Glass Houses: Jabbing at Aggies, Longhorn fans ignore recent history

The most popular pastime Austin must be throwing stones. But only in glass houses.

The Austin populace must also spend a lot of time trying to differentiate the colors of the pot and kettle. Indeed, it seems a lot of Texas Longhorn football fans must have majored in Revisionist History.

That would explain some inane Tweets recently sent in my direction by uninformed Texas Longhorn fans.

To be fair, some of the nicest, most gracious people I know are Texas fans and/or graduates. A lot of Aggies, many probably having loved ones who attended Texas, would likely agree. But there are also legions of rude, delusional, living-in-the-past Texas fans, and that was confirmed during recent Twitter exchanges.

They were taunting A&M for its recent football mediocrity.

Admittedly, the Aggies' three consecutive 8-5 seasons are indeed disappointing. However, that would represent progress at Texas, which has managed just 16 wins in its last three seasons.

Therefore, Texas fans taunting A&M for mediocrity is like Rosie O’Donnell taunting someone else for being ugly and obnoxious.

One guy even suggested A&M had no football trophy case. Obviously, he was ignorant about A&M’s 16 outright conference championships.

He also forgot the Ags' national title and the fact A&M dominated Texas in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

These boorish Texas fans brought back memories of a Texas Rangers baseball game I attended with a group of middle-aged Longhorns about 20 years ago. Two 40-ish couples wearing Oklahoma gear sat in the same section. They sat quietly enjoying game. That is, until several of  those I was sitting with began taunting them unmercifully and profanely.

I was embarrassed to be linked with that group.

Perhaps the rudest of the Texas fans was a guy known as Mace, who I had met through a mutual friend. He’d suggested we meet at a restaurant parking lot about five miles from the stadium so we could split the cost of parking.

Once inside the stadium, he ordered two large beers in the first inning and asked that I pick up the first round. By the time the eighth inning rolled around, it became clear Mace had no intention of returning the favor.

In fact, he was about halfway through a beer when the a vendor walked by. So, I told Mace that would be a good time for him to buy the next round. He seemed annoyed. Still, he reached for his wallet, called for the vendor and traded the money for a large, cold beer.

Then, he took the fresh beer and handed me the one he’d been drinking. True story.

Later, while driving me back to the restaurant he asked me to walk the final mile so he could rush to a bar in Dallas. Actually, I didn’t mind. I couldn’t wait to get away from that jerk.

It could have been Mace, or perhaps some of his alcohol-impaired offspring, that engaged in that Twitter joust. Seriously, their response to actual facts indicated brain cell genocide.

I was somewhat frustrated, but only because my fact-supported counterpoints could not always be limited to 144 characters.

A recent column about Aggies not wanting to renew the football series that Texas canceled in 2012 spawned the Twitter brawl.

The first shot was a tweet which read: They (Aggies) are tone deaf to a lot of other things like winning.

Does the name “Kansas” mean anything? Yes, Longhorns fans were calling out the Aggies' perceived lack of success – even though last year Texas finished 5-7 and lost to lowly Kansas. Indeed, in the five seasons since the rivalry ended A&M is 44-21 with three bowl victories. In that same span, Texas is 33-30 with one bowl win.

Another Longhorn tweet: Hell, they (Aggies) haven’t hit third since Manziel. They will be happy to finish behind Bama and LSU every year.

A&M is not content to finish behind Alabama and LSU. Athletic Director Scott Woodward has even been on record saying that coach Kevin Sumlin needs to win this year. However, I’ll acknowledge A&M hasn’t finished higher than fourth in the SEC West standings since 2013.

Yet, Texas was sixth in the Big 12 last season. The Longhorns tied for fifth the year before that. They tied for fourth in 2014. Why call out A&M when you’re struggling in a weaker conference?

Another genius tweeted: Aggies are funny … 59-0 … How they forget they were irrelevant in the Big 12 and still irrelevant in the SEC.

Longhorns spouting relevancy? Texas has been irrelevant since 2010. A&M was very relevant in 2012 when the Aggies finished No. 5 in the nation.

Also, the Aggies were extremely relevant through October last year. After all, A&M was ranked fourth in the first College Football Playoff standings. True, the Aggies faded. But they were in the playoff discussion until losing at Mississippi State on Nov. 5.

The Longhorns had four losses by then.

And, yes, A&M lost 59-0 to eventual Southeastern Conference champion Alabama in 2014. The Aggies have been at least reasonably competitive in almost every other game since the move.

Let’s look at some Texas losses. There was a 63-14 loss to OU in 2000. There was 65-13 to OU in ’03 and 55-17 to OU in 2011. And there was that 66-3 annihilation at the hands of UCLA back in the '90s.

But if they want to argue those were before the Aggies’ move and therefore shouldn’t be counted … well, OK.

Since 2012 Texas has lost 41-7 to BYU, 48-10 to TCU and 50-7 to TCU. None of those teams, to my recollection, were champions.

Another shot fired: Remind me what meaningful ranked team A&M beat in the last three years?

Last season A&M defeated No. 9 Tennessee. That Tennessee team went on to finish 9-4 and defeated Nebraska in the Music City Bowl. A&M also won at No. 3 Auburn in 2014.

Last season, Texas defeated No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 8 Baylor. Notre Dame finished 4-8. Baylor finished 7-6.

Finally: Aggy is guaranteed three wins every year.

While agreeing that A&M should upgrade its non-conference schedule, Texas has also been known to play its share of non-conference cupcakes, such as UTEP, Rice, North Texas, New Mexico and New Mexico State.

Besides, Texas also gets two guaranteed conference wins against Iowa State and Kansas.

Oh wait … never mind. Texas has lost to Iowa State and Kansas in the last two years.

Those losses probably caused Mace to drink heavily.

But only if someone else was buying.