Conservatives Beat Aggies(Texas A&M)?

WSJ.com ^ | 12-01-03 | Best of the Web

[SwinneySwitch]

The Texas A&M football team has just finished a dreadful season, going 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12 conference, including a 77-0 humiliation at the University of Oklahoma. Texas A&M's athletic director, Bill Byrne, has a novel theory as to why his school is suffering athletically. He blames the Young Conservatives of Texas A&M, a student group, which held one of those "affirmative action bake sales":

"Free speech is not an issue for me, and differing political beliefs are not an issue for me, because I believe that reasonable people can disagree. But I'm disappointed over the national attention that Texas A&M University received recently because of a few individuals and their idea of a protest.

The Texas A&M Bake Sale plays right into the hands of those who recruit against us, in both athletics and in the general student population. They will use something like this to suggest that Texas A&M does not have a welcoming environment.

We all know that is not true. Unfortunately, a few individuals represented 45,000 students and an entire community in precisely the wrong light. My hope is that those of you who have a chance to influence public opinion will speak out against anything like this that discredits Texas A&M University. It causes me to redouble my efforts to do exactly that."

[PhiKapMom]

LOL!!!!!!!!! Your #53! When we lived in Boerne, the kids had a science teacher in Middle School that used to tell an Aggie joke every morning. His oldest son wanted to go to A&M -- he went to Tech instead -- no A&M in that household.

This is a true story -- one time my oldest daughter and I were driving in Boerne as I was taking her to BHS when she was a Freshman -- right in front of us was an older car with an older white haired lady driving it -- on her back bumper was a ATM bumper strip saying -- I am an Aggie Grandmother. It was upside down! We laughed -- kind of figured!

[Pedantic_Lady]

This is a true story -- one time my oldest daughter and I were driving in Boerne as I was taking her to BHS when she was a Freshman -- right in front of us was an older car with an older white haired lady driving it -- on her back bumper was a ATM bumper strip saying -- I am an Aggie Grandmother. It was upside down! We laughed -- kind of figured!

LOL....typical!

[anymouse]

Sounds like Byrne needs to find a new job. Any coach that is this much in denial needs to not only be fired, but run out of town on a rail.

No wonder the Aggies were in such disarray on the field. How could such a weasel command the respect of athletes putting their bodies and careers on the line, while he looks for scapegoats for his own inability to coach.

[Mr.Atos]

I'm a Longhorn and I'm embarrassed for you. Welcome to our PC MudPit. I expect this sort of reaction from those Austin ninnies on the Drag. But, I always had respect for our proud foes in College Station. I hold out hope that Byrne does not speak for the majority of the student body there. Gig'em.

[anymouse]

Get a load of this fake Aggie and the pile of B.S. he is pedaling.

[Frank_Discussion]

Thanks for your support. FWIW, my family is split VERY evenly between A&M and UT, so I guess we might be considered "multicultural". ;-)

(I like your graphic, BTW.)

[PhiKapMom]

Did you go to any A&M games? The one here in Norman was pathetic at best. We sit on the visitors side with season tickets and the interaction between the coaches and players was almost nill. We have had A&M grads call into the radio about the problems that Fran brought to A&M and his and his coaches lack of interaction with the players.

One of the A&M coaches is on our staff and really good as a receivers coach. Personally think he is one of the reasons along with Josh Heupel for the White to Clayton hook-up on passes this year.

If you think recruiting was bad under Slocum -- just wait. The recruiting is going to get worse -- am telling you that you all hired a coach that is not even close to being the players coach that Slocum was from what we saw here in Norman. Slocum was always talking to the players. Fran should have been embarrassed at his team and his own coaching and his assistants for that poor performance they put on here in Norman. Never saw a college team just quit before in the 2nd quater -- I did that Saturday.

I have zero respect for Fran not telling his players at Alabama that he was leaving and waiting for them to find out at an Aggie Press Conference. You can take Fran's story all you want, but I don't belive it after he lied here about not being informed of the clock keeping running. We saw the ref go over, point to the clock, and him nod not to mention the Big 12 official stated that he had told Fran that Stoops wanted the clock to keep running.

Would not let a son of mine play for him at A&M afater what I witnessed. You get beat 77-0 and then whine you could have scored if the clock didn't keep running -- give me a break!

We could have scored more and after what happened with the moron from NY we should have, but our coach has class. A&M had zero defense, zero offense, and zero special teams play. Aren't you the least bit embarrassed that we had to take a knee on first down to keep from scoring. Jason White didn't play the whole second half which actually threw him off against Baylor.

You guys are the Big 12 -- you looked worse then we did under Blake and we were pathetic then. At least our guys didn't quit! We know what it is like to have losing seasons under John Blake except the players really liked him. It took Bob Stoops to get us out of a funk. They fired Gibbs here for a similar record as Slocums and looked what happened to OU in the 90's! We know what pathetic looks like.

They should have put in the Aggie band -- only people that cared that game! They would have done a better job.

[PhiKapMom]

I was rooting for the Longhorns to beat A&M and so were my son's fraternity because it gives us a quality win just like the Longhorns want us to beat K-State so they can get a BCS bid. Cannot speak for the fans at Texas Tech -- can only speak for the ones I know.

Red River Rivalry does not bring out the best in our fans but we sure have a ball.

Personally your coach Fran gave A&M a black eye here in Norman -- Slocum was always class when he visited! He put a nasty whipping on the Sooners under John Blake -- Blake was fired but we were not even .500 any season he coached. John Blake did not whine about how we should have scored.

[woodyinscc]

PKM, please root for Notre Dame to wipe out Syracuse this Sat. We need to have a OU v USC extravaganza for the National Championship. Under the convoluted methodology of the BCS, LSU could actually become No. 2. If this happened the whole country would be deprived of a true championship game.(my apologies to LSU fans) If OU plays USC, I am open to a little friendly wager.:-)

[moyden2000]

Sure, the A&M football team is an embarassment.

But, then, the state of Oklahoma is an embarassment. So it all sort of balances out.

[GOPcapitalist]

In other words, this Byrne fellow is blaming his OWN INCOMPETANCE as athletic director (signified by his own inability to field a team that wins) by blaming the young conservatives' affirmative action protest.
Maybe YCT should hold a Bill Byrne football game in which the aggies begin with a 78-point lead to make up for their athletic deficiencies, thus ensuring an victory over even the strongest of challengers.

[Tall_Texan]

The two things I remembered from the A&M game was the "we're not really trying to make a first down" running plays OU ran while up 77-0 deep in Aggie territory with NINE MINUTES left in the game, and when an Aggie lineman stuffed one of those plays he goes on to flip the Sooner player over and start into his "look at me, I made a great play" sack dances afterwards. Truly pathetic!

I hope the Sooners don't realize they are actually playing for Texas this week more than they're playing for themselves. They get the Sugar Bowl, win or lose. The Longhorns get aced out of the Rose Bowl if the Sooners lose. This BCS system is f-ed up beyond belief.

I'm going to have to wolf down those "little purple pills" while rooting for OU this Saturday. I feel dirty just thinking about it.

[Tall_Texan]

Well at least he did better than Bear Bryant did his first year at A&M.

Yeah, but what did he ever amount to? < /snicker>

[Clara Lou]

Bill Byrne is not a coach.

[Clara Lou]

'Scuse me, Mom, but A&M coach Francione has red-shirted his best freshman this year, so that they can play four years starting next year-- which he knew would make this year tough. The NEW coach has switched from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense. It takes time to learn a new defense like that-- the change is a big one. I'm an Aggie, and I'm not ashamed of the team or the bake sale. I'd just lke the AD to shut up and stick to AD-ing.

[vetvetdoug]

I come from a small town in North Texas that gave OU Zac Henderson and Johnny Kohler and UCLA Skip Hicks. The current HS coach was a classmate of Stoops and an All American LB on the 1976 OU National Champions. I was recruited by OU in 71' along with a few other insignificant colleges, UT, Baylor, TT, and Cameron State. I went to Cameron and played one half semester before I realized that physics was important in football. Yep, I have been in Ms for over 20 years and seen just a few HS teams here that could keep up with Texas and Oklahoma HS football. The 1969 Iowa Park HS team, the 1970 Wichita Falls Coyotes, and the Brownwood teams of '69, 70' were some of the best HS teams ever. The 1970 Wichita Falls team had three HS all Americans in the same backfield.

[Clara Lou]

I usually keep my mouth shut about football, but this thread is hacking up those who do not deserve to be hacked.
Tony Francione has a big job ahead of him. He's red-shirted players as a plan for the future. He's switched defenses. He has to get rid of some of the riff raff players that R. C. Slocum took on. Over the year he's benched some of that riff raff who, for instance, skipped practice all week, assuming that they were so important that Coach F. would be glad to have them play anyway. Tony told them they weren't playing, and they didn't. There's a whole lot of ignorance on this thread.

[jsbankston]

Yes, we all know the Aggie mantra. The Sooners and Longhorns are poor sports who ran up the score on our boys but it was great when the Aggies ran up the score on Baylor.

Maybe next year members of the Corps can pull their sabers on players and band members from opposing teams and make all in Aggieland proud once again.

[tarawa]

The Aggies are eating their own again.....

[PhiKapMom]

Gotcha -- I cannot believe I am rooting for Notre Dame but I will this Saturday!