A Couple of Followup Thoughts

• The team is having Fan Appreciation Day on Sat. Aug 24th.  We've been every year since Benjamin was born and its a great time for kids (and grown up kids) to meet the players. 
  
  How great would it be if the athletic department brought in JSA Authentication (the company that authenticated all of those Johnny autographs) and set them up in a booth at the end of the row of players?  That would be a classic Sumlin move.
  
  Seriously though, it will be interesting to see if Johnny is in attendance and if so how it is handled.
  
• There was an article today that brought up very good point.  LSU's starting RB, Jeremy Hill, already on probation for a sex crime, plead guilty last month to a battery charge.  Meanwhile, Johnny wrote his name on things.  Hill has been re-instated by his school and won't miss a game and Johnny faces the possible loss of his eligibility.

Johnny Autograph

Last weekend I received this text message from my father-in-law:

"More trouble for JFF!  Accused of receiving $ for autographs!"

My first thought was "Here we go again".  There has been a TON of off-season scuttlebutt following Johnny (that I haven't documented but are documented ad nauseum everywhere else) but none of it was actually serious - just over sensationalized by the media in the lulls of the offseason.  But after doing some initial reading, I realized that this might have some teeth.

I remembered that back in the spring this exact same topic had been brought up in the media so I had no doubt that the autographs were real.  My question was, "Did he get paid?" or maybe a bit more honestly, "Will they be able to prove he got paid?"

The topic resurfaced because of report by Darren Rovell (who is probably most famous for this fine bit of journalism), that ran on ESPN.  The story basically said that Johnny signed a lot of autographs for a memorabelia dealer that have been authenticated and are being sold on the internet and the NCAA was investigating Johnny.  But *shockingly*the unnamed sources saw Johnny at the signing....but no one saw any financial transaction.

This, broke the night before fall camp opens. 

All of this coming on the heels of this week's Sports Illustrated:

 In the presser for the first day of practice on Monday Sumlin said he had only heard about it 24 hours prior, which surprised me a little.  I figured that if the NCAA is investigating they would let the school know (which would have been particularly important when that school's backup QB was finishing up his degree so he could transfer as a grad student to another program for playing time as a senior).

A&M has brought in Birmingham law firm Lightfoot, Franklin and White to handle the situation on their end, and Johnny's family has lawyered up as well.  Lightfoot is basically the top NCAA compliance law firm in the country and handled the Cam Newton case a few years back.

So the next question becomes, "If there isn't resolution in the next 22 days, will we play him to start the season and risk having the results of those games stripped from us?"

My initial thought was, heck yeah, play him and win those games - particularly the 'Bama game - and make a run at an SEC title.  In 5 years....10 years....20 years no one will remember.  They'll remember the experience, the highlights and the images of the games.

Then I started to think a little more.  I'd definitely go that route if I thought he would get through the entire season before a ruling was handed down but..... 

What if he doesn't?  What if they come to a conclusion soon or even during the season?  Even if the NCAA is able to prove that Johnny did get paid, the suspension could very easily be just a handful of games.  The Ohio State players from the tattoo scandal got 4 games each. 

If that was the case, we would be punished in the polls and standings immediately, rather than retroactively, and wouldn't even get a chance to play for the SEC title. 

It'll be really interesting to see how Sumlin and the school handles this.  The Cam Newton situation was different because the accusations didn't come to light until mid-season so they were already on the hook. 

I think it is also important to keep in mind that is not a recruiting violation they're investigating.  It's not even a situation of an alum or booster paying him.  This is Johnny, on his own, maybe making money by signing his name for someone else.

Another aspect of this that I find interesting is that everyone I talk to about this, regardless of their rooting interests, are disappointed simply because they want to see him play (more specifically, they want to see him play against 'Bama).  Because this isn't a recruiting issue or a booster issue it is being viewed less as cheating and more as a casualty of a rule that was already widely considered dumb and hypocritical.

The NCAA has been getting more and more heat about it's rules regarding athletes getting compensated.  They are coming off of the recent EA SPORTS NCAA FOOTBALL video game lawsuits.  If they drop the hammer on Johnny, the currently loud minority will grow significantly into a majority.  The governing body - the NCAA - might not survive and this could ultimately be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Interestingly enough, until a day or two ago, the NCAA's own website would pull up player related merchandise when certain player's names were entered into the search function.  For example, if you typed in "Manziel" it would bring up an A&M jersey with a #2 on it.  Johnny isn't allowed to sell his own name but they can use it to sell their gear.

Obviously they've been making money hand-over-foot for their on-field product thanks to the players, so this is small beans but it is an absolutely PERFECT (and very specific) example of them profiting off of the players.  I'm sure that Johnny's lawyers took notice.

Some A&M fans have taken it upon themselves to do some research on authenticated player signatures and have found pretty interesting stuff (here).  This doesn't appear to be a "Johnny Problem", this is a "College Football Problem".

I really hope this all doesn't blow up on A&M but if it does, Johnny brought it upon himself - he knew the rules, as dumb as they may be, and life will go on.  I'll still be standing at the top of Kyle Field every weekend.  Shoot, I survived the Fran-era, I can survive anything.

Holy cow I can't wait for the season to actually start.

Mid-Summer Updates

It's mid-summer, which is the most painful time of the year for college football fans - we're 6-7 months removed from the last game, spring ball has come and passed, the recruiting cycle is still to early to get super excited about, and we're still looking at another couple of months until the next whistle blows.

Magazine companies exploit this time of the year by releasing all of their preseason magazines with predictions and depth charts, etc. - but frankly, they're released so early that there are too many things that happen between the day they hit the stands and the day the pads go on for them to be really accurate.  And for the real hardcores - they could write a better/more depth/accurate article of their own team.

Here are the things that I think are worthy of note since the last post....

• Would-be SOPH linebacker, Michael Richardson, will not return on the roster due to his injury - but he will stay on as an assistant football coach.  He last played in the Sam Houston game but felt neck pain and it was determined he suffered cervical spine injury and had to undergo surgery
• S/CB Floyd Raven and CB Deshazor Everett were arrested last month after a fight on Northgate.  They have been suspended from the team with the extent of their punishment unknown.
• We have added UTSA to our 2016 & 2019 home schedules
• The home & home games against Southern Cal in 2015 & 2016 were dropped from the schedule.  There was some confusion in regards to the home & home with Oregon in 2018 (in Eugene) & 2019 (at Kyle Field), but it has been clarified that the Oregon series is still on the books.  I've been really looking forward to a possible trip to Autzen Stadium so I'm glad it is still in play.
• Even though they couldn't figure out a way to continue the Lone Star State Showdown because their schedule is completely full until 2018, the longhorns managed to find a way to add an annual 4-game series with Notre Dame starting in 2015.
• Big 12 coaches and ADs are really pitting themselves against the SEC with this incredible thought that the Big 12 is a deeper conference than the SEC.  Bob Stoops made some comments about how the bottom of the Big 12 was better than the bottom of the SEC and now tech's AD has made a similar comment. 
  
  They like to point to the fact that 9 of the 10 teams in the conference made a bowl game last year (because most of them were 6-6).  Just because you have a bunch of mediocre teams who can all beat each other with no one distinguishing themselves from the rest doesn't mean you have a deeper conference. 
  
  The bottom half of the Big 12 went 5-20 against the top half....and three of those wins were over Baylor, who had a losing record in conference play.  The Big 12 has 4 mediocre teams and 6 really bad teams.
• Freshman are on campus and have started summer school.  Outside of Kohl Stewart, who was drafted by the Twins with the #4 overall draft pick in the MLB draft (and signed for $4.54M), there aren't any players that I have heard won't make it onto campus for the fall. 
• It's pretty unanimous across all media sources that Johnny isn't going to be a repeat winner of the Heisman.  The biggest thing they point to is the fact that all the teams now have film on him. 
  
  Because after 6 or 8 games last year they didn't have film on him.  And OU didn't have any film on him.  And he hasn't been working to make improvements.  And he has no film on any of the defenses.  And no opponents have film on the new sexy favorites, Braxton Miller or Teddy Bridgewater.
  
  Personally, I don't expect him to repeat as winner, but it won't be because he is no longer the best player in the country.  I love that the naysayers are out - because if there is one thing we've learned about Johnny, it's that he hears the criticism and it drives him.
  
• Bama has been thinking about us for 9 months.  They are coming for revenge.  Bring it. 
  
  Kickoff has been announced at 2pm on September 14th.  Kyle Field is going to be E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C.
• President Bowen Loftin announced yesterday that he will be stepping down from his position in January after 3 years at the helm of our university.  He will remain on the faculty in the school of engineering as a tenured professor.  Even though his time has been short, we could not have asked for a better leader and visionary for the school.

That's about it.  We've still got another 4-5 weeks until fall camps start up.

The New Kyle Field

It is official.  Today the Board of Regents approved the Kyle Field renovation and all of the official information came out.

It is going to be glorious.

There is a website dedicated to it with a lot more pictures and some information, but in all honesty there are only a handful of things I care about....in order:

1. Make it as L-O-U-D! as possible
2. Don't mess with the student section - location or number of student seats
3. Where will my season tickets end up being?
4. Will construction be coordinated where I don't lose my season tickets for some duration of time during the actual construction process?

Sure, most of that is pretty selfish but I can handle using the old bathrooms we have now and I'm not ever going to be allowed to step foot in one of the "Founders Suites" so that's all just noise to me.

Make it Loud
Clearly, this was on their checklist.  The stadium will seat 102,500 fans, making it both the largest in the state of Texas and the largest in the SEC.  They will close in the south endzone and are putting canopies above the East and West stands to help keep the sound in.  They are also bringing seats closer to the field and lowering the playing surface to help keep the noise in.  It's going to be so friggin' awesome.

Student Section
They are keeping the students on the West side of the stadium, which I wasn't sure they would do.  As a student I always loved that I got an opportunity to watch games from between the 40s on the second deck - those same seats on the Former Student side would never be available to me. 

They could have easily taken those seats from the students, sold them to alum, and moved the students to the top of the Zone....but they didn't and for that I am thankful. 

Our student body is a HUGE part of what makes Kyle Field so special and I think if they tarnished that they'd lose more in atmosphere than they could buy with the revenue they would make from ticket premiums.

Here is one detail that they hit out of the ballpark.  There will be 12 empty seats in the student section in honor of the 12 students who lost their lives in the '99 Bonfire tragedy.  Always Remember.

Where Will I Sit?

My current seats aren't spectacular by any stretch of the imagination - frankly, as long as I am in then I'm happy.  Looking at the pictures the area where my seats are now, they will still exist post-reno. 

My expectation is that I will have to move to worse seats at a higher price than I'm currently paying because I won't be able to afford where I am currently.  There is also a very, very strong likely hood of a PSL (Personal Seat License) that will have to be purchased, so that is going to be a large chunk of cash up front.  Again though, I'm happy to just be in the stadium.

Still, I'm really curious, more so to see how they handle the re-allotment for seats in more premium areas.

There are some season ticket holders who have donated a tremendous amount of money for a really long time (through the good times and bad times) and have had the same seats for decades.  It would be really sad if someone could come in out of nowhere and outbid them for their seats. 

Obviously, the guy in Row 30 Seat 4 isn't going to be in Row 30 Seat 4 anymore because that seat isn't going to be in the same location on the field - but I would expect them to be able to give everyone the option to buy their seat within the same 5 or 10 yard markers.  Or I would hope they could.

Season ticket holders got an email this afternoon that touched very delicately on this topic:

Due to the scope of this project, we must completely reseat Kyle Field for the 2015 season. This is necessary to generate the required funding for the project and to ensure that we provide fair and equitable access to all seating options for current season ticket holders, as well as individuals seeking to support the program and acquire seats for the first time. We will release complete information on the reseating process and ticket pricing on June 4, 2013. Extensive consideration has been given to the needs and seating requirements of our current season ticket holders. This will continue to be one of our top priorities.

 Obviously, this isn't just on my mind - it's on the minds of those who donate a heckuva lot more than I do.

Like it says, June 4th should be the day that answers some questions - the entire stadium seating chart will be released along with ticket prices.  You know that the prices are going to jump significantly if they're giving us 2 years to digest it. 

The 2015 seats will go on sale on August 6th, 2014

During Construction
One of my biggest fear during all of the speculation over the last couple of years leading up to this was the thought that I might get squeezed out for a year or two while this thing gets built.  That went for whether they moved all our home games off-site (Reliant Stadium/Alamodome/Cowboy Stadium) or if they played in it while it was being renovated.

Of course, that's pretty short-sighted - but I don't want to miss any of the excitement over our new conference affiliation.....but also because we're finally good.

Here is the schedule we received in the email that was sent out:

• Phase 1 – November 2013
o Demolition of first deck on the east side
o Construction of the first deck on the east side
o Construction of south end zone

• Phase 2 – November 2014
o Demolition of the west side
o Finish the construction of the south end zone
o Construction of the west side

• Grand Opening – 2015 football season

Our last home game in 2013 is November 9th against Mississippi State and I imagine that on Sunday November 10th the crews are scheduled to start work.  Since they won't start work on the west side of the stadium until after 2014 and it's supposed to open in 2015 it looks like I'm safe.

Wait, that is just TWO years of construction?  WOW.  Everything that I had read prior to this was that it would be a three year project.


Here is the video the school released explaining a lot of the above.  It got me all pumped up.




One more thing, as if we need any additional off-season excitement tomorrow (Thursday) the SEC/ESPN are announcing the new conference TV deal.  I'm really anxious to see how many zeros are in the payouts.

It's a good time to be an Aggie!

Early Off-Season Notes

This is going to be a sort of mix of news....some of it happened before the bowl but I hadn't mentioned it yet....

Prior to the season starting I had this to say about Coach Sumlin in my season preview:

To date, Sumlin has met or exceeded every expectation I had for him. 

Frankly, he has been damn near perfect.  He assembled a high level coaching staff, his recruiting has been outstanding, he has come in with a little bit of a cocky demeanor, he has said all the right things, he understands the school's culture, he has put an emphasis on marketing and public perception, has been on almost every talk show and college football program in the country, and he has embraced the move to the SEC.

Basically, he has dominated the off-season.

We're about to see how he does with the other 50% of the job.  It's football season, my friends. 

He dominated the regular season and the bowl season and 2013 recruiting and is well on his way towards dominating 2014 recruiting.

In one full year on the job Coach Sumlin has been flawless.

We fans couldn't have even topped his first year with our fantasy of what year one should be.

He did is so well that he earned himself a new contract - $17.5M over 5 years ($3.5M/year).  That makes him one of the highest paid coaches in the county and the highest paid coach without a national championship ring.

As the contract was being negotiated, he was offered the Auburn job (Chizik was fired at the end of the season) and he also turned down the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL.

Coordinator Changes

Following his first season, Sumlin had to enter the market for a handful of coordinators. 

Kliff Kingsbury took the head coaching gig at texas tech and took Matt Wallersteadt (LB coach) with him as a DC.  Brian Polian also got the head coaching job at Nevada.  I can't blame a single one of them for jumping for a significant bump up in job title and salary.

I think that Kingsbury is going to struggle in Lubbock and I think Wallersteadt made a bad career move by taking a DC job for a team that isn't very good in the mega-offensive conference that is the Big 12.  I think Kliff could have won himself a better head coaching job had he stayed on for another 2 or 3 years and continued to light up the SEC, but that being said, we couldn't come close to the $2M/year that tech is paying him until that happens (that is at least a x4 bump in salary) - and it was his alma mater.

I don't have any ill will towards any of them, including Kliff, but I also don't have any strong feeling to root for tech just because he was our coach.  First of all, it's tech and I despise tech but secondly, he was just here for a blink of time (10 or 11 months).

I also don't think we're going to miss a beat without him.  I think this is Sumlin's show and the OC is just calling plays in a system that Sumlin implements.  Clarence McKinney, who is well versed in Sumlin's offense stepped up during the Cotton Bowl and called plays pretty darn well.

Sumlin went out and hired Jake Spavital with the title of Co-Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach.  Spavital has had a fairly short coaching career but he has worked with what could easily be considered THE best offensive minds in the game.

• 2008: Tulsa offensive quality control assistant (under head coach and offensive guru, Gus Mahlzan, now the new HC at Auburn) (National Rankings: #9 pass offense, #1 total offense, #2 scoring offense)
• 2009: UH grad assistant (under Sumlin, Kingsbury, and Dana Holgerson) (National rankings: #1 pass offense, #1 total offense, #1 scoring offense)
• 2010: Oklahoma State grad asssitant (under Mike Gundy and Dana Holgerson) - (National rankings: #2 pass offense, #3 total offense, #3 scoring offense)
• 2011-2012: West Virginia QB Coach (under Dana Holgerson) - (2011 National Rankings: #6 pass offense, #15 total offense, #13 scoring offense; 2012 National Rankings: #10 pass offense, #10 total offense, #9 scoring offense)

His QB pupils...Case Keenum, Brandon Weeden, & Gino Smith.

Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com have run great articles on Coach Spav.


McKinney was bumped up with the title of OC and David Beaty was bumped up to Recruiting Coordinator as the result of his cleaning up on the recruiting trail.

Interestingly, this will be our third different OC in as many years (and 4th in 5 years).

Sumlin then hired Jeff Banks with the titles of Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends.  Banks has ties with Sumlin through Mike Price.

• 1998-2000: Washington State Grad Assistant (under Mike Price)
• 2000-2003: Idaho State Special Teams Coordinator, Recruiting Coordinator, RB & Kicking Coach
• 2004-2012: UTEP Special Teams Coordinator, RB & Punting Coach (under Price again)

We need Banks to come in and shore up our kicking game.  It this point, it could easily be the difference between a 10 win season and a 12-13 win season. 

I like that Banks was at one point in time a recruiting coordinator - I think that is a HUUUUGE benefit and something we saw pay off dividends with Sumlin's original staff.  

The coaching staff was filled just before signing day with Mark Hagan as our LB coach. 


CURRENT PLAYERS:

Here are some quick notes on some of our players

• Thomas Johnson - following his MIA incident he is not enrolled in school and will likely not be back
  
• Jamiel Showers is graduating during the summer and then transferring to UTEP - where he will turn around and come back to play at Kyle Field next season (again you see the Sumlin/Price connection).
  
• Jordan Richmond has not been with the team since bowl practices
  
• Kirby Ennis arrested for something that involved brandishing a firearm.  What the heck are you caught up in when at 6'4" and 300+ lbs you need to be packing heat in College Station?  He has been suspended indefinitely....his big body in the middle of the DL and if indefinitely turns into infinitely he will be sorely missed.  Wow, where has our front 7 gone?
  
• Nate Askew has moved to DE from WR this spring to see if he can better his status on the depth chart

INJURIES:

During a press conference, Coach Sumlin mentioned a handful of injuries (March 1st):

• Julian Obioha missed Cotton Bowl with undisclosed injury - will miss spring 2013 but should be ready for the fall
  
• Trey Williams underwent sports hernia operation at beginning of Feb - should be back last week of spring practice
  
• Ivan Robinson tore his achilles during a February conditioning drill - will miss spring practice - 5-6 month recovery

JOHNNY:

Johnny has taken on celebrity status. 

He had suite tickets for a Cowboy game, sideline tickets for some Rockets & Mavs games (where he met Lebron, Chris Paul, etc.).  He went to the Super Bowl and rubbed shoulders with Jessica Beal, Justin Timberlake, Rick Ross, etc.  Then he went on a mini-tour with rapper, Whale.  Then the NBA All-Star game.  The list goes on and on.  Basically, if it is happening then Johnny is there.

He has become such a focus of the media that when it came out that he was taking all online classes this spring it became a leading story on SportsCenter.  Seriously.  The kid was academically ranked as a junior while he was playing his freshman season of football - we don't need to worry about his grades.

On the drive home from the Cotton Bowl I said something along the lines of, "I would be shocked if he wasn't back for his junior season."  Then I watched the NFL playoffs unfold and realized that with the success of Colin Kapernik, RG3, and Russell Wilson (even Cam Newton) that Johnny is gone.

Enjoy him while he is here folks.


2013 RECRUITING/SIGNING DAY:

Coach Sumlin knocked it out of the park with the 2013 signing class.  We finished ranked #11 by Rivals, #8 by 247 Sports, and #6 by Scout.  As good as that seems, we finished 5th in the SEC West (by Rivals).  The SEC is a beast.

Yes, we've seen highly ranked classes before but Sumlin was EXTREMELY careful to make sure that everyone we inked would make it to campus and be on the field.

At QB we landed Kenny Hill (son of former MLB pitcher, Ken Hill) out of Southlake Carroll and Kohl Stewart out of Houston.  Hill was a HUGE get and will project to be Johnny's replacement immediately while Stewart has other options in terms of MLB draft status.  

James White was the only RB we took (he will be a thumper) and TE Cam Clear came to us from JUCO (played at Tennessee his freshman season) with two years of eligibility left.

The list of wide receivers is crazy.  Prior to this class, we might have landed 3 or 4 kids of this caliber at WR in school history.  We landed 6 in one class.

• Quiv Gonzalez - 4*, 5'10", 148 lbs
• Ricky Seals-Jones - 4*, 6'5", 220 lbs
• Sebastian Larue - 4*, 5'10" 175 lbs
• Kyrion Parker - 4*, 6'3" 185 lbs.
• Jeremy Tabuyo - 3*, 5'11" 178 lbs
• JaQuay Williams - 4*, 6'3" 205 lbs

That  is without Derrick Griffin who was commited but wasn't going to qualify so we didn't send out a LOI to him - he might have been the best of the bunch (he signed with Miami).

Quiv and Larue are both true vertical threats, something we didn't have last year....Tabuyo runs a 4.4 out of Hawaii....JaQuay will walk in and start for us - he signed with Auburn last year as a sign and place....RSJ was the #1 WR in the state.

We took four OL - Joas Aguilar (6'5", 295), Jeremiah Stuckey (JUCO; 6'7", 290), Ishmael Wilson (6'5", 275), and JJ Gustafson (who will grey shirt).

At DL we had one of our best hauls since the '90s Wrecking Crew days

• DT Justin Manning 4*, 6'2", 275 lbs
• DT Isaiah Golden 4*, 6'2", 295 lbs
• DT Hardreck Walker 4*, 6'2", 280 lbs
• DE Daeshon Hall 4*, 6'6" 240 lbs
• DE Jay Arnold 3* 6'4", 235 lbs
• DE Jordan Points 3*, 6'4", 255 lbs

Justin Manning was the #1 defensive player in the state.

Mack said it was a down year for DT in the state of Texas so he's not concerned.  That's funny because we landed 3 in-state DT...and then Bama and Baylor stole the two horn DT commits less than a week before NSD.  He better hope he knocks it out of the park next year because if he thought 2013 was a down year for DTs, 2014 is supposed to be even leaner.

We brought in 5 LBers

• Tommy Sanders - JUCO mid-term enrollee will step in immediately
• AJ Hilliard - TCU transfer will have 3 years of eligibility after sitting out 2013
• Reggie Chevis - will likely see time as a true freshman
• Darian Claiborne
• Jordan Mastrogiovanni
• Brett Wade

We did lose out on JUCO LB Kenny Flowers, who was set to be a mid-term kid but didn't get it done academically to qualify at mid-term so we passed on him.  As a mid-term enrollee he would have been able to count towards last year's recruiting class scholarship cap but since he wasn't a mid-term kid he lost value (he signed with Auburn).

Like I said, we finished with a top 10 signing class nationally but only 5th in the SEC West.  Seriously, what is going to happen to college football over the next few years? 

Think about this....the kids that signed this year were 10 years old the last time there was a non-SEC team hoisting the crystal trophy at the end of the year.

The ever looming conference re-alignment, which is supposed to end with four Super Conferences, is going to be driven by the fact that the SEC has pulled so far away from the rest of the country - it is literally in a league of its own....and it hasn't even inked it's new conference TV deal.  The money that it is going to bring in is going to be completely staggering and will dwarf anything else out there - including the LHN.

The gap is going to increase between the SEC and everyone else....at some point will you see the NCAA step in and try to level the playing field?

COMBINE/DRAFT: 

 The NFL combine invite list came out and of the 333 players invited, 79 of them were from the SEC.  The next highest was the ACC (!?!?) with 43.  

A SEC coach can go into recruits living room and say 25% of the kids invited to the combine come from one of the 14 SEC teams.  The other 106 teams in the country share the remaining 75%.

Luke Joeckel is projected to be the #1 overall pick by the KC Chiefs.  That's awesome.

Damontre Moore was a top 10 projected pick going into the combine but did not perform well and has seen his stock drop pretty significantly.

Ryan Swope probably made the most money with his combine performance.  He had the second fastest 40 time at the combine with a 4.34 (faster than Reggie's 4.35, who is still the only QB to ever run under a 4.4).  I knew he was fast but I didn't realize he was THAT fast.

C-Mike, Johnathan Stewart, and Sean Porter were the other three Ags invited to the combine.  It'll be fun to keep up with the draft at the end of April.

Ag Football Recap: Helpless Sooners Get Steamrolled by Ags, 41-13

This game was sold out before we were even announced as playing in it but thanks to one of the best gifts ever (from my father-in-law), Sean and I were able to attend.  We both took a vacation day on Friday and drove up to Dallas to meet up with my in-laws and drive to the game together.

Parking at Jerry's World is always crazy but its always interesting walking through the tailgaters as we're trying to figure out which gate we are standing in front of and which gate we need to enter through (because no matter what, they're never the same).

Once we got inside we had to split up to go to our respective seats.  Sean and I found ours, only to discover they weren't ours - we were a section too far over.  That's always an embarrassing verbal exchange, regardless of how polite both sides are.

This was a weird bowl game for me.  When we played Mizzou back in November I thought we were invincible and were going to roll whoever they match up against us but over the time off my old pessimistic self crept back into my head.  After watching LSU and Florida lose their bowl games, I started to buy into the thought that the 3 point Vegas line on the game was actually right.

I know a lot of Ags were slightly concerned about whether Johnny would show up focused after his Heisman ceremony and the celebrity tour he has been on.  He did Letterman, Leno, sat courtside for a Mavs/Heat game & chilled with Lebron after the game, pulled suites at a Cowboys game, was spotted in an Oklahoma casino, sat courtside at a Rockets game - and then chilled in lockerroom, went golfing with the Jonas Bros, etc.).

This, of course, was a pre-game topic of conversation but my father-in-law nailed it.....this is Sumlin's team with Sumlin's attitude.  He was right.

We went into half-time clinging to a 14-13 lead.....and then pulled away in the second half to finish with a 41-13 vitctory.

What an absolutely dominating performance that game was.  First of all, Johnny went crazy on Stoops' defense:

• Cotton Bowl MVP
• Individually, he had 516 yards of offense (229 rushing/287 passing) with 4 TDs (2/2) - his yardage broke the Cotton Bowl record by over 100 yards
• Johnny ran for the 4th most yards in Cotton Bowl history
• He set the NCAA Bowl Record for rushing yards in a game by a QB
• Missed throwing for 300 and rushing for 200 by 13 passing yards - that has been accomplished once in NCAA history (he did become the the first A&M and SEC player to go 200/200)
• Became 4th QB in NCAA history to have 20 rushing and 20 passing TDs in a season
• The 633 yards of offense by team was Cotton Bowl record
• The offense averaged 9.6 ypp (Cotton Bowl record)

I think that anyone who thought he didn't deserve the Heisman changed their minds (because they watched him play for the first time - it's the only reason they wouldn't have thought it earlier).

On the flip side, the defense was STOUT.  We held the #11 scoring offense in the country to one (1) touchdown on the evening.

I thought that Dustin Harris and Tony Hurd Jr. played their best games of the season.  Damontre Moore was solid as expected and Alonzo Williams also made his first career start on the DL.

Ryan Swope, who broke the school record for career receptions earlier in the season, took the record for career yards in the season finale as well - he ended his brilliant career with a total of 252 catches for 3,117 yards and 24 TDs (2nd in school history).  He had 104 yards and a TD on 8 receptions against the Sooners.

Mike Evans and EZ both added 80+ yards and EZ had an emotional final TD to put the exclamation point on the ballgame.

This game instantly jumps into my Top 3 All-Time Games I've Been To along with the '02 OU game and the '10 Nebraska game.  I'm not exactly sure where it falls - they're all a blur in my mind at this point - but there is no doubt I haven't had as much fun at a game in a long time.

One of the moments that I will take away was when the War Hymn was played at the end of the third quarter.  It was a rare moment when there was nothing else going on in the stadium - no advertisements or announcements or introduction or baton tossing - just the FTAB and 50,000 Ags in full voice celebrating not only a great game but a great season.  It echoed in my ears long after we walked out of the stadium.

We also got our first real opportunity for the "SEC!  SEC!  SEC!" chant. I'll be honest, it was a poor first effort - out of sync, differing speeds.  It'll get better, I have no doubt about that.

After the game we found an IHOP and had a surprisingly wonderful meal as we rehashed every exciting moment of the game.  When we got back to the house I'm not sure anyone had anything left in the tank - I know I was asleep within minutes.

Simply a wonderful game to cap off a wonderful season.

I cannot wait until the M&W game.

Cotton Bowl Preview: #11 Oklahoma

I went through all my game previews through the years and I noticed that I have never taken a historical look at OU's program.

The Sooners truly are one of the best programs in college football - one that I think is highly underrated when you're talking about the premier college football teams historically. 

They had three separate truly dominant eras.

Bud Wilkinson

The first of those three was under head coach Bud Wilkinson.  Wilkinson won three National Championships while played QB for Minnesota and was just as dominant on the sidelines in Norman.  He won 14 conference titles (thirteen in a row) and three National Championships ('50, '55, '56).

A few years back I read Jim Dent's The Undefeated, which told the story of the Sooners' 10 year stretch of dominance from '48-'57 under Wilkinson. They went 94-4-2 with two seperate win-streaks of 31 and 47 games.  During the 11 year span from 1948-1958 the Sooners lost more than one game in a season only once.  Wilkinson really made the Sooner state forget that they were a bunch of Tom Joads by giving them something to be proud of.

Interesting fact - one of Wilkinson's QBs at Oklahoma was a guy by the name of Darrell K. Royal.

Barry Switzer

The next stretch of dominance was under Barry Switzer, who took over in 1973 (he was previously their OC) and went on to win National Championships in '74, '75, & '85.

There were two things that fascinated me while reading his autobiography, Bootlegger's Boy.  One was that as an assistant coach at Arkansas he had two players that went by the names of Jimmy Johnson & Jerry Jones.  Yeah, that Jimmy Johnson & Jerry Jones. 

The Selmon Brothers

The other was that he landed a trio of brothers Lee Roy, Lucious, & Dewey Selmon - each of whom brought home unanimous All-American honors (a total of five between the three).  They all played together on the DL in 1973.  Apparently the saying in Norman in those times was, "God Bless Mrs. Selmon."

Their third era began when Bob Stoops took over the program in 1999.  They've been really good since then.  8 BCS Bowl appearances, including three National Championship games and one NC trophy.  That's a pretty good run.

Stoops has also added two Heisman winners under his belt but, in my opinion, the best player of the Stoops era was Adrian Peterson.  A.D. was like a man amongst boys on the field.


I've noticed that a lot of schools have given their Heisman winners a statue, but OU is probably the only school that has enough of them to call it Heisman Park.

Heisman Park in Norman, Ok

Billy Vessells won it in '52, Steve Owens in '69 (his trophy is displayed in the Coach's Restaurant in downtown Norman), Billy Sims in '78 (he's the loud annoying guy every year at the Heisman Ceremony) and then more recently, Jason "Eternally Eligible" White in '03 and Sam Bradford in '08.  You have to admit, that's pretty impressive.

The name Sooners came from the Oklahoma Territory Land Run back in 1889 - the Sooners were the ones who left early and the Boomers were the ones who waited for the gun to go off.  Think Tom Cruise in Far & Away.  That's why they're known in theses parts as the Land Thieves.

The Sooners play their home games at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.  They are typically pretty good there - from '99-'11 they lost two home games....but this year they lost twice (to currently ranked #5 Kansas State and #1 Notre Dame).  The stadium holds 82,000 but they can cram 85-86K in there.

A&M and Oklahoma have a pretty nice history against each other with 30 head-to-head bouts, including 18 times in the last 19 years.  The five games that are typically discussed around here are the

• '97 - Ags won 56-7 
• '00 - #1 OU snuck past Ags, 35-31
• '02 - Ags upset #1 OU (Reggie's coming out party)
• '03 - 77-0
• '10 - Ags win 33-19 over #8 OU during magical November run

 Hopefully this year's game will make the cut....in our favor.

I'm not going to dive in too deeply into analyzing this year's matchup.  I don't have any particular venom towards OU, especially now that former DC, Brent Venables, is gone. 

This is not one of Stoops' best Sooner squads but it's still a really good team.  We do have somewhat of an advantage in that Sumlin has been in the trenches with Stoops and we know what they do on offense fairly well with their spread attack.

 aTm O v. OU D
==============
 13  Rush  79
 13  Pass  26
  3   Tot  45
  3  Scor  40

Our offense is impressive because we did it against the SEC.  OU's defense (particularly pass defense) is impressive because they did it against the Big 12.

 OU O v. aTm D
==============
 59  Rush  37
  4  Pass  80
 10   Tot  56
 11  Scor  29

OU's offense is inflated because they got to light up the terrible Big 12 defenses.  Our defense is inflated due to the handful of inept SEC offenses. 

We'll see who bucks the trends more.  Frankly, as it seems it always is in bowl games - the winner will come down to QB play, turnovers, and special teams play.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA OU!  WHOOP!