You know, unlike many texas fans, I actually like it when A&M is good.  I think it adds to the rivalry, makes the victory sweeter, and is just good for football in general.  I was thinking the other day about great linebackers and, to be perfectly honest, how sad it is that A&M hasn’t produced linebackers like they used to.  This is by no means a knock against A&M, but more of a what the hell happened.  I’m an old man at 28 years of age so I can remember back to when, and yes this is the honest to God truth, people used call A&M "Linebacker U" along with Penn State.  There was a time when Aggie Football was all about defense (Wrecking Crew!!!) and great linebackers.   Somewhere along the line, they fell from their splendor.  Its easy to point fingers at fran, which may very well be why it happened, but why keep blaming? Lets just look at what used to be.   A lot of Aggie fans like to say Reggie McNeal was the biggest waste of talent they had.  Yes, he was great.  Yes, he had the talent to be one of the best in the nation. And yes, fran wasted his talents.  That’s an easy one to spot.  My personal disappointment was justin warren.  This kid had it all coming out of high school.  When he committed to Aggieland, I was extremely upset.   He, along with TaTa Thompson, was a very scary thought for texas fans.  There was a big article in the dallas morning news at the time about the resurgence of talent at the linebacker position at A&M and how the future was bright.  Well, we all know what happened: nothing.  I hate waste.  To me, that was just pure waste of talent.  Well, if warren was the next great linebacker at A&M, I thought to myself, who was the last great one?  Its not an easy one to answer.  “great” is such a subjective term.  For me, however, it was brian gamble.  Was he overly dazzling with his play? No. Was he the most athletic? No.  Was he a first round draft pick? No.  Was he a hell of a college linebacker?  Yes.  He was the commander of the defense his years in Aggieland.  He was solid game after game.  He always produced.  He gets my vote for the last great Aggie linebacker.  Who would you choose?

I realize this may be a bit early, but after the all Big 12 awards came out and I saw, to my confusion, that Bob Stoops was voted Big 12 Coach of the Year, I started wondering who the national coach of the year would be. For me, the question is a no-brainer: Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech is the obvious answer. The man is simply an offensive wizard. I will admit, I am an old school option fan. Those who know me know I used to be a huge Nebraska fan till they converted to the West Coast Offense. That’s where me and Big Red parted ways (and it was because of the switch in offense, not because they all of sudden sucked). I was really excited, and nervous, to see the flexbone in action in a legit (well semi- legit, I realize the ACC sucked this year) BCS conference this season. It worked to perfection. There was only one time this year, against North Caroline, that the Jackets were totally out of the game. A couple fumbles bounce the other way, and Johnson could be looking at an 11-1 team. Kudos to Johnson and Georgia Tech for having the courage to go retro, especially when mainstream media thought it couldn’t work. That’s my choice for coach of the year, who is yours?

It’s amazing to me how people jump on a player’s band wagon and ride the hell out of it.  Murray is Back!!! Look at all that confidence!!!!  Instead of automatically claiming Murray has returned to greatness, lets look at the numbers. But wait, would that possibly lead a person to the logical conclusion that Murray hasn’t returned to greatness, that maybe, just maybe, the opponents got weaker? Lets look at it the numbers and then decide.

DeMarco Murray has had 5 games with 100+ rushing yards this year. Since the texas game, where he had an awesome average of 0.9 yards per carry, he has had 3 100+ games.  Everyone, especially the media, now claim he got his confidence back in his knee, and that’s why he is doing so great.  Conversely, that’s why he was doing so poor at the beginning of the season; his confidence was gone, silly!!!!!!.   On a whim, I started thinking, maybe those teams just weren’t great at stopping the run. Maybe his confidence wasn’t in his knee, it was in the poor run defense of his opponent. 

Here are the facts: Since the Texas game, and his resurgence of "confidence", every one of the teams Murray rushed for over 100 yards against gave up a 100 yd rusher the very next week!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME, THE VERY NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- vs. K-STATE Murray rushed for 104 yards, the very next week Jake Sharp rushed for 181 yards against K-state

-vs A&M he rushed for 123 yards at, I will admit, a very impressive 17.6 per carry. The very next week though, against Baylor, Finley had 116 yards, a season high I should note, against A&M

-vs Tech, his last 100 yd game, he rushed for 125 yards, at 6.9 per carry, another good showing no doubt. The problem is the very next week, against Baylor,  Tech nearly gave up two 100 yd rushers.  Griffin was 18 for 99 yards and Finely had 105 yards on 15 carries.

-Baylor’s Finley had 2 100yd games this year, both were against teams where Murray regained his “confidence”.

-Jake Sharp’s season high was against a team where Murray regained his “confidence”

-Washington was Murray's first 100yd performance against a D1 team, the very next week Stanford’s Anthony Kimble had a season high 157yds against Washington.

Really people, lets look at the facts before we make excuses for his poor performances like, "he just didn’t have his confidence in his knee".  It’s easy to lose your confidence against a team that shuts you down and then later magically regain it when facing a team whose run defense sucks.  Chris Simms always seemed to gain his confidence at the most convenient times, too.