Monday, October 06, 2008

Train Wreck...

I'm not a huge sports nut. I do like to watch NASCAR, but I've never been overly interested in stick and ball sports. As a kid, I tried soccer, football, t-ball, and pitch baseball. I SUCKED at all of them.

That was until I met Shelly. I'm still not a sports nut, but I do watch Aggie football. Shelly is an Aggie, her brother is an Aggie, and her dad is an Aggie. He was even in the Corps of Cadets. Yep, I was done for. I'm not an Aggie (I'm a Ragin' Cajun), but I had to convert if I wanted to fit in. Shelly had season tickets to the Aggies when we met, and we renewed them every year. Every year, that is, until this year... It turns out we made a pretty good choice.

Our tickets have been getting more and more expensive each year. When I first started going to the games, RC Slocum was the coach. They did ok, but never beat Texas. A couple of years later, they decided to go big, and stole Coach Fran away from Alabama. My friend Katie almost didn't speak to us for a couple of years there since they are Bama folks. Well, it turns out that we did them a favor and took that joker away from them. After a few years of stinking up the place, Fran was out and the Aggies hired Mike Sherman away from the Houston Texans.

Each week this season, We've either watched the game or checked the score periodically. Last weekend, they played Oklahoma State, we didn't bother even looking at the score until Sunday. I can't tell you what it was, other than they got beat, and it wasn't by a slim margin.

Here are my thoughts (from the shower stall this morning)...

The Aggies weren't doing that well under Fran, but most of his losses were at least close. He never lost a home opener, and he beat Texas the last 2 years in a row. This year, the Aggies got spanked at home for the season opener. I don't remember how long it's been, but it has been a LONG time since the season opener was lost in Kyle Field. When they got rid of Fran, it was expected that the 12th Man was going to dig DEEP and hire a top name.

Instead of hiring a top name college coach, they hired Mike Sherman. Sherman was the Offensive coordinator and asst head coach for the Houston Texans. Let's get this straight. You have the money and the fan bast to hire a proven winner, and you hire the guy that is offensive coordinator for the Texans? Their best season was 8-8. They kept David Carr and drafted Mario Williams when they could have picked Vince Young or at least Reggie Bush.

I'm not an expert, but I've heard and read enough to understand that college and NFL coaches rarely have much success when moving from one level to another. Why would the Aggies think that they could hire an offensive coordinator from an NFL team that has NEVER had a winning season and have success?

As an Aggie fan, I HOPE that Sherman can get things going, but at this point, the future looks a little bleak.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike Sherman also used to be an NFL head coach. I can't remember which team. He was only the coordinator with the Texans the last season or two, and last year was their best year. He isn't all bad. I'm not defending him, but the Aggies did have some reason to think he'd do well. Maybe he just needs a year or two to get the kids he recruits into the system. Who knows.

Joanna

Anonymous said...

I think they need a big name college coach. You can hire Saban away after we win a national championship. Does that sound fair to you? I doubt he'll be sloppy seconds like Fran was.

Katie