re: Looks like Strong wants us to play

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"It's all about the two ADs getting together and getting that figured out. When you look at it, it's been such a huge rivalry game ... I think at some point it will get worked out. When there's been so much tradition there, you'd like to see it continue on. That's my feeling on it. I'd love to play it."
Texas head coach Charlie Strong to the Dallas Morning News on playing Texas A&M.
Of all the reasons why I find myself liking UT's new head football coach, his lack of fear towards just about anything might be the thing I find myself gravitating towards the most.
Whether he's working out with his own team, challenging one of the true junkyard dogs in his program in Johnathan Gray or calling out a cross-state rival that has been peacocking around the state in the last year pretending to have accomplished things it really hasn't, I dig Strong's propensity to say what he thinks and to mean what he says.
Personally, I don't think the Aggies have the want-to to get on the field with the Longhorns any time soon. It's been so long since they've had leverage over their in-state counterparts that it's hard to image they would do anything that might risk their current position. And to be fair, Mack Brown, DeLoss Dodds and the rest of the old establishment had zero interest in offering the same opportunity that the new guy in town is requesting at the moment.
But, this isn't really about the Longhorns playing the Aggies.
Charlie Strong needs to find himself a quarterback and some depth on both sides of the ball before such an important task is taken on, while Kevin Sumlin is in the midst of trying to find control in a program that seems to be enjoying the spoils of non-BCS success seasons a little too much before his seat starts to get warm enough that flying around in the Swagcopter might be needed to escape the calls for something a little more substantive. After all, they call the damn thing the Swagcopter because you can fake swag, but you can't fake calling it the Championship-copter. That would simply be an outright lie because Sumlin has won as many championships as a head coach as you and I have … but I digress.
No, what this is really about is Strong giving the Longhorn program something it hasn't had in a long time at the top of its program, which is a take-no-crap mentality. If a football team is a reflection of its coach, then Longhorn faithful have to be incredibly enthusiastic about what is potentially in front of them.
Come hell or high water, this program that had without question become a reflection of its own old leadership is going to become a reflection of its coach … or else.
When Strong said in February that his program wasn't about gadgets, what he was really saying is that his program is going to be about that action, boss. If A&M wants some, they can come get some.
My guess is that the players in the program probably didn't know what to make of this sudden change at first, but they have to like it as much as I do

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