The Big Reveal

 

Sorry, my intention was to post once we saw the uniforms yesterday....but I passed out in excitment/anxiety/elation as I was logging onto my computer.

I have really liked the uniform we've worn for the last year and a half so beyond hoping for a matte finish on the helmets I wasn't really sure I wanted to change.

That said, I really dig the new unis.  They're a modern twist on the 1970s/Emory Bellard style uniforms.

Helmet:

I've been wanting a matte finish on our helmets since I saw Mizzou first wearing it in 2009 against Kansas.  These new maroon helmets aren't quite matte but at the same time, they are certainly not the normal glossy finish - I would almost call it a candy finish. 

It's that candy paint, 84's,
Belts and buckles, chrome and grill.
Leather seat, stitch and tuck, TV screens and wooden wheels.
Suede roof, neon lights, four tires swang and bang.
Tops drop, blades chopped, fifth wheel just hangin mane.
White Tees, fitted hats, Jordans under dickies. (dickies)
That Swisher sweet, cigarillos filled up with the sticky. (sticky)
The 15's bammin' and the bass kick... kickin.
Cadillac doors slammin on them 44's, tippin.

Basically, they are awesome.

We also have a white helmet, similar to the one we wore in '09 (against Arkansas and OU).

I really like grey facemasks, but I'm a little surprised that there is so little grey elsewhere to go with it (like grey pants).  I think it looks much better on the white helmet than our maroon one did in '09.

The helmet also features an SEC pennent sticker on the back as well as one of the new block aTm outlined by the State of Texas (which I will refer to as aTm/SoT).

Tops:

Let's start with the biggie.  The SEC logo.  It is glorious.

The biggest buzz creator I think has been the beveled numbers.  I cannot stand our beveled block aTm logo so my initial feeling when I heard about the numbers was negative - but when I saw them they weren't as bad as I had imagined.  The bevel is grey on both uniform colors so it is much more visible on the white tops because it stands out more strongly on the maroon font.

We've got two stripes running from the collar down the sleeve that carries on down the undershirt sleeves.  This is a pretty clean retro look. 

It appears that our weekly 12th Man representative will have a 12th Man logo on his undershirt sleeves - it is a little cluttered and busy.  I orginally thought it was on everyone's sleeves and I wasn't really into that but since/if it is just on the one player's arm that makes it much more purposeful and actually highlights one of our coolest traditions - you and I both know that every single announcer will zero in on that on kickoffs and talk about it ad nauseum.

We did keep the small font size with TEXAS A&M on the front from last season, although the font is just slightly different.

I think what looks more odd than the bevel is the size of the numbers (proportionally) on the front of the uniform.  They look to be about 20% smaller than they have been.  The text above the numbers is the same size so if you compared it to one of last year's jerseys you can see how much smaller the numbers are.

On the back, just below the collar there is a block aTm logo.

Bottoms:

 

 
Nothing too crazy here.  There is a single stripe down the outside of the leg - and if you followed the two stripes down from the arm, the single pant stripe lines up between the two arm stripes.

At the top of the stripe, on the hip, there is the new aTm/SoT logo

Etc.:

From a performance standpoint they are apparently 30% lighter than the jerseys that were already 30% lighter when they were introduced 1-1/2 years ago and the cuts are supposedly better for the players.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: The recruits all gave glowing feedback - an overwhelming number were really high on the all whites combos.

Next Up: Actual football?

Got the Itch

July 10th, 2012 - I just got my annual itch for college football.

We're talking about fiending so badly that I'm squinting for 10 minutes stretches at tiny little teaser 200x200 pixel images trying to decipher what our new uniform is going to look like.....

.....only because my aging eyes can't squint at a screen any longer than 10 minutes stretches without my peripheral vision starting to go blurry.

They're releasing the new uniforms on Thursday.  Full size images.....I hope.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH.

I think I'm going to have to go pick up my Phil Steele magazine today.

Early Summer Update

Who am I kidding, the only reason I'm posting right now is to celebrate.

Yesterday, July 1st, 2012, Texas A&M officially became a member of the most prestigious league in the land, the Southeastern Conference.

It has been a long, long road but I think that the fan base's excitement and enthusiasm clearly shows how much the wait was worth.  I think the buzz right now tops any other time I can think of since I started school.

Coach Sumlin is currently cleaning up on the recruiting trail which brings even more unbridled enthusiasm.  He has brought a flair of confidence back to College Station that we haven't seen since prior to our current commits were born.  He loaded up the staff with recruiters and has sent them out to do some damage.  Everyone loves to see his now famous "YESSIR" pop up on their twitter feed....because that happens when he lands another commitment.

Interestingly, Tommy Tubberville, who has to be the happiest guy ever to be on the hot seat, must be really surprised at Sumlin's success.

"I think there's a lot of kids that's going to want to stay in the state of Texas and play, and that's going to be probably 10-12 guys that could have gone to A&M that stay in the state, so you're going to see a lot more teams go to that area, which we already do," Tuberville said, "but you're going to see more of a presence there."

Huh?  Someone get that man a map. 

How far would a Houstonian have to travel to attend all of A&M's games?  3,534 miles.  How about to see all of the red raider's games?  5,989 miles.  I'll do the math for you tech fans.....it's a difference of 2,455 miles. Give it up Tubbs - even you are better than that.

Getting into our games?  That's going to be tough because tickets.....well, there aren't any.

We sold out our season tickets at Kyle Field and I was fortunate to be able to secure tickets to the game at Auburn.  What is the hardest ticket to come by?  The SMU game in Dallas.  Yeah, seriously.  The problem is that SMU isn't selling the game to the highest neutral site bidder and their stadium only holds 32,000.  Season tickets for the Ponies are only $100 a pop so that might be the best way to go.

All of this ticket commotion has pushed another issue to the forefront.  Expansion of Kyle Field.  They don't really know how they want to do it, but it's coming.  It looks like one of these three scenarios will play out:

• Build a new stadium off campus
• Knock down Kyle Field and build a new stadium in it's place (forcing us to play our home games in Houston/Dallas/or San Antonio for a season or two)
• Add onto the current stadium in segments 

I honestly haven't really done my due diligence and really read up on this like I feel like I should have....but I just can't wrap my head around having to travel to all of our home & away games.  That would suck.

This next topic is getting glossed over way to much by me but let me assure you that it is very important.  Bill Byrne announced last month that he was stepping down from his position with one year remaining on his contract.  His replacement was named on Saturday - former South Carolina AD, Eric Hyman.  This is a big move by our administration, going out and picking a big time guy from a big SEC school - one that has had tremendous success in the last few years.

I'm excited.  You're excited.  Let's bring on some Aggie football!  WHOOP!

Oh yeah.....ding dong the witch is dead.....the BCS is gone and in 2014 we will be going to a 4-team playoff to supplement the bowl games.  Finally!

Spring Catch-Up

I always seem to fall off a bit after bowl season and then I get bitten by Aggie football again as spring practices start back up.

I've got a little housekeeping to take care of in terms of everything that has gone on since my last update.

Coaching Losses/Additions:

I don't think I mentioned this previously, but Larry Jackson is back on campus. The former Wrecking Crew linebacker/lineman ('91-'94) was on staff at A&M at the end of the Slocum era as the Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach. After two years at OU with the same title and six years at UH as the Head S&C Coach he has been brought back home. His official business card title is Director of Football Sports Performance.

Matt Wallersteadt (KSU c/o '98) picked up the final coaching opening as LB Coach. Wallerstead comes from Air Force where he replaced Tim DeRuyter as Defensive Coordinator and Assistant HC. Prior to his time at AF he was at KSU in the position of Recruiting Coordinator, Special Teams Coach and LB Coach for the Falcons. He was also the DC at Wyoming from '97-'02.

In somewhat suprising news, we lost the lone Sherman holdover, DL coach Terrell Williams to the Oakland Raiders. Can't really fault the guy for taking an NFL gig.

His replacement was welcomed by Ags.....after just accepting the DL position at texas tech in December, Sumlin swept in and grabbed the guy he wanted - Terry Price.

Price was a member of the Wrecking Crew from '86-'89 and after two years in the NFL came back to Aggieland as a Volunteer Coach ('92-'93) before a year at Western Kentucky and then more than a decade in the SEC ('95-'98 Ole Miss DL, '99-'08 DL Auburn, '09-'11 DL Ole Miss). He was with Tubberville in his first stop at Ole Miss and during his time at Auburn. Price is a great DL coach and knows the SEC very well.....on the field and on the recruiting trail (which is another of his strong suits).

With the exception of the two line coaches, every other member of the coaching staff has at least one of these three things on his resume: Head Coach experience, Offensive/Defensive Coordinator experience, or Recruiting Coordinator experience.

Schedule/Tickets

Here is the finalized schedule, which has a handful of changes from the last one I posted.

2012 Football Schedule

Thu.  8/30 v. LaTech (Shreveport)
Sat.  9/08 Florida
Sat.  9/15 at SMU
Sat.  9/22 South Carolina State
Sat.  9/29 Arkansas (home)
Sat. 10/06 at Ole Miss
Sat. 10/20 LSU
Sat. 10/27 at Auburn
Sat. 11/03 at Mississippi State
Sat. 11/10 at Alabama
Sat. 11/17 Sam Houston
Sat. 11/24 Mizzou

Wow.

Is that a season opener away from Kyle Field? Yep, first since '05 Clemson and '04 Utah. Wait, it's an away game at a WAC opponent? Yeesh.

Those away tickets are VERY tough to get. If you're not a BIG cigar then you're with me looking at StubHub for SEC away game tickets.

Speaking of tickets....

• Kyle Field has sold out season tickets.
• The band has to be moved due to SEC rules that students cannot be behind the visiting team's bench
• The SEC requires a greater allotment of visitor tickets so my brother and I were relocated all the way across the stadium....and couldn't get two seats together so we have some random person sitting between us.
• Season ticket prices went up but the biggest change was the loss of the discounted season tickets. My previous seat was a few rows from the top of the zone as part of the Flyover Package so it was like $260 last season but now they're all full priced (I'm section 301 now at $522.50)

Personnel

National Signing Day came and passed, and like years prior it had it's share of drama....but unlike the past, we came out ahead.

The big news is that we lost AggSwagg co-founder Bralon Addison to Oregon on signing day. The 4* athlete was going to play WR for us but Oregon promised him he could play his high school position of QB (along with a bunch of other stuff I'm sure).

At the end of the day, when Sumlin was finished raiding other school's commit lists the loss of Bralon doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Here are the eight players that Sumlin inked that weren't previously a heavy A&M lean or commit:

• Edward Pope (TCU commit) - WR
• Thomas (Tee) Johnson (t.u. commit) - WR
• Sabian Holmes (Baylor commit) - WR
• Derel Walker (JUCO) - WR
• Edmund Ray (Mizzou commit) - OL
• DeVante Harris (OU commit) - DB
• Polo Manukainiu (OU commit) - DL

I think Sumlin said it best when asked about the loss of Bralon Addison, "We wish him luck. We signed a guy that was a bigger and could play multiple positions that was the number 3 receiver in the nation. He's ready to contribute and isn't a developmental project."

He was speaking of Johnson who was as close to a 5* as they come....he was scored a 6.0 out of 6.1...he was the #34 recruit in the nation and #32 was the last 5*. To put it into some context, Cyrus and Fuller were both 6.0 in '08 but were 78 & 76 nationally, respectively.

In addition to that list of recruits, Sumlin also landed OU-transfer, Brandon Williams. He was a 5* RB in the 2011 signing class. Combined with C-Mike and this year's signing of Trey Williams, we have three 5* running backs on campus right now.

The other big news was that Ryan Swope decided to not declare himself eligible for the NFL draft. I couldn't see Swope being drafted any higher than the 4th or 5th round and he is going to be a PERFECT fit in Sumlin's offense so this seems, on all fronts, to be the right call.

The Feeling on Sumlin

I actually had two separate conversations last week with two Ags whose opinions I respect on the football front and all three of feel exactly the same way.....

We weren't thrilled with the Sumlin hire but four months in he has said and done everything exactly how he needs to and he has put our uneasiness behind and we're on board.

As I mentioned earlier, I like how he has assembled his coaching staff - heavy on recruiting and coordiator experience.

He impressed with the signing class that he was able to hold together and add to. He has also gone on the offensive and is working much more quickly on next year's class and the following year's class. He is offering the top kids in the state and is also going national, offering the top 1 or 2 players at each position. You never know if she'll dance with you if you don't ask.

He bumped back Spring Practice as far back as he was allowed to give the players another couple weeks with Coach Jackson to get into shape. He has said that conditioning was definitely an issue last season - which is something I think most fans were really frustrated about.

He is going to put a huge emphasis on special teams - Polian is one of the best in the nation and several of the other position coaches have been ST coordinators in the past. Something that I have been appalled at from our two previous coaches.

He has embraced the move to the SEC. Sherman never came out and acknowledged how great this move was for us - the impression that he gave off, true or not, was that he wasn't completely on board with it. Sumlin is all over it.

Marketing and branding. Sumlin is taking this opportunity and has hit the national media circuit hard. He knows that we have to break some of our old stodgy attitude that kids should want to come to A&M because of the tradition and the Wrecking Crew. Kids want a little sizzle and he's giving them some.....but he's done a good job thus far of shaking things up just enough to not offend the blue hairs sitting in the club level.

Overall, there is a very good feeling in Aggieland right now. Of course, there hasn't been a snap of football played yet.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot to mention.....we were **THIS** close to having a dance team at Kyle Field. Haha.

2012 Season Schedule

This was announced several weeks ago but I just realized I had not weighed in on it....

2012 Football Schedule

09/01 - McNeese St
09/08 - Florida
09/15 - @ SMU
09/22 - OPEN
09/29 - Arkansas
10/06 - @ Ole Miss
10/13 - OPEN
10/20 - LSU
10/27 - @ Auburn
11/03 - @ Miss. St.
11/10 - @ Alabama
11/17 - OPEN
11/24 - Mizzou

• We're going to fill two of those open dates with cupcakes, I'm sure.
• The winners of four of the last six national championships are on that list.
  

I'd have to go back to the media guides to find out when the last time we played a conference game in week two was - but we need to get used to it - that is the way of the SEC. And it looks like the Florida Gators will be the first SEC game in school history, and it will be nice to have them at Kyle Field....which is going to be rocking all season long.

My goal is to make one away SEC road trip each season and frankly, this is a tough one to pick. On my bucket list I have road games at 'Bama and Ole Miss BUT I think we're going to knock Auburn out this year....for one reason only....the famous oaks on Toomer's Corner are dying (if you hadn't heard) and I'd like to see them before they die. If not for that Auburn would be much further down on my list.

The other nice little touch I noticed was an AWAY game at SMU. We've played SMU a handful of times since the SWC dissolved but it will be the first time we've played them in University Park in 20 years (10/31/92). Tickets will be scarce because Ford Stadium only holds 32,000. It'll be a nice road game to a stadium I haven't seen and have a nice weekend with the family up in the Big D.

On a related note, Arky is no longer at Jerry's World and looks to be turned into a home & home.

Sumlin Adds a Co-DC

Coach Sumlin has added Marcel Yates to the coaching staff as a Co-Defensive coordinator who will also handle the defensive backs.

Yates comes to us from Boise State where he served a couple of roles. From '03-'05 he was the cornerbacks coach then from '06-'10 he was the defensive backs coach and then last season he served as Defensive Pass Game Coordinator. I would assume that since this is a co-coordinatorship he would be serving a similar role with us which is interesting because I'm not sure we've ever had a co-defensive coordinator but Sumlin showed in his time at UH that he wasn't afraid of the "co-" title.

Under Yates as the Defensive Pass Game Coordinator the Broncos season stats looked like this:

Rush D 110.0 (17)
Pass D 210.9 (43)
 Tot D 320.9 (16)
Scor D  18.7 (12)

I'm not sure what to make of that. But he is known as a stout recruiter which is something that Sumlin has focused strongly on as he put together this staff.

There is one more opening, which appears to be for the LBer coach - we'll have to see how this gets filled....and will it be done before signing day next Wednesday?

Sumlin Hires Mark Snyder as Defensive Coordinator

Mark Snyder

• Marshall c/o '88
• 4-3 base defense
  
  
• 1991-1996 Youngstown St. LB/ST/DC
• 1997-2000 Minnesota DE Coach
  
• 2001-2003 Ohio State LB Coach
• 2004 Ohio State Defensive Coordinator
• 2005-2009 Marshall Head Coach
• 2010-2011 South Florida Defensive Coordinator

Coach Sumlin made the move on Monday to bring Mark Snyder on board as the defensive coordinator. He comes to us straight from South Florida where he was the defensive coordinator for the last two seasons.

I'll be completely honest - when my father-in-law texted me his name the first thing that went through my mind was, "Who?" I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

The next thing that went through my mind was, "Well, I had better find out." So here's a pretty detailed look at the last 3 stops on his resume, which are most relevant.

Snyder reunited with Jim Tressel at Ohio State after working for the Vest during his time at Youngstown State. His first three years in Columbus he was the Linebacker coach with some big names, like Matt Wilhelm and A.J. Hawk under his tutelage. In 2004 he was promoted to defensive coordinator.

Ohio State National Defensive Rankings
        BEFORE        DURING         AFTER
      2002  2003       2004       2005  2006
      ==========    ==========    ==========
Rush D   3     2     124.3 (32)      1    15
Pass D  95    80     201.6 (41)     43    30
 Tot D  23    10     332.0 (30)      5    12
Scor D   2    16      18.3 (19)      5     5

That was not what I wanted to see. In the five years shown there, the one season he was at the helm was the worst. They were still very good, but it was easily the worst season of the five.

I was impressed when I did a quick Google search and saw he was Tressel's DC at tOSU. That's a big, big program and that was right in the middle of their strong mid-2000s run. Holy cow were they good....they won the National Championship in 2002 and then followed that up with four times top 4 finishes over the next five years - but 2004 was their worst finish....at #19.

After 2004 he was hired away by Marshall, his alma mater, to be the head coach.

Marshall
       Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
     ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2005 161.8 (75)  178.5 (12)  340.3 (33)  25.9 (60)
2006 139.3 (65)  251.7 (114) 390.9 (101) 29.3 (102)
2007 191.0 (93)  259.8 (100) 450.8 (107) 34.3 (102)
2008 164.4 (85)  253.7 (100) 418.1 (102) 27.7 (72)
2009 134.9 (48)  236.9 (91)  371.8 (66)  24.3 (54)

There are a lot of triple digit national rankings in there....TORBUSH! Let's take a closer look.

Marshall National Defensive Rankings
    BEFORE                 DURING                  AFTER
  2003  2004    2005  2006  2007  2008  2009    2010  2011
  ==========    ============================    ==========
R  57    19      75    65    93    85    48      55    58
P  10    72      12   114   100   100    91      94    96
T  24    32      33   101   107   102    66      71    78
S  47    37      60   102   102    72    54      74    74

What I was hoping to see was that they were really, really bad before he got there and he was improving the program but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Now it is worth pointing out two things that could be playing into this.

• Marshall moved from the MAC to C-USA the year he arrived to Marshall....but then again they were still respectable in his first year/their first year in C-USA.
  
  
• It's an entirely different deal getting to be a coordinator at a powerhouse program where you get blue chips delivered to your doorstep by Jim Tressell than it is having to recruit and play with the kids that you can get to come to a mid-major

Snyder lasted five seasons as the head man at Marshall before he resigned/fired following a 6-6 2009 season and a 21-37 overall record. During his time at Marshall he did face Sumlin (at UH) in 2008 getting the best of the Cougars 37-23.

He landed on his feet at South Florida as their defensive coordinator.

South Florida
       Rush D      PassD       Total D   Scoring D
     ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2010 125.6 (22)  192.3 (24)  317.9 (17)  20.0 (22)
2011 107.3 (15)  244.0 (84)  351.3 (39)  22.7 (37)

Those numbers are promising. Let's take a look at a snapshot before/during his tenure:

USF National Defensive Rankings
    BEFORE        DURING 
  2008  2009    2010  2011  
  ==========    ==========
R  10    49      22    15
P  37    25      24    84
T  10    24      17    39 
S  24    19      22    37 

I'm not seeing a really significant improvement from the before and during.

Now I don't know who the defensive coordinators he followed at Ohio State, Marshall, or South Florida and maybe they were all really good DCs but I am having a hard time getting excited about someone who didn't seem to improve the last defensive units that he was put/was in charge of.

The last thing I wanted to take a look at was who on earth some of these teams played. I don't know what a typical South Florida schedule looks like....so I looked:

USF 2010
               v. USF       Season Avg.
              Yds Pts   Yds (rk) Pts (rk)
              =======   =================
Stony Brook   253  14    -   --   --  --
Florida       423  38   351 (82)  30 (43)
W.Kentucky    314  12   319 (98)  23 (90)
Fla. Atlantic 208   3   395 (45)  17 (113)
Syracuse      307  13   323 (97)  22 (93)
West Virginia 298  20   373 (67)  25 (78)
Cincinnati    590  30   417 (32)  27 (57)
Rutgers       238  27   295 (114) 21 (101)
Louisville    328  21   369 (71)  26 (63)
Pitt          292  17   367 (72)  26 (67)
Miami         353  20   421 (31)  26 (67)
UCONN         232  19   326 (96)  26 (63)
Clemson       356  26   335 (88)  24 (86)

Now this is more promising. Only Florida, Cincinnati, & Clemson gained more yards against South Florida than their season average....the best three teams they faced. Almost the same thing can be said on the scoring side....just about everyone was held at or below their season averages.

USF 2011
               v. USF       Season Avg.
              Yds Pts    Yds (rk) Pts (rk)
              =======    =================
Notre Dame    508  20    413 (35)  29 (49)
Ball State    225   7    379 (68)  25 (72
Florida A&M   181  17    ---  --   --  --
UTEP          339  24    381 (64)  27 (62)
Pitt          523  44    350 (88)  24 (83)
UCONN         253  16    313 (108) 24 (82)
Cincinnati    501  37    386 (61)  33 (27)
Rutgers       228  20    339 (99)  26 (65)
Syracuse      405  17    348 (90)  24 (84)
Miami (FL)    316   6    378 (70)  27 (63)
Louisville    373  34    333 (103) 22 (98)
West Virginia 364  30    470 (15)  37 (14)

Not quite as impressive with three 500+ yard games but on the scoring side really only Louisville and Pitt really outscored their season average.

Bottom line is that Sumlin needs for this hire to pay off big dividends - the SEC is a defensive conference. I really hope that some of these trends are bucked and this one works out for us.

Welcome to Aggieland Coach Snyder!