Who is Next?

Well, a result of making some money at work was that I didn't get a chance to dive into the potential head coaches. Last Saturday the Ags officially named Kevin Sumlin the new head coach.


Sumlin was the first name that surfaced when Sherman was fired but a lot went on over the 9 day stretch but he was certainly not the only one. In my last post I mentioned three other initial candidates, Charlie Strong, Larry Fedora, & Kirby Smart.

Louisville put up a huge roadblock in terms of allowing Strong to interview and it came out that he had a $1m+ buyout in his contract. Fedora's name was hot and he was offered and accepted the North Carolina job mid-week. Smart - I'm not sure what happened there but from everything I was reading he seemed to be the least likely to get tabbed.

One of the reasons that this process drug out as long as it did was because Bill Byrne went after a couple of big fish. Early on, Mark Richt of Georgia was rumored to be interested but I don't know if any sort of official discussions took place. Byrne also interviewed Gary Patterson of TCU but I don't think we wanted to push for him as hard as we would have needed to to get him - he has a pretty cush setup right now at TCU.

Chris Peterson of Boise State was Byrne's wild card. Peterson has been rumored for every big job that has become available in the last 4 years but has never budged. There was apparently some interest with our job but we couldn't get the crazy money together that would have been needed to make it work.

Regardless of who was interviewed, Coach Sumlin is our new man.

This is his second go-round in College Station after serving under R.C. as the WR/TE coach in '01 and then mid-season '02 he was promoted to offensive coordinator and rose along with Reggie.

When R.C. was fired Sumlin moved on to Norman where he stayed from '03-'07, acting as the co-offensive coordinator in his final two seasons there. He was supposedly Coach Sherman's top candidate for OC when Sherman took the job in '08 but was offered the HC gig at Houston and couldn't pass that up for a coordinator position.

2008: 8-5
2009: 10-4
2010: 5-7
2011: 12-1*

At UH, Sumlin built on what Art Briles had started prior to taking off for Baylor. In his second season you might recall in 2009 his Cougs knocking off #5 ranked oSu in Stillwater and the following week knocking off Leach's texas tech squad in Houston putting them in the AP rankings for the first time since the old SWC days in the early-90s.

In 2010, after starting out 2-0, Sumlin lost his both his starting QB, Case Keenum and backup Cotton Turner in their third game of the season and played out the rest of the season with their third string QB. That's a might tough blow to take, having to play with your third string QB for the final 9 games.

In 2011 with Keenum back at the helm the Cougars ran the table going 12-0 with a BCS bid guaranteed before completely crumbling in the C-USA Championship game to Southern Miss....at home. Had the Cougars won that game I think there would be very little grumbling from A&M fans but everyone and their brother watched this game knowing that there was a strong chance he would be taking over our program and we all saw a mirror of what happened to us all season and it took the gloss off the Sumlin bandwagon.

Of course it is ridiculous for one game to make or break your opinion but what it did was put a chink in the armor and made fans take a step back and reassess all the potential candidates.

There are detractors who have questioned a few things, all of which I feel are legitimate:

• He didn't win a CUSA championship in his 4 years at UH
• Can he recruit? He won a lot with Keenum - but Keenum was a holdover from Briles. Seeing it being done at Purdue, A&M, and OU is one thing but overseeing it is another
• How does he address the glaring need for a stout defense in the SEC?
  

I'm not worried about him from an offensive standpoint at all. He put up huge numbers at UH running a fast paced spread offense and he put up huge numbers at OU running a more traditional pro-style offense. My biggest deal was that I wanted a defensive minded head coach - that's the biggest knock against him I have.

UH's National Rankings:
     PRE-Sumlin     WITH Sumlin
      '06 '07     '08 '09 '10 '11
      -------     ---------------
Tot O   7   4       2   1  11   1
Sco O  10  23      10  T1  13   1

      '06 '07     '08 '09 '10 '11
      -------     ---------------
Tot D  72  46     100 111 103  64
Sco D  64  74      91  95  96  41

His defensive coordinator hire is going to have to be a big success for me to get completely on board. The other problem there is that he is not only going to have to hire a defensive coordinator who can succeed but he's going to have to keep him or be able to replace him with someone equal or better - because good DCs leave and become HCs elsewhere.

Along that front, current DC, Tim DeRuyter, just took the HC job at Fresno State and it looks like the rest of our defensive staff will be departing as well (Toth & Dat are both rumored to be joining DeRuyter in Cali). The one mainstay we have to keep will be DL coach Terrell Williams, who is knocking it out of the park on the recruiting trail.

Overall, I'm luke warm on this whole ordeal. I don't like that we're going into a new conference with a new head coach and a new QB and I'm not thrilled that we hired an offensive guy and I really thought that if we were going to fire Sherman right now it was because we were going to go out and make a big splash with a big name, proven guy.

I've heard Sumlin on the radio quite a bit here in Houston and I do really like him - but I'm still not sure if this is a step up or just a step onto a new staircase. I guess we'll have to see how all his coordinator hires goes before I can decide if this is a better situation than what we had.

As they say, only time will tell.

Welcome to Aggieland Coach Sumlin!

The End of an Era....Again.

What a incredibly crazy 10 days. I'm emotionally wiped out - from the craziest 45 days of work I've ever gone through & then the craziness that is the life of an Aggie football fan.

We'll start with the texas game on Thanksgiving.....

I make it a point to keep myself fairly grounded leading up to games. That might be a little bit of a stretch considering I'm probably clinically diagnosable as a fanatic - but as a result of the years and years of disappointment I have managed to temper my emotions prior to a game in order to lessen the blow afterwards.

This game, however, I let it all out. I don't think I had ever wanted to win a game as badly as this one - I was so amped up I was dreaming about Aggie football the two nights leading up to the game.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at our home that Jennifer labored over and following that we made the drive up to College Station for the game. My father had found a ticket on Stubhub that was actually the same row/section as our season tickets - and he bought it way, way back before the prices jumped over $200/seat.

We got into the stadium and made our way up, up, up, up to our seats and settled in for the ballgame.

The Ags came out swinging and we took a 13-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter before we started our frustratingly familiar unraveling. Five of our six losses included blown double digit leads.

(I've got to figure out where to get that jacket)

Ben Molena had a nice ballgame, particularly in the first half....he had this because Cyrus Gray did not play. Turns out he fractured his collarbone and didn't suit up. What I really don't get is the fact that Will Randolph's redshirt was burnt last week against KU when Cyrus came out but he didn't get a single snap against texas? Why on earth would you burn a RS in a second half blowout against the worst team in the conference?

In the second half, the horn's defense stepped up and we didn't adjust. DC Manny Diaz out chess-matched Sherman - big time.

Their DL and LBers are stout and really killed our running game. They also forced us into giving up insane field position....Tannehill threw a Pick-6 (he also had at least 4 other balls tipped at the LOS), Dustin Harris muffed a punt and then didn't dive after the ball and texas recovered and scored one play later on (on a stupid double pass trick play), 81 yard punt return.....same story different day.

We were down 24-16 in the 4th quarter before a Randy Bullock FG brought us within 8 (btw, Bullock had an incredible night hitting 4-of-4 FGs including a 49 yarder and a 51 yarder). The defense forced a 3-and-out and we took over at our own 32 yard line with 4:20 remaining on the clock.

Tannehill hit Fuller down the sideline for a big 29 yard gain and two plays later Molena picked up 9 yards on a hard run. Tannehill couldn't connect on his next two attempts and then on a 3rd-and-10 he scrambled and just barely picked up 10 yards for the new set of downs. At this point we're at texas's 11 yard line. The next snap Tannehill hit Fuller on a little underneath route and Fuller made an incredible play to get to the goal line and spun as he was hit just enough to get the tip of the ball to cross the goal line.

At this point I was high fiving and hugging everyone I could. I can't remember a single moment in any game that I celebrated as jubilantly as I did for this one.

Throughout the game we used Jeff Fuller like Jeff Fuller is supposed to be used. All season he has just been running these little 10-15 yard comeback routes but we finally let him get downfield - he had his best game of the season with 107 yards on 7 receptions and what was, for 1:48, the biggest TD of the season.

We had a 25-24 lead so we went for the 2-point conversion but the play never had a chance - we tried to roll Tannehill to the short side of the field and then force a pass between the sideline and 5 players.

The horns returned the KO to their own 30 and then backed up 5 yards on an illegal formation penalty. The next "play" changed the outcome of the game.

McCoy threw errantly down the right sideline and Trent Hunter closed in on the WR and pulled up at hte last second to avoid blowing him up without having the ball - but he did still graze him.

The guy second from the left was the official who threw the flag. Personal Foul - Unnecessary Roughness. The graze was so slight that the WR didn't even stumble, let alone fall down.

"He laid off - that's not a good call" - Jesse Palmer - ESPN Analyst

"The officials are not supposed to be a significant part of a football game" - Craig James - ESPN Analyst

That took texas from a 2nd & 15 on their 24 yard line to a 1st & 10 on their 39 yard line. It was at that point I realized that they were going to win the game and I was almost sick right there at the top of the stadium.

McCoy completed three consecutive short passes and then somehow scrambed for 25 yards putting the horns at our 23 yard line. It was like dying a slow death.

Our defense played an incredible ball game - the only three miscues were the Shipley TD pass, a meaningless prayer floater that McCoy threw blindly into the air that Shipley caught and ran on, and the McCoy run on the last drive. That was literally it.

I couldn't even watch the FG unit take the field. The final score was 27-25.

I've suffered through some horrific losses over the last 10 years but never did a loss cut so deeply as this one. I was sick about it until Sunday. Not just aw-shucks but knot-in-my-stomache sick.

texas outscored us 17-0 in the third quarter. That is the most pathetic thing about this entire season. We have been horrific in the 3rd quarter. In our 6 losses we were outscored 76-7 in the third quarter. SEVENTY-SIX to SEVEN.

Outside of the OU game, Missouri beat us by the largest margin....of 7 points. That is why this season was so miserable. We were in control in every game and we literally gave them away.

Sherman's Fair-well Press Conference

A full week later, December 1st to be exact, I got a text message from my Father-in-law that read: "Sherman was fired"

Holy cow.

I'm still not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I'm glad that the Athletic Department has decided it is not going to settle for losing 4 of our last 5 games and finishing with a 6-6 record after a pre-season Top 10 ranking but there are lots of other things that you have to ask about.

I don't have a problem with Sherman being ousted but I'm really surprised that they did it when they did - going into a new conference. We're going to have a new conference, a new head coach, and a new QB....and, oh by the way, three of our new division rivals are sitting at #1, #2, & #6 in the BCS rankings with LSU playing Alabama for the national championship.

I really like Coach Sherman - he is everything you would hope for in a coach in terms of honestly, intergrity, character, etc. He "got" A&M which is something his predecessor certainly did not. Even after he was told of the decision he still called up one of our top recruits (QB Matt Davis of Cy-Falls) and told him to stick with A&M. He is the definition of class.

I also felt like he was building a program. We were in complete shambles when he took over and I felt like he built a very solid foundation. He wasn't hated like Fran was - when he comes back to campus he will be greeted warmly.

The problem lies in the fact that he was very stubborn to make changes. He took over the play calling duties after Coach Cromwell left for the NFL following the '09 season and I don't think he could handle running the offense AND running the team. He also struggled, this season in particular, to make any adjustments - or at least to out coach our opponents after they made adjustments.

The other downfall was, what I believe, is an inability to motivate college aged kids. I don't think he grasped how fragile the confidence of these players is compared to NFL players. Momentum swings are ENORMOUS in the college game - big plays win or lose games. Kids can't come back from some devestating special teams play. Maybe he did grasp it - but it was something that was never corrected. When the yarn started to unravel the sweater came apart.

It has been reported that Sherman was fired over the phone. That is an embarrassment. You don't fire someone over the phone - you call them in like a man and do it in person.

I am worried about this recruiting class sticking together - this is one of the best classes we've had over the last 10 years. I'd like to see whoever takes over get here quickly as to try and save as many commits as possible.

That leads right into the next question....who is next?

Going into this past weekend it was generally assumed by almost everyone that spoke about it that Kevin Sumlin was going to take U. Houston to a BCS bowl and then jump up to College Station.

It is amazing what one football game does to perception. Sumlin's 6th ranked Coogs got slaughtered in the C-USA Championship (at home) by Southern Miss. They went from the Sugar Bowl to the second-tier C-USA bowl.

The victor in that game might have gained the most....Larry Fedora is the HC at Southern Miss and his name has become fire-hot on message boards. He's a College Station native who has risen from the Texas HS coaching ranks to creating a Top 20 program at So. Miss.

The other two most buzzed names are Charlie Strong and Kirby Smart. Strong is the head coach at Louisville, a position he took following two national championships as Urban Meyer's DC at Florida. Smart is the current DC at Alabama under Nick Saban.

As of right now, I'm leaning towards being in the Strong camp but over the next couple of days I'm going to try to dive into a little more depth and find out more about all the candidates.

Finally, it was announced today that we will be playing here in Houston for our bowl game in the Mineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (formerly the Texas Bowl) against Big 10 opponent, Northwestern. I was hoping for a bowl here in the state of Texas so I could go but Northwestern is about the most unexciting opponent we could have pulled. Bleh.

The game is at 11am on New Year's Eve at Reliant Stadium.

Ag Football Recap: Ags 61 v. KU 7

After a painstakingly long week at work I needed a release and this was exactly the kind of game I needed.

As Sean and I were driving up we got a text message from my Father-in-law who had extra tickets for us so we met up with them again. I have sat in my actual season ticket seat a total of one time thus far this season....which is fine. We actually walked up to a scalper who was about to rip off some old lady and gave her our tickets.....much to the scalper's dismay.

We took control of the game early and didn't let off the pedal until the 4th quarter when we had pulled all of our starters.

Of course we have to point out that Kansas is really bad. But we're so inconsistent that there is no telling what we're going to get each week.

Ryan Swope had a huge game with 9 receptions for 137 yards and two TDs.....including a highlight reel catch where he got HAMMERED while airborn and he landed and just kept trucking.

Cyrus Gray has cemented his place as my favorite Aggie tailback. I love this kid. He tacked on 94 yards on 10 carries including 3 TDs.....all in the first half. He came out for the second half in street clothes after we saw the trainer rubbing his left shoulder under his pads just before the intermission. The internet rumors started hot and heavy....he broke his clavical, he separated his shoulder, he strained his shoulder....no one knows. I do know that he looked fine during the second half - he wasn't in a sling or had his arm restricted at all.

The thing that fueled the rumors was that Coach Sherman burned true freshman Will Randolph's redshirt in the 4th quarter of our 11th game. I don't know any more than anyone else but I'd be SHOCKED if Cyrus didn't play on Thursday night.

Cyrus has now hit the 1,000 yard mark for the second consecutive season (only the third Aggie RB to do so). He is closing in on top 5 finishes in a good number of Aggie career rushing slots in the record books.....and he's done most of this splitting time with C-Mike.

On the defensive side of the ball the two guys who I think have really stepped up their game over the last 2-3 weeks are LBers Damontre Moore and Jonathan Stewart - vast improvement of late. Moore had two sacks and two forced fumbles. True freshman, Brandon Alexander, also saw the most snaps he has seen all season - by a lot - and led the team in tackles with 10.

A couple other things worth noting are....

• Dustin Harris was a monster at PR taking one to the house and picking up big yards on another
• On a third and ten, Trent Hunter BLEW UP the Jayhawk's QB on a late blitz right up the middle forcing a fumble. It was nasty.
• Jeff Fuller did not start....for the first time in his career....and he wasn't hurt
• This win gave us the magic 6 needed to be bowl eligible....we'll probably end up in one of either the Holiday Bowl (12/28 v. Pac-12 in San Diego), Texas Bowl (12/31 v. Big 10 at Reliant), or the New Era Pinstripe Bowl (12/30 v. Big East in Yankee Stadium). I'm hoping for the Texas Bowl so I can go.
  

In other news.....after a weekend of wacky upsets (#2 oSu lost, #4 Oregon lost, #6 OU lost) the newest BCS rankings have #1 LSU, #2 Bama, #3 Arky.....they're not only in the same conference but they're all in the same DIVISION. The one we're joining next year. Yowza.

We've got a short week ahead with the biggest Lone Star Showdown ever ahead of us on Thursday night. Never has there been a game that I want to win as badly as I want to win this one. Up until about 5 months ago tech was the one team that I loathed more than any other but after all the SEC stuff that went down texas has become enemy #1.

Each school is trying to pin the breakup of the rivalry on each other in a PR battle but I think we came out ahead in that one. A few weeks back Bill Byrne made a statement that we wanted to continue to play the horns in all sports but texas replied back, "Sorry, our non-conference schedule was full for the foreseeable future." Then last week they announced a new game with UCLA in 2014 at Jerry's World. Liars.

All I can say is...BEAT THE HELL OUTTA t.u.!
SEC West

What the Hell Happened?

Life got crazy so posts got neglected.....but whoa, we're in a totally different world now than we were when I last posted.

10/22 Ags 33 at ISU 17
Ags won but it was much closer than it should have been against one of the worst teams in the conference. C-Mike ran for 142 yards and Cyrus added 125 yards on the ground while Jeff Fuller had his best game of the season with 75 yards and a TD on 7 catches.

10/29 Ags 31 v. MU 38 (OT)
We were lucky to get this one to overtime as Mizzou missed a FG as time expired in regulation. Of course, we blew another double-digit 4th quarter lead to get to that point. Sherman lost me in this one - completely inexcusable.

11/5 Ags 25 at OU 41
We played really poorly in the first half but somehow went into the intermission tied up at 13 with the #9 ranked Sooners. Then OU blew the doors off scoring 28 unanswered points in the third quarter. It was ugly. The highlight was Ryan Swope's 148 yards and TD on 13 receptions - he is on pace to break all three big single season receiving records (receptions, yards, & TDs). Oh yeah, C-Mike tore his ACL and is out for the year.

11/12 Ags 50 at K-State 53 (3OT)
As much as I felt like we should have won the Mizzou game....and even after everything I've seen this season....I really thought we'd beat #14 KSU. Apparently, I forgot that we blow double-digit fourth quarter leads....don't worry - the team didn't. Four of our five losses we've coughed up DOUBLE DIGIT FOURTH QUARTER LEADS!?! It was the drops by our TEs and WRs that did us in this time. Whether it was an early walk-in TD, key first downs down the stretch, or a triple overtime 2-point conversion.....we dropped'em. Don't fear, we're heading into flu season and our WRs don't need to get their shots because they can't catch anything. Thank goodness for Cyrus - I love this kid - he ran for 218 yards and 2 TDs.

What a complete mess this season has turned into. All of the momentum we had coming off of last season, and the recruiting campaign, and pre-season accolades, and then the SEC announcement.....it's all gone. We flushed it down the toilet.

We have Kansas, the worst team in the conference, at home this weekend before turning around for the biggest Lonestar Showdown of all time....the last one.

Frankly, at this point, I don't care what happens against KU - Sherman needs to start getting the team ready for texas - just game plan for them from today until Thanksgiving. We HAVE to beat texas.

Ag Football Recap: Ags 55 v. Baylor 28

Eternal Scoreboard.

Honestly, this is one of the games I circled on the schedule and said, "We have to win this game - I don't think I could take listening to Baylor fans overplay this game for all of eternity if we lost."

There was never a Baylor game that I burned to win more than this one. Normally it was just another game on the schedule that I anticipated a victory in but this year was different. Whether it be the entire SEC roadblock, all the RG3 hype, or the fact that they were, not only ranked, but somehow ranked ahead of us - I wanted our boys to crush them.

55-28.

The Battle of the Brazos ends with A&M dominating the series with 22 wins in the final 25 meetings and the Bear's winless streak at Kyle Field will stay frozen at 13, dating back to 1984.

It was a great game - it was close enough, long enough for the fans to be into the game and have some suspense but we finished so strongly that we ended up completely blowing them out. The perfect combination.

Let me start by saying that Robert Griffin III is a great player. It's a shame that he is being wasted away in Waco. He threw for a school record 430 yards and had 3 TDs.

Our defense did get after him though, picking up 5 sacks. We should have had 4 or 5 more but he is so incredibly elusive he slipped out of them - usually resulting in a nice scramble or even a long completion - very impressive. We did also pick him once. It was our first forced turnover since the first quarter of the SMU game and it was only the second INT he has thrown all season.

I'm not sure what on earth he was thinking, but that INT was probably one of the worst I've ever seen. It was 1st & 20 on their own 20 with 9:46 remaining in the game and we were up by 20 at that point. He was flushed out of the pocket and just hurled the ball deep downfield - he was standing flat footed and wasn't even looking - it was a jump ball that Dustin Harris won.

One place that has completely killed us all season is getting off the field on third down....especially in 3rd & long (they converted on a 3rd & 19 and 3rd & 11).

On offense everything finally clicked on all cylinders. Holy cow we have the ability to just roll a team up when that happens. We finished with 681 yards of offense and only failed to score on our opening drive (when Tanny was picked on a tipped shuttle pass). My favorite part was that in the second half the offense actually stuck around - we scored 31 points in the last 30 minutes.

Ryan Tannehill found Ryan Swope over, and over, and over, and over. Swope finished the day with 205 yards (5th most in school history) and a school record 4 TD receptions on 11 receptions. Jeff Fuller had a couple of drops but he made up for them with 71 yards on 5 receptions - when he had the ball in hand he fought like a dog for yardage. EZ also had 94 yards and a TD on 4 receptions.

Fuller also passed Terrence Murphy for the top spot in the school's all-time receiving yard list. He now sits atop all three of the school's big receiving categories for a career -receptions, TDs, and yards.

Tannehill finished the day 25-of-37 with 6 TD passes and 1 INT and 415 yards passing. He added 55 yards on the ground.

CMike and Cyrus Gray are so incredible to watch. Cyrus had 42 yards on 12 carries while CMike had 105 and a TD on 21 carries.

Other notes:

• Steven Jenkins make his first career start at ILB

This was my first game to sit in my actual season ticket seat and I'm still crispy red from sitting so close to the sun. The lady next to us was probably in her 50s and she was there by herself and was as loud as Sean and I. At one point in the 3rd quarter she turned to me and gave me instructions on what to do if she had a heart attack. And I think she was serious. That is redass.

This coming Saturday we travel to Ames to face ISU and the following weekend we get another 11am kickoff at Kyle Field with Mizzou.

Ag Football Recap: Ags 45 v. tech 40

The tension was high my my living room as I watched this one play out - it was Jennifer's birthday on Saturday so we went out for dinner and after she went to bed I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to watch the game - and it was so hard to keep quiet and not wake everyone up.

It wasn't our best game, and we certainly looked bad at several points, but I will take a win in lubbock any day - any way necessary.

It wasn't Tannehill's best game, but I thought he did a good job leading the team and being athletic enough to turn a handful of negative plays into positive ones. He threw for 188 yards and 1 TD but ran for 55 yards and added two TDs on the ground.

Cyrus ran for 115 yards and a TD while CMike added 52 strong yards and another TD.

There were two times that Cyrus was whistled down but his knee never hit the turf (he was sitting on a defensive player) - we noticed this also once in the Arkansas game. The coaching staff or someone needs to point this out to the officials because at least two of the three times he got up and took off and they would have been easy TDs.

Everyone has been ranting and raving about the defense over the last three weeks but what might be a bigger concern is the offense consistently disappearing in the second half.

oSu
1st Half: 301 yds/20 pts
2nd Half: 170/7

Ark
1H: 424/35
2H: 234/3

tt
1H: 326/31
2H: 82/14

Seven of those second half points against tech came on a blocked kick (by Dustin Harris) that was returned by Terrence Fredrick for a TD so the offense doesn't even get credit for it.

This has way more to do with those late game comebacks that we've seen than the defense does.

On the defensive side of the ball three players jumped out at me as guys who stepped up.

• Sean Porter continues to be our best (and most consistent) defensive player

• Terrence Fredrick not only returned that blocked FG for a TD but he had a couple of big pass deflections - I thought it was his best game of the season - he also did a great job (along with Porter) at breaking through his blocks on the bubble screens and making the tackle on the receiver
  

• True freshman, Howard Matthews, who made his first start of the season - he was all over the field and played the run very well and brought pressure constantly (4 QB hits including a sack)

We had a couple of injuries - Jeff Fuller came out of the game with a concussion and Brandon Alexander dislocated his elbow. Ryan Swope was on the field a lot but was MIA - I think they are really trying to keep him out there as a decoy and not give him the ball as he recovers from his concussion.

Is there a team in the conference that gets away with more holds than tech? It seems like they, more than anyone else, get away with big obvious holds every single time we play them.

While I'm talking about penalties, I'm going to mention the officiating. You aren't allowed to complain about it if you lose so I'm going to do it when we win. They were bad.

I already mentioned the whistles on Cyrus and the holds but there was some sort of phantom pass interference call on T-Fred just before tech's last TD of the first half - probably the worst PI call I've seen in a few years. There was also a really badly missed block in the back on a return where Tony Hurd Jr. was shoved right out of the path of the return guy - right in front of the official.

I know there are missed calls in every game but some of these were egregious.

One thing is for sure - I couldn't be happier to never have to play tech again. I dispise tech more than any other school in the Big 12, including texas, and I pray that the Big 12 still falls apart simply so tech gets dropped to the MWC or something similar/more deserving.

Next Saturday we host the Robert Griffin IIIs in what will be the biggest Battle of the Brazos ever. Not only is there bad blood about the whole SEC move/attempted block but they a) are ranked for the first time we've played them since I've been around; and b) have somehow leapfrogged us in the AP poll after their mighty home win against fellow bottom feeder Iowa State.

Typically, this is a game that is just another blip on my radar because it means that I get to see my Ags play....but this year, I actually care about it. The Bears haven't won a ballgame at Kyle Field since the early-80s and since this is the last time we'll face the Bears there is no one in this state wants that record to hold tight for the rest of eternity than me. I truly hope that we beat them 2003-style.

Ag Football Recap: Ags 38 v. Arky 42

We walked out of the stadium on Saturday and there was no speaking. We were completely stunned.

How on earth can a team, in back-to-back weeks, blow a 17 point halftime lead and then an 18 point halftime lead.

We had the football world right where we wanted....where we had dreamed for it to be. It was a Top 20 matchup - another big game - and we were in the process of rolling up our opponent (a future SEC rival) and we blew it - AGAIN.

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH.

We can't quite take advantage of momentum.

The weekend itself was fun. Jennifer and I drove up Friday night with the kids after I got off work. Saturday morning Jennifer dropped me off at her Dad's house and they went to the State Fair and we went to the game, where we met up with my brother, my dad, and my brother-in-law. After the game we met back up with the Fair group for dinner and had an evening at GrandAggie's place.

Our running game was outstanding. It was probably the best rushing performance I've ever seen from us....the '06 Nebraska game where J-Train and McGee each ran for 130+ is the only other game I can think of that would be in the conversation.

Christine Michael led the way with 230 yards and 3 TDs. He was like a man amongst boys. It was the most rushing yardage by a single player since Darren Lewis put up 232 back in 1990 against tech....tied for 3rd most in school history. And he did it on only 32 carries (7.2 ypc).

He's probably my favorite running back to watch since I got to school. He runs with such passion and strength. J-Train was lots of fun to watch in short yardage situations but C-Mike has him beat when it comes to doing it from anywhere on the field.

Not only did C-Mike run all over the Hogs but Cyrus added 95 yards and 2 TDs and Tannehill tacked on 56 more.

Everytime C-Mike or Cyrus scored I turned to Sean and said, "C-Mike/Cyrus did it for your birthday." Because it was Sean's birthday. I feel like I said it a lot during that first half.

We went into half-time with a 35-17 lead and I told Sean, "The winner of this game is going to have more than 35 points. We're either going to put up 70 or finish with 35."

The frustrating thing was that I was pretty close to being right. We scored 3 points in the second half, including a highly scrutinized FG late in the game. The game was tied with 4:22 remaining after Arky had marched back with 18 unanswered points and we had the ball in a 4th & 2 on their 6 yard line. I turned to my father-in-law and said something along the lines of, "Wow, he thinks we're going to stop them." (referring to Sherman). I then turned to my brother and moaned, "We're not even going to have enough time to get back down field and score after they score."

Arkansas marched down the field and scored a TD and we got the ball back with a little under 2 minutes remaining - which actually was enough time, we just couldn't move the ball.

I understand that Sherman plays a conservative style and that his background in the NFL is much more of a play it by-the-book approach but in college football you're dealing with 18-22 year old kids who can unravel when things go wrong. The ones that don't and are able to rise to the occasion are the ones that go onto the next level where you can have a more by-the-book approach.

How did Arkansas manage to mount this sort of comeback? They threw the pigskin off the ball. 510 yards passing.

Now the two things that I find interesting is that they actually threw for more yards in the first half when we were romping them than they did in the second half when they mounted their comeback (271 in 1st H and 239 in 2nd H). Their leading receiver, Jarius Wright, had a school record 281 yards and 2 TDs....but he only had 54 of those yards in the second half.

The difference was that the offense stalled out in the second half. It wasn't that Arkasnas wasn't scoring in the first half, they were, it was that we were just tacking on points faster.

Here's a look at the blow-by-blow scoring....

7-0
14-0
14-7
21-7
21-14
28-14
28-17
35-17
------
35-20
35-27
35-35
38-35
38-42

We did have two turnovers. Tannehill threw an INT in the first half that led to Arkansas's first TD drive of the game and C-Mike fumbled a ball. We are not getting turnovers - we are -5 on the season and haven't forced one since the first quarter of the SMU game (excluding the oSu Blackmon self-inflicted fumble into the endzone for a touchback). Even with that gimmie fumble we are 112th in the nation in turnover margin. That has to change.

Lots of people pointed to the C-Mike fumble as the turning point in the game but I'm not completely sure it was because our defense came out and forced the only 3-and-out of the second half and got the ball back. I think that the turning point came on our drive following the 3-and-out:

1-10 C-Mike ran for 5
2-5 C-Mike ran for 10
1-10 Cyrus ran for 7
2-3 Cyrus ran for 11
1-10 Cyrus ran for 10 (called back on a illegal block)
1-15 Pass to Fuller for 9
2-6 C-Mike ran for 2
3-4 Pass to Cyrus for 3
4-1 Punt

That illegal block killed what was looking to be a MONSTER drive. A backbreaking drive.

Jeff Fuller is playing on a bad hamstring and as a result our passing game has looked pretty weak - particularly down field. Ryan Swope had the play of the game (and long pass of the game) when he leapt over a diving defender and picked up major YAC but beyond that I don't think we had a single pass go for more than 15 yards.

Somehow, amidst the roller coaster of emotion, Sean and I noticed that Arkansas's players all seemed to have some sort of abdominal bleeding.

What a horrible uniform design.

What is happening? I'm not sure. I don't think we're getting enough pressure without having to blitz an outside linebacker or a defensive back. Dustin Harris and Terrence Fredricks each had a sack and Sean Porter had two. On the season we have 18 sacks but 10 of those are from CBs and Porter.

I don't think it is our defensive backs that are the problem - we returned everyone from last season. It has to be our DL and our LB corps (particularly the inside LBers).

Even with our 112th ranked turnover margin and our 120th ranked pass defense - we lost to the current #6 and #10 teams by a combined total of 5 points. It's amazing to me how slim the margin is. If we fall on that Arkansas fumble in the endzone 1/10th of a second faster than we did they don't score that TD and we probably win the ballgame and we're riding high as the 10th or 11th ranked team in the country. We didn't - and it's the end of the world and we're just hanging onto a #25 ranking.

It's a funny game. A game of inches. And emotion.