The First of Many

Howdy!

Betcha thought this was all behind you. :)

Autumn is in the air. The leaves are turning brown, the grass is dying... ...and my yard gnome spontaneously burst into flames.

Autumn, right?

It seems like the fall ought to be here. I'm ready for it. Football is starting to unveil itself once again in dramatic fashion and I've had about enough of this *%$^# summer.

In case you missed it, here's a quick recap of Aggie sports in the 2010 - 2011 school year. We were good to great in everything except Volleyball, Women's Tennis, and Cross Country. We won nine conference championships and three national championships (four if you count equestrian), the most of any school in the Big 12. The Women's basketball team won the ncaa tournament. Pat Henry's Track & Field teams each won an unprecedented 3rd consecutive National Championship in Outdoor Track & Field. The baseball team went to Omaha for the first time since 1999. The Basketball team went to the ncaa tournament again, not losing until the second round to a surprisingly good Florida State team. Softball, Soccer, Men's Golf, Men's Tennis and Baseball all finished in the top ten. I lose track of everything else, but it was a really good year. Finished 8th overall in the Learfield Director's Cup standings. As a point of comparison, t.u. whose athletic budget is 60% larger than A&M's finished ($120 Million vs. $74 Million) finished 12th overall.

And, of course, there was Football. What an exciting season. We won our last six regular season games in a row after finally putting Ryan Tannehill in for Jerrod Johnson. You can only imagine what would have happened if we had made the change at QB earlier in the season. Would we have had five turnovers in Stillwater allowing OSU to come back from a double digit second half deficit to kick a game winner as the clock ran out? Would we have let Missouri beat us in Kyle Field? What else might have been different for the Aggies? No one knows for certain, but I'm comfortable saying that we'd most likely have had the chance to turn down an Obama invitation to the White House.

In spite of that missed opportunity, we won nine games and beat OU, Nebraska and t.u. (in Austin) all in the same season. We eventually lost to a very good LSU team in the Cotton Bowl (which all of the t-sip players got to see because they were home with momma). Coach Sherman went from the hot seat to a raise and contract extension.

Man, I love football.

Now, why would I say that football is "unveiling itself in dramatic fashion"? Here it goes: Recently the Longhorn Network (LHN) announced that they would carry high school football games of athletes they were recruiting. Everyone cried fowl and the Aggies threatened to head to the SEC. Then LHN announced a deal to air t.u. conference football game, only they hadn't talked to the other conference teams about it. Everyone cried fowl and the Aggies threatened to head to the SEC. Then LHN announced that some of these high-school games might feature out of state recruits... You could actually hear the collective grunt of alarm from Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, LSU and all of the other schools who thought t.u. was only a pain in A&M's butt. And, you guessed it, everyone really cried fowl and the Aggies threatened to head to the SEC. The Big 12 said "Hey, Mr. Bigshot, who do you think you are?" and declared no high school or conference games on LHN this year.

At the Big 12-2 media days, Dan Beebe has been trying his best to not show that he knows his time is up. Mack Brown had the gumption to say that national broadcasts of high school games on a network literally plastered with t.u. propaganda would in no way be a recruiting advantage. How could he tell such a lie right through his butter colored teeth? Unbelievable. Meanwhile, A&M is quietly showing former students new plans to overhaul Kyle Field and to build an "athletic village" the likes of which no one has ever seen. Of course having never seen an athletic village, who can say if it is a good village or a bad one. The price tag leads me to believe it's going to be a dandy. Add to all of that the fact that A&M is already racking up one heck of a recruiting class for 2012, and there's been enough summer football to keep anyone's attention.

We'll be very good this year with 10 returners on offense and 8 on defense. In our second year in the 3-4 Deruyter defense we should be as good or better than we were last year in spite of losing Von Miller, the second overall pick in the NFL draft. Our offense features the two best runners in the Big 12, a gritty O-line, an all-American wide receiver, and one tough SOB at QB. I like our chances. In all honesty, we could win every game on our schedule. I think we're likely to win all of them except OU. A lot of good teams have gone into Norman happy and headed back out a lot less so over the last ten years. I was there for 77-0, so I'm reluctant to predict a win, but I do think it's possible.

Would 11 regular season wins be enough? Maybe. I'm hoping for 12. I'm awfully excited about this upcoming season. I hope you got that from everything I wrote above. You know my motto, "Never miss a meal." But I've also been known to say "Why use ten words when a thousand will do?" Right? Anyway, this post is just a test. No jokes and very little wit or substance (clearly different from my normal literary masterpieces). I just want to get it out there to let you know that (1.) I have not died yet; and (2.) Football is coming.

Gig 'em and Beat the Hell Outta this Goddam Heat!
Chuck Berend '96