statsman

The way it fell apart deserves to be retold. The Ags won the SWC three years in a row. When SMU got the death penalty, their boosters hired PIs to investigate the other schools, listing every possible violation. Texas got pegged with minor stuff, and cooperated with the NCAA, even self-reporting violations discovered in the internal investigation that the NcAA knew nothing about. The Ags resisted. They reported their internal investigation showed everything was on the up and up. Mind you- Sherrill was HC and also the AD. The NCAA hit them with penalties more severe than Texas’. A year later, a former player for the Ags, a FB from Georgia, named George Smith, told the Ags that he needed money, and if he didn’t get it, he would talk. The Ags sent a FedEx envelope to him with $20k cash. He opened that envelope in the presence of a Dallas Morning News reporter. The Ags responded to the scandal by flying Smith to B/CS, where he recanted (he later said he was paid for that, too). The NCAA threw their hand up and said they could not tell fact from fiction. TAMU had a president, William Mobley, who was not an Aggie. Mobley, with the aid of UT, was trying to get TAMU into the prestigious AAC. Mobley convinced his Board that Sherrill had to go, that if he wasn’t fired, Mobley would resign. They let Sherrill go, something the hard core Ags have regretted ever since.

He really did start to build the Ags into something. There were three pillars to his Ag program. 1. Install a pro style offense and let Slocum run his defense. 2. Rather than resist the hokey, anachronistic Aggie tradition and mythology, lean heavily into it. He quickly realized that the Ags in power slopped that shit up and couldn’t get enough of it, so he gave it to them by the bucket. He made a KO team out of walk ons and called it “the 12th Man” squad. He whooped and hollered at yell practices like he invented it. And he HATED tee-you. 3. He bought players like a SOB, having the Ags up (down?) there with SMU and OU. He had success. I would rate the importance of the above noted program pillars as 3,1,2. The Ags would claim the importance rank was 2,1,3. Boomer Ag fans love Sherrill like no other coach, because he won, and he preached that Aggie BS like no other coach before or since. Not even Gene Stallings could out-Ag Sherrill, and he actually is an Ag. He is the coach that they have yearned forever since.

Jackie Sherrill is one weird dude. Back in the ‘80s, before an Ag Cotton Bowl appearance, the (now defunct) Dallas Times Herald did a long piece on him. They related this story- He was a HS football star in Boloxi. There was a girl in HS that he liked, but wasn’t really interested in him. Sherrill became a college football star at Alabama, and invited that girl to Tuscaloosa, to be his date for a football weekend- go to the game, attend postgame parties, and so on. She accepted. He left her alone the entire time. No ticket for the game, escorting to parties. As she prepared to return home, he met her and made the point that she really screwed up by not being nicer in high school. The whole weekend experience was about settling a score. Sherrill is one weird dude.

Confession- I have been online, following the Longhorns, since 1996, on Austin360, Netscape on a Unix box at work. In almost 28 years, I have never read or heard anything that made me think I needed to check out Geoff Ketchum or Orangebloods. I have read people post that the non-football discussion is good; that just isn’t compelling enough.

Texas doesn’t have the OL depth chart disaster that OU does.

Maybe a lot of it depends upon where you are as a fan. 25 years ago, I would have been a lot more interested in following the whole recruiting season as prospects appear, and then sign with Texas or a rival. Now, I only care about the top handful of prospects, maybe a local kid or big national guy. If it’s choosing between a podcast discussing Junior Day invites or the radio, I’m probably going with the latter. I probably enjoy the retrospective content more than some of y’all.

As for the theory “maybe he was covering for his son?”- the DNA evidence is what establishes OJ as the killer. He did it. If the case had occurred after a few years of NCIS, the jury would not have dismissed it as readily, but it wasn’t as familiar to them, then, as it is now. Oh, well. It’s a travesty that he got away with it. I look at it as a crossroads in US race relations- the day that showed a rich Black guy could get away with murder just like rich white guys had been doing for decades (see Cullen Davis for a good example).

I thoroughly enjoyed KD playing in 2021, and hope to see more.

(I was at the ‘84 game where Gray ran Jackson down, tackled him hard and ended his season)

I went to a HS math tournament in Auburn back in 1979 (I was at Spencer HS in Columbus, GA). Gave me a sense of familiarity watching the 1983 UT-Auburn game on a 19” screen in ‘84. My only memory of that game was Jerry Gray stretching out to make an interception on the right sideline that was a better catch than any Longhorn has made in the last five years. Bo Jackson was just becoming a “thing”, so him doing fuck-all never really registered.

Ok.

I’ve been subscribing to OTF and IT. Observations: Their casts align fairly well: Ringleader- Burton (OTF), Nahlin (IT). Burton is a more adept host. Who gives more information? Quicker? May be a matter of opinion. Ex-player- Babers (OTF), Kelson (IT). Again, a matter of taste. Babers has radio experience, but Kelson has a ten times better speaking voice. Babers, I feel, has a need to fill empty space that Kelson doesn’t. I prefer Kelson; even though he is never asked to carry a show, he usually provides real insights as the talk comes to him. Ex coach- Ervin (OTF), Shipley (OTF), Williams (IT). Frankly, I find none of them a must listen. I do enjoy Bobby talking with Ervin during the season. Cub reporter- CJ Vogel (OTF), Joe Cook (IT). I find Cook a better listen. YMMV Recruiting Ace-Hamilton (OTF), Wells (IT). Hamilton seems to bring more, and has a better delivery. Wells? I get it. He’s a “dawg” and he’s from East Texas. Got it. Does OTF have anyone like Boyd and Wadlington? I can’t find them, if they do. I like Boyd, when paired with Kelson or Wadlington. Wadlington pairs well with most everyone else. His “Everyone Gets a Trophy” podcast is a must listen, for me. I think we’re lucky that we have both channels. I “subscribe” (Apple podcast- my $9.95 is IT) to both, and listen, primarily based on who is talking. If it’s CJ and Babers, I’m out. If it’s Wells and Williams, I’m out.

OU has two OL committed, out of 13 commits. Thats not getting it done, is it?

Yeah, it’s great that coaches now understand that Expected Value is a “thing” for decisions. Next, let’s teach Sark the basics of binomial stats and option trees and we’ll all be better off.

Ok, this is a guilty pleasure. There is an OU podcast from their On3 site. I occasionally check their synopsis/schedule to see if there is any to listen to. It’s been fun, because they are struggling in this new era of NIL and portal transfers. Evidently, Royal was right when he said that if Texas ever started buying players, other schools couldn’t keep up. There is a running theme about how unfair that other programs “tamper” to get theirs to transfer, that Venables is too honorable to buy players. Whatever gets you through the night, I guess. Anyeay, this is worth listening to, from the 20 minute to the 40 minute mark. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oklahoma-sooners-unofficial-40/id1114209557?i=1000652074369 The podcasters report that Jackson Arnold is looking rough, which is a problem, because their hopes all depend on him being terrific, and right away. These are the factors and variables they have to kick around… -could Arnold not be ready yet (it being unthinkable that he won’t be all that)? -could the OL suck? Or maybe it needs more time to gel? -The Mich State transfer, Brown, is running with the second team, and they were really counting on him. That’s not supposed to happen! -will there be more OL (especially a center) in the portal? -Maybe the defense is just amazing?

I remember hearing that the largest hirer of SHSU grads is Alamo Rental Car. The Sewell car dealerships like to hire Aggies, though.

Yep. The Ag give mind has mistaken the correlation of a once top 10-ish team falling to 8-4 consistency and the simultaneous end of their bonfire tradition, with causation. If the damned logs had fallen in 1984, not a one of them would be clamoring to bring it back.

The Cowboys, under Murchison, were pretty much the smartest-run team. Under Jones, they’re pretty much the dumbest run team.

On local WFAA news last night, they had a story about this. No mention of the school’s culpability in that outrageously operated enterprise, just comments about how it means too much to let it go. Those assholes are going to bring it back. For 25 years, my stance has been “Do what you want, if you just leave the University of Texas out of it”. But, they can’t, because it is all about the University of Texas.

Just,…please tell me that UT’s Board of Regents doesn’t have a “Rivalry” committee

There is no better documentary about raising teen daughters than “The Exorcist”, from the 1970s.

https://www.barkingcarnival.com/2009/12/02/remembering-nov-18-1999

No. I knew if we played them in CS in 2024, they’d make a big deal about the 25th anniversary. We should have pushed to play it in Austin, for the stadium’s 100th anniversary, but we just try too hard to be good sports.

“I was a single mom, and that was my only child going to A&M. I was so proud of him and he was having so much fun. I trusted that school and campus, and frankly, I was let down. “Now, I’m old, retired, on a fixed income. I should have grandkids thinking about college, maybe even Texas A&M. But, I don’t. I spend holidays hoping for an invitation from my brother, so I can at least be around some people. When I’m alone in my thoughts, I think that at least no other mother will have to feel the pain and loss I feel. “Mr. Bellinger, you ask for my blessing for a new bonfire? I do not give it.” Bellinger, thinking to himself as he drives away, “She doesn’t get it.”

Because the truth is, they really don’t give a shit about the dead kids, or their families. They just want to gin up the crowd’s enthusiasm, to beat Texas.