Saturday, November 26, 2005

That big ol' football game

Well, it's over. Another defeat to wrap up an otherwise dreary losing season. Sure, the Aggies put up a good fight, and may very well have upset the t-sips had it not been for that blocked punt and an ill-timed fumble there at the end, but still. A loss is a loss, and I don't take heart in moral victories. Coach Fran was hired at $2 million a year to win national championships, not put together two losing seasons in a three year period.

I'm not one of the potbangers that thinks Fran's contract should be bought out now. I believe every new coach deserves five years to make his system work, with his players. But Fran's made some terrible, ill-advised decisions regarding this football team, and I'm not talking about failing to go for two when you're only up by one.

Fran believed his own press clippings when he rode into College Station, I'm now convinced. He had his system, and thought he had the Midas touch. He didn't stop to think that the players A&M had weren't suited to that approach. This is painfully evident on the defense, where he and Carl Torbush blew up the traditional 3-4, linebacker-centric alignment A&M was legendary for (remember the Wrecking Crew anyone?) and threw the players into the 4-3. Torbush said at the time the defensive looks would be multiple, but I haven't seen that. Instead, we've had a defensive scheme that is built around down linemen, but A&M doesn't have the stockpile of down linemen needed to make it work. That's resulted in an over-worked rotation of defensive backs, which has resulted in one of the worst defensive units in the nation for three years running. Offensively, star quarterback Reggie McNeal broke nearly every school passing record last year, so what offensive approach do they take this year? Switch to an option attack, and force the senior QB to learn a whole new system, while exposing him to a greater chance of injury. McNeal was nowhere near as productive this year--nor were the receivers--because of this inexplicable change in focus. Stephen McGee, the second-string QB, started against the 'sips today, and played well. But he started only because McNeal was injured. And I'm not even going to address the inexplicable and persistent misuse of bruising running back Jovorski Lane this season.

Franchione took over a program that hadn't had a losing season since 1984, and has produced two in three years. He's on record as saying A&M, when he took over, was in better shape than any other school he's ever coached at. People complained that former coach R.C. Slocum's recruiting had slipped--and it had to a degree--but the 1999 class was ranked in the top 5 nationally, and the 2000-2002 classes were all top 20. That's not exactly a bare cupboard. No, through either hubris or naivete or both, Fran has blown up the foundation in place and set up for himself a rebuilding job from scratch. He may still turn things around, but close losses at home aren't going to do it. This is still the team that was blown out in the Cotton Bowl last year (a game the 7-5 Aggies did not deserve to play in), still the team that lost to Oklahoma 77-0, still the team that was blown out by Iowa-Frellin'-State at home just last month.

Were Slocum still coach, there's no doubt that A&M wouldn't have come within sniffing distance of a national championship these past three years. But by the same token, he wouldn't have mis-handled the talent available, either. A string of 7-5 and 8-4 seasons from Slocum isn't something that gets the fans whooping it up, but after another of Fran's 5-6 pratfalls, I wonder how many of those who actively campaigned for Slocum's dismissal would like to swap today's uninspired losing for yesterday's uninspired winning?

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