Just Another Night In San Antonio

This Texas A&M fan was caught eating boogers on national TV at the Alamo Bowl last Saturday night. Enjoy...

Like A Good Neighbor...

Doesn't Mike Sherman look like your friendly neighborhood insurance agent?

He's Gone

The coach, not the dog.

It is being leaked that Texas A&M has agreed to a buyout of Dennis Franchione's contract. The news and details are neither being confirmed nor denied, but it's a matter of time.

Rumor has it that due to the VIP Connection scandal, the Aggies have a case for breach of contract, and will only need to pay him a year's salary of $2,000,000 for a buyout. Otherwise, A&M would be on the hook for upwards of $8,000,000. Boy, that's a big price to pay, at $1200 a subscription. And, Fran will never make this kind of money again.

Among the candidates for the A&M job is Tommy Tuberville, head coach of Auburn. Tuberville survived Auburn super-booster Bobby Lowder's attempt to fill his job with the clandestine interview of then-Louisville coach Bobby Petrino in 2003. Tuberville answered by coaching War Eagle to an undefeated season in 2004. The Ags have some high-powered boosters, but none as wheels-off as Lowder.

Undeniable truth of life: An Aggie is an Aggie is an Aggie.

A Really Bad Aggie Joke

It's safe to say the countdown to a new football coach has started at Texas A&M.

The San Antonio Express-News reported today that Aggie coach Dennis Franchione had been selling insider subscriptions to an e-mail newsletter at $1,200 per subscription. The subscriptions were sold to VIP boosters, and contained information not revealed to the public. This information included injury reports and personal comments about players. The newsletter was written by Franchione's personal assistant, Mike McKenzie. The proceeds from the subscriptions supposedly went to the upkeep of Franchione's website, coachfran.com.

All has not been well in Aggieland. In my opinion, a booster decided to leak this information in order to speed up the process of Fran's dismissal. Aggies are not (and should not be) happy with the performance delivered by their program. They have a coach making $2 million per year, and a program that does well to finish 3rd in the Big 12 South division.

I have a couple of takes on this situation.

First, this is not worth risking trouble over. These are health records that are now subject to federal privacy laws. Also, this is information that could end up in the hands of gamblers. This is a big can of worms.

Second, this is coming from a coach left his two previous jobs in less than stellar fashion. It appears he is about to burn some bridges on the Brazos River, as well.

This is not going to end well for either Fran or the Aggies.

Where's R.C. Slocum when you need him?

Getting Close To One Another

This is a classic ABC Sports clip from last season's game in College Station between the Fightin' Texas Aggies and Texas Tech.

The Ags had taken a late lead, and were kicking the ball off to the Red Raiders. This is a clip of some members of the Corps of Cadets.

Texas A&M has a lot of funky traditions relating to the Corps. One of them is for the Corps members to demonstrate their empathy, commitment, and willingness to endure pain, by choosing to "man up", or to stand in a line and grab themselves between the legs.

I'm ok with some Aggie traditions, but this one is a little too much for me.

For what it's worth, Tech went on to win the game.

Message Board Thread of the Day

Something I spend way too much time doing is reading internet message boards. The Internet has produced a new type of armchair fan. The Web has provided a place where people can go, anonymously, and post their feelings (and schtick) among people of like mind (or of unlike mind). Anybody with a screen name and a password can say whatever they want to, whether it makes sense or not, and whether it makes them look smart or not. Some people look really wise on the Internet. Others look really foolish.

I am entertained by reading the message boards of different universities. I read them more than I should. I get a lot of information from them, as do legitimate journalists. A lot of what is said in these forums turns out to be true. Just like you can't believe everything you hear, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. However, many of these Internet communities do a good job of keeping fellow posters accountable for truth.

From time to time, I am going to post a thread from an Internet message board that I find interesting. Sometimes, it will be informative. Other times, it will be entertaining. Coaches hate message boards, and the rumors that they can sometimes produce, as well as the pressure they can create. I like them. I enjoy reading them.

Billy Gillispie left Texas A&M for Kentucky last week. According to some, he was looking for a place to go as early as last year. Some are saying that he had agreed to take the Arkansas job, before he decided to wait on Kentucky. There are those that are saying that Frank Broyles was so sure Gillispie was going to Arkansas, that he had made plans in February to fire coach Stan Heath at the end of the season. Once Billy G turned down Arkansas, the Hogs were looking bad. According to others, Gillispie was playing Arkansas and Texas A&M off of each other, while pushing for the Kentucky job all along.

There are two threads from Texags.com that are enlightening. One discusses a blog entry from this morning by the Houston Chronicle's John P. Lopez. Lopez takes the side of Gillispie in this mess.

Texags on Lopez Blog

Another Texags thread is by a poster with the handle of "Ball Gravy". He throws Gillispie under the bus over the weekend with some of the first information on Gillispie's flirtation with Arkansas. Apparently, Ball Gravy has a source in the athletic department. The thread was locked for a time, then was reopened as the allegations appeared more true.

Ball Gravy on Gillispie and Arkansas

Where there's a soap opera, there you will find Arkansas in the middle of it. Actually, this one belongs more to the Aggies.

Billy Clyde

We have an old-fashioned Southwest Conference bidding war between Texas A&M and Arkansas. Program-builder and miracle worker Billy Gillispie is being courted by Arkansas to take over the Hogs' basketball program.

Why would Billy Clyde think about moving to the hills of Arkansas? $$$$. As in $2 million per year. The Texas A&M board of regents are prepared to give him an extension and a sizable raise in order to keep him.

The guy is a recruiting machine, having brought studs into places such as Baylor, Tulsa, and Illinois as an assistant, and in bringing players to UTEP and Texas A&M as a head coach. He's also proven himself as an X's and O's coach. He has taken A&M from 0-16 in the Big XII to the Sweet 16 in three years.

As an OU fan, I hope he stays. It would be bad for the Big XII if he left.