Perhaps the initial response to the Alabama victory should be a resounding
“Whoop!” I mean, through eleven weeks of chronicling this historical season for the Aggie crowd, the SEC and Gamedayr, I have yet to say it in print. Our three SEC wins each certainly deserved big “Whoops!” It’s like the “happy” feeling that suddenly springs from deep inside our guts, sometimes seemingly without reason. Last week as I was moving my daughter to California for her next nursing job, she experienced this “feeling” just as we entered her new neighborhood. It’s a sense of excitement, wonderment and security all rolled into one, and like a small upward tidal wave it blossoms inside you for one euphoric moment. It’s always there waiting for its opportunity, but is totally involuntary — you cannot force it. And it happens often on occasions when you least expect it. The “Whoop” is very similar in this regard, yet in this case, it doesn’t end with one pleasurable leap to the heart. No, it just repeats and repeats and repeats, over and over again. It is pure unadulterated joy and adrenaline, almost to the point of hyperventilation. And it has STAYING Power, the human equivalent of emotional endurance you wish could last a lifetime. Perhaps it will. [SI’s Andy Staples is all-aboard the Johnny Football bandwagon] “Whoop!” doesn’t end when you greet the team at the Bright Complex after they arrive at Easterwood Airport, as thousands of us did. You hear the great Stevie Ray Vaughan on the loud speakers, along with “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and even our old standby, “Bad to the Bone” to complete the festivities. Coach Sumlin and senior receiver Ryan Swope thank the crowd as it roars with approval. The spirit is awesome. The “Whoop” inside you doesn’t end when you return home either, because all you want to do is hit “play” on the DVR deep into the night – or watch the broadcasters in their major analytics mode trying to properly box it all up, as if they could. Not this one, guys. There are too many minute details to cover in the short amount of air time allotted. It’s just TOO BIG. The NFL is on TV the following day but you’re an SEC fan now. The NFL somehow falls short in your interest level and priorities. “Maybe I’ll just watch the game one more time,” you say. On Saturdays now, even before your A&M game begins or when the game is over, nothing but the SEC is showing on your TV. You’re hooked. THIS is college football. THIS trumps everything you’ve ever seen in your lifetime. Everything else in college football is deemed irrelevant and boring. Sure, tell me how wonderful Collin Klein and Kansas State are if you’d like. I recall thinking the same thing…last season. To be honest, I haven’t laid eyes on him or his team at all this season. Number One now, are they? Perhaps I’ll catch the Kansas State – Texas game in a couple of weeks. Wait. I haven’t seen the ‘Horns play either. Nope, not a single down. I’ll be darned if I even have any idea what their record is. I’m like Denzel’s daughter in the movie “Remember the Titans.” I don’t care. [VIDEO: Sam Montgomery weighs in on Johnny Football and the Heisman Trophy] But back to Kansas State, Collin is very talented and a great leader playing for the most sentimental of favorites as a Coach of the Year as you’ll ever find in Bill Snyder. Coach Bill was through with coaching years ago but was asked to return and the results have been fabulous for the Wildcats. They are the Wildcats, right? I mean no disrespect, rest assured, but tunnel-vision through these Maroon-colored glasses is a mean affliction…but I love it. Trust me, I played Kansas State myself when they were in the Big 8. We went on 90 and 95 yard drives against them without breaking a sweat. This is kind of how their football life-span has gone. The last impact player I can recall from Kansas State was quarterback Lynn Dickey, who was extremely good, although I liked him in the 60s primarily because he wore white cleats. Alabama’s quarterback hadn’t been shown up by an opposing quarterback but once in 22 starts and he made amends for that slight in last year’s BCS championship game. (Actually it took two LSU quarterbacks to beat him but that’s a story for another day.) That’s a whole lot of games to walk over to the other sidelines to console the losing quarterback, shake his hand and tell him, “Better luck next time.” A.J. McCarron is a winner and once was considered a top Heisman Trophy candidate. In fact, I’m quite sure he was about to make a giant leap into New York for some high-fives and back-slaps when DeRidder, La. native Deshazor Everett stepped in front of his 4th down throw and potentially derailed ‘Bama’s national title intentions, and with them, A.J.’s Heisman Trophy hopes. Suddenly the big LSU drive from the previous game they were showing up on the scoreboard seemed like it was from another dimension. I recall the long desperation bomb Doug Flutie completed to beat the Miami Hurricanes years ago, and when Everett came away with that football inside the Alabama end zone I jumped up out of my chair in the same manner I had then. Unbelievable. It was astounding because of its complete unexpectedness. All logic said both teams were beaten until the final play. The Aggie Yell Leaders revving them up The play Alabama called after failing on three consecutive tries to get to the end zone was a sure thing in my book. Alabama put a receiver in motion to the right and had another receiver already there assigned to the defensive back covering the receiver in motion. He would “accidentally” make incidental contact with the defensive back who was chasing the motion receiver and thus free his teammate to run to the outside area, breaking wide open. The quarterback sprints out to the side and flips a pass to his receiver, normally an easy target. I’ve watched Steve Young, Joe Montana, Big Ben, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers, you name ‘em –when they’re near the goal line or in need of a first down — this is the play you commonly see from them. Some teams run it without a “pick” receiver because it’s so hard to cover as it is. A quick break “up and out” by the motion receiver usually leaves any strong safety just a step behind in the “flat” and the quarterback with an easy shot. Let me put it this way: On the college and professional level and in all my years as a quarterback and coach, I cannot recall seeing this play result in a single incompletion in a game. Not one! This is why Nick Saban’s play-caller made the decision. It’s money in the bank. On their “situation sheet” they’d prepared before game time, this play was the one the staff had decided during the week was the one they would win with when the time came. This great read and interception by Deshazor Everett will forever live in the memory and historical annals of Aggie football. Suddenly the Wrecking Crew’s four stops of Auburn’s Bo Jackson in the Cotton Bowl seem to pale in comparison. Shutting down Earl Campbell and Number 5 Texas in 1975 to maintain the Number 2 ranking and an unblemished 10-0 record now seem like ancient history. The National Championship won 35 years prior to my touching foot on the A&M campus was as long ago to me then as my own playing days are to student-athletes now. We’re only spectators and well-wishers now, living vicariously through them and their exploits. Inside four magical downs of defense, after surrendering the bomb a play earlier that would surely seal our collective fates, all eras would instantaneously become irrelevant to the NOW that is occurring. [Must Watch Video: Texas A&M players return to HUGE welcoming party from the 12th Man] As I was tweeting the play-by-play for fellow Aggies in different parts of the world and Louisiana friends who were part of the Tiger Stadium crowd at LSU, I tweeted the following before the final Alabama series: “What a game. Alabama just went 94 yards…now they’re 60 yards away with 4:24 left…long ball to the 6…Goal line stand, baby. Let’s go!” And we did. We gave the heroic effort necessary to come out on top in a very hostile environment. As a side note, every one of my LSU friends heaped praise on our Aggie football team. They loved it. I see now that “tradition” is reinventing itself and taking on a life of its own. It’s growing stronger and larger, and is being noticed by everyone in this country. Since I carry the torch here for the 70’s players and am the youngest quarterback to ever play the college game, I think I speak for everybody from the dawning of the modern era in college football at Texas A&M when I say, “We love the effort and the class with which you play and represent yourselves and our university. We love your bravado, toughness and skill. You play like we did; you take it to ‘em and we’re extremely proud — but this is your day.” “Whoop!” Damontre Moore continues to lead this defense in solo tackles and ranks third in the country among defensive linemen. He ranks second overall in tackles for losses with 2 per game, just percentage points behind linebacker Jarvis Jones of Georgia, and Damontre is third in the country in quarterback sacks. The Aggies are giving up 21.3 points per game which is 27th nationally. In a season of instant offense, it is this former quarterback’s opinion that it’s the defense that has played well enough to win every game. Trust me; it’s been quite some time since anyone has been able to make this observation so intensely. Our punting game has also been outstanding. We’ve punted 30 times while giving up only 39 yards in returns. Our net punting average of 41.6 is 4th in the country. Johnny Manziel and Baylor quarterback Nick Florence continue to battle it out for the national Total Offense crown with Johnny, despite playing the Number 1 defense in the country, closing the gap between the two to 15 yards per game. While the new storyline is “Johnny Football Manziel for Heisman,” there is another current situation that many of us only dared dream would become reality; “Alabama remains in position to win the SEC West by beating rival Auburn on Nov. 24, or by seeing the Aggies lose to Missouri on Nov. 23.” That’s right; we’re the only two in the hunt. We played Saturday like the West Division depended on it, and it did. Johnny led the offense to 4 of 5 Red Zone scores against Alabama, the team that had led the country in Red Zone defense for most of the year and was ranked third going into the A&M matchup. The first three penetrations into the Crimson Tide’s Red Zone produced touchdowns. The crowd seemed completely unnerved by the quick-strike, Stun Gun attack. “We weren’t stunned at all,” Tide linebacker C.J. Mosley said, with a straight face. “As a defense, we knew they were going to make plays, that’s what their offense depends on. They got a great quarterback; they got a great running back. We just have to settle down and play Alabama football.” I saw a great display of spirit and confidence when the team came out for the second half, seemingly clinging to a 20-14 lead. They were jumping up and down, yelling and screaming into the night, as if momentum was still clearly on the side of the guys in the white hats. They were at an emotional peak in the face of over 101,000 fans and a national TV audience that has grown accustomed to seeing them cough up double-digit leads. And finally, there was the ghost of Bear Bryant himself, herding them all together for the inevitable slaughter to come. Seen walking away from the Aggie team’s bedlam with a big smile on his face was none other than the head man himself, Kevin Sumlin. Yes, this team had grown into men through the harshness of earlier costly mistakes and was ready to step into the light. Despite the odds makers’ and broadcasters’ and sportswriters’ low regard for them and their ‘gimmicky’ style, their undisciplined quarterback and the sudden turn of events on the field, these football players never even flinched. Preparation plus Enthusiasm determines Performance…down to the very last play. If games are indeed won before they’re ever played, then days can be won before they’re ever lived. [Johnny football has ascended to the top of the Heisman rankings] Bowl predictions are coming out now as the general public anticipates the Aggies completing the regular season at 10-2. They’re excluding us from a shot at the Sugar Bowl simply because Alabama just has no chance at all of losing to Auburn. Some have us leap-frogging other conference members and being invited to the Fiesta Bowl, most likely to play Big 12 runner-up, Oklahoma, the other Number 1 team the Aggies have defeated in their history. First there’s business to be taken care of here in 12th Man Stadium, and that is Sam Houston State and Missouri. I’ve yet to see us come out of the tunnel not ready to play, so there is no reason to start fretting now. As I said after our SMU game about Johnny Manziel, stop critiquing and begin appreciating him. He will be gone in a flash, much too soon. It’s all in front of him, us and our football team. Winning a three-game road swing for the first time since ’75 would normally be a strong enough statement, but to top it off by whipping the defending champions on their own home turf, well, that’s just darn near a Mission Impossible that we just accomplished. [Read how A&M was ready to match the old guard in this epic showdown] Like Coach says, “No moment is too big.” I can’t tell you how important it is to hear and feel this on a football team. The classiest and the smartest thing this head coach and his offensive coordinator have done is simply allow Johnny Manziel to lead. There are a lot of coaches whose egos don’t allow this. We’re very fortunate. Our goal now is to finish at least in the Top 5, a feat not accomplished at Texas A&M since 1956 when Bear Bryant’s near perfect 9-0-1 squad. Adding only seven Top 10 finishes since then has left the school hungry for more success –and thankful and extremely excited for this opportunity. “Whoop!” Pardon the Swagger; we’re coming through.
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The trademark Houndstooth hat, the signature cigar, the menacing stare and
gravelly voice … no, I’m not referring to Bear Bryant, but to my high school head coach, Shannon Suarez. Coach Suarez introduced me to Alabama football in Sulphur, Louisiana. Practices at Sulphur High were patterned after Coach Bryant’s Alabama practices, peppered with Coach Suarez’ experiences in discipline he’d gleaned from his time with the Marines. It was quite the combination for the young men playing for the Golden Tors in the late 60’s and 70’s. Even today you can’t call Coach Suarez at his home when his beloved Alabama is playing; he won’t take the call. His daughter, Kristi, will tell you he’s too focused on the game to talk at the moment. I was the head coach in Marble Falls, Texas in 1988 the last time our two teams met and it wasn’t me on the smiley-face side when that game was over. In fact, the only time A&M has beaten Alabama was on New Year’s Day in 1968. The following season Coach Suarez took the Golden Tors to the state championship game, losing a close one to former Buffalo Bills star quarterback, Joe Ferguson, and Woodlawn of Shreveport. Coach Suarez, an anecdote-creating machine of a human being, is the main character in my book, “I’ll Tell You When You’re Good!” These words, with the emphasis on “I’ll” while pointing to his chest, are what he would tell us to keep us from getting too full of ourselves because of our success. It allowed us to realize there was always room for improvement and that we were either getting better or getting worse, and never staying the same. Speaking of continuously getting better, I get a chuckle occasionally from fans who assert the A&M coaching staff needs to reduce Johnny Manziel’s running and insist he stand in the pocket and deliver the football downfield. This primeval mindset reminds me of my first start for Texas A&M. It was long ago … in primeval times. I was a skinny 17 year-old kid starting my first college game just out of high school, when I ran with the ball 19 times in a 35-16 win over TCU at Amon Carter Stadium. It was the first win for the Ags over the Horned Frogs in five tries and evened our SWC record at 1-1. We were running the Wishbone for its devoted Father, coach Emory Bellard. For you who are not familiar with this formation, it was an option offense with a full-house backfield in which I faked to the fullback and zipped to the corner to isolate the defensive end, strong safety or cornerback for either a pitchout or a keeper. It was fast and lightning-quick and a blast to run. We set school records for scoring, rushing yardage, first downs — you know, all that stuff. Incredibly, the first thing I heard after returning to College Station was that the staff was going to discuss changing things up offensively so I wouldn’t have the “burden” of carrying the ball so often. My reaction was, “Hey, if you want to change something, how about throwing more than three times a game?” After all, I had a five-yard per carry average and had executed everything just as they had drawn it up, and now after a huge win for our program in a game that was error and turnover-free, I suddenly had the coaches wanting to limit my opportunities. I mean, wasn’t this the whole idea behind option football? You had to think quickly, run fast and go score; end of story. The game really hasn’t changed since then because the requirements and the goals are all still the same. For those fans bent on reducing our offensive capabilities for the sake of protecting our quarterback, you can henceforth forget about it. Seriously. I don’t think the coaches have any more intention of restricting the talents and instincts of Johnny Manziel than they do of apologizing to “Old Army” fogies for wearing those cool jet-black uniforms last Saturday. In fact, those guys in the white Hail State jerseys who were honoring Jackie and their once-upon-a-time Independence Bowl victory were looking for some serious shelter immediately after the first couple of drives. The Black Knights devoured them on defense and dissected them like skilled surgeons on offense, and it was our man Johnny who was wielding Excalibur. It was not only a huge win, but one of the most artistic I’ve ever seen — well, until you drop back a week to the Auburn game. I refer to the Texas A&M Aggies in tweets and posts now as the Texas “Football” Aggies. This of course has its precedents, such as the “New York Football Giants” and our current Heisman Trophy candidate, Johnny “Football” Manziel. Viewing our players’ heads adorned with proportionally perfect emblems of the state of Texas boldly painted on those Black-streaming-Maroon helmets further emphasized this new direction. The Aggies’ Stun Gun assault with its quick-witted sharpshooter at the helm has redefined football in the Lone Star state. Texas A&M can now be seen steamrolling talent-wise, recruiting-wise and P.R.-wise like never before as the Home of the 12th Man grows even more massive. As we once said as kids, “The one who laughs last, laughs loudest.” Now we even get to say it as adults. If you’ve read any of my previous articles pinpointing this A&M season, you’ve noticed my grading system is not all sunshine and roses. I coached the “Spread” offense mixed in with other multiple formations for years in high school, and after much tutoring would hand the offense over to my quarterbacks come game time. My quarterbacks had complete autonomy to audible into anything they recognized as a better call while at the line of scrimmage. A large percentage of the time we just went with “Check with Me” as our huddle call. This gave our team confidence and produced results and was taking place some 25 years ago. Then, like now, the key was execution. Once in a tied ball game with less than two minutes left, on fourth and one, our quarterback decided the deep fade route was a better call than the dive play that came in from the sidelines. Of course, while everyone was yelling, “No, no!” and the receiver’s mom was in the stands saying, “Oh, please God, not my boy,” the long pass dropped in perfectly over his shoulder and we picked up a huge first down at the opponents’ five yard line. This, mind you, was high school football. I’ve heard a little personal criticism on occasion about my fondness for Johnny Manziel as a quarterback, like, since the very first time I saw him play the game. I said then, even on a day when we didn’t come out the winner, he’s the best there’s ever been — at this university, anyway. I’ve noticed recently that the naysayers have somehow either vanished or are out in the fields somewhere hunting crows. Somehow the Polls make you feel cheated when you’re doing well and the team chemistry is exactly where it needs to be. The Super Bowl and the World Series always boil down to the two teams that have fought their way through the season and then the playoffs. In other college sports it’s the same format, even in the smaller classifications of football. You get the nod and you have a chance. Seeing this outstanding football team ranked only 15th this week in the BCS is somewhat of an injustice. I know every Aggie feels this way. A 5-0 road record and two close losses by a total of eight points to the No. 6 and No. 7 teams in the country should give the Aggies a little more street cred than we’re getting. But we’re not alone. At this point in the season there are really only three schools with legitimate chances at the championship: Alabama, Kansas State and Oregon. Three others are on the outside looking in and these teams, in my estimation, are Notre Dame, Georgia and Florida. Even Major League Baseball saw the logic in adding another Wild Card team for each league this season because so many more people out there can maintain hope. It holds your interest. The good news is there will be a Final Four coming soon — to be chosen by a committee. The Texas Aggies travel to Tuscaloosa this weekend to play Team USA Number One, the Crimson Tide of Alabama. Aggies like to talk about the historical relationships between the two schools, many of which most Roll Tide fans are totally unaware of. I ran into A&M’s only Heisman Trophy winner, John David Crow, at the post office the other day. When the Wishbone offense came up in our conversation, John David told me a great story about his coaching days under Bear Bryant at Alabama. He said Coach Bryant made his decision to go with the Wishbone offense just before two-a-day practices were to begin. Having no time to put together an actual playbook, they went the entire season without one, eventually winning the national championship. John David said Coach Bryant decided from then on not to put a playbook together after they’d had so much success without one. Now that’s coaching. This fast-forwards me to Nick Saban. If there is indeed a formula for surrounding yourself with the best and then getting the very best out of all of them, then Coach Saban owns it. We all know how the Crimson Tide floundered for years after former A&M head coach Gene Stallings led them to a national championship. They were as desperate as any former iconic football program had ever been to get its resurgence going and Coach Saban, via LSU and the Miami Dolphins, was the ticket. He has a quarterback there, AJ McCarron, who already has one championship ring and has been in the Heisman conversation all season. He’s led the nation most of this season in passer rating. Right now McCarron is the third choice to win the Heisman behind favorite Collin Klein of Kansas State and Kenjon Barner of Oregon, the talented running back now making a big late push. McCarron led a beautiful game-winning drive in his first real test of the year to beat the Tigers 21-17 last Saturday. It was epic. Still hanging around in the Top 7 is the redshirt freshman phenom from Aggieland, Johnny Manziel. While Johnny Football is virtually destroying his Heisman Trophy competition statistically, his “freshman” status and playing for a school that only recently burst onto the national scene are preventing him from scrambling into this esteemed end zone as well. Unlike former counterparts of the system he amazingly runs so efficiently, Johnny has innate talents the others could only dream of possessing. Fortunately, in my estimation, Johnny will never be accused of being a product of the system. He creates astonishingly within the system, an ability which only a select few can boast about in such “Superman-like” fashion. In fact, the top two total offensive guys in the country just happen to play football ninety miles apart. They’re Texas A&M’s Manziel (383.2)and Baylor’s senior quarterback, Nick Florence (412.25). Florence is responsible for 95.2% of the Baylor quarterbacks’ passing and rushing attempts thus far this season, while Manziel has only 90.2% of the Aggies’. A similar percentage of plays for Johnny would place him at 404.4 yards per game. Regardless, this dude can go. Now, how do we beat the Alabama defense the way we did Auburn’s and Mississippi State’s? It’s simple; we keep our second down conversion rate at 51%. That’s right, second down conversions were key in whipping Auburn and the Bulldogs. Stay away from third down conversions, but when these do pop up, convert them at our nationally third-ranked 54.3-percent rate. And do it so fast there’s no time for the television guys to even show instant replays. Get in the Game, TV dudes! This approach produces focus, momentum, keeps drives alive and puts points on the board, provided we convert all of our scoring opportunities. Just ask Bobby Bowden if a field goal here and there can’t win a few close ones for you. Escape and separation abilities by our receivers will be the key to winning. We have the talent and the experience to do this. Until last week’s scare in Death Valley, the Crimson Tide led the country in Red Zone offense AND Red Zone defense. They’ve dropped to third in each and now face the fourth-highest scoring team around. With A&M feeling like it let LSU escape with back-to-back turnovers five minutes before halftime, combined with Alabama’s equally close call with the Tigers, the Aggies should enter Bryant-Denny Stadium very confident they can earn their second win in the school’s history in the state of Alabama. It’s apparently going to be a tall order with the handicappers installing the defending national champions as two touchdown favorites, but fortunately, underdogs such as us win football games every weekend of the season. Just ask former Alabama star, Joe Namath. His New York Jets were given no chance against the behemoth Baltimore Colts of the National Football League. The Jets were 18-point underdogs. “I guarantee we win,” said Johnny, uh, Joe Willie Namath before the big game. The Aggies have soared high above expectations both offensively and defensively in its previous two SEC road games. Should we win, it will be our first sweep of a three-game road trip since 1975 when the Aggies had its all-time best defense. Ours this season isn’t No. 1 but it’s certainly going to fight you tooth and nail to the very end. They also got the big turnover last Saturday to quell any hopes of a comeback by Mississippi State. That play was big. When it’s all said and done, I’m very much looking forward to seeing who’s wearing the smiley face after this showdown is completed. The play that has made Heisman Trophy candidates out of West Virginia’s Geno Smith, Kansas State’s Collin Klein and Oregon’s DeAnthony Thomas is called the Zone Read. It is THE THING on all levels of football. I’ve spoken of it in previous articles. It is the staple running play of the shotgun offense.
Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez is credited with inventing the Zone Read play while coaching at West Virginia. His quarterback, while running the “Sweep” hand-off during a practice, noticed the Defensive End on the side where his running back was lined up kept chasing the ball carrier down from behind. The next time the play was called the quarterback decided to fake the hand-off, keep the ball and run wide to the side the Defensive End had just vacated. There was nobody out there. NOBODY! Other innovators included Ohio State University coach Urban Meyer, Kansas State University Coach Bill Snyder, and Oregon coach Chip Kelly. Urban Meyer set the SEC on its ear with the Zone Read for several years before heading north. As I’ve watched the Aggies progress this season, it has become obvious that the Zone Read is a perfect complement to the rest of their offensive system. In Johnny Manziel, they certainly have a quarterback with amazing speed, elusiveness and agility. His passing ability is unquestioned and he is like a cottontail rabbit back in the pocket. A pack of wolves would probably wear itself out chasing him down. I have continuously praised this Texas A&M staff for bringing the offense along with Johnny, and never imposing the opposite. When you force a quarterback into doing something he isn’t comfortable with, you steal his confidence, slowly but surely. “Triple option” coaches did this to many high school and college quarterbacks, because it was the “next hot thing” during their eras. This stubborn persistence in force-feeding uncomfortable offensive schemes contributed immensely to Texas A&M University losing real shots at national championships in the 70’s. I would assume ours isn’t the only case study you could find regarding this subject. Now we have a head coach who is playing his own game in the development department. He isn’t the kind to walk on the field and say to his starter, “Hey, let’s see if you can do this,” and after a couple of unstable repetitions say, “Wow, you look great! Okay guys, here’s what we’re doing from now on.” Nope, Coach Sumlin has known all along what the ultimate plan was and when to spring it. Now, Aggies everywhere will be flipping out when they see what the TOTAL PACKAGE with Johnny Football will look like. This isn’t your father’s Aggie football anymore. What isn’t so satisfactory is the manner in which we dropped two home games, one of which we were favored, and the other only a slight underdog. The Zone Read could have been the back-breaker we needed to win both games against top-flight opponents; so where was it? Why would you leave such a potentially devastating play, run by such a smooth operator, up on the gun rack for some later date? In hindsight, this just seems like another bizarre chapter within the vast amount of idiocy we Aggies have witnessed in the past. It’s just ludicrous to knowingly let these game-winning situations fall by the wayside without a second glance. What were we thinking? My thought is this: Our coaches weren’t confident enough in our players’ execution during practice time to include it in the game plan. And guess what. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this decision. Any time you’re reading a defensive player to decide whether to hand the ball off to your back or keep it yourself, there are distinct possibilities the ball will end up on the ground, or the play will lose yardage due to a bad read. This was what old-timers once said about passing: “three things can happen and two of them are bad.” Well, phooey on that. We have watched the Aggies run 635 plays this season, give or take. Did you notice what happened on play number 608? Well, this is probably not quite enough information so I’ll give it to you straight, with a hint attached. It was Johnny Manziel’s final play of the night at Auburn. It was his 20-yard “dance in the Moonlight” that represented A&M’s seventh touchdown of the game coming with twelve minutes left in the third quarter. That’s right; this was Johnny Manziel’s first Zone Read of his college football career. And then, just like that, he was gone; and with him the Zone Read. On this single play for an easy untouched 20-yard romp, we saw the bright, immediate future of Texas Aggies football. Sumlin’s Stun Gun Offense is all off the rack now, but we’ve only seen traces of what’s yet to come. Well played, Maroon and White. Well played. The amazing thing is that Johnny Manziel had already accumulated 773 rushing yards on 116 carries, a 6.7 average, before running a single Zone Read. This is because the Aggies have implemented several other designed running plays for his abilities; one is a sweet counter play where he shuffle-steps one way while his Pistol backfield mates lead him the other, as was the case on his 72-yard burst to clinch the La. Tech game. I’ll guarantee you one thing: there will be hundreds of high school coaches from all over the southeast heading to College Station this spring to visit and watch plenty of tape on what the Aggies are doing. I know this isn’t exactly what the experts around the state and the rest of the country were predicting at this stage of our season. You don’t necessarily need to have a ‘Johnny Football’ on your team to make it all work efficiently, but if you have someone even close, you’re going to want to study this offense and take it back with you to Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and everywhere in between. And if you’re leaving Texas to go visit other SEC schools, well, there’s always something you can learn about defense from, say, LSU or Alabama. Alabama is No. 1 in the country in Red Zone efficiency, both on Offense AND Defense. Perhaps you can sell your A.D. on that for your check request. The resiliency of this A&M team is marvelous. It’s not easy to hit the road two times, sandwiched around such a tough loss as the one against LSU, and perform so admirably. We watched ‘execution perfection’ Saturday night at Auburn, perhaps the most mistake-free exhibition of volatile offensive football one has ever seen on an SEC floor. The numbers and the consistency were simply unfathomable. Sure, Auburn is on the down side offensively, and A&M made their defense look, well, ghastly; but it still takes tremendous cohesiveness and concentration to attack so relentlessly, yet so flawlessly. If preparation and enthusiasm indeed dictate performance, then the Aggies are in tremendous shape going down the home stretch. Texas A&M scored a touchdown with their opening drive for the fifth straight game. Let’s prorate Johnny’s performance from Saturday night and look at his numbers, had he finished the game. How does 636 yards sound, compared to 350? Yes, I know. Still, the offense collected 671 yards, a record amount for anyone playing against an Auburn team… ever. Overall the Aggies had eight scoring drives for touchdowns that each averaged 69 yards, 3 ½ minutes and 8.6 plays. That is moving right along. We’re third in the country (behind Air Force and Marshall) in third-down efficiency at 54.03%. Money. This isn’t your father’s Aggie football anymore. Oh wait, I’ve already mentioned this. Auburn had five first-half drives that netted four yards. On their only other drive, they picked up 82 yards and their only score of the half. The stats, unlike last week in the LSU game, were totally indicative of the Auburn score. 42-7 at halftime sums up the domination of this two-year removed National Champion very well. “We got some guys off the field because we have a really serious stretch of games coming up,” Kevin Sumlin said. He’s so right! Keeping everyone healthy is so very important when you’re facing a travel schedule like ours. We’re now ranked 16th in both polls, while Mississippi State has dropped from 12th to 17th and 18th, respectively, after the loss to the Crimson Tide. This, therefore, is the toughest 3-game stretch the Aggies have faced since my last season in 1977. That year, because ABC-TV requested we move our game with the University of Houston to the weekend following the Texas game, we were presented with five straight away games following our opener at home. Our only break would be an open date following our third game. After beating Kansas in Kyle Field we beat a veteran Virginia Tech team in Blacksburg. Next, we went to Lubbock and beat No. 10 Texas Tech and their Heisman Trophy candidate, Rodney Allison; you’ve probably heard of Texas Tech’s defensive coordinator, Bill Parcells. And finally, we went to Ann Arbor to play No. 2 Michigan, a team that opened the season for the first two weeks at No. 1. As you can see, there are some similarities. We were really banged up at Michigan, which is why I stress the importance of keeping everyone healthy through this tough stretch. I do believe in my heart that this team has a chance. We’re too unique and explosive, and Mississippi State will provide even more valuable experience against a quality team. What will mark this game as pivotal will be defeating a ranked SEC team. What will make it even more special is to do so on the road. [SEC Power Rankings for Week 10] Texas A&M is third in the country in scoring (45.5), behind friendly foe La. Tech and the great Oregon Ducks. The Aggies are tied for fifth in total offense. No SEC team since Florida in 2001 has completed a season ranked in he Top Five in total offense. Don’t forget though, Coach Sumlin’s University of Houston teams were No. 1 in 2008, 2009 and 2011, having an “off” year in 2010 when they finished only 11th. The Texas A&M Aggies have already faced the No. 3 and No. 6 ranked defenses in LSU and Florida, respectively. Mississippi State ranks 28th in yardage allowed and 15th in scoring defense. They lost their first game of the season because Alabama had zero turnovers while they had three. Mississippi State had been leading the country in turnover margin. They ran only 32 plays on their first eight possessions, which were all scoreless. Alabama has given up less than 300 yards in 21 of their last 22 games. They are favored by 10 in Death Valley. Doesn’t this FIRE YOU UP? It does me. It will be another excellent test in Starkville for Johnny Football… and now a dose of “Zone Read” for the Bulldogs to concern themselves with. One play addition to the arsenal with Johnny Manziel around, even if it’s called only once every 600 plays or so, still equates to one huge headache for defensive coordinators from here on out. And with each of the A&M running backs having alternately big games, who do you key on? You’ve got the No. 3 guy in total offense back there with them. And how about Damontre Moore? He is the only defensive lineman listed in the Top 25 in Solo Tackles at No. 22, and to top that, Moore leads the entire SEC with 5.63 tackles per game. This is a fantastic feat. Congratulations, big guy. D-Line play like this makes everyone want to play harder. Finally, it’s mentally very difficult for a team that thought it was making huge strides to get completely horsewhipped like Mississippi State did last Saturday by the Tide. A team like this, you’ve got to kick ‘em when they’re down, like we did Auburn. We’re learning. Then we get ‘Bama. Amidst another big come-from-behind win by someone other than the Texas Aggies, I was reminded of 2011’s pre-season speaking tour starring A&M head coach, Mike Sherman. To each of the hosting A&M Clubs in cities including San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Fort Worth, etc., Coach Sherman spoke reverently regarding the LSU Tigers and the Cotton Bowl, the post-season classic to which his streaking Aggies had been invited to participate in at the conclusion of the previous season. Sherman spoke about how he and his staff realized this was a high profile game against a quality SEC opponent. He then interjected that he had nothing to do with A&M’s (unpopular) decision to turn down the SEC’s offer of membership the previous spring, and would only concentrate his energies and attention on the teams that showed up each week on the current A&M schedule.
Coach Sherman contended the Aggies’ mere participation in this “prestigious matchup” in the Cotton Bowl could easily be the huge stepping stone the program needed to continue its climb for national prominence and continued growth on the recruiting trail. He elaborated further that a victory over this recent national champion and former natural rival would do wonders for A&M’s rising status. Sherman summed up the Cotton Bowl game by telling the engaging crowds that the Aggies, after claiming a quick 10-point lead over the Tigers, thought they were once again headed for another big win. After all, they’d handily won their six previous games with some great defense and their lone adjustment made on offense, the insertion of Ryan Tannehill at starting quarterback. What gave me so much confidence, personally, was the fact that these Aggies had recreated the exact replica of our 1976 team’s formula. This team culminated its season by destroying the University of Florida in the Sun Bowl. We completed that season with a dominating seven-game winning streak and an overall 10-2 record, earning us a Number 3 ranking in the Sporting News Final Poll. In a FOX Sports interview prior to the Cotton Bowl, I alluded to the ’74 LSU game that set the course for the future of Aggie football — the game which you’ll recall I referred to in my last article. I also spoke of the huge turnaround in ’76 that was so reminiscent of this particular 2010 season and the irony of playing an SEC school in our bowl game just as we had. LSU always seems to be in the mix when pivotal occurrences take place in Aggie World. Here’s another instance. Sherman’s next quip in his speech will forever burn in my memory, and this is the heart of the story. It’s as though his words magically created an all-new Aggie tradition to be bestowed upon the humble subjects of Aggieland, exactly at the point and time when they would least expect it. His words and a hauntingly new tradition now follow the 12th Man crowd like a black cloud wherever they may gather to watch their team play. I call it “Double-Digit Fever.” Sherman’s words would easily become college football’s most prime example of the all-too-familiar “self-fulfilling prophecy.” “And after we jumped out to our 10-point lead on LSU,” he smiled, “it just pissed them off.” Loud laughter erupted from the crowd at each venue. Things were loose with no worries. Even the loss to LSU couldn’t undermine the great finish and all the quality performers who would be returning for the Aggies’2011 season. One blemish in Jerry’s House, with still so much to look forward to, would in no way deter the boisterousness of these spirited, well-heeled Aggies who were so anxious to hear how wonderful the upcoming season would be. Who wouldn’t be excited? That LSU team had lost but two games in 2010, one by a touchdown to the National Champion Auburn Tigers and the other by 8 to Arkansas in its last regular season game when hope for another National Crown had already been extinguished. “It just pissed them off.” Burn, baby, burn. Yes, this 2011 Cotton Bowl set the stage for the immediate future, and LSU initiated the script we would soon follow. With its 10-0 lead whirling face-down into a 14-10 deficit, the Aggies made one last desperate stab at the scowling Bayou Bengals, taking their final lead of the night, 17-14. Before the fans’ “kissing while scoring” tradition had even climaxed, the gavel slammed downward and the Aggies were sentenced with a tentative length still today proving rather probationary. In the final five minutes of the first half, the LSU Tigers permanently laid out the star-gazing Farmers, 28-17. The second half was but a formality with the final score posted forever as 41-24. LSU, only a one point favorite before kickoff, never flinched. Texas A&M most certainly did. Tannehill, the flawless one during the six-game winning streak, uncharacteristically was snuffed out by three interceptions erratically tossed into the hands and chests of the Golden Bandits. “It just pissed them off.” Once the talking was done at the A&M Clubs and the games began in 2011, it seemed as though every team the Aggies played was falling behind and getting “pissed off.” Of the thirteen games the Aggies played, they were favored in twelve, with the lone exception coming on a trip to Oklahoma. The Aggies in Oklahoma proved the handicappers absolutely correct, yet a 12-1 record (as predicted by these same handicappers) would have certainly been considered an outstanding season in anyone’s book. Perhaps it would have been sufficient to even get the Aggies into the BCS championship game. As you recall, it turned out to be once-beaten Alabama that got the call to instant replay LSU when Oklahoma State fell unexpectedly to Iowa State. If all went as predicted, please insert Texas A&M here. Unfortunately, the Aggies weren’t up to the task in five of the twelve games they were favored in. Astonishingly, all five losses came in the same manner as the aforementioned Cotton Bowl/LSU game. The Aggies lost leads of 17 (Oklahoma State at the Home of the 12th Man), 18 (Arkansas, inside Cowboys Stadium), 14 (Missouri at the Home of the 12th Man), 14 (at Kansas State) and 13 (Texas at the Home of the 12th Man), respectively. These five incredibly disappointing games accounted for A&M’s 2011 losses, combined with the very predictable 41-25 loss at Oklahoma. These results have corresponding odds attached of astronomical proportions. They’re not something one is accustomed to seeing in the course of 13 games. Including the Cotton Bowl vs. LSU, A&M lost six times in 14 games after holding double-digit leads. In the previous three years combined, Sherman’s Aggies had blown double-digit leads a total of six times, so to drop five in this manner in a single season was remarkably disturbing. Rather haunting, aren’t they, these “self-fulfilling prophecies?” “It just pissed them off.” If you’re interested in a little more coaching foreshadowing, one of the double-digit-leads-gone-sour losses was in Mike Sherman’s opener as the head football coach. Yes, in ’08 the Aggies fell to Arkansas State, an 18-point underdog, by an 18-14 score after leading 14-3 in the second quarter. I know, it’s hard to fathom any A&M team getting shut out for a whole second half at home in front of the 12th Man, but these Aggies didn’t score for the final 40 minutes or so. This was called at the time “somewhat inexplicable.” Texas A&M Aggies fans yell against the LSU Tigers during the third quarter at Kyle Field. (Thomas Campbell) Then in the very next game, A&M blew a 21-7 second quarter lead and actually trailed 22-21 before finally winning, 28-22. This is the only time since 2008 A&M has lost a double-digit lead and still managed to come back for the win. This game wasn’t even played in 12th Man Stadium, but in New Mexico. Double-digit leads were lost for good in two other games in 2008, two more in 2009 and twice again in 2010, including the bowl game. Texas A&M lost 10 games in which they held any kind of lead during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons, with half of those losses occurring inside the once-formidable confines of the Home of the 12th Man. On the other hand, the Aggies have overcome their own double-digit deficits on only four occasions since the 2008 season began, with the most recent taking place several weeks ago in Oxford, Mississippi. Unfortunately, the Double-Digit Fever continues. This is the elephant in the room. The Aggies have lost 8 times in their last 21 contests when they led by at least 10 points. Five of the eight were at home. Texas A&M has squandered double-digit leads in both of its losses this season and both were at home (LSU and Florida). And now, the last opponent to turn the double-digit trick after getting “pissed off” also happens to be the first; LSU. LSU has proven once again to be this school’s trend-setter, for better or worse. Yes, of the eight games we initially were very confident we would win at the outset, but eventually somehow lost, the Tigers are the bookends. Somehow this bugaboo needs to get hullaballoo’d right out of existence, or things here in the Brazos Valley will never change. The highlights? First downs were won by the Aggies 26-18. Third down efficiency was 6/16 for the Aggies compared to LSU’s 2/16. Total yards were 410 for the Aggies and 316 for LSU. Penalties were 6/65 for the Aggies and 13/102 for the Tigers. That’s just for hullabaloo sake. The Bugaboo starts here. Aggies: 4.7 yards per pass attempt. Aggies: 3.5 yards per running attempt. Aggies: 3 interceptions (sound familiar?). Aggies: 2 lost fumbles. Tigers: 2/2 on fourth down conversions. The rest of the story? The Tigers used two turnovers late in the second quarter to turn the momentum after falling behind 12-0. Redshirt Freshman phenom Johnny Manziel’s first interception set up Michael Ford’s 20-yard touchdown run to make it 12-7 and, after a Ben Malena fumble, Zach Mettenberger hit Kadron Boone versus Man coverage for a 29-yard touchdown play to give LSU a 14-12 lead with only 11 seconds left in the half. Déjà vu had busted the Aggies right square in the chops out of nowhere. Aggies traditionally don’t do so well after surrendering double-digit leads. In fact, once one is attained, that’s when things get worrisome for the Maroon and White. For many in the crowd of 87,429, it would only be a matter of watching the clock tick down to nothing and then heading out. We’ve all been here before. “It just pissed them off.” It’s tradition apparently, even at home. And very unfortunate. With the victory the Tigers improved to 2-7-1 all-time in College Station, posting their first win at Kyle Field since 1987. LSU also improved to 31-2 under coach Les Miles when it has a 100-yard rusher (freshman Jeremy Hill: 18 carries for 127 yards and one score.) A missed extra-point and two missed field goals could have been the difference, but there’s no guarantee the Aggies would have scored their final touchdown since LSU went to a soft prevent defense in a two-score game. Otherwise, they may not have done so. Now we do what we must do; clear our heads, regroup and get ready for three road games in a row. I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that A&M hasn’t played three in a row on the road since 1979. That season the Ags opened in Houston to play BYU and then traveled the next four weekends. In 1977, my final season with the Aggies, we had five straight games on the road, winning four. Two of the teams we played back-to-back were ranked; Texas Tech and Michigan, respectively. The only team to win three consecutive games on the road in the modern era was the 1975 team, which beat three unranked opponents. Although the only national ranking you’ll find Auburn in is the Bottom 2 or 3 offensively, this weekend’s SEC matchup between Mississippi State and Alabama will leave two ranked teams for us to play in the second and third games of this trifecta. Each is 7-0 overall and the loser most assuredly will remain in the Top 25 when this one is over. First things first, though, thankfully. Auburn is off to its worst start in 60 years and ranks 121st nationally in scoring (15.7) and 122nd in total offense (276.7). Auburn is surrendering 411 yards defensively (77th) and 25.1 points (56th). They will probably start at least a dozen freshmen and sophomores. The buyout for coach Gene Chizik is $7.5 million and there are a lot of fans who are okay with paying it. As my high school coach used to say, “It ain’t far from the penthouse to the outhouse.” Of course, he wasn’t making $7.5 million. Meanwhile, A&M defensive end Damontre Moore is averaging 1.36 sacks, which are more than 24 teams are averaging. He leads the nation with 2.43 tackles for loss per game and leads all defensive linemen with 8.9 tackles per game. There’s your Heisman Trophy winner! And finally, this Auburn game, A&M’s first visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium, should mark Coach Sumlin’s 10th straight win on the road including his last season with Houston. With a streak going like this, maybe we CAN be the first team in 35 years to win three straight on the road. Now THAT would piss them off. So it’s money time now for both the LSU Tigers and Texas Aggies – specifically the
initial SEC West Division Survivor Game of 2012. May the best team win. It’s going to be a dogfight. I have special feelings in my heart for both schools. I loved LSU as a kid growing up in Sulphur, Louisiana, just 30 minutes from the Texas state line in Calcasieu Parish, located in Southwest Louisiana. We were Powerhouse stuff. The Golden Tornadoes beat Terry Bradshaw for the title his senior season at Woodlawn of Shreveport, and a few years later beat Bert Jones in the semi-finals before losing the title game to Joe Ferguson, who had replaced Bradshaw. We also lost a close one in the title game the year before we’d beaten Bradshaw and should have been in the finals one other time, but lost to Bogalusa in ’70 in the Semi’s. My senior year I was All-State and MVP at the age of 16 and couldn’t wait to sign with LSU, which I did. When a different opportunity presented itself, I switched and enrolled at A&M, intent on starting immediately upon my arrival. A&M’s former quarterback didn’t like the new Wishbone offense Emory Bellard had installed and had transferred to La. Tech. LSU happened to be on A&M’s schedule and I was hung in effigy in many areas of the state. My reasoning for redirecting westward was that if the great Bert Jones had to split time at Quarterback because of the head coach’s philosophy regarding alternating two offensive teams, then I needed to play for someone who believed in a one-quarterback system. My first season at A&M I became, at 17, the youngest person to ever play quarterback on a major college football team. In fact, I was told I was the only freshman to start at quarterback for A&M since World War II. Freshmen played strictly on Freshmen teams from 1947 until 1972, so that quarter of a century certainly had something to do with my being the first guy to do it in Aggieland. Two other guys were doing the same thing in 1973 at their respective SWC schools; Ricky Wesson at SMU and Tommy Kramer at Rice, respectively. Throughout the modern era there have been four other “true”freshmen who made starts at A&M, and all were good quarterbacks. One of them was a fellow Louisiana native, Bucky Richardson. In fact, we Louisianans are two of the four most winning quarterbacks in Texas A&M’s history. Another handful of quarterbacks, including this year’s model, started some games as “redshirt” freshmen, a term my teammates were not familiar with when we were playing. When Joe Ferguson, Bert Jones and Terry Bradshaw each became college starters, they were called “sophomores”. Like everyone else, they were ineligible to play on their “Varsity” squads as freshmen. Players before 1972 only had three years of Varsity eligibility and “redshirt” freshmen just didn’t exist. Really, it was no big deal back then — having a sophomore with no experience as your starter at quarterback. Old School, right? I didn’t start the first college game I ever attended while standing in a uniform on the sidelines, but I did play extensively in it. We were playing Wichita State, a team which had lost a majority of its team in a plane crash a couple of years earlier and was still recovering from the tragedy. I was the backup quarterback for this game and I recall when my number was called, we had the ball on our own one yard line. That’s a heck of a way to begin a college career, right? We played in front of around 36,000 fans that night and won handily. The Aggies’ Stadium, home of the 12th Man, held around 49,700 at the time. I know, we had a lot of empty seats, but that was the norm in those days. The following week I practiced with the starting offense in preparation for LSU because of a sore ankle our starter was dealing with, but I didn’t get to step on the field against the 11th ranked Tigers, a game we lost 28-23. It was A&M’s 11th loss in 13 tries against LSU, having won one and tied one in the process. Only two more years were left on the contract that had been revived in 1960 — a series in which every game had been scheduled in Baton Rouge. Though I became the full-time starter at A&M several games later, I would have to wait until the following year to get a shot at the Tigers. In the Spring of 2010, I broke my neck in an accident where I was texting at night without a seat belt on, rolling my vehicle. The C-T scan at the ER was somehow negative and I went home, only to discover four months later I had two completely dislocated cervical vertebrates in my spine; the C4 and C5. Aggie QB’s are tough sons of guns, particularly those brought up in a high school program such as ours among Cajun folks, but high pain thresholds can sometimes turn lethal.“Friday Night Lights” spirit was indeed entrenched in me and Sulphur, La., only we spoke with a little different accent than those in other parts of the country. Long story short, I was in danger of becoming a quadriplegic. I went through a solid week lying on my back in traction. At times the medical personnel had as much as 60 pounds hanging from a rope off a pulley that was attached to a halo bolted into my forehead and the back of my head, enough weight to literally rip the human skull off. Please, don’t dwell on this too much. I found out my neck was broken on September 3rd and I went into the hospital on the 24th. After the traction, I still had several weeks before I would go into surgery to see if they could save my spinal cord from these bones burrowed up next to it, threatening to crush or penetrate it. I wore a halo from my head to my shoulders and it wrapped around my chest during this time of waiting. My surgeon, Dr. Jose Rodriguez of Houston via Puerto Rico, wanted to get some opinions from colleagues during a convention in Orlando. Each immediately said when looking at my MRI pictures, “Oh damn, a Quad, huh, Doc?” “No,” he’d say, “just an Aggie quarterback who walked into my office last week.” I physically was supposed to have either suffocated at the time of the accident or minimally be in a wheelchair. I’d made it through life for all these months somehow without collapsing into a heap onto the ground. Still, paralysis awaited me, unless with this man’s expertise I could escape this most horrible of occurrences and again live a semi-normal life. Unemployed, I had no insurance. I self-paid with every credit card I had and cash in the bank and loans from family members. There was no “pay-as-you-can” system available and no government subsidy. Put up or shut up, “brother”. This was now the name of the game. Perhaps my credit rating did me in. “His debt’s low. There’s lots of room on his cards. He can pay!” Obviously, I was truly petrified I would soon be totally helpless. Saturdays became my sanctuary. Not Sundays; Saturdays. LSU and Texas A&M were the only teams that mattered. For 3 ½ hours I could completely forget my fear and my troubles and watch the wonderful exploits of each team, enjoying their tremendous finishes with great joy and excitement. These two teams, even as long as I’ve been away from the game, kept me proud, hopeful and completely entertained, and for this I will love and support them both as long as I live. Somehow, as if destiny had her finger on my pulse, both teams had outstanding seasons and met in the Cotton Bowl. I was a couple of months into my recovery when they played and I knew then that whichever team won, they’d both already won for me. They were special at a time when I most needed them to be, yet none of the players would ever have any idea how this one “scared to death” old-timer was so dependent on their performances. How could they? My guess is this happens somewhere every College Game Day. Maybe watching them play was what brought me mentally back to my own playing days — days which seem like yesterday to me still. I was an 18 year-old sophomore with seven total starts under my belt the next time we rolled onto the LSU campus in ‘74. We’d just demolished a pretty fair Clemson team in our opener, falling just a few yards short of the all-time single game rushing record we had set the previous season. Coming off a 5-6 year with no recent history of being a viable modern day threat, we were not even close to being ranked while the Tigers were in the Top 5 in the country. Odds-makers had us installed as solid two-touchdown losers. I looked out the bus window and saw a huge sign on the side of Tiger Stadium which read, “Aggie Joke No. 8 – Davey Walker”. I was booed unmercifully in the team introductions. “Blood makes the grass grow – Kill. Kill!” Hell hath no fury like Death Valley scorned. The eighth-largest crowd in LSU history had come out to watch the lowly Aggies once again get massacred by the great Fightin’ Tigers, which meant their 70,000 seat stadium was still jammed to capacity, but less standing room tickets were sold. To us, it was the loudest, meanest and maddest crowd we’d ever experienced. Warming up was even an experience unlike any I’d felt. Shoot, Mike the Tiger was kept right at the door of our locker room as we exited, and damn, he especially scared the hell out of us. Never look a real Tiger in the eye. Totally focused nonetheless, by halftime we had rushed for over almost 300 yards and held a 14-7 lead. Personally I was so much in awe of LSU’s defense that I could not believe how our offensive linemen had grown into such churning machines, man for man just whipping and pounding their opposing counterparts. We went right at them with our blocking scheme, blocking Numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3 on the play side. It’s all we did. I DID NOT want to screw this up for them because they were working their butts off. LSU tied it in the third and we headed into the fourth, knowing it was ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again’ time — or once more accept the down-trodden status snobbishly bestowed upon us by the game’s all-time elite. Late in the fourth quarter, under unbearable conditions caused by the intensity and loudness of this LSU crowd, we lost all cohesiveness offensively and laid the ball on the ground. LSU then returned the favor on the next play. Soon, with five minutes left to play, we bludgeoned our way in for the winning touchdown. We had run for 417 yards, an all-time record for an LSU opponent. That’s a lot of history, folks. All three of our running backs, Bucky Sams, Bubba Bean and Skip Walker, had gained over 100 yards each, a first for A&M. We had held them to one pass completion until their final drive, which fizzled at our 25 yard line. The LSU scoreboard read, ‘Wait’ll Next Year!’. The banner regarding ‘Aggie Joke No. 8’ had been removed. I watched little elderly Cajun women crying their eyes out in the parking lots, unashamedly. This loss threw the Tigers into a tailspin. Meanwhile, when we flew back into College Station the airport was so packed the police had to start turning cars away because there was no more parking available. The following Monday the ticket office sold more single-day season tickets than at any time in the history of the school. Texas A&M would play in front of standing room only crowds for the next four seasons, both at home and on the road. Every game we played there was an all-time new attendance record being set. The football polls moved us all the way up to No. 7 in the country, the first time A&M had been in the Top 10 since Bear Bryant’s 1957 team, the one with the Heisman Trophy winner, John David Crow, who by the way, is also from Louisiana. The Aggies would eventually rise to No. 3 in 1974, No. 2 in 1975, and No. 3 in 1976 and ‘77. Our defenses ranked 2nd in ’74, 1st in ’75 and 3rd in ’76. Ed Simonini, Garth Ten Napel, Robert Jackson, Pat Thomas and a slew of others made it happen. Texas A&M was suddenly in the thick of winning the National Championship for four years running. This would also mark the first time since the 1920’s that Texas A&M would have four consecutive winning regular seasons. Before we were done, the 1977 Aggies had set 28 school records and tied two others. The 322 points scored by the 1977 team in the regular season were the second-highest in A&M history. The 1912 team scored 366. No lie. By 1977 we had 22,000 Aggies follow us to Rice Stadium for our fifth straight road game, an all-time number of tickets sold to Aggies for any game played in Houston. The season ended with attendance at Kyle Field averaging almost 54,000 per game, far above its 49,700 capacity. Out of necessity, plans and drawings were immediately put into place the following year to expand Kyle Field. This expansion continued into 1980, when a third deck was added, bringing the capacity to a “Death Valley” styled 70,000 seats. Surely Tiger Stadium had duly impressed the 12th Man’s Directors and if and when the time came again to set up a series with the Bayou Bengals, the Aggies could be assured they could negotiate a little better deal the next go-around. After the ’74 game, successfully followed by the remainder of the Seventies, Texas A&M would commit 100% to being a consistent competitor, not only in the game of football but in all facets of college life. And LSU was the impetus for it all. Now here we are, just a tad over 38 years since the pivotal, instrumental and most definitively influential game ever played by the Texas Aggies. The 1974 LSU game in a flash dictated all of A&M’s future fortunes and endeavors. The school suddenly realized it was indeed possible to be a force in major college athletics. For us and our 70’s teams, the time had come. To gain national prominence it was none other than LSU that had to fall in order to make our resurgence, maximum efforts and our very existence real. This we did on a magical night in September of 1974, and we finished the deal in a blowout win again in 1975, 39-8. The teams wouldn’t play again for another decade but a new exciting course had already been set for the Aggies, as the result of one game in Death Valley. We’re now very much in the same situation as we were prior to our explosion in the Seventies; sometimes respected but never feared. Texas A&M’s ultimate game-changer for national status, recruiting, spirit, growth and every other positive intangible are only a few days ahead. Once again the potential magic of victory over the very school that exclusively set new horizons for this sister school out West now lies in her shadows. Now for the game itself. I’ve been chastised to a small degree on some forums for being so head-over-heels pro-Johnny Manziel ever since the first day I saw him take a snap. Going back to my very first blog for Gamedayr following the loss to Florida, I stated how amazed with his poise and confidence I was. Forget his eligibility or scholastic year or any of that, “Wow, he’s good for his age,” stuff. He’s good at any age! His instincts and vision are unsurpassed for anyone in the college game and his elusiveness is beyond comparison. I was upset however, that the Aggie coaches could not find a single crack in the Florida defense to be exploited, thus costing us the victory. What advantages does this 2012 squad have over our ’74 team that set Aggieland on fire? Well, I had 5 yards passing that night in Baton Rouge, and my high school coach complained to Emory Bellard he was wasting the best passer to ever come out of Louisiana. Do you really wish to return to yesteryear? Nope, it’s time we change gears. The Sumlin Stun Gun Attack is the best thing to happen to A&M football since the Wrecking Crew, efficiency-wise. Secondly, we are protecting our own house this time. The 12th Man is only .500 in Kyle Field since 2000 but I’m sensing a new attitude, one more than just “happy to be here”. LSU players will love the cheers, TV and the atmosphere. That’s why you’ve got to come at them hard. Make no mistake; we WILL be booed heartily when we return to Death Valley. They are NOT your friends. Leave the kids at home if it means having an outer-body experience which you’d rather the youngsters not see taking place. Get us this W. It’s that important. On the field, ou linebackers are the key. We’re going to see 75% “I” formation and LSU is going to be double-teaming, isolating and stretching us all day. Do our Linebackers play smash mouth football? They drop back in coverage really well, but will they go smash mouth play after play after play? This will be a Man’s game, folks, like they were in the 70’s. They’ll come in to control the clock and make first downs. Hey, those 70’s defenses will hold A&M records for the rest of eternity. They were relentless, once sacking an Ole Miss QB 11 times, once giving up a total of four first downs to Baylor who went on to the Cotton Bowl, and once allowing negative 57 yards total offense to TCU. They played unmercifully against any style offense at any time. But can we? I think the traditional SEC offense will make us BETTER defensively. Will A&M’s receivers be able to elude those who chose to play at Cornerback U.? Notably, we never went 4-Vertical against Florida like we have everyone else. Every Spread team goes 4-Vertical from a balanced set several times a game. Was it our lack of personnel, expectations or effort? Just turn it over to Manziel and set him free to call what he sees in the passing game. I loved how Evans had a ball stripped on one play and on the bomb he immediately pinned that football tightly to his side to avoid a replay. These guys learn fast and the quicker the game, the quicker they get. Finally, Johnny Manziel leads the SEC in rushing. He does this by turning on the jets on a few designed running plays and the rest he gets on scrambles. Defensively, you can’t rush him with your linemen and you can’t spy him. What exactly does that leave? Is he looking for a passing lane or a running lane? Can you really tell in the heat of the moment? Johnny came just 1 yard short of breaking the all-time single game Aggie Quarterback rushing record last week against La. Tech. It went down to the wire, right up until his backwards kneel-down that sealed the victory. That record I’m referring to is mine personally. I had 182 yards rushing against SMU in a game we won 37-21 after trailing 21-7 at halftime … 35 years ago. That’s a long time to hold a record. I have no doubt its days are numbered. The funny thing is, when we hired Coach Sumlin I assumed I’d have it for many more years. Here’s what NOBODY can get their head around when it comes to Johnny. Johnny doesn’t get it done by running the option. He doesn’t get it done by running the Zone Read, a play where you read the defensive end while you have the ball in the stomach of your running back crossing in front of you, determining the handoff or QB keep based on which way the defensive end goes. It’s the predominant play in high school and college football these days for teams running the Spread. We do none of that. And still. Johnny is phenomenal. I applaud the coaches for their professional discretion. They COULD be asking for more from Manziel but they don’t; all the more credit to them. Now, that’s coaching. The LSU coach says they have the fastest defense Johnny will ever see. I counter that Johnny has moves that even Johnny hasn’t invented yet. 38-24, Aggies. Enjoy. |
David Walker
College football's youngest starting QB and Aggie great, the first 4-year starting QB ever at Texas A&M. Archives
September 2013
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