Thanks Hurricane Isaac; Texas A&M opener now set for Florida Gators

Hurricane Isaac hasn't even reached land yet and already this thing is disrupting college football.

According to @LaTechFB, the Louisiana Tech/Texas A&M football game scheduled for Aug. 30 in Shreveport, La. The game will be re-scheduled for Oct. 13.

What does this mean, Aggie fans? It means now the Aggies will open their 2012 season with new Kevin Sumlin against new SEC rival No. 23 Florida on Sept. 8 in College Station.

Now the Aggies will play 12 consecutive games, too.

Good luck with all of that.

 

 

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Dallas Cowboys should just go with 2 QBs

IRVING, Texas - The Stephen McGree project, which is what it always was, appears to be over.

Not for a lack of effort or desire, but the former Texas A&M QB hasn't developed at a rapid enough rate for the Cowboys to justify keeping him on their roster for another season. All signs point to the Cowboys giving McGee one final look on Wednesday in the final fake football game of this preseason, but it looks as if they are either going to go with two QBs on their active roster or keep Rudy Carpenter.

In the preseason, McGee is 18-of-31 passing for 186 yards with 0 TDs, 1 INT and he has been sacked twice. It's not as if Carpenter is much better; he is 6-of-14 for 78 yards with a score. 

"We value a developing third guy," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said today. "Each of those guys have done a good job in training camp and in the preseason games. They can get better. We think it's an important position and we believe in allocating the right resources to it. But you have to understand where the third quarterback fits into the roster."

Read between the lines on this and Red is going with two. The problem is both Carpenter and McGee came into the league in the same year, and neither has really developed a lot.

Keep another WR, and cross your fingers Kyle Orton doesn't get hurt.

Or, just call Vince Young.

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USA Today college football coaches poll says TCU ain't Texas

The preseason college football is nothing more than a waste of time and should serve primarily as a conversation piece but it does make a difference in a format where it's more about who you know than who you beat.

Click here for the entire USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll.

Not a real big surprise. It's hard core SEC. 

LSU is 1, Alabama 2, Georgia 6, South Carolina 9, Arkansas 10, Florida 23 and Auburn is 25.

The great state a' Texas didn't fare so well. Only two ranked teams: Texas is No. 15 and TCU is 17.

Never ceases to amaze how the Horns can be mediocre and routinely generate such expectations. 

 

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New Texas A&M director of athletics admits he never saw it coming for TCU; addresses scheduling Texas

First thing: Asked incoming Texas A&M director of athletics Eric Hyman about the Aggies scheduling Texas in football. His answer was ... "I'm for whatever is best for Texas A&M."

That's a yes, but really a no comment.

Moving on.

Hyman remembers that day at Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth when he announced to a large group of TCU supporters that their school had been asked to join Conference USA.

The reaction was - who?

"It was a Frog Club meeting and I was just so ecstatic that we had been asked to join Conference USA," Hyman told me today in an interview we had about his new job at Texas A&M; Hyman will be taking over as director of athletics at Texas A&M officially in a couple of weeks.

He was at TCU from 1998 to '05, and helped coordinate TCU's move from The WAC to CUSA in 2001.

"You could tell no one there thought very much of it. They didn't know what it meant," he said. "I remember telling them that this was such a good thing because this meant we were wanted. And if people wanted you that meant you were good. No one is going to want you if you aren't any good."

Hyman left Fort Worth in 2005 for South Carolina, but so much of the success TCU has enjoyed in recent seasons deserves to be on his resume. He was one of the original re-builders.

But not even he could see what was coming for TCU.

"To be frank, no," Hyman said. "It truly is one of the best stories in college football: 1-10 in 1997 and 12 years later they win the Rose Bowl. I remember I was watching that Rose Bowl game with my wife and we were literally in tears. People don't understand how difficult that was. My thing was, 'The only way for us to have options was for us to be good.'

"People at TCU wanted to be in the Big 12. Now, realistically do you think that is actually going to happen? I don't think so. But you have to keep grinding, and if you are good things are going to happen."

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Higher Texas A&M Aggie upside: Ryan Tannehill or Lauren Tannehill

The Texas A&M Aggies may have lost their 2011 regular season finale - and the last game in the history of ever - against the Texas Longhorns last year, but at least one Aggie came away with the W.

When the ESPN cameras found Lauren Tannehill, the wife of the Aggies QB Ryan Tannehill, she immediately became a Google machine hit. Wonder why?

Lauren has been a model, and reportedly wants to do the Hollywood thing.

Now that her boyfriend is the first round pick of the Miami Dolphins, and figures to be the leading contender for the starting QB position in South Beach, even more camaras should find their way to Lauren's mug.

This picture is silly; she can't play football in heels. Duh?

Her cause may also be aided HBO landing the Dolphins for their Hard Knocks series; she figures to get ample air time.

The question is - who has the better chance of "making it" in their respective cut throat industries? Hollywood is loaded with good looking blonde women who look like they can play the part.
The NFL is loaded with big, athletic looking guys who look like they can play the part.

The odds for either aren't necessarily high, but my money would be on the quarterback.

 

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Video: Texas A&M e-card to the SEC reeks of desperation

UPDATE: After a wave of ridicule and mockery, A&M has pulled down this video. Thankfully, however, you can still find it here.

Texas A&M is now a member of the SEC, and the Aggies' first act is to ... beg to be liked.

Aggies ... c'mon. You are better than this. You were so sick and tired of being treated like the forgotten middle child to the Longhorns and already you are begging the SEC to like you.

For the love of John David Crow, get some self respect and have some confidence. Give me some swagger; tell the SEC you are going to stomp over them and steal their girlfriend, not this "Don't I look pretty, too?" garbage.

 

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Eric Hyman's arrival to College Station means Kevin Sumlin is on the clock

Eric Hyman is very much the CEO type of AD that have come to run college athletics. They kiss the wallets that need to be kissed, push around the coaches and administrators that they can push, and let the football and men's basketball coaches do what they want.

For that reason Texas A&M's decision to hire Hyman is a good one. Whatever you think personally of the man, he has been in charge of successful athletic departments, from Miami of Ohio to TCU to South Carolina.

Was Eric the benefit of tremendous timing at TCU? Yes. He will be the first one to admit it. I never have believed he was the one who hired Dennis Franchione, and that he really didn't want to promote Gary Patterson. Who cares? Both happened on his watch and he gets the credit.

Eric is an exceptionally politically savvy man, and he has always been able to recognize who the most powerful people in the room are. It may be the football coach, especially if his last name is Spurrier. Or it could be a very wealthy booster. He knows when it is time to stand firm on one side of the fence, when it is time to sit on the fence, and when it's time to go with the masses. It's called survival.

His political awareness and ability to manage relationships will be tested in College Station in a way they were not in Fort Worth.

He now works for a school that has shown it has no problem going around the AD to get what it wants. His predecessor, Bill Byrne, never wanted the SEC, and he didn't want to fire Mike Sherman.

Hyman's challenge will be coming into an athletic department that is already very successful, with the tiny exception of one little sport. Byrne found winners at every position but football.

Which means Kevin Sumlin already should be sweating. Should Sumlin not work out, Byrne is going to get the blame even though it appears he had almost nothing to do with the hire. With a new contract in a new conference, Sumlin should be allowed the normal grace period. Or he should.

If the Aggies aren't winning, I expect Eric to be savvy enough to cooperate with the most powerful people in the room. There won't be any reason to go around his back.

 

 

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The BCS held out as long as it could & now dispenses a "playoff" lollipop

Declining TV ratings and slow ticket sales finally pushed the power brokers of the BCS to create the playoff it never wanted.

The BCS people did it the right way. They waited as long as they could, made as much money as they could, and finally threw out this lollipop to an audience that is so desperate for change and the appearance of fairness that we will celebrate it as progress.

The four-team playoff model that was approved by the BCS people and is still up for approval by university presidents and a D.C. oversight committee is likely going to receive the green light so we can have a playoff by 2014.

This does not mean Boise State, or any non-AQ, is going to the title game. This four-team playoff model is a re-distribution of the wealth disguised as equal opportunity. Someone is going to get screwed. And that someone is not going to be Texas, Alabama or Ohio State.

The semifinal games will be at traditional bowl sites, and the national title will be up for bids. Expect the Dallas Cowboys and Cowboys Stadium figure to be a player for that game.

SEC boss Mike Slive (he is the white dude pictured; not Snoop) has wanted this four-team model, he got it, now expect their to be two SEC teams in the Final Four for a while. The people who run the Pac 12, Big 10, Big 12 and SEC are going to get theirs.

Would TCU's Rose Bowl team been in this Final Four? Yes. Would Boise State have made it once or twice? Probably.

If the non-BCS schools thought it was difficult to get an invite to the Fiesta, Rose, Sugar or Orange the Final Four figures to be an even tougher ticket.

Even though the playoff participants will be selected by a selection committee that will almost assuredly protect their own, this is the first step in what will eventually be a larger, more inclusive playoff format. It's going to start with four teams, people will complain, and it will grow.

It starts with four, it will eventually go to eight and then 16.

 

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TCU is the cover of Dave Campbell's 2012 Texas Football

Unlike the cover of Sports Illustrated or the Madden football video game, being asked to be the cover art of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine is not the unofficial end to your season.

The always anticipated football preview magazine has released its cover art, and TCU football coach Gary Patterson is the cover boy.

Funny that Patterson is on the cover of an issue that hails his team's entrance into the Big 12 while in the bottom right is a shot of his former boss, Dennis Franchione.

Fran's Texas State team is making the jump to the FBS level.

 

 

 

 

 

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TCU results vs. the Big 12 - an indicator of future performance?

FORT WORTH - TCU is in its finals days as a member of the Mountain West Conference. Not only does this mean no more trips to San Diego, Las Vegas or 9:30 p.m. CT starts, it also means no one at TCU has to explain how its conference is just as good as the Big 12, ACC or Big 10.

Whenever TCU's baseball season ends, this part of sales job is over. The Big 12 sells itself.

"It will be nice not to have to win our league every year to get in (the NCAA tournament)," TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said, which pretty much goes for every sport the school sponsored.

Part of this sales job included TCU coaches and administrator's telling the world their results against "the big boys".

For instance, TCU always had very handy its record in football against AQ schools, Big 12 etc. Since Gary Patterson took over as the head coach 2000, here is how TCU fared against then Big 12 schools: 6-6.

Texas: 0-1 (2007, 13-34)
Texas A&M: 0-1 (2001, 9-28)
Texas Tech: 1-1 (2004, 35-70; 2006, 12-3)
Oklahoma 1-1 (2005, 17-10; 2008, 10-35)
Baylor: 3-1 (2006, 17-7; 2007, 27-0; 2010, 45-10; 2011, 48-50)
Iowa State: 1-0 (2005, 27-24)
Nebraska: 0-1 (2001, 7-21)

Can TCU's success against teams from the Big 12, ACC, Big 10, Pac 12, etc., be used to accurately forecast future success when the school joins the conference next month? Yes. No. Not really. Kinda. Sorta. 

"Somewhat," Schlossnagle said. "Now all I know is baseball. But there are so many things; for instance, if we play a mid-week game (against a Big 12 team), it's a toss up. What you look at is how have we done in weekend series against Cal-State Fullterton, an SEC team, or a Big 12? Look at those records, and that comes out pretty good.

"We haven't had to go Oklahoma one weekend, Texas the next. That's more of a football deal because of the physical nature of the sport. It is more of a thing to talk about in football and less in baseball but still something to consider."

Just using football, there are a million ways to spin, or distort, the 6-6 record against the Big 12.
* Two of the losses came in 2001, when Patterson took over a young roster.
* When TCU played at Texas, Andy Dalton was a redshirt freshman.
* When TCU lost to Baylor in 2011 it was breaking in a new QB while the Bears had the future Heisman winner.
* When TCU defeated Oklahoma, the Sooners were using a raw QB who couldn't hit the air if he fell out of a plane.

No one knows exactly how this is going to play out. Too many variables make this an impossible prediction. Privately, most people around TCU feel the school will "hang" with the Big 12 in its first year; meaning, finish around fourth, fifth or sixth.

"In baseball we better be there, at least, because we have built it on pitching," Schlossnagle said. "If you can pitch with Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor you've given your chance to compete in the league."

Less than one month remains before TCU joins the Big 12. At this point, it looks as if the Frogs will be able to compete in the league, but forecasting their success is an impossible guess.

Hope this clears everything up ...

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