Catching up with former Texas A&M wide receiver Aaron Oliver

During Thursday's edition of TexAgs Radio, former Texas A&M wideout Aaron Oliver joined to reminisce about his days in Maroon & White. In addition to sharing what he's up to these days, Oliver spoke about the 1998 Big 12 title team, the origin of the "Gorillas" and more.

Key notes from Aaron Oliver interview

• You’re aging me, and I feel like an old man now because you’re talking about the Big 12. I remember that touchdown. I was having hamstring problems during two-a-days, and that started back in spring ball. On that play, I was trying to go like 80 percent. I told Branndon Stewart in practice that it would be open in a game. In my mind, I was thinking that if I had to break into a full sprint, my hamstring might tear. That’s exactly what happened. I caught it, turned up the field, and my hamstring tore. I was like, “Do I stop or keep going?” I was like 30 yards out, and I just tried to make it into the endzone. I didn’t come back into the game. I’m not sure if anybody knew that story of the first Big 12 touchdown pass.
   
• You can get through some things with hamstring issues, but it probably lasted about three to four weeks. I went back into playing, but it was never really 100 percent until the next year.
   
• I have a two-year-old and an eight-year-old. I had been with Berkeley Unified School District for four years, and we just recently moved back to Texas. I’m in Flower Mound, but we’re in Argyle ISD. We’re in the middle of a bunch of different cities. We’re just kind of getting settled, but it has been a good, smooth transition so far. Moving is never easy. My wife is from California, and that’s why we went out there. She won the Texas-California battle, but it can get expensive in a lot of different ways. She got a good offer back here, and we decided to come back. I just finished my principal certificate before we left. It has been good.
   
• I pay attention to all of Texas A&M athletics. I try not to get too emotionally involved until it’s the middle of the season, then I’ll decide to get emotionally attached or not. Basketball is looking strong. I have to see how they do against Tennessee, and then I’ll be sold. I think we’re a NCAA Tournament team, but I thought we were a tournament team last year. I’m still mad about that. When I hear commentators talk about us being a bubble team or being last four out, I’m like, “Are you serious?” I know we started slow, but I figured we’d start slow because we had a new group of guys. I texted Billy Liucci, and anytime something goes wrong, I’ll hit him with a long text or voicemail or whatever. I told him I wouldn’t judge this team until they got to conference play, and it has been good since then. I hope we get into the tournament. I can’t complain.
   
• Growing up with my dad playing in the Major Leagues was pretty crazy. There’s nothing more fun than the baseball clubhouse. It’s so different from a football locker room. In football, it’s where you go to get treatment. It’s like an infirmary. In the baseball clubhouse, they had spreads of candy and catered food coming in and out. Everything a kid would want was in the clubhouse. We would find kinds our age and run amuck. When my dad played for the Blue Jays in his last year, they came back to Texas. I got to be a bat boy for the Blue Jays, but I was probably the worst bat boy ever. I was falling asleep and forgetting to get the bats because I wasn’t used to the late games. The other bat boys were on it, and my dad sent me to the showers early. It was fun. That was a fun place to be when I was a kid.
   
• As far as my dad’s career is concerned, I feel like he has been overlooked a lot in my opinion. If I talk about it too much, I sound like a homer. If you look at his numbers, they’re strong. He did it consistently for a long period of time, and it’s hard to do.
   
• Albert Connell played with the mindset that we needed even though he was leaving. It was doing all the dirty work as well as making big plays too. Matt Bumgardner, Chris Cole and myself decided that the Wrecking Crew had an identity and that we need our own identity. We came in with homemade shirts. The Wrecking Crew had printed shirts. We had homemade shirts with markers that said “Gorillas” and some quote on the back. When Steve Kragthorpe was our coordinator, we felt more freedom because we knew we were going to throw the ball more. Before that, we were using route trees and running the ball a lot. Coach Slocum said we were going to open it up, and that’s when the “Gorillas” started. We didn’t know exactly what we were doing in 1997 when it started, and it was crazy. We had some problems getting lined up in ‘97 because it was a whole shift to how we did something. That was an impressive point in Slocum’s career because we changed the whole way the offense worked. We went from three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust to opening it up. We still had a stable of running backs. We could run some four-wide. It was a huge part why we won the Big 12 that year. The “Gorillas” was an idea that kept going on. Matt and Chris kept it going after I left. Thorpe came back, and it came back with Mike Evans and them. We had a thread on Facebook and a text thread with almost every receiver that played at A&M. It’s fun, and we still talk about it. We’re always clowning on our text thread and telling stories. We had a senior class that was special in 1998. That’s hard to find these days. It was cool to be part of that.
   
• I have a buddy that was talking about Bobby Petrino that might have worked with him. He told me that Petrino was a really good hire. My mindset was that there were similarities between Petrino and Jimbo Fisher. I don’t know who is going to be calling the plays. Jimbo is a good play-caller in the two-minute drill, but last year got strange and was hard to watch. I was hoping he’d bring in an air raid, Kliff Kingsbury-type. If it works, it works. I don’t care what they do. I hope he’s not just bringing somebody in because it’s comfortable. I hope it’s for change. There is talent there, but last year was a weird year that reminded me of 1996. We had a lot of talent that year, but we didn’t function well. Part of it was leadership too. I was happy to see our team come back because you need players that are old. With Petrino, the Arkansas games back around 2008 and 2009, I felt they were putting hands on us. We were rebuilding back then, and the cupboard was pretty bare when Sherman got here.