This Lone Star state college team heads into the 2019 season hyped about the hype surrounding the program.
This team kept all the recruit-niks excited by reeling in a top five class.
This team reached a victory total that hadn’t been attained for several seasons, a total that ended – for now – talk about mediocrity.
This team returns its starting quarterback, a quarterback who led his team to a victory over a rival and a bowl victory that provides a springboard for the upcoming season.
This team’s quarterback situation has finally stabilized with an established starter entering the season for the first time in the last half dozen seasons. The only “quarterback controversy” involves who will be the backup.
This team’s quarterback who could have been a reliable and veteran backup has transferred to another school.
This team has a coach who is one of the highest-paid in the nation and who is in the process of fully installing his philosophy at a program that desperately wants to be recognized as a threat to win a national championship.
This team must replace its leading rusher and its tight end who was a major factor in last season’s success. It also needs to replace several key players on defense, particularly at linebacker.
This team can spend the off-season gearing up for a season opener against a Group of Five team before a headline-grabbing non-conference contest that could be an early barometer for the season’s success.
This team – tap the brakes, Orangebloods – is not the Texas Longhorns. It could be. All the examples listed above fit UT. But they also describe Texas A&M. (And Your Veteran Scribe, having been transplanted here since 1981, is well aware that drawing comparisons between both programs is the type of blasphemy that can call down the thunder from the football gods. Not to mention message boards.)
While the “Texas is back” has been a worn-out meme for nearly a decade, it finally appears at the Longhorns can at least and at last see “back.” Texas A&M, as it enters its eighth season as a member of the Southeastern Conference, has won 10 more games than UT since The Divorce. But other than the magical season of Manziel in Year One, the Aggies have been in the also-ran, others receiving votes category.
The course correction in College Station came on Dec. 1, 2017, when the school threw down a 10-year, $75 million contract for John James “Jimbo” Fisher Jr. Hiring Fisher and his one championship ring from Florida State made the statement that Texas A&M understands the challenge of winning in the toughest division in the nation’s toughest conference.
Year One in Aggie Land provided reasons for optimism for Year Two. Quarterback Kellen Mond appears a good fit for Fisher’s pro-style attack. The Aggies came within a two-point conversion of beating Clemson, the eventual national champion (and A&M gets a rematch on the road in Week Two). Plus, previous seasons under former coach Kevin Sumlin were of the tease, don’t please variety. But instead of fading down the stretch, A&M won its last four – including the epic seven-overtime defeat of LSU and a 52-13 slap-down of North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl.
The Aggies are currently in the midst of spring practice that will end with the Maroon & White spring game on April 13 (televised by the SEC Network). A year ago, Fisher was multi-tasking getting his team ready for the season while remaking and retooling the program.
While the optimism is understandably high, the reality is that just reaching the SEC Championship game means finishing ahead of Alabama, the conference’s 800-pound gorilla (elephant?). To improve on what the Aggies accomplished last season, Fisher likes that his players have embraced attending to the small details.
“They have the urgency of understanding the importance of details,” Fisher said over the weekend. “That understanding started to take hold the second half of last season when they started reaping the rewards. Everybody’s got good players. The difference in these games …”
To illustrate his point, Fisher held up his right hand with the thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart.
One part of Fisher’s message that he sees taking hold is the players’ understanding of what it takes. He says it’s human nature to be satisfied with earning a B or a C in a class, but that to with a championship football, it takes an A-plus.
“It’s a habit and a discipline that has to be learned,” Fisher said. “You have to learn what the level of performance and excellence is expected. We can’t compromise on that. And our guys like to be coached. Some guys don’t like to be coached, don’t like to be corrected.
“This year, at least they know the language I’m talkin’. Last year it was a lot of ‘Huh? Huh?’ Now, they understand more the tempo and the level of play we’re expecting.”
For Texas A&M (and, honestly, for Texas) the challenge is one of the toughest in sports – meet or exceed expectations.