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!

"The SEC is Overrated"

The Southeastern Conference is widely considered THE premier collegiate football conference in the country.  The last seven seasons have seen the SEC rise to a level of conference domination unseen for ages. It isn't just one great team, it's great teams across the conference.

The SEC a breeding ground for the NFL....and it always seems to come up once a year - "Could 'Bama beat (insert terrible NFL team)?"

Well, the answer to that is no - but all of the ballyhoo for the SEC creates anger and angst for non-SEC fan bases.  Losing is bad enough - nobody likes to have to also have "S-E-C!  S-E-C!  S-E-C!" rain down on them.

In retaliation, other fan bases throw stones at the SEC and claim, "It's overrated."  I've heard it for the past several years so I thought this would be a good time to take a look at that claim.  A&M is in it's first year in the SEC and we're matched up with Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl - what better time, right?

Obviously, I hear this claim of unwarrented adulation primarily from Big 12 fans - for many reasons.  I live and work with mostly Big 12 supporters, A&M has a strong history with them, and they have a legitimate claim for the title of second best conference.  I'm going to pick on them a bit and use them as the comparison.

The Cotton Bowl

Let's start of by looking at the Cotton Bowl itself.  The Cotton Bowl has been a match up between the Big 12 and the SEC since 1999.  The SEC has won 9 of the 14 games and since 2004 the SEC is 8-1.

Bowl Games

Bowl games are a good way to see how a conference does.  The SEC's dominance over the last 7 seasons has been incredible - here are the comparisons for the last 6 bowl seasons against non-conference opponents (with this season's games still to be played)....

• The SEC is 36-17 (.679)
• The Big 12 is 26-21 (.553)

Again, the Big 12 is just being used as a comparison.


Out-of-Conference

"Oh, the SEC is overrated because they just beat up on each other and inflate each others rankings."

Ok, so let's just look at out of conference records.  Over the last 7 seasons.....

• SEC is 329-69 (.827)
• Big 12 is 263-85 (.756)

That may not look like a big %-age difference but for the Big 12 to catch the SEC in %-age they would have to win 144 consecutive games. 

Again, the Big 12 is just being used as a comparison - I'm not trying to embarrass them.

"Oh, but the SEC doesn't play anybody out of conference - they just pad their records with powder puffs."

Ok, let's look at out of conference record vs. ranked opponents.  Over the last 7 seasons....

• SEC is 46-26 (.639)
• Big 12 is 19-36 (.345)
• SEC has played 17 more OoC games against ranked teams, and has lost 10 fewer
• For the Big 12 to get to .639 they would have to win 45 consecutive games against ranked opponents

"Oh, but the SEC is top heavy."

Those are the entire conference numbers.  That accounts for the pummeling that Vandy, Ole Miss, & Kentucky traditionally take.

Just for fun, here are the records against Top 10 OoC opponents:

• SEC is 18-12 (.600)
• Big 12 is 5-13 (.278) 

Ok, I was trying to embarrass the Big 12 there.

Head-to-Head

Like Billy Madison said, "You and me.  Mano y mono."

Over the last 7 seasons the SEC is 15-8 against the Big 12.  Three of the eight Big 12 wins have been against Ole Miss.  Quit picking on Ole Miss.

The SEC has also won two National Championships in head-to-head games with the Big 12 during that stretch - in 2007 when Florida beat OU and in 2009 when Alabama beat texas.

What Everyone Agrees On

The Big 10 is terrible.  The Big 10 is 17-31 against the SEC & Big 12 combined over the last 7 seasons.

The Takeaway

The SEC is THE best conference in the country.  Regardless of how tired everyone is of hearing it, it doesn't change the fact that it is still true.

I didn't even have to play the trump card of 6 consecutive National Champions.....going on 7.

S-E-C!  S-E-C!  S-E-C!

Johnny Heisman

"This is a moment that I have dreamed about since I’ve been a kid. Running around the back yard pretending I was Doug Flutie, throwing Hail Mary’s to my dad. Now, I am so blessed to be on the stage with such a group of great guys and to be invited into this fraternity, what a pleasure it really is. I’d like to start by thanking the Heisman Trust and everybody who made this weekend possible. What a great experience it was to meet the people that I have, Manti and Collin, not only great football players, but great guys off the field as well. It has been a pleasure to get to know you guys better and I wish ya’ll the best of luck.

It’s such an honor to represent Texas A&M and my teammates here tonight. I wish they could be on this stage with me. Texas A&M, choosing that school is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life and I am so proud to be a part of that.

To Mom, Dad, Meri and the entire family watching, you mean the world to me and I just want to thank you for the encouragement, the love and the patience over the years. To grandpa, to all of the times we used to play in the hallway and throw the ball until we couldn’t anymore, I love you with all my heart and you inspired me to play football. To Grandma, I’m so sorry for the things we broke in the house.

To my coaches back in Kerrville Tivy, Mark Smith, Julius Scott and everybody there, you taught us all what it meant to really fight and work for something that you wanted more than anything in the world. You taught us about passion and about heart and what it truly meant to say, “Tivy fight never dies.”

To Coach Sherman, Coach Rossley, Coach Sumlin, Coach Kingsbury, and everybody that’s been a part of me playing football for my entire life you’ve been truly a blessing. You’ve taught me not only what it means to be a football player but to be a man as well and for that I thank you so much.

I wish my whole team could be up here with me tonight, especially my great offensive line and the whole offense. Luke Joeckel, Jarvis Harrison, Cedric Ogbuehi, Jake Matthews and Patrick Lewis, I’m as safe standing right here as I am in the pocket with you guys. You’ve done a great job of keeping me off my back and I can’t thank you enough for everything. To all my teammates back home, I love you with all my heart.

I’d especially at this time like to honor somebody who is near and dear to everybody at Texas A&M, Joey Villavisencio. Around this time last year, a center on our team, passed away in a tragic car accident. It was something that as a whole team we really had to fight through and press on through the bowl game. And, to Mr. and Mrs. Villaviscencio, if I had a son I would want him to be exactly like him. I know Joey is in a better place.

Most of all, I want to thank God for allowing me to be here. All that he has blessed me with in my entire life I’m so thankful for. For the love and the grace you’ve shown me I’ll be forever grateful. In the values that I’ve learned from my parents and that have been carried over by Texas A&M. Leadership, respect and putting others first, it’s what the 12th Man is all about.

I believe the 12th Man is one of the greatest traditions in all of college football, forty thousand students standing not as fans but as members of our team. To the 12th Man, Texas A&M, Kerrville Texas and Aggies everywhere, this Heisman trophy is for you.

Gig’em." 

Johnny Manziel etched his name into college football history becoming the 78th winner of the Heisman Trophy.

I'll be honest, I was already a little emotional, but when he mentioned Joey V. in his speech it really touched me.

He had 72.8% of the possible points (2029 points from 923 voters with 3 points each), which makes it the 10th biggest victory in Heisman history.

Congratulations to Johnny - you have made Aggies across the nation proud of you.

Now let's BTHO OU!  WHOOP!

Post Season Awards Update

I wanted to give an update of the awards that have been handed out thus far....

I really looked hard to find a picture of Luke with his Outland Trophy because I know I've been pretty Johnny heavy in terms of pictures this season....but I couldn't find one.

• Davey O'Brien Award - Top QB - Johnny Manziel
• Outland Trophy - Top Interior Lineman - Luke Joeckel  

• Walter Camp All-Americans
• 1st Team - QB Johnny Manziel
• 1st Team - OL Luke Joeckel
• 1st Team - DL Damontre Moore
• 2nd Team - OL Jake Matthews
•  CBS Sports All-Americans
• 1st Team - QB Johnny Manziel
• 1st Team - OT Luke Joeckel
• 2nd Team - DE Damontre Moore

• SEC Individual Awards (voted by coaches)
• SEC Offensive Player of the Year: Johnny Manziel
• SEC Freshman of the Year: Johnny Manziel
• SEC Jacobs Blocking Trophy: Luke Joeckel
• SEC Coach of the Year: Kevin Sumlin
• All-SEC Team (voted by coaches)
• 1st Team - QB Johnny Manziel
• 1st Team - OL Luke Joeckel
• 1st Team - OL Jake Matthews
• 1st Team - DL Damontre Moore
• 2nd Team - WR Ryan Swope
• All-SEC Freshman Team (voted by coaches)
• QB Johnny Manziel
• WR Mike Evans
• AP Trey Williams

One thing that I thought was really interesting was that the SEC doesn't have an Honorable Mention team.  In the Big 12 there were at least 4-5 players from each team in the league that were named to the Honorable Mention squad.

Damontre wasn't able to bring home the Hendricks Award on Wednesday night - it ended up going to South Carolina stud, Jadeveon Clowney.  I can't argue that one.

Johnny, however, lost out on both the Walter Camp Award and the Maxwell Award to Manti T'eo (who also won the Lombardi, Bednarik, Nagurski, Butkus, and Walter Camp Awards).  I think I've made my case as to how I feel about that.

Even STILL, all indications point to Johnny bringing home the Heisman on Saturday night.  The three major polling/predicting indicators all point to him.

• The Scripps Heisman Poll - has correctly named 21 of the last 25 winners
• Stiffarmtrophy.com - has correctly named the last 10 winners (in 10 years of existence)
• HeismanPundit.com - has correctly named the last 4 winners (correctly ranked 5 of the top 6 in '08, all of the top 4 in '09 and '10, and the all of the top 7 in '11)

Also worth noting that since 2000 only two players have won both the Heisman and the Maxwell Award in a single season and only one player has won all three (Heisman, Maxwell, and Walter Camp) .

Oh yeah, and Vegas has him at 1/15....and T'eo is at 4/1.  Those are pretty staggering - and Vegas doesn't lose.

We'll all be watching tonight!  WHOOP!

A Look at the Hendricks Award

I've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks laying out the case for Johnny's Heisman campaign but I thought I'd take a moment from the Johnny Football mania to look at our great defensive standout, Damontre Moore.

DaMonsta is a finalist for the Hendricks Award which is awarded to the top defensive end in college football.  It is named after Ted Hendricks, a former All-American who played his collegiate days at Miami from '66-'68.

The other finalists are Jadeveon Clowney (South Carolina), Sam Montgomery (LSU), Cornelius Carradine (FSU), Bjoern Werner (FSU), and Morgan Breslin (USC).  This is a very, very tough group of defenders.

Here are the stats:
                   Tackles                Pass Def.
               G Solo Ast Tot  TFL Sack PBU PD QBH FF FR
   M.Breslin  12  37   16  53  8.0 12.0  4   4  0   0  1
 C.Carradine  12  47   33  80 13.0 11.0  0   0  9   1  1
   J.Clowney  11  37   13  50 21.5 13.0  1      5   2  0
S.Montgomery  12  15   17  32 12.0  7.0  2   2  3   1  1
     D.Moore  12  54   26  80 20.0 12.5  2   2  8   1  0
    B.Werner  13  28   12  40 18.0 13.0  7   7  5   1  1 

Damontre also has two blocked kicks.

It should be a very close race but I really think that Damontre has just as good of a chance as any of those others.

What an amazing season Damontre has had, and holy cow has he be overshadowed by Johnny.  Think about what Von Miller did.  The guy is a legend in Aggieland.  I seriously campaigned to name our one year old Von (before we found out it was going to be a girl).  Now check this out....

                   Tackles                Pass Def.
                G Solo Ast Tot   TFL Sack PBU PD QBH FF FR
  '12 D.Moore  12  54   26  80  20.0 12.5  2   2  8   1  0
 '10 V.Miller  13  38   30  68  17.5 10.5  6   7  6   3  2

Didn't expect that did you?

Damontre Moore is the most underrated player on this years team....and he's an All-American.  Crazy, crazy.