Momentum Shifts: Facing the adversity that follows Miami frustration

Last weekend, I made the trip to Miami with two of my brothers-in-law and a group of some of my closest friends.

We made the decision a few years ago to attend one away game a year. We are now 1-3 as a group, with that one win coming against Colorado in Denver a few years back.

Even after a brutal 2022, we left for this trip with a renewed sense of excitement for the upcoming season of Texas A&M football. Despite an offseason of very tempered expectations and constant negativity from anyone outside of the program, I found myself fired up for 2023.

It really kicked off for me after SEC Media Days and as fall camp progressed. It felt like there was some momentum building up around the program and for good reason.

The hiring of Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator and the passing-of-the-torch of offense after it was made very clear that what we were trying was not working. Some key additions via recruiting and the transfer portal from our coaching staff, a two-deep returning the most production in the conference combined with the return of some key veterans and our last performance on the field in 2022 was a big win against LSU with some of those key players returning.

Add that with the explosiveness we saw from the offense in Week 1 against New Mexico, and you have yourself a recipe for some encouraging momentum as a program.

That was flushed down the toilet on Saturday afternoon after we were blown out by a Miami team with less overall talent (based on four years of recruiting averages, not my opinion) and significantly fewer resources as a program.

A second-year head coach against our national championship-winning head coach heading into year six of his tenure.

Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

After another Week 2 defeat, Jimbo Fisher is now 1-5 in the second game of the season during his A&M tenure.

Miami went 5-7 last year in Mario Cristobal’s first season, but of those seven losses, five of them were by more than 10 points. He is in his second year and still figuring out his staff, bringing in his talent, creating his culture, etc., and we are in YEAR SIX with our coach’s fingerprints all over our program.

His staff, his culture, his recruits, his philosophies and so on.

I walked out of the stadium on Saturday night with the same feeling of frustration we have been feeling for a very long time, and I asked myself this question: “Why in the heck can we not get over the hump as a program?”

What more do we need in order to take that next step to become a consistent and elite football team?

On paper, everything is there. Facilities, roster talent, fan support, resources and support for student-athletes on an academic, athletic, physical and spiritual level. Location, conference affiliation, NIL, former student support, education….the list goes on.

What happened on Saturday with us taking another tough L on the national stage once again assists us in losing momentum as some of our rivals continue to gain momentum.

We gave up big plays and lost the turnover battle.

In addition to a lack of killer instinct, A&M lost at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, lacked pressure created on defense and gave up a special team touchdown.

We started great on defense and special teams with the Aggies causing two three-and-outs and blocking a punt to give us a short field. We led 10-0, and all momentum was on our side with Miami making some miscues in our favor as well.

Then we started giving up the big plays that hurt us and gave them momentum back. 

On their first scoring drive, we gave up a 48-yard pass that put them in the red zone.

On the second scoring drive, we gave up another deep ball for a 52-yard touchdown.

Miami’s third scoring drive (after we missed a field goal and gave them the ball with 53 seconds left) featured plays of 18, 32, 19, and 11 yards before they scored to close the first half.

At this point, they had all the momentum, and we found ourselves down despite being in complete control towards the end of the first quarter.

To start the second half, we had a decent first drive that ended up with three points and made the score 21-20. It seemed we had taken the crowd back out of the game a little bit and were fighting.

Miami answered with a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and completely stole momentum after that.

Then the turnovers happened as we attempted to climb back into the game.

One of our best receivers slipped on what ended up being an interception that was returned 28 yards to A&M’s 22-yard line. Miami kicked a field goal to make it a two-score game.

We responded and scored a touchdown on a great drive that was probably Conner Weigman’s best of the game. He was phenomenal all game. The kid is a freaking superstar in the making.

Our defense actually caused Miami to punt, and we were driving to re-take the lead.

On third-and-1 near mid-field, Miami put their hat on the ball to cause a fumble that gave the Hurricanes the ball on our 31-yard line.

Miami scored five plays later, held us to a three-and-out and scored seven plays later to put us away for good.

Ultimately, we gave up way too many explosive plays on defense, and they won the turnover battle. There were a lot of other things in the game that contributed to the loss, but those two things were the difference in the game as the timing of our turnovers could not have been worse.

This loss hurt.

I went to Miami on Thursday with excitement and felt like we were building some momentum as a program.

I got on the airplane back to Houston on Sunday morning with a lot of other frustrated and disappointed Aggies, feeling all of those familiar frustrating emotions and like we had lost all momentum.

Here is the reality: None of us can affect the outcome on Saturdays when the Aggies take the field.

What we can do is control what we can control, which is ourselves.

We can control our emotions. We can control what we say (both in public and in private). We can control if we are going to be frustrated but stay supportive of the Aggies.

Most importantly: We can control our perspective.

I recently read a book called “Failing Forward” by John Maxwell. There is a part in the book where Maxwell talks about how adversity motivates, and there are not many things that can motivate a person like adversity. Maxwell said this, and I wanted to share it:

Olympic Diver Pat McCormick said, “I think failure is one of the great motivators. After my narrow loss in the 1948 trials, I knew how really good I could be. It was THE DEFEAT that focused all my concentration on my training and goals.”

McCormick went on to win two gold medals in the Olympics in 1952 and another two four years later…..IF YOU CAN STEP BACK FROM THE NEGATIVE CIRCUMSTANCES FACING YOU, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DISCOVER THEIR POSITIVE BENEFITS. That is almost always true, you simply have to be willing to look for them and not take the adversity you are experiencing too personally.

We are 1-1 on the season.

It is frustrating, but who would have thought LSU and Alabama would also be 1-1 at this point?

Miami is over. It is time to move on to the next one and focus on getting better as we prepare for conference play.

I am not saying you should not be disappointed. I am not going to tell you how to feel or respond. I am not pretending everything is fine, and we are in a great position as a program at this point.

What I am saying is, even as fans, we can have an impact on the program and the young people inside of it.

We can be encouraging or discouraging. We can constantly be negative, or we can focus on the positives and speak about hard things with truth and grace. We can bring some perspective and have great minds or little minds.

Here is to the players and coaches (and us as fans) embracing the adversities we are facing as a program and retraining themselves to view them as beneficial moving forward.

BTHOulm