Mike Sherman To Be Fired?

They are reporting he is gone on the radio, has come “off the road, no longer making in home visits.”

looch is saying it’s done. what a trainwreck

Sunk cost. Before the season, most felt anything worse that 8-4 deserved a change. Sherm is a good, stand-up man. He left the program in far better shape than he found it. Time to move on.

Could be true, but Kirk Bohl’s couldn’t find his ass with a map and a funnel. Happy to wait and see who is the next coach who A&M absolutely destroys….

So as Scipio once wrote, was he passed out in the barca lounger of some recruit’s living room with Shasta cans stacked all over him when the dreaded call came in?

I think it’s the right move as well. Sumlin or Smart or whomever aren’t sure things but at least they’ve got higher upsides than Sherm. I think we saw Sherm’s high-water mark and it was last year’s 9-4, 19th in the final AP poll team.

Sorry, Finkle. I’ve had my disagreements with KB in the past, but if he’s reporting it you can be sure he got the information from a source he knows and trusts. I’m surprised Aggie would do this, but I don’t doubt the validity of the report.

The search is now on to find a more boring person than Fran and Sherm.

It’s not like they rolled over everybody in their six win finish last year. It was great and magical season for them, but this year those close victories became losses. I think the expectation was absurdly high in College Station this year. That said, Sherman failed to deliver on even modest expectations.

It will be interesting to see if they get a great young coach and if that coach sees A&M as a stopping point or stepping stone.

Very funny, Colorado Ag. We posted at the same time.

Damn if its true that Sherm didn’t sign his extension, that is one expensive signature. It may be the most expensive autograph EVER.

That_DavisGuy Matt Davis
The one thing I love about him is he said, “Matt, A&M is a great place and I still think you should go there and do great things” a true man
15 minutes ago

That_DavisGuy Matt Davis
Coach Sherman just almost brought me to tears. I love that man.

then some 247 guy came w/:

JHopkins247 Justin Hopkins
Matt Davis- A&M commit, for now. RT @That_DavisGuy: Coach Sherman just almost brought me to tears. I love that man.
14 minutes ago
in reply to ↑

@That_DavisGuy
Matt Davis
@JHopkins247 don’t come on my twitter with that man

so there’s that.

A&M slept they coach?

slept his tear ducts?

maybe that’s also why marcus johnson decommitted?

Looks like aggy slept they coach (the sleeper). I don’t know how they are going to top hypoglycemic Li’l Debbie dude and Rip Van Winkle, but I’m sure it’s gonna be pretty funny. I’m pretty sure I will be laughing at them and not with them, if history serves as a guide.

All the leaks and speculation have really put the Ags in a bind.

I know certain recruits in the Houston area have been contacted by other schools telling them that Sherm is a dead man coaching be it this year or in the near future. Message is if A&M under Sherm can compete in the “weak and dying Big XII how in the world why would anyone expect him to stand a chance in the SEC”.

Either you do it now or you have to give him the proverbial vote of confidence which the teams in the conference you are leaving and the one you are going to go to are going to hammer your recruits with the Mike Sherman death watch.

@Drew Dunlevie

Dammit, you beat me to it you bastard! LOL!

Are there any a&m recruits that UT will go after? Does anyone think they’ll make a run at Kirby Smart or does the Bama stench from Fran still linger? Saban’s assistants i.e Dooley and Muschamp haven’t faired to well in the SEC.

Go after Braylon right now. Texas needs play makers on offense at the receiver position.

After him I would say Blake, wait leave Blake for TCU and instead take the d-back for La.

I tired to head over to TexAgs to see the carnage but its overloaded.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Unless A&M hits a home run hiring a new HC, is there any doubt they’re going to be in a free-fall as football program?

- The children are running the show. Adults nowhere to be found.
- They’re moving to the toughest division in the toughest conference in college football.
- They’re starting over at HC, and unless he’s a rainmaker they’re going to lose some of the top recruits.
- Financially, their big donors are going to have to dig real deep. Even then, the school could hear some serious grumbling from non-athletic departments if budgets are cut because of the losses in the athletic dept.
- They’re Aggies.

An article/open thread on Mack retiring would be nice. Even if it is bullshit. But based on the Barking Carnival/Recruitocosm tweets this afternoon, I think we should have a place to talk about it.

Texoz -

What was the alternative? Keep him? Great, great man. I think it is best to move on.

Byrne seems to be on thin ice.

Sherman found himself in the same situation as G Gilbert. Everyone in charge could see that the fans were never going to give him another chance to succeed. He had to go. It was best for all concerned.

Sumlin will be moving up the road and up the pay scale. If ATM hires him, ATM might be pretty damn good in a year or two.

Tucker’s kick was the dagger and the big ATM alums could take it no more.

The move had to be made. Sherman is a great gentleman I’m sure and I’m glad he’ll sleep well at night w/ the $3-$5M coming his way. Though wtf, for not signing your extension, his worst 2nd half flop yet.

Now let the comedy resume with who will step in and save aggie nation.

BON is preemptively crediting you with the Mack Brown retires speculation. However true, citing the threads was a bit odd.

Aggie Rick, can you please post a rebuttal on Texags to why you think A&M made a mistake firing Sherman? That would be friggin hilarious

ESPN confirms.

Favorite Retweet Reply

kbohls kbohls
I am told A&M president Bowen Loftin ordered AD Bill Byrne to do the firing of head football coach Mike Sherman.

where;s that price is right sad horn thing at

ESPN confirmation. They cited Kirk again, and the tweets. But we all know it’s going down. Way to lube the program just in time for the first trip through the SEC.

i guess"" doesn’t translate to “not equal.” Silly hash tags.

They coach slept with the fishes. Memo to all current Ag recruits – leave the scholly offer, take the cannoli.

Sumlin is intriguing, but is he really ready for the SEC? I’m not sure.

Although I guess that makes him a perfect fit.

Texas has already started offering Ags… looks like they new before the rest. Marcus Johnson has been offered by UT and has de-committed from TAMU. Probably just a coincidence… but now is definitely the time to pillage the kiddos.

The Holiday Gifts just keep on coming. Ags continue to implode! I LOVE IT>

Arizona State has offered their HC job to Sumlin … http://www.azcentral.com/sports/asu/articles/2011/12/01/20111201asu-football-offers-job-kevin-sumlin.html

Tempe or College Station? He’ll probably get to kick the tires at a couple of other BCS schools too.

Marcus Johnson has been offered by UT and has de-committed from TAMU

Does this mean we’re feeling a chill from DGB? I mean how many WRs are we offering, with Jones, TJ, Sanders and now Marcus …

What coach would consider the ag program attractive? The leadership over there is batshit crazy, finances are in a shambles and the powers that be have pissed off every other major college program in the State of Texas that the school is going to be the outcast of the southwest for years. There is no great rivalry game, they have no status in their conference. Its a total rebuild without the financial resources necessary.

desterfox:

It might be a further indictment of the coaching staff’s opinion of our WR corps. Right up there with offering 4 QBs.

Woody,

Great question about Sumlin. Consider that aside from beating Tulsa their biggest victory is over UCLA by 4 at Houston.

To put that in perspective, in each of the Bruins 5 other losses the margin has been at least 25 points and that includes their loss to Texas and the two headed offensive monster of McCoy and Ash.

It is tough to really gauge how good the Cougs actually are, but Sumlin has been there four years and most of the players on the roster are his recruits. He has done a good job advancing the program, but is that the same as being the head guy in the SEC? More importantly, are the Ags really ready to make the changes needed to make the program competitive?

Kirby Smart or Kevin Sumlin.
 
Byrne will play no role in the hire.
 
A&M is a Top 25 coaching job, whatever their history of underachievement.

Question on Smart.

Does Saban allow the hire prior to the BCS title game?

Sports by Brooks is reporting that Sumlin will be offered upwards of $4mm annually. That seems awfully steep — I think Leslie Miles only makes $3.25mm. Now that Aggy is apparently made of money, I wonder if they are going to enter the bidding war for a coach that has never been in a major conference.

With our serious lack of play-making receivers I’m ok with taking a few more, anything to help out our young QB (whoever it turns out to be).

I would think any coach truly worth a fuck would realize aTm is a great place to destroy his career. That was true BEFORE the dumbfucks decided to go get their shit pushed in by the SEC. It’s obvious that the athletic department and the administration is manned by a bunch of incompetent buffoons. Yes, money talks, but anyone with a brain will avoid that place like the plague. Which is to say, they’ll continue to suck, no matter whom they hire, because it’s what they do.

@bHero, we could have had any of the Aggie recruits we wanted in the first place outside of a handful of them. The fact of the matter is that most of them were only going to be Aggies to get revenge against Texas for not offering. The Aggies no longer have that in there favor for spurned recruits to beat Texas

I should add, Brooks is saying ASU is prepared to offer $4mm annually.

bHero,

Agreed and if you look at the Texas roster at the receiver position is barren of proven explosive players.

If the Shipley family tradition follows suit then Jaxon will be health all of next year, Mike Davis has been regressing all year and we can hope he recaptures what he was prior to the injury a year ago, White not playing much speaks volumes, Hales is senior, the coaches like Harris and Miles but I would say they are more big bodies than explosive and Goodwin for the most part is a track guy playing football and if he wants to make the Olympic team for 2012 he really needs to focus solely on track in the Spring to prepare for the trials in late June.

Fellache,

Great point on the Aggie sales pitch having to change. I know of a few recruits in Texas who were definitely pitched that the worm had turned and they would get a chance to beat Texas even though the Horns did think they were good enough to offer.

@Fellache Me

Agree, but what about our kinda obviously horrendous ability to actually pick a WR the last 3 years who can play the position? Doesn’t seem to be an issue for Baylor, TTU, TAMU, OU, OSU, TCU or even UH… all with multiple talents. We only have one, and he’s a white half cripple (insert Tebow reference) playing because the healthy ones suck that much.

On the WR front, I am not very worried. Wyatt is recognized as the best coach on the staff in terms of talent evaluation. This will be his first class that actually has been kids he has chosen.

Bobby Kennedy was relying almost exclusively on ranking services and rarely actually went to games to evaluate kids in person. Wyatt was left with a bunch of over-hyped spare parts this year.

I think we will be blown away by the difference in the receiving corps in the near future.

A&M is top 25 as in it probably ranges from 20-40, but as of late, the irrationally high expectations of the Agroid fanbase, combined with their tradition of being sneaky cheap/poor/lame (bat guano and no toilets), tossed into the SEC schedule and $cruples, makes it a potential minefield for a rising star.

@Davey, we can’t take them all unfortunately although we could employ a SEC type sign 35 guys and see who works out type of deal.

@bHero, totally agree with you, we have been a total miss at the WR position. If we had the quarterback of any of the schools you named though our receivers would look a hell of a lot better though. We have missed as bad if not worse at QB then we have at WR IMO.

Johnson makes 20 by my count. Texas has the offer out to the Juco OT, the Juco DT and a few others. I guess the only area I think still needs to be addressed that hasn’t is a tight end that could possibly block and catch.

Just going to leave this here.

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1988975&forum_id=5

Texags > LHN

IMO

Sherman is probably sitting back and drinking a cold one right now thinking of ways to spend his money and thanking the Lord that he won’t have to get his ass kicked multiple times next year. He’s probably the happiest guy in aggieland right now.

Wonder why Art Briles is not a candidate. Record is 23-25 at Baylor, including 9 games with RGIII on the shelf. Great recruiter, excellent relationships with THSCA, turned around Houston too.

How are Sumlin, Smart, and Strong more attractive?

ColoradoAg said:

December 1st, 2011 at 5:44 pm

Sunk cost. Before the season, most felt anything worse that 8-4 deserved a change. Sherm is a good, stand-up man. He left the program in far better shape than he found it. Time to move on.

6-6 is not far better than he found it. That’s exactly how he found it.

Apparently Aggie needed a sacrifice to purge the evil spirits of the last ThAnksgiving debacle. Unfortunately for the Shermalounger (or perhaps fortunately) he was napping when the villagers started rampaging through the streets with torches and pitchforks so he was an easy target.

Apparently it’s now official, at least according to the 10 p.m. WFAA newscast here in DFW, they’re saying his buyout will be in the $3-5 million range.

See ya Sherm. Plenty of time to while away the hours in that hammock now. But he leaves the aggy program on “very solid footing”…yeah, 25-25 is about as rock solid as you can get ain’t it?

How are Sumlin, Smart, and Strong more attractive

Names start with “S”:
Sherman, Slocum, Sheryl…

If I’m Sumlin, do I even have to think about anything beyond “Tempe or B/CS”?

Looks to be official. Wow BC, Kirk Bohls owned you! And he probably had to painstakingly hunt-and-peck the keys on his twitter post too… You’re getting soft barkers!!

From behind these burnt orange glasses, it appears that the continuous aggie coaching churn, looking for the “right guy” to turn their program into something it never was, and insn’t capable of being, is just going to end in ruin… It feels like even if they had the right guy, they’d never give him chance enough to build a winning program.

Like I said though, I can’t see clearly behind my bias, is my thinking is accurate, or are the ags just making a savvy move to jump on some good coaches before they lose them?

Ag,

Apparently, Byrne didn’t have any input in the last hire. Is this correct? You guys are making another disastrous mistake if you hire Sumlin or Smart. Strong might be an interesting hire. I still think you guys should have kept Sherm for another year for stability heading into the SEC, but I knew when I read Richard Justice’s article today that was obviously planted by the admins at A&M that he was toast. And if he didn’t work out next year, you go get the best guy out there which would be Sweatervest.

Why is bowtie firing Bryne? The basketball program is much better and so is the baseball program. The football program is much better than when Fran was there. The obvious civil war has been won by the dentist and appointed Perry asskissers over true athletic folks. Good luck. I also love the tweets coming from Looch and ipanic2 claiming sherman was the classiest man in all of football and a great man all the while stabbing him in the back to get rid of a guy who did a very good job with a program that was in shambles.

This is what happens when your athletic department isn’t allowed and/or is incapable of doing its job and your president is a “puppet” (not my words). You get a bunch of regents who are dentists and landmen and whatever the hell else making decisions as if they know what the hell they are doing.

Dodds and Powers make their mistakes from time to time, but they are allowed to execute without worrying about a board of trustees trying to push their emotional agendas through the university or the athletic department.. The UT Board of Trustees realizes the purpose of a “Board.” Sometimes I think the A&M Board of Regents thinks it is the true chief executive. An out of control board is never a good thing. Just ask HP.

Is there any chance that Mike Matthews decommits from A&M? Could we sign him now that we have a real offensive line coach and A&M is in chaos?

Aggy (Don Adam) will payoff Sherman – no problem. Don Adam got rid of RC. He can can drop 5 million no problem to have Sherm-a-napper go away. Look, aggy will hire Sumlin and be .500 at best. Sumlin is not the answer. Let aggy be aggy and let the SEC be their grave.

now being tweetported that Sherman signed his extension but loftin didn’t. har. har.

Leading candidate: Gandalf the white. Only a high wizard can match Aggie expectations to reality.

Sorry I’m still accidentally caring what goes on at A&M.

Does the Marcus Johnson offer mean DGB is not happening or just that Goodwin, Hales, and White will all be gone next year?

This just in: Nick Saban reportedly seen on campus in college station…

The buyout clause means nothing. No public university in Texas has to honor a buyout clause. They’re immune from suit for breach of contract. Ask Mike Leach. Texas is one of the only states left that has this quirky law.

Byrne should leave – for his own sake. He has done a great job as athletic director. None of the f*ck ups are his fault.

In time, Sherm will realise that leaving A+M was in his best interests too.

English -

Please only contribute if you abandon Queen-speak.

Aggy cat fight!

JL – hardly a cat fight and hardly Aggy – one is from Liverpool, one is from Colorado.

Football decisions have always been made outside of the Athletic department – by people with loud voices, too much money and a very short term view. Everyone was saying Sherm should be fired after going 3-3 at the start of 2010 only for him to be the right guy after winning 6 games in November – including games against OU and Neb that came down to a couple of plays. Now he is the wrong guy because we lost a bunch of close games.

Sherm’s team is light years ahead of what he inherited – they are far better on both sides of the ball than where they were in 2009. Since then he is 15-10, with only 3 of those losses being by more than 1 score. That shouldn’t get him fired.

It is a shame that the AD’s budget is so reliant on the ‘big money Ag’ – lets be honest, they are the biggest problem. The sports that are Byrne’s responsibility are doing very well.

Classic Aggy move here would be to miss out on Sumlin and then have to scramble to find someone else. Here’s where being in the SEC helps though, you figure they should be able to land a good coach who thinks they can make something happen as the only Texas school in the SEC.

The new story out now is that Loftin did not sign the contract extension, so they think they can get by with the buy-out from the old contract, something less than $2.0 million.

Who is in charge over there?

Somebody please tell me why everyone keeps repeating that the Aggy program is better now under Sherman than it was when Fran left?
6-6 is still 6-6 and they will be worse next year after they lose all the seniors and start over in another conference. How is that better?

People read shit on the internet and then start repeating it like it’s the damn truth when it’s a mess over there now as it was when Fran was there.

I hope the TAMU BOR will issue a press release that they’ll hire the winning coach of the Conference USA championship game.

I like Sumlin, I really do, but I am not sure that a guy with a spread offense background is the best bet for the move to the SEC. That said, I think Sumlin can recruit Houston and is a real asset there. Of the options out there for TAMU, Sumlin makes good sense. That’s why they will never hire him.

Who are the top candidates? Seriously confused why Briles is not a candidate but Sumlin and Smart are. A&M was foolish to not interview him last time. Is there a knock him? It feels like I’m taking crazy pills!

This ain’t hard to figure out: Sherman will go to Texas, and Brown to A&M. I seen it on this ‘Parent Trap’ movie that my daughter like to watch.

Meant to say, “who are the top available candidates in college football?”

Erickson? Mike Stoops? Gary Patterson? Paul Rhoades?

Snake,

Art is not loved by all in the Texas High School coaching ranks, really struggled early at UH in recruiting, and a common comment is limited time in college.

Sumlin has not been a head coach as long, but has almost 20 years college experience including 2 years in College Station.

Interestingly both coaches recent success is linked to having their quarterbacks. UH went 5-7 last year after they lost Keenum and Turner and Baylor’s success is linked to RGIII.

Great morning on Houston sports talk radio. Have the Ags calling in with their pitch for Sumlin and Smart with the occasional suggestion of Tressell. This is met by the host (s) trying to be patient as they explain one more time why hiring Tressell while his Ohio State program is still under investigation really won’t be happening.

My favorite moment is actually two. First, an Ag calling in and suggesting they bring back RC Slocum. Hosts ask three times if he really is serious and truly an Ag.

Next is the Cougar alum host bemoaning that Sumlin’s agent is stirring the pot this week with the leak about ASU when they haven’t truly offered in an attempt to encourage interest from A&M.

Only way the week come end up better is the Cougs get beat and Sumlin goes to the desert.

A&M is literally limping into the SEC with no momentum in recruiting or on the field. Throw in a lack of financial flexibility due to exit fees and contract buyouts and and you have a recipe for total disaster.

People who follow recruiting closely say Sumlin is average at best as a recruiter. Not exactly what you need at a&M which is why I say hire him. It will be a disaster. Charlie Strong would be a really interesting hire. Lou Holtz loved him, Spurrier loved him, and Meyer loved him. He is a really good coach who is a tenacious recruiter and has plenty of experience. I don’t think Smart is ready for that job.

I still say they should have waited for a year and then gone after Tressel, but I think Strong is very interesting.

Ags,

Your president is the biggest moron on the planet. You guys should be ashamed that you went from Ray Bowen and Robert Gates to the buffoon known as Bowtie.

If I’m the Ags, I’m making a run at Patterson first. My list would be:
Patterson – Consistent winner, finds talent, weakens recruiting rival, Defense
Strong – Defense, SEC experience
Rhoads – Defense, strong leadership, succeeding at ISU
Sumlin – Offense, unbeaten, Case Keenum QB development
Smart – Great DC. Saban school

Someone explain? How does a team lose games in which they led at half time by 17, 18, 11, and 9 points? Don’t give any smart ass answers, if there are any deep thinkers on this thread now is your time to explain this. This all happened in the course of one season. Longhorn fans, do you not realize that the 10 point lead that Texas blew last year against Baylor in the 3rd qtr was the first time since 1987 they had lost a game in which they had held a 10 point lead as late as the 3rd qtr.

It takes something special to lose 4 such games in a season like that. First you must have a pretty darn good team to get those kind of leads to start with. Is it coaching? Is it over confidence? I have my theory as to why this happens to the Aggies more often than not. In all four such games this year, there is one thing common in all 4 games.

Be interesting to see if anyone comes up with a theory close to mine as to why a team would be so prone to losing games in which they have built 2 score leads as often as the Aggies have.

Dicey business, this. We certainly went through our misadventures before Mack. Deloss wouldn’t be Deloss without that hire and it wasn’t his preference at the time. A fair amount of luck is involved. I happen to think this can be a very good job but it will require a strong personality who comes in with the leverage/balls to establish from day one the he’s in charge & tells the Big Money guys to stay the fuck out. He will need to embrace Aggie culture / rituals / sacrifices, be the face of the program that sells the sunshine of A&M & win. After that on to that sticky Middle East issue.
  Paul Rhodes seems to be someone they should talk to & why hasn’t Kubiak’s name popped up ( the only follow pro football I follow is the SEC ).

Davey -

Thanks. Interesting about the HS Coaches. Thought he was pretty widely respected from his time as Pres in Stephenville days. I seem to recall a Texas Monthly article touting his performance in that capacity, but could be completely mistaken.

Briles recruited Keenum as well, correct? Griffin was headed to Houston and followed Briles to Baylor. And I agree that his performance has hinged significantly on the signal caller, but Lord knows the Longhorn fan base gets that. QB is a pretty important position, and he’s recruited well in that dept (going back to Kevin Kolb).

He’s turned around two programs, and though he lacks the college experience of Sumlin, he has more experience as a head coach, and he’s been successful at every level he’s coached. A&M needs a quick fixer, and he has certainly been that at Houston and Baylor. He’s got a homespun style as well, which I think would suit the ag fan base.

All that written, I don’t understand why his name isn’t even a blip on the radar. It just seems odd to me. Oh well.

Football decisions have always been made outside of the Athletic department – by people with loud voices, too much money and a very short term view.

This true all the way bay to D.X. Bible and Homer Norton. The Aggies have always worked under a sort of clusterfuck of Administration, Athletic Department, and Big Alumni, and it usually leads to a mess.

They got lucky with Bear Bryant and Jackie Sherrill, two men mean enough with strong personalities to keep the factions in line. I don’t see anyone big enough for that task right now.

One other thing. Should the money men decide to go off the reservation and begin the FedEx days again in order to compete in the SEC, they will find that unlike the old SWC days when it was every man for himself, they will have an entire league (that they just abandoned) looking over their shoulder just waiting to pounce on any misdeed and turn them in.

For me, A&M is a classic example of “You Either Learn From History, or You Are Doomed to Repeat It.”

I don’t understand why his name isn’t even a blip on the radar. It just seems odd to me. Oh well.

Snake, others have listed some reasons, but another basic one is that he has shown absolutely know expertise at recruiting and coaching defense.

In the SEC that is a death warrant.

My name is nobody

I am going to bite on whether Sherm is leaving a better team than he inherited.

In 2008…

The offensive line returned only 1 starter – there was so little depth that a former walk-on was the starting centre. The 2 deep only had 3 upperclassmen.
The starting wide receivers were Tannehill and Jerrod Johnson.
The tight end was another converted QB – Jamie McCoy.
Stephen McGee only played 3 games due to injury – Jerrod Johnson took his first snaps as a QB that year.
Jorvorskie Lane went for 93 yards rushing and 1 TD from fullback.
Goodson went for 400 due to injury.

On the other side of the ball,
The defensive line was the strength – starting 2 converted tight ends and Kellen Heard. Depth was underclassmen.
Garrick Williams converted from DB to LB. Von Miller spun down from DE – having temporarily quit the team.
A walkon and a true freshman started at DB.

In the short time he was on campus before the 2008 signing day, he brought in Fuller, Cyrus Gray, Terrence Hunter, Terrence Fredrick and Eddie Brown

Looking at those graduating and those that will be left behind:

Offense
OL – 8 of the 2 deep come back
WR – only Fuller is leaving
TE – all return
RB – Cyrus Gray is gone, Malena returns. Christine Michael will be uncertain at this point.
QB – Tannehill gone. 2 RS Sophs and a RS Freshman will be back.

Defense
DB – we lose 2 starting corners, but only 3 from the 2 deep
LB – we only lose Garrick Williams
DL – we lose half the 2 deep.

No doubt breaking in a new QB will be difficult. We lose 3 of the DL, but lets be honest, the ones that are going won’t be in the NFL.

You guys are missing the biggest Aggy opposition to Briles: the only thing that could make their current situation worse is having to hire a Baylor coach to get them out of it.

That’s the longest explanation for “why this 6-6 team is better than that 6-6 team” I’ve ever seen.

I always considered Tommy Tuberville to be the HCIW for a&m. He may not have the qualities that the Houston ags are seeking (another puppet like Bow-tie Guy), but he would be a solid choice to lead their team into the SEC.

TT was a successful coach twice in the SEC, including an undefeated season. He knows the SEC-West programs first hand, and the southeast as well as the Texas recruiting areas. His primary knock at Tech has been the inability to attract 3 and 4-star recruits – go figure. But at a&m, that shouldn’t remain a problem.

I don’t pretend to understand how those ag boosters make their decisions, but if they really want to go into the SEC with the best foot forward, I believe Tuberville offers the best option.

Srr -

He’s an elite recruiter and, more importantly, evaluator. He can’t afford busts like Texas and other big programs can.

Consider: Their 4th best receiver would start for Texas tomorrow; the only WR on Texas roster than would see PT at Baylor this year is Shipley, and possibly Goodwin. He snatched Ivory Wade from aggy, got Phil Taylor when he transferred from Penn St. (went 21st in last year’s draft), recruited two Canadians who were as good as any lineman Baylor has had in a decade (outside of Jason Smith), snagged Ahmad Dixon (Will Lyles association?), and had Brandon Williams, albeit briefly, before he decommitted and went to OU.

He has out-evaluated and out-recruited Mack & Co. at WR and QB, particularly at QB, where his last 3 QBs were Kolb, Keenum, and Griffin. Gilbert, Case, Connor Wood offer a stark contrast, not to mention Kendall Wright vs. Brock Fitzhenry, etc. Ash is still too young to make a determination.

Given the lack of program prestige, how could he be expected to do any better than what he’s done? Yes, he needs help defensively, but so have the ags for the last decade. With some $$$ and program prestige, it would be a lot easier to hire a top-notch DC.

The man has been a savvy recruiter, no doubt.

I know I’ll get flamed for this, but he would be my pick for Mack’s replacement, when that time comes. I’d take him over Petersen any day.

I like Sumlin, I really do, but I am not sure that a guy with a spread offense background is the best bet for the move to the SEC. That said, I think Sumlin can recruit Houston and is a real asset there. Of the options out there for TAMU, Sumlin makes good sense. That’s why they will never hire him.

Contrary to popular belief Sumlin isn’t a spread guy. It’s what he runs at UH to get the most out of generally limited talent but he worked with much more pro style offenses when at A&M (where he made massive improvements in the offense in a short amount of time) and at OU. I’d expect him to run something much more West Coast/pro style if he’s hired on in College Station.

In general, the firing was a mess but I think it was the right call. Losing a few close games can happen to you, but this team was outscored something like 93-10 in the third quarter of it’s 6 losses. That’s a systemic problem that the coaching staff wasn’t able to fix, and as the OC that falls on Sherman twofold.

As per Sherman’s contract, whatever the buyout is I’d expect that to be reduced in short order as I think he’ll be working in the NFL next season.

Snake,

I think you are giving Briles a little too much credit about the turn around in Houston. Dana Dimmel might have been a prick and wasn’t a good head coach, but he did recruit better than almost all of Conference USA in the 3 years prior to Briles being hired to go to UH.

Kolb was a known entity having been recruited by multiple schools and was an Okie State commit before switching to UH after Briles landed the job. The selling point was the Kolb could come in and compete right away for the job as Stephenville was still run the Briles offense.

He has recruited some talent at Baylor, but I wouldn’t use Phil Taylor as an example of a great find. The kid is a great athlete, but guy find the TCU – Baylor game from 2010 and then tell me Taylor is a kid you want on your team.

Art is a guy were there seems to be no middle ground. The high school coaches I know (a few who have been higher ups in THSCA and still are) either like him or they really dislike him. Biggest complaint I hear is that he has forgotten where he came from, but the best description I have heard is that Briles knows where he came from and is damn sure he ain’t ever going back.

Common comment on his recruiting tactics is he pushes the limit on negative recruiting and there are some at UH who won’t publicly say it, but still are not happy with how he recruited RGIII and some other UH pledges when he got the Baylor job. They don’t have an issue that he went after them, but they felt he really hammered the school that gave him a shot with his first job. I wouldn’t put him on the same level as Todd Graham, but he isn’t exactly popular with his peers.

Groundhog,

Fair point on Sumlin and that is my biggest concern about TCU’s jump to the Big XII. CGP has done a great job finding talent, but if TCU truly wants to compete he and his staff are going to have to bring in some top tier talent. They swung for the fences this year and to date only have the pledge from Fields and a couple of others. Same can be said for Sumlin. He has done a good job re-establishing ties in Houston, but can he land the best? Never every salesman can succeed when the target market changes.

Charlie Strong is a very interesting name. He has done a great job rebuilding Louisville. Has them very competitive in the Big East. Recruits like a SOB and has SEC ties. For all those reasons he is the wrong choice for the Ags.

ole tnhorn,

To many of the Ags I know Kubiak and Sherman are the same animal. Heck, Gary makes Sherm look like a motivational speaker.

Thanks Davey. FWIW, Phil Taylor is leading the Cleveland Browns in sacks as a rookie. Guy is obviously NFL good, whether he played to his potential in college or not. He was a good get, especially for Baylor.

Greg Townsend had a multi-year career in the NFL and didn’t do much at TCU. Heck, Robert Lyles couldn’t see the field for some terrible FA Dry teams at TCU and yet somehow played for the Oilers.

The question on Phil Taylor going into college, coming out of Penn State and even last year in the draft wasn’t his talent, but his motivation.

He got his ass mauled against TCU, started on a bad Baylor defense that allowed over 4 yards a rush and managed only 7 tfl’s last year for the Bears. You and I have different criteria for good gets as I think what they do in college is a more important measure of their college careers.

You can have Phil Taylor, I see your point. He’s not critical to mine…

“Be interesting to see if anyone comes up with a theory close to mine as to why a team would be so prone to losing games in which they have built 2 score leads as often as the Aggies have.”

prehist-

I’ll bite, all of those 2 score leads seem to happen at home or at Jerry World in front of a large maroon crowd.
Either:
1. The crowd whips them into a frenzy, they play on pure adrenalin for 30 minutes and are just too spent to close the deal in the second half.
2. Knowing the crowd lives and dies by the result causes them to choke.

Of course this does not explain why many teams with rabid home crowds seem to do just fine, so there is definitely a flaw in my theory.

Just watched the Sherman press conference. Pretty powerful stuff. Anyone who says he didn’t leave a&M better than he found it has no clue what they are talking about. He didn’t lose a game 77-0 this year. I was truly moved by his press conference and he deserved another year. He was recruiting well and was making strides with that program. Bowtie and his lackey on twitter ipanic2 are two of the most classless blowhard faggots you will find anywhere. Any ags on here should be ashamed of your leadership. It certainly sounds like current and former football players are ashamed. Byrne is the next to go and I love this Ipanic2 is blaming him for the leak when its obvious it wasn’t him. Bowtie is one lying and corrupt motherfucker. But we already knew that with all the spin and lies about the reasons they were joining the SEC.

Groundhog,

I agree that Sherman has them in a better place and that the man was treated like shit in this matter. Funny from a school that likes to tout standards and character.

Truly believe they don’t understand what they are about to get into next year and they better not screw up this hire. They are solid in the offensive line and have some young skill players. Will need to break in a quarterback and the scheme will be important. Defensively though, they are thin and not nearly athletic enough. I don’t think they release the reason why some of the offenses struggle in that league is not completely a dirth of offensive talent.

Aggies are going all in. To win in the SEC West, they have to cheat. A&M will hire a coach to show them the way: Tuberville, Smart, or Gus Malzahn and his crazy wife.

Even if they recruit clean in Texas, they’ll build momentum by recruiting dirty in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Then they’ll try to compete head to head with Texas and OU for the 4 and 5 star recruits. That is the aggie “100 year plan.”

pliss

that’s interesting. it’s the informal name for the big white backpack on the current spacewalk space suits. actually, it’s the industry vernacular pronunciation of an acronym for primary life support subsystem. we all know the govt lives and breathes by acronym.

are you involved with that program, plissken? or are you coyly spelling nekssilp backwards. for those who don’t know, nedssilp is an algonquin term meaning loose skin in the genital region.

please forgive the d for k slip-up. fat fingers and slender mind.

EnglishAg,

How does a nice Scouse lad end up in Bryan, never mind College Station?

Yeh -

Snake Plissken is the hero / anti-hero of the John Carpenter film “Escape from New York”. It’s an entertaining action movie if you haven’t seen it. I heard that the sequel “Escape from LA” isn’t nearly as good. Kurt Russell plays Snake in both films.

thank you, mc. wasn’t familiar with it. i’ll keep an eye out but i won’t promise to put one out.

let me recommend to you an old-time thriller from 1953 named the wages of fear. great movie if you can find it. probably great anyway.

bonus: 1966 czech-made closely watched trains. won the oscar for best foreign flim that year.