re: If you want to know just how bad things are, go read Liucci's latest article

I'm not yet saying Kevin needs to be fired, but I really can't think of a national championship winning coach losing like he did to Alabama

Random, thank you for the post. You already would have won my vote for "best actual person behind the screen" award on tRant, but that just puts it through with a bullet.

With that said, we don't need a pep talk. The whole reason everyone is so sad is because we just pulled an Icarus to the T. We flew too close to the sun and we got burned. It happens.

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cardboardboxer seems to be the last optimist...

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Maybe.

I mean, I get that it sucked. It did. And I get that if we would have have a great year this year (or even just a good year) we would have continued to directly ride the JFF momentum into the new era. It all makes sense.

I can't detach from seeing this program in any other frame of view that is not the overall GOT of college football. To me its all big picture, Bama can NEVER hurt as much as the 77-0 did. 77-0 killed what little momentum we had in the 00s from RC's good decade. 77-0 took our best win from that decade basically and erased it. 77-0 made sure that the local recruiting rival of OU could eat our lunch for as long as we didn't have a conference advantage.

I mean, Bama was a good choice for a team to kill us. They can already take whoever they want in Texas or anywhere in the country anyway. Saban is already a top all time coach, its not like our win elevated some young pup we have to face (like Sumlin did to Sabin in 2012). And yes the Mississippi games suck, but hell we haven't lost to either yet. We were due and now we have that out of the way for a while.

I remember thinking before this season how much this season didn't matter as much for our future as the season of the team of the town I work in. And they suck. Might have a worse final record than any Mack Brown year. Charlie went all in with his guys and his rules, and the Bill Powers isn't there to give him the needed buffer time to do that.

I can't help but look at a Big 12 that is VERY close to sending the a real non-threat in that conference for recruiting (KSU) to the playoffs. I can't help to notice out local recruiting rivals (even LSU) are for the most part not playing for anything huge in many likely futures. I can't help but notice we for ONCE had the breathing room to suck a fat one and not have it take us over the cliff.

I am the optimist, because none of this makes me sad. Mack and Murray decommit and I am melting, but for now I believe in the future. Even if Sumlin isn't the answer, we have created a monster that will be fed. Someone will do well here and get paid a lot of money to do it.

The Bama game made me sad, but not near as sad as this 2011 list of the best coaching jobs:

LINK

Back in the Big 12 days, we weren't even a top 20 or 25 option. Freaking Okie Lite made that list and we didn't. And its not the only list. Time after time we wouldn't make those lists. There hasn't really been an updated one since 2011 from anyone other than Clay that I have seen, and he always gives us a bump. I would love to see one though, unlike in the Big 12 era when it was always a fear if we would make the cut.

Best recruiting grounds + top 5 money + SEC +facilities + stadium = top 15 job. I don't care about our history, our curse, or our "place" in this world. We were at best a top 30 job that cut that in half in a few years without ANY championships. If you are a top 15 job, given enough time you will be a top 15 program. I eat right, I plan to see it.

So yeah I am an optimist. As long as A&M remains the sole entry for Texas talent to play in the SEC (and the SEC means something) we have a chance. This is our decade thanks to the GOR. Either Sumlin does it or someone else will. I think the idea of us ever being set back 5 years in a year is long behind us.

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I get no joy in a "just how bad things are" thread comparing A&M to Texas.

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Well yeah, it's not a saw em off. Just a recognition of our entire local situation and the realization that we can get away with a 7 win season this year but only this year. Its not just Texas, but also a cannibalistic Big 12 and a strong SEC as a cover/excuse.

Fire whoever. Both sides of the ball are rough. Do what we can always to improve.

With that said, all I am not writing off Sumlin yet either. We have the breathing space to give him another season, which the contract almost demands.

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Random, thank you for the post. You already would have won my vote for "best actual person behind the screen" award on tRant, but that just puts it through with a bullet.

With that said, we don't need a pep talk. The whole reason everyone is so sad is because we just pulled an Icarus to the T. We flew too close to the sun and we got burned. It happens.

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The feeling's mutual, of course.

But I wasn't just trying to make y'all feel better. I meant every word of it. On the other hand, wallowing is therapeutic. Trust me, I've wallowed my fair share both pre-Franklin and post-Franklin. So wallow away with your mythological allusions and Jungian semiotics.

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SABAN LOST IN YEAR 3 AT LSU, 31-0, AT HOME, AGAINST FRANCHIONE BAMA

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IOW 4 touchdowns better than A&M.

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I'm not yet saying Kevin needs to be fired, but I really can't think of a national championship winning coach losing like he did to Alabama

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I can think of at least one national championship coach who, in year 3, got blown out by a division rival by 49 points.

Cover your eyes.

LINK

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quote: I'm not yet saying Kevin needs to be fired, but I really can't think of a national championship winning coach losing like he did to Alabama I can think of at least one national championship coach who, in year 3, got blown out by a division rival by 49 points. Cover your eyes. LINK

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This is why I'm ready to cut our losses with Sumlin. There is no way he recovers from that beat down in Alabama.

The sooner we realize that the shorter the decline.

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it is not possible to win another SEC game playing the way we have recently.

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There is always a chance that we will not "continue to play the way [that] we have recently." Maybe a Dat Nguyen or a Ty Warren can wander onto the practice field and say something to inspire these guys.

But I am not holding my breath.

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This is why I'm ready to cut our losses with Sumlin. There is no way he recovers from that beat down in Alabama.

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that's as dumb a theory as when CG tries to claim you cant jump from a 1 bid basketball conference to one of the big boys and have any success.