re: The fanbase, aggydom, and poisoning the well

Tmc, a little more explication of this critique would be welcome.

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How the hell did we railroad Spav?

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***SPECULATION ahead!***

If I know my fellow Aggies, I would guess a good old fashion Aggie dick measuring contest went on behind the scenes between BMAs that want Sumlin gone and Sumlin/BMAs who still support Sumlin. It would explain why the university "parted ways" with him over a month after the season ended. A typical "you win some, you lose some" type of deal where both sides had their egos hurt when they were both forced to concede some of their demands. Sumlin haters probably wanted Sumlin gone and Sumlin wanted to keep the staff intact... so they meet in the middle and sacrificed Spavital.

***But again, this would be pure Mexican Telenovela style SPECULATION (emphasis on the speculation part...better not see this pop up on TA and take off as a fact! )

I'm sure they did. Giving up a year of eligibility is pretty significant. Also, transferring when you know you are going to start a bowl game is pretty significant. I'm sure both sets of parents were making calls way before the transfer decision was made by either of them. There was definitely something going on well beyond what was happening on the field during the games.

Prior to the bowl game I never said KS needed to go. I gave him every benefit of the doubt. However... When you have a freshman QB cussing out the OC you got a problem. When you have a QB like Allen transferring you got a problem. When you have Murray transferring out even though he knows he is going to start the bowl game you have a problem. All indications are that Sumlin promised Murray playing time as a freshman to get him to stay committed to A&M. Now this same guy is willing to give up an entire year of eligibility just to get out of here. What??

We were at the game last week on 3rd row behind Aggie bench. I know it wasn't on TV but Myles Garrett and Moore had to be separated on the sideline after forcing Louisville to punt Coaches and players had to get between them and hold MG back. If that hadn't happened we would have had a full blown fight on the Aggie sideline. Not just some player coach hitting a player in the back of the head like last year... a full blown fight on national TV between players on the Aggie bench. MG wanted a piece of Richard Moore. Mind you Moore had a pretty good game. The atmosphere is toxic and us fans. those of us spending money to go to a bowl game, and people on message boards have nothing to do with that.

Sorry but what is going on right now just wouldn't be tolerated at most other Universities (Ohio St notwithstanding). Like I said, I have never called for KS to be fired until after what I saw at the bowl game last week. That was the last straw for me. I posted something in Kaiser's thread about Sumlin that night after the game and said I am in.

I'm not going to get nasty about Sumlin and attack him personally. He has a job to do. We have 2 companies and if people that work for us don't meet my expectations I speak with them about it a few times but at some point I have to let them go. The more money they make the less time they generally get to correct the problem. That's just how it is.

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On the surface, I agree with you but this sort of bugs me. You honestly don't know what happened. How can you say that?

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Sorry, just catching up on posts..

I don't honestly know what happened. You know there is a chance that I am 100% correct as well?

My speculation is framed by what else I have seen and the fact that both QBs transferred and willingly gave up a year of eligibility to get out of here. Evidently Speedy Noil is done after not seeing the field much. Same stuff goes back a few year... Christine Michael comes to mind.

From an article after the Vandy game:

Allen can't pinpoint why he lost his starting job, whether it was the shoulder or his performance.

"I'm not sure what it was to be honest with you," he said. "It's a coach's decision, and you've got to respect the coach's decision to go with the guy he's feels is most prepared to play that next week. So it could be a number of things."

If Allen has to speculate on why he lost his starting job for one game then I think it is okay for me to speculate as well. Just my opinion and we certainly don't have to agree. Nothing wrong with that.

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if you think mith's post (who's a great poster and I wouldn't want to represent otherwise) is perfect, you are completely whistling past the graveyard here.

He posted a strawman. It's fine that you agree with it, but it doesn't address the point at all.

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I'm not sure what it was I posted that constituted a strawman. Your OP seems to be trying to figure out how to keep a fanbase from going torches-and-pitchforks on a coach. I just don't think there's a solution for that. When things are going bad, sports fans are going to complain. I think it's just the nature of the beast. I don't necessarily like that, in fact I hope you prove me wrong.

And as far as repeating lies... I can't think of many people who are repeating out lies which have been disproved. There are a lot of posters speculating on rumors, and expressing various levels of certainty in said rumors. And again, I think this is a function of the emotional investment fans have in their team. When a team is spiraling out of control, as ours has seemed to be doing, people are going to try to understand what's going on. And they're going to base their beliefs in large part on what information they have available, even very incomplete information. And right now, the biggest bit of (incomplete) information that is lending credence to the possibility other rumors are true is the fact that we just had two QBs transfer out of the program, and the circumstances that led to their departure. I honestly never would have believed something like this would occur in Sumlin's tenure here, until it happened. Stuff like that causes one to wonder what OTHER crazy stuff might be true.

Bottom line, I just don't think it's possible to expect a fanbase to be disciplined enough to not be upset and vocal when things go south.

There are a few posters that keep posting completely unproven rumors over and over but telling everyone they are facts

Whoever thinks Spavital was railroaded is probably someone who believes that every coach should get 10 years or something stupid like that.

When I was in recruiting, I fired 4 station commanders; 3 from the same station and one from a station at over 200% mission accomplishment because he had lost complete control.

I could have just let things sit and done nothing about it, but that wouldn't have fixed the problem. All 4 individuals still talk to me 7 years later.

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When I was in recruiting, I fired 4 station commanders; 3 from the same station and one from a station at over 200% mission accomplishment because he had lost complete control.

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Did you tell them you hope they fail everywhere else they go on their way out the door?

I didn't mean that as a personal attack, even as someone who spent most of our games the past two years screaming at Spav through the TV (or towards the field in person), some of the stuff our fans post goes too far is my point.

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the way we railroaded Spav

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Railroaded.

Give me a break!

You are such a ridiculous self-parody now that it isn't even funny.

Jake Spavital is a poor OC at this point in his career, period. He should have never been handed the job in the first place as he lacked the requisite experience. His performance was objectively poor and he got fired for it. That's not "railroading"; that's how the world works. He made a lot of money off of us for a job he didn't have the resume for to begin with. If that's getting railroaded, then buddy please run me over with a train.