re: Aggies: A question about Dennis Franchione's tenure at Texas A&M vs. Alabama.

at least in the East Texas region, the Texas high school coaches HATED his arse. I talked with several that would openly rip him when they found out I was an Aggie.

They thought he was an incredibly arrogant know it all.

His offensive play calling int he red zone was horrid.

He hired a used car salesman as his DC.

He changed his offense to a run option that did not suit the personnel and ruined two very good QBs doing it.


as for RC, he got screwed by an admin that didn't give two shits about upgrading facilities until it was too late for him to recover.

I really would have liked to see what RC would have done with a full year of Kevin Sumlin as his OC with Reggie McNeal to work with.

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He left Miami, not LSU, for Alabama.

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Do you not even get Alabama fans are still butthurt over something that's the exact same thing Saban did at Miami.. maybe not even as bad.

Actually the 08 class. I wonder how many Ags even remember any of these guys. This would have been our redshirt senior class this last year. I don't believe a single one of these players was on the roster last season.

Josh Ayers
Aaron Buckley
Blake Chavis
Leroy Chevalier
Rod Davis
Tommy Dorman
Adren Dorsey
Keon Furtch
Derrick Hall
Jeffrey Hyde
Tony Jerod-Eddie
Chris Lathrop
Kyle Mangan
Matt Moss
Brian Thomas
Joe V
KJ Williams
Andrew Wolridge

And the rest - these were all added after Sherman came on board

Eddie Brown
Ricky Cavanaugh
Terrence Frederick
Jeff Fuller
Cyrus Gray
Trent Hunter

Other than TJE, Brian Thomas and JUCO Matt Moss, none of those Fran commits ever play meaningful snaps at Texas A&M. Meanwhile the Sherm guys other than Ricky Cavanaugh all were multi-year starters (mostly out of necessity).

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Yet, he goes to College Station and its like he's a completely different coach.

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He tried to manufacture at A&M much of what he'd done at other schools--from his stupid Fridays with Fran, Spirit Walk, gimmicky stunts/shirts/bracelets with players, cancellation of fans meeting the team during the spring, etc. (the list is long) ... in my opinion, all in an attempt to cover his football shortcomings (pardon the pun). The "Fran" package never worked. Rather than coming to A&M and making the most of his endless resources, connections, all that makes our school what it is, etc., from day 1 he pushed his own agenda. No one--players included--bought into it. His ego (pride goeth before a fall) was his undoing.

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I really would have liked to see what RC would have done with a full year of Kevin Sumlin as his OC with Reggie McNeal to work with.

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let's not pretend that RC hadn't gone through 6 OCs in about 6 years. He chose Babers, not Sumlin. Sumlin was a desperation move by a desperate man. He kept hiring new OCs. He failed at it. He gave a 30-something WR coach the offense and things clicked. But his era was over and he didn't deserve yet another chance with yet another OC.

considering he never had a losing season I will always think he deserved one more year.

I'm sorry, his decline was directly related to the lack of facility upgrades and the weak pay he was able to give his assistants.

and so what if he had gone through several OCs? He hit on Sumlin and he woudl have had a very exciting offense grooming Reggie.

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Reggie

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Reggie McNeal... I thought this dude and Fran's offense would do damage. People thought he was better than VY coming out of high school.

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and so what if he had gone through several OCs? He hit on Sumlin and he woudl have had a very exciting offense grooming Reggie.

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The point is, when you give someone free reign to make decisions and they make bad ones over and over, do you honestly expect that to change? The litany of guys he brought in had strong pedigrees. They succeeded elsewhere both before and after their stops at A&M. They failed because their boss inevitably interfered with their work. This is never changed and if not for pure desperation he would have done so to Sumlin too. This haunted him from day one (remember this is the guy that fired Bob Toledo for not running the offense his way).

And ironically, RC getting fired was probably the most fortuitous thing to ever happen to Kevin Sumlin as well.

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i've heard many times from a buddy of mine that his daughter was making quite a name for herself in tuscaloosa. idk.

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Libby Franchione continued those efforts in College Station.