Time for a collective sigh of relief. An MRI shows that Goodson suffered a sprained knee.

I have found the silver lining of the Cal loss. Michael Goodsoon's knee injury late in the game might not be an ACL tear. He is having an MRI and we will know more next week.

The football game was embarrassing. Fans, coaches and players are all doing what we do best, "grasping for positives after a crushing defeat" (ouch). Another disappointment in a long history of post-season disappointments. I kinda wish the basketball game was not moved, so I could turn that on and feel better about our athletic department. Speaking of basketball...

We rolled Grambling State, 101-27. And now for my favorite post-blowout game, fun with the stat sheet.

• We had more points in the paint (46), more points off turnovers (49), and more bench points (32) than they had total points.
  
• As a team, Grambling made only 2 more field goals (10) then both Josh Carter (8) and Joe Jones (8).
  
• We made more free throws (15) than they shot (10).
  
• Two of their starters (Thomas and Calloway) had the same number of points as my mom (0).
  
• Six players, two of them starters, (Thomas, Prestley, Ratliff, Nixon, McFadden, Akpele) had more turnovers than points.
  
• No Grambling player had more assists than turnovers while we had 7 (Acie, Joe, Dom, Josh, AK, Sloan, Muhlbach).
• They had 30 turnovers. We had 49 points off turnovers. That is 1.6 points per turnover.
  
• Our longest scoring drought was 2:17 (last 2:17 of the game), theirs was 8:18 (first 8:18 of the game).

I think I am going to start a new stat. The number of major Texas newspapers that run the AP wire story instead of having the college basketball beat guy do a story. Think of it like attendance, but for reporters. This will likely take more work than I am willing to do.

I have already lost motivation.

Most points in any half in history at 65, previous record was 61.

65-13, radio guy will likely come up with about 23874032 stats about how this is the biggest blowout, most points scored by, least points scored against, etc.

Grambling finally scored, but not before we put up 28 including 6 3s from Carter.

Great start, 15-0 run and I believe all of their shots have been air balls. The game is NOT of Sirius, which probably is part of moving the game time. Dave South is in Cali with the football team which means Tom Turbiville is doing play-by-play. And I must say he is doing a VERY good job.

Here is my favorite person's favorite player:

The men's basketball team has climbed back up in the polls, 11 AP and 12 ESPN/USA Today.

Bowl season has historically been a sad time of year for the Aggies. 0-5 at the Cotton Bowl, 1-2 at the Alamo Bowl, 0-1 at the Sugar Bowl, and 0-1 at the Independence Bowl. Our most recent bowl victory was at the soon-to-be-renamed galleryfurniture.com bowl in 2001. I went to that game, and I totally agree with RC Solucm when he said "it was fun to finally win a bowl game." Now we are back at the Holiday Bowl. If history makes you sad, then the history of this game will make you laugh. Not only did we beat BYU in our only other Holiday Bowl appearance, but we dislocated BOTH of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Ty Detmer's shoulders.

The hire that everyone hated, defensive coordinator Gary Danrell, has really panned out for Fran. Danrell oversaw an improvement from from 107th to 37th in overall defense this year. Apparently he has done it all by adjusting the team's "confidence and attitude". I am impressed with his half-time adjustments, I am just a little confused why we ALWAYS need to make half-time adjustments. Does he not get much from film during the week?

Fran is trying to "get the week started in right direction" by practicing in full pads. And
the team's tour guide, and leading receive, Ma Bennett plans to "shine like Rudolph's nose". For some reason this whole blue stat v red state/war fighter v war protester type of comparison of the game really annoys me.

The men's basketball team won at Aubrun, 87-58. This was out first road win of the year, and a dominate win at that, but if you asked Billy, "There wasn't a whole lot of fancy stuff". It might not have been fancy, but it was Auburn's worst home loss since 1952. To accomplish that we relied on "good defense and hot shooting". Now that is a formula that will win some games. As I posted earlier I was not able to listen to, or watch this game. I do not think I was alone on that. All of the major Texas papers ran the same AP report. Here is a quick highlight of the game. And of course, my favorite, the box score. Acie was red hot (shot over .61), so was the team for that matter. Auburn was not hot, shooting around .30. That must be the good defense and hot shooting.

In a continuing saga, seven guys logged more minutes than Joe. Was it the fouls? It does not seem to be at first glance. He did have four, but only 2 in the first half. The game log shows Billy benching him for 3 minutes after missing a lay up and then fouling. Later in the first he fouled again with 8 left, and Billy sat him for the rest of the half. Joe found early in the second, and sat for about 10. Looks like Billy is trying to teach him to play without fouling.


My two favorite players got some press. Marlon and his magic foot are nuts of defense and Kirk is a"glue guy."

The women's basketball team beat down Delaware St, 70-43. A number of the freshman are stepping up, which is exactly what we need with Aturase out with a foot injury.

The men's team faces Auburn tonight. The Tigers are 0-for-11 against ranked teams and are looking to turn that trend around. We are also looking to turn things around, our road loosing streak. Odds makers put us up 5 1/2, so gets hope they go 0-for-12. Auburn is not a bad team. Their only losses this year are to OSU, Pitt and Wisconsin. All great teams. However their wins are not very impressive. Remind you of any one's football team? Impressive losses and unimpressive wins? And no live game feed tonight, which sucks.

Good news. You will not have to split your attention between Dave South and the Holidy Bowl. Grambling agrees to move the game time from 7pm (same time as kick-off) to 4pm.

The men's basketball team stomped Jacksonville, 97-58. As Billy always says when we win, it was a "good win for us" and "we have a long way to go but we are getting better every day". My predictions were:

1) "total domination by Joe and AK"
I was spot on here. Compared to their 2 big men (Allen and Colbert), Joe and AK out-scored them 29:6, out-rebounded them 12:6, and had 2 more blocks and 2 less turn-overs. Points in the paint says it all, 40:26.

2) "Joe will commit... 4 (fouls), 3 in the first half"
I was not spot on here. Joe finished with 3. He got his 1st one 5 min in to the first half, then did not commit another until the second half. Thanks Joe.

Weirdest stat of the game was Jacksonville getting more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds, 20:17. The surprised Billy too, but "when you guard the dribbler like we do that happens". Apparently our 9 blocked shots and their 20 o-bards are a wash.

Apparently Melvin Bullitt was sick as hell when he posted a team-high seven solo tackles and a pick in the win AT AUSTIN. After being a part of some truly awful defenses, Melvin really stepped up this year.

Then men's basketball team hosts Jacksonville tonight, and I am very sad to announce that I will not be watching the game. My bet is that it will not be a nail biter. Their staring line-up includes: 1 senior and 3 freshman, no one taller than Josh Carter (6'9''), and a former Texas A&M football red shirt. Think domination by Joe and AK. Any guesses on how many fouls Joe will commit on these guys who are 2'' shorter and 25 lbs lighter? I am thinking 4, 3 in the first half.

The Big-12 is sucking it up. RPI rankings put the Big-12 behind the Pac-10, ACC, SEC, Big East, Missouri Valley etc etc etc etc. I must hand it to the Missouri Valley, they have cracked the RPI code. How else do you explain Southern Ill in the top 10? To date the Big-12 is 4-5 against top 25 opponents, we certainly did our part (L to LSU and UCLA) in boosting that 5. But that does not stop A&M from being on of the best "fall/winter sports" programs in the nation. Fall/winter sports? Wtf?

McCoy and Brown switched positions. It doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but the move got a lot of press (chron, expresss). And finally a preview of the Cal game.

Congrats to the newest Aggie All-Americans : Pistorius, Berend and Arnold. All three of these ladies will be back next year. I can't wait.

The man who helped beat Phi Slama Jama was not so lucky on Tuesday. After starting off poorly, the men's team posted a W on Tuesday versus Fordham, 84-61. Carter was able to get by his four-game scoring slump and post 24 points in 10 shots. How about that for offensive efficiency. Carter was benched for 8 1/2 minutes after an early defensive break-down. BG made sure he Carter had plenty of time to about how he "can't continue to be a liability defensively..." Apparently AK had a late final and missed shoot around. He still put up 19. Must not have been that bad.

My favorite post-game quotes was from Fordham Head Coach Dereck Whittenburg,

"This team (Texas A&M) is very, very good. They could go a long way in the NCAA tournament."

Tonight the men's team plays Fordam, and once again I will be watching the Aggies All-Access video stream instead of using my season tickets to watch GW play UMBC. While I don't think anyone is thinking up-set, a case of tired legs could prevent the blow out. A BG team, tired? Not likely. We have been known to practice on game days. One of the Fordam fans was kind enough to provide a break down of the game. This guy is amazingly up-beat. He claims they "held our own" against Maryland. They lost by 20.

The number of turnovers we had against UCLA (20), which seems like a lot. However Billy has been "seeing those turnovers in practice for a long time". He should have seen those in the games. We have had a number of games with 17 and 18 turnovers. But those were all wins. A loss makes it possible to fix some of those problems.

AK's European up bringing has made him a passer, but coach wants him to "stop deferring to Joe and Acie, so much". I agree. He has some really great moves to get to the basket. Speaking of forein guys, Billy inked a Russian, Victor Dubovitsky, a top JUCO guy. With box scores like 33 points, 2 assists and 22 points, 2 assists, I do not think we will have a problem with V-Dub (that's right, V-Dub, tell your friends you head it here 1st) shooting the rock.

Reed Arena might not be the best place to watch college basketball, but apparently we are the classiest 5,000 fans you will ever meet.

The loss to UCLA was received MUCH better than the loss to LSU. We "got back to A&M basketball" and our resume is "more impressive than... Duke or Pitt". Hopefully this loss will pay off come "tournament time". As you might expect, Billy G isn't happy with a moral victory. "We came here to win." As a result of the two losses, we are now 13 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

Ty Branyon won the Aggie Heart Award this year. Which is the "highest honor for a Texas A&M senior football player".

Well we lost, 65-62. That is a little better than the last time we played UCLA (117-53). Turnovers killed us, UCLA scored 22 points off 20 turnovers. "It was like we couldn't dribble the ball past one defender at half court..." Acie explained the first few, "I was nervous." Other than that, we played well. The nationally televised game provided "proof that the Aggies have arrived as a legitimate hoops presence..."

I have to admit, Packer made a pretty solid comment on how it was actually bad for us for when Mata fouled out. As a .25 free throw shooter, he would have been perfect to foul at the end. I still hate him.

Great. Looks like Billy Packer is providing color for the game. Be prepared to be annoyed.

Reggie McNeal's newest stat is a misdemeanor drug charge. If you remember, he was arrested for fighting with a cop in Houston last month. Looks like he had promethazine. I am guessing it is for his morning sickness.

We know our guys can play the upstart-underdog role, but can they handle being a top-10 team? Today "we'll see what we're made out of."

UCLA coach Ben Howland is worried about how his guys will match up with "a monster" and "a man" (Joe and AK). To win this game we are going to need much more out of Joe and Acie, and Acie knows it. BG is hoping the problems against LSU can be explained by "first-game jitters on the road".

Here is a funny story. With lines like "Helped... with victories over lower-ranked opponents" , "beating up on lesser schools", and"first major test" I thought this story was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to EVERY story written about A&M this week. Maybe it is.

So you don't know anything about UCLA. As a team they are a unanimous #1 and have beat two top-25 teams (Kentucky and Ga Tech) on the road. They are a well-balanced squad. Four players average over 10 points with Arron Afflalo averaging over 17. We should have the "advantage down low offensively ", which is very good. Billy always says, "Inside-out is the way you are supposed to play". If Joe and AK and do well down low, this will be much easier. Any way you slice it, this game should be a "fun challenge" (great match-up piece).

Here is are some good pictures of a very bad game. My favorite is the jam on Big Baby, shown to the left.

Well that sucked. What did everyone else think? Well... the "Aggies played like kittens in the Tigers' den", LSU "was more than up to the task", in a game of jabs "LSU had landed the most", "A&M clearly wasn't ready for prime time", and in our first road test we "landed with a thud". Ouch. Pretty harsh considering we were within 6 with 2 minutes left. At least each of the major papers in the state wrote a piece on the game, instead of just running the AP wire story.

The comment that was the worst was from Billy himself, "we didn't match their intensity". That might be the first time he has said that.

Was anyone else surprised with Davis's play? Did he ever set up in the blocks, or did all of his points come from mid-range jumpers and wana-be Kobe circus shots? If I was a coaching a 300 pound beast I would NOT have him set up way out at the 3-point line and King-Hippo his way to the basket.

Is anyone else miss to see Acie's knuckle ball? I do, especially the one that dropped 3 on Texas for the win.

"Joseph Jones against the Big Daddy" is today. Joe remembers how close to the Sweet 16 we go. Is it on TV? Yes. Is it on where you live? Maybe. Here is the blackout map.

If you do not get a chance to watch this game no worries, the UCLA game is nationally televised and on the weekend. Now everyone get to see "what's all the hoopla about". This crazy schedule has drummed up memories of previous super-soft schedules. How annoying. Never mind being a seconds away from a Sweet-16 spot last year, lets focus on how we played North Carolina A&T.

Fran's coaching ability gets better every week, just ask his coach's poll entry. TCU's coach is obviously crazy.

Contrats to Ashlee, our newest All-American.

The men's team beat Pacific 74-62. AK had a career high 23 points and a nasty behind-the-back dime to Joe. Billy said he played "as good as he's ever played here". Jones fouled out, AGAIN. I am gonna hate to see him guard some of the quailty big men he will face very soon. The win propells them to number 6 in both polls which is the highest ranking EVER for an Aggie basketball team.

Attendance was close to 10k, which is almost twice the size of the crowds Billy was complaining about. Hopefully they stay up. With a win at both/either LSU or UCLA I do not think that will be a problem.

Bad news for the women's team. Atunrase broke her foor and is out 4 to 6 weeks. She should be back before we get too deep into Big-12 play. We might not keep such a high ranking, but at least in college basketball rankings don't matter.

Oh ya, our favorite underachiever got arrested. Jack ass. Reggie is turning out to be quite the character down in Cinci.

The 10th ranked women's basketball team missed a chance to have their best start in 30 years by loosing to Rice, yes Rice, 66-79. Coach Blair notes that we "got schooled on the fundamentals". We were out-rebounded by almost 20, shot 35%, allowed them to shoot 58%, and had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. I hope it was just a bad, bad bad, day.

The men's team plays Pacific today. These guys handed Billy his only non-conference loss last year in Stockton, CA. Kirk wants to "get them back for last year". While we are facing power houses UCLA and LSU next week, Billy promised that "we won't look past anybody." Once again, I am watching the Aggie All-Access video feed. And once again, AK is playing lights out.

Oh ya, Billy is still whining about the crowd size. I am pretty sure the people that don't go to these games also don't read the sports page. I am guessing 8K for this game.

The new indoor football facility opened, and the team practiced. Looks pretty nice



Fran apologizes for the the late hit against McCoy. In all fairness, I think it is now time for Mack Brown to apologize for his inappropriate behavior with his players.

Childress signed catcher Andrew Nettune today. Nettune was listed as one of the top 100 recruits by Scouts.com and believes that A&M will "fulfill his long term dream" of winning the College World Series". MAN I hope he is right.

According the the AD, the Dec 9th match up against UCLA will be "A&M's first nonconference game ever shown on a national network broadcast".

Men's basketball assistant coach Al Johnson is taking a medical leave, lets hope everything is okay. Billy's radio show kicks off today at 7pm CST. For out-of-towners you can stream the broadcast from WTAW's site. I have been to a number of these shows, Billy is a pretty funny guy. Made fun of the players constantly.

Big news for the football team, they will be playing in the Holiday Bowl against Cal and our players are "trilled". Okay maybe it is not big news, but it is nice that the Gator Bowl yahoos are no longer holding this up, at least for us. We have some interesting, and previously unknown to me, history with Cal. The 12th-man kickoff team debuted against Cal in a 1983 19-17 loss at Kyle Field. Now THAT is good trivia.

It is also interesting that in the year of the young QB, the only two seniors staring at QB in the Big 12 meet in the championship.

The Holiday Bowl exec's announced Cal has accepted their bid and Texas A&M is waiting on the stupid Gator Bowl mess. If everything goes a planned we will be trated with a red state/blue state show down. All-Big 12 football awards were announced. MisiTupe was named defensive new comer of the year. Melvin Bullitt was named to the first-team defense. J-train, Chris Alexander, Ma Bennett, and Cody Wallace were all named to the second-team offense. Justin Brantly, Mike Goodson, Kirk Elder, Chris Harrington, Stephen McGee, Chad Schroeder, Misi Tupe, and Justin Warren got honorable mentions. I count 13 awards. Not too shabby. In case you missed the Texas game (unlikely) or want to watch it again (likely), a replay is available on Aggie All-Access.

I missed this one when it came out, the Aggies were name the (big inhale) Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week after beating Texas. I was not aware that was an award that could be won, but yay!


Looks like Billy's comment on the crowd size was notice by a few more people. Lets hope he does not jump ship for a program with a good November draw. Is it just me, or have we forgotten that things were like 3 years ago? That crowd on Monday would have the 6th largest crowd of the year (I checked) in 2004. That includes the Kanasas game were I swear every other person there was a Jayhawk. The season opener this year against Prairie View A&M would have been the 3rd largest crown in 2004.

The women's basketball team spanked Arizona by 20, 64-44, last night at Reed Arena. I like Blair's quote, "Mo and TK can tear up a zone". With 20 and 18 points, respectively, I think he is right.

The men's basketball team took care of UALR last night, 75-35. AK looked great: 6-7 from the field, 13 points, 9 boards, and 2 steals. He is strong on the boards and has developed good moves to get to the basket, but still thinks "Joe is a great guy and... is the best player in the Big 12". It is not all smiles though. Billy made a point of how "the players notice" the crowd size, which was 5,544.

Is 5,544 really a small crowd for this point in the season? Lets look at the size of some of the other crowds last night:

• #14 Syracuse 19,235
• NC State 13,135
  
• Nebraska 9,661
  
• Notre Dame 8,178
  
• #23 Georgetown 6,942
• Baylor 4,289
• Missouri 1,234

So it was not the worst crowd, but for the 8th ranked team in nation you would expect more.

Billy likes our schedule because "every single game has gotten harder". It is about to get REAL hard with Pacific, @ LSU, and @ UCLA due up. We will soon know "how good the Aggies are".

Here are some good photos of the game.

Mark Dodge was named AT&T Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Week. The architect of the recently shredded #1 running defence in the nation is now the head coach at Iowa State. And we are still going to the Holiday Bowl.

Senior Christi Hahn was named to the All-Big 12 volleyball team.

Looks like a number of Longhorns hade quite the Big-12-championship road trip planned, too bad we spoiled had to spoil it.

I am watching the game via a live Internet video feed. I had to pay a small fee (currently in D.C.). The resolution is low, no stats, and no score, but I must say this is amazing.

Providing the feed free to any one in Texas (and Arkansas for some reason) must help quite a bit with recruiting. Billy mentioned early on that getting the games on TV in Houston and Dallas was one of his priorities for making advances in recruiting, looks like the AD is half-way listening.

Nov 26

The main story on the athletic department's web site is still "Texas A&M 12, Texas 7". 3 days later. I love it. The win shot us back into the top 25, but our Big 12 standing and bowl projection stay the same (Holiday vs Cal). You can go ahead and reserve your tickets.

Remember the first time you heard Fran hired Gary Darnell as defensive coordinator? Remember thinking, "Who the f is Darnell? 1-10? WTF?"? I do. Seems some opinions have changed. Mine has. Apparently he is quite the communicator. As Chris Harrington put it, "It's very easy to just sit back and not listen to what he's saying..." Yikes.

The men's basketball team plays Arkansas-Little Rock on Monday. These guys are pre-season favorites to win the power house Sun Belt’s West Division. And yes, the Sun Belt conference gets an auto-14-seed-first-round-loss bid to the tourney.

Game Highlights

Here are some highlights of the game from videoag98, try the mute button if you can't handle the Led Zeppelin.

Nov 24

In case you didn't know WE WON! And we did it with defense (most ints (4) in a game, tied for fewest points allowed(7)) and on the ground (most rushing yards (244) in a game, 2nd highest individual rusher(McGee with 95)). Texas SAID they were going to ready for the option, however both TD runs were off the option.

As you might expect, Fran was validated, redeemed, and got his signature victory. Not bad for three hours of work.

Mack Brown sides with the crowd on the hit to McCoy, big surprise.

The men's basketball team beat Idaho State. Josh Carter went 8-10 from 3 (a school record), making Idaho State's zone seem like a bad idea.

The soccer team lost to UNC, after going up 1-0 in the first the Aggies allowed 3 goals in the 2nd.

Nov 23

Things are looking better this year, but Vegas can't see past Texas's so-so Big 12 home record (30-1). Fran insists that not giving J-Train the ball is nothing personal. I guess it's just bad coaching. Texas is still worried about Lane, and his passing abilities. Texas safety Michael Griffin hopes to keep my least favorite tradition alive and inch closer to the NCAA record for blocked punts. Jackie Sherrill thinks a victory on Friday would be Fran's biggest win. Bigger than the 2005 OT win over Baylor? Come on Jackie.

The volleyball team won. Corbelli thinks the team is ready for a "giant step". After 5-15 in Big 12 lets hope so.

Nov 22

A rematch awaits the the women's soccer team soccer team @ UNC. The Tar Heals only loss this year was in their season opener against the Aggies. Their first season-opener loss in 948375 years.

Off-campus Bonfire burned. Anyone know if they got through the war hymn? Do they know to sing the war hymn?

Colt's dad says his son will play on Friday, which sucks. Every one seems to think McGee will have to throw the ball because either UT can't defend the pass and/or we can't run the rock. However we can't be one-dimensional and expect to win. Great.

Here are a few historical highlights of the past 113 years.

Right now we are lookig at the Holiday Bowl playing against Cal.

According to Mack Brown's web site, the old 13-0/Bevo story is false. Kudos to Mack's persistence. I am guessing the process that ended in the epicly sized domain name went something like... mackbrownfootball.com, taken. mackbrowntexas.com, taken. mackbrowntexasfootball.com, taken. mackbrown-texasfootball.com, AVAILABLE.

2 McNeese State starters had the same number of points as my mom in a more-turnovers-than-points effort.