Aggie Football

I find myself silently becoming an Aggie fan. I know, it’s disastrous, but picture this atmosphere – 10-1 UT vs. 10-1 ATM for the Big 12 South Championship game the Friday after Thanksgiving. I know A&M ran up some wins against some questionable opponents (no offense Army and The Citadel), but it’s not like Mack Brown scheduled the toughest foes in the land (offense intended Sam Houston State). The point is the pageantry and rivalry of this game has gone to wayside in the past seven years as the Longhorns have been in the upper echelon of college football, while the folks in College Station have endured the turmoil that is Francione Football.

I remember vividly the 1999 game in which the Aggies came off the tragic bonfire ordeal and beat Texas in dramatic fashion. Those days of brotherly rivalry / hatred are long gone. Now we look back at games like last years double digit Texas win at Kyle Field and reflect, “Well, at least the Aggies didn’t get totally killed. They put up a good effort.”

The Aggies inability to get any kind of competitive fight into the series has led the Texas Tech Red Raiders to rear their head as the Aggies prominent rivalry game. (Of course, the Texas – Okalahoma border brawl, as well as the rankings which go with the Longhorn-Sooner games, has taken some luster off the instate battle between the Horns and Ags) The worst part is Tech has manhandled the Aggies in the past few years as well, and the kids in College Station refuse to acknowledge the supremacy of Tech over the past decade, or the fact that Tech vs. A&M has taken on more fire and hatred than Texas vs. A&M has had in years.

As a Longhorn graduate, this disheartens me. I have good friends who went to A&M, and who are gracious enough to invite me over for libations and ribbing on those great days after Thanksgiving. Having games like the one played in 1999 would do wonders for the state of Texas, as well as for football in general. While a loss to A&M would eat at the inner being of every Longhorn, including this one, I can’t deny that the lack of competitive games is what is driving this once storied war into the background of Texas football.

I would welcome the days where kickoff came and it was a game which Longhorns worried about, a game in which you truly can “throw the records out the window” because the rivalry is so huge. But the gap in talent between Austin and College Station has grown far too wide for any 100 plus year old rivalry to shrink.
The solution? Fire Fran at A&M and take one of the great assistance coaches Mack Brown has assembled in Austin. Duane Aikina is a defensive mastermind who is just born to be a head coach. We already know that Gene Chiznik, the co-defensive coordinator with Aikina and Assistant Head Coach, is headed out at the end of the year. Brown, for all his nicknames and monikers about being Mr. February for his ability to recruit but inability to take the reins on the game day, is the best in the business this side of Bob Stoops in bringing in top flight assistant coaches.

It’s time that Aggies swallowed their pride and began utilizing the assets available right here in the state of Texas to begin a true rebuilding project. Fran will take you so far, and then jump ship like he’s done at every other school (and from the looks of the past 4 years in College Station, he may have already cast his lot on sinking that ship). Tradition is great and all, but it’s time our friends at A&M admitted how far they have fallen, and begin the long climb out of the cellar of Texas football. Texas has done its part to bring national attention to the state with its 2005 BCS Championship. It’s time Texas A&M work to create the legendary battles of old between the Longhorns and Aggies – take us back to a time when no other school in the state mattered, as it should be.