make the third down.

He looked into his players eyes and they told him to go for it.

Big difference.

The worst part to me is that Lane wasn't even on the field on 3rd down. I mean, if you're going to pass it, a fake to Lane and bootleg would certainly seem like the most likely scenario to work, especially if Martellus was in the right flat.

http://blogs.chron.com/aggies/2006/11/fran_defends_thirdand2_call.html

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November 07, 2006

Fran defends third-and-2 call

Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione on Tuesday again tried to defend his decision not to give the ball to 278-pound running back Jorvorskie Lane on third-and-2 at the goal line in the fourth quarterback against Oklahoma.

The Aggies attempted to pass the football into the end zone for the tying score, but were turned away when quarterback Stephen McGee couldn't find an open receiver and pressure forced him to throw the ball away. A&M instead settled for a 19-yard Layne Neumann field goal.

"Hindsight is always easy and you certainly rethink everything that you do in situations," Franchione said. " We wouldn't have called the play on third down that we called if we didn't think it was going to work. "

But third downs have been almost automatic for Lane this season. He has converted 15 straight third and fourth downs for a first down or touchdown. He's 24 of 27 on the season. Even better, all eight of his touchdowns in Big 12 play this season have come from one or two yards out.

Franchione was obviously unaware of this fact when answering reporters' questions Tuesday.
"Well, a lot of those are not on the 2-yard line where defenses are bunched down as close as they are," Franchione said. "A lot of them are in the field in a little bit different situations. Now there's nothing wrong with that call, I'm not saying there is."

Lane was not made available for comment Tuesday after he appeared to exit the field upset after the failed third-and-2 play Saturday.

Posted by Terrance Harris at November 7, 2006 06:14 PM

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Fran needs to shut his $2,000,000/year pie hole. Every time he tries to defend the indefensible he ends up making us and him look silly.



[This message has been edited by XUSCR (edited 11/8/2006 9:24a).]

TxAgKuwait:

I mean we need to give him a reasonable amount of time because at a Tier 2 school like ours, it's not as easy to rebuild especially when the program was still in a nose dive when Fran took it over. I think 2003 was Fran's year to pull us out of the nose dive. 2004 was a weird year that got us flying level, but anyone watching the Cotton Bowl in person and witnessing the size mis-matches of Tennessee's OL and DL vs. ours can tell that our talent has been on a downslide for years.

2005 was a disaster due to injuries, a tough schedule, and lack of consistency on the OL and on defense and a horrible team leader in McNeal.

This year is the first year Fran has had a clean slate and I think he deserves at least one more year to prove he can win a November game. I'm not happy with his performance so far either, but we need to keep the bigger picture in mind and be a little patient instead of claiming that we are all experts!

Hopefully our receruiting of bigger OL and DL like Travis Schneider (Tall but too skinny in my opinion)will help get us there, but we also need to realize that we are recruiting against Texas and OU and it's harder than you think. We "seemingly" have big players like Red Bryant, Babaloa, Henry Smith, etc.....but notice how short, fat, and un-athletic these guys look? The rest of the OL and DL are tiny compared to bigtime Div I teams like Tennessee, Texas, Michigan.......and don't get me started on our 5'10'' 250(alledgedly) starting LB, Misi Tupe.....I love his effort, but that speaks volumes about our talent when this roly poly is starting for us! We need to find more Matt Featherstons at LB and OL that weigh more than 300 lbs and are taller than 6'3" but are still athletic.