Keep Fran

[hmiles619]

http://www.aggiefans.com/users/hmiles619/coachfran.jpgKeep Fran
Alright, I'm going to come out and say it...Keep Fran.

I've thought about this for most of the season, and I've come to the decision that I want Fran to stay around for one more year. Here's my reasoning....

The Texas A&M Aggies are 8-3. We have 8 wins and 3 losses. This is a good (not great) record for any team. It should be considered an average season. Anything less is disappointing, anything more is exciting. To be at this point in Coach Fran's fourth year is realistic. He may not be Coach Gillispie, but he's making changes with this team and we're moving up towards the top of the Big 12. Let's look at recent history.

2003: 4-8 (Blown out most of the year including 77-0)

2004: 7-5 (Much improvement from 2003, we're getting better and staying in games that we should stay in)

2005: 5-6 (The year where everyone was injured and Reggie started to think about only himself, the players quit on Reggie until he got hurt. Once McGee came in, we saw some life from our team)

2006: 8-3

Oh, but this year our scheduling is horrible right? OK, forget the easy wins, and just look at the losses. See how they keep decreasing? We're moving up....but it takes time.

But not so fast my friend, let's not forget about our easy wins yet. Who exactly did we play in the non-conference that we're getting so much bad-mouthing for?

The Citadel W 35-3
Louisiana-Lafayette W 51-7 (LSU played them)
Army W 28-24 (The same Army team that beat Baylor)
Louisiana Tech W 45-14 (Nebraska and Clemson both played them)

Now let's take a look at some teams that aren't receiving crap for their schedules...

Beloved Texas played North Texas, Rice, and Sam Houston and got beat by their only challenge Ohio State.

Nebraska played Louisiana Tech, Nicholls State (who?), Troy State and lost to USC.

Oklahoma beat UAB, Washington, and Middle Tennessee State while losing to Oregon because of the horrible refs.

And let's not forget that we had scheduled Florida State before they backed out of the agreement.

Looks like we made the right choice. We came out with four wins, they only got three....


But back to Fran....

He's done a great job with a very young team. Do any of these names ring a bell?

Chevar Bryson (Freshman)
Matt Featherston (Freshman)
Mike Goodson (Freshman)
Kellen Heard (Freshman)
Jordan Peterson (Freshman)
Yemi Babalola (Sophomore)
Martellus Bennett (Sophomore)
Michael Bennett (Sophomore)
Arkeith Brown (Sophomore)
Pierre Brown (Sophomore)
Alton Dixon (Sophomore)
Amos Gbunblee (Sophomore)
Danny Gorrer (Sophomore)
Devin Gregg (Sophomore)
Jorvorskie Lane (Sophomore)
Kevin Matthews (Sophomore)
Stephen McGee (Sophomore)
Howard Morrow (Sophomore)
Cyril Obiozor (Sophomore)
Travis Schneider (Sophomore)
Michael Shumard (Sophomore)

These are all players in the two deep of our roster, all of which Coach Fran recruited and signed. The players in bold are starters.


Still not satisfied? Let's take a look at a hypothetical situation...

If you could choose anyone as our head coach right now, who would it be?

Mack Brown (lost to K-State this week), Bobby Bowden (5-5 this year), Larry Coker (5-5 this year), Steve Spurrier (5-5 this year), Pete Carrol and USC even lost to Arizona last week. If we could hire a Bob Stoops clone would we? All of these coaches have won national championships.

Let's imagine if we hired a Bob Stoops clone at Texas A&M. How many years would it take for him to beat the Bob Stoops currently at Oklahoma? Oklahoma has had a few conference and national championships recently, they have recruiting on their side and they have some studs playing on their team and on their two and even three deep as we have seen this year.

So how long would it take for the Bob Stoops of Texas A&M to overtake the Bob Stoops of Oklahoma? Maybe 5 or 6 years? And even after that, it would be evenly matched from there out (we'd lose every other year to Oklahoma).

In our fourth year, Fran lost to Stoops by one point....one point!!! He lost to Bill Callahan and Nebraska by the same amount. We lost to tech by four.

These coaches and teams are not going to get worse as we get better. It'll still be Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, and Bill Callahan on the sidelines against us. They will be tough opponents.

Let's not fire what could be our Bob Stoops clone in Coach Fran while we're still improving. Let him build his young team and compete for championships. If we start to level out (like we did with R.C. Slocum) or decline then we'll get rid of him. Until then....Let's have patience.

Gig'em and BTHO t.u. http://www.aggiefans.com/forums/../users/twelfthag/af.jpg (http://www.aggiefans.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=23&page=1&pp=20&sort=dateline&order=desc&daysprune=60)

[CoolaidWade]

Nice! Rep

[hmiles619]

thanks

[PinetarAg]

great write up.....rep

[hmiles619]

thanks again

[Pumchavas28]

:rep: as soon as I spread some around!!!!!!!

[hmiles619]

I'm gonna hold you to that :p

[Pumchavas28]

I will say this..... one way I know we have come a long way is that while I never said it to anyone... before the La Tech game I was actually worried... I was worried about our 2ndary & I was worried about the way our Offense would have to play if La Tech could expose us the way so many teams did last year in 2005....

But now.... here we are in November & despite losing 3 games by a total of 6 points I actually feel confident going into the T+1 game, and it has nothing to do with what KSU did, I just honestly feel confident going into this game that we will win.

[Pumchavas28]

Just hooked up that :rep: I promised...

[hmiles619]

thanks pum

[Loftin]

I've said it about a thousand times....

Us going 5-6 last year had nothing to do with Reggie McNeal.

[hmiles619]

Loftin, please explain what went wrong then. Why did we step it up when McGee came in during the ou and tu games?

[Loftin]

Loftin, please explain what went wrong then. Why did we step it up when McGee came in during the ou and tu games?

1. We averaged 200 yards rushing and 200 yards receiving in 2005. We were one of only 5 teams in the nation to do so. REGGIE McNEAL LED THAT STELLAR OFFENSE. Reggie is the only A&M QB to have 300+ passing yards in consecutive games, a record he set in 2005. Also, go back and watch the Baylor game. Reggie really stepped his game up in the 4th quarter. With McGee at QB, we would have lost that game. Reggie had similar heroics in the 2004 Colorado game.

2. We had the worst defense and special teams in the Big XII. That had NOTHING to do with Reggie McNeal. Period.

3. We started coming back against OU and building momentum when Reggie was still in the game. Stephen did a great job of continuing what Reggie had started.

4. Our players better have been pumped to play tu at Kyle Field. McGee had some great plays, but we still lost by 11 points to our arch-rivals at home(unless you want to say that the defense is not the QBs fault, but of course that would also quell any suggestion that Reggie McNeal had anything to do with us being 5-6).

[hmiles619]

Good Points. Defense was a big problem last year that has improved alot this year. Something that has been overlooked too much.

I heard so much from people that supposedly "heard" information about Reggie and a few others being selfish. It was an attitude that was hinted at again during the NFL draft stuff.

And from being at the games, it was obvious to me that our offensive line was working harder than they ever have during the times that McGee was in. Coincedence or not.

It's tough for me to believe that Reggie didn't have something to do with it.

[GregH]

[I]Let's not fire what could be our Bob Stoops clone in Coach Fran while we're still improving. Let him build his young team and compete for championships. If we start to level out (like we did with R.C. Slocum) or decline then we'll get rid of him. Until then....Let's have patience.

Gig'em and BTHO t.u.

A Stoops clone? You're kidding right? Difference in Fran and Stoops, Brown, and some others are, when they have a FOR SURE TD, they don't kick FG's. They are CHANCE takers.

Fran still goes.

[jagowar]

Ive said it before and Ill say it again... I also think fran is given next year as well but not because of his w/l record but because there really arent any good coaches out there this year.

I think our #1 choice will be Butch Davis (especially now that nutt is doing well at arkansas). He's at UNC right now to move up to a bigger and better place (i think pretty much everybody knows that). And this could turn out to be good for us as well as he will be able to get his feet wet in the college game again. But it wouldnt look right if we went after him this year after he accepted the unc job. We can and will out-bid them if we want to.

[Pflugerville Ag]

:rep:

[whitelightnin_23]

:rep: - best thing I have read on the boards so far (today) & pretty much summarizes what I'm thinking...

[NPLAggie07]

Great post. I find myself just so conflicted. I know this team is improving, I can see it in their play and how they leave it out on the field. I just think Fran now needs that win over an elite team. I said at the begining of the year he needs one win over the big three. I want Fran to do it, I want him to succeed. I have a feeling that we can beat tu. Gig'Em Aggies, BTHO tu!

[GuatemalanAg]

:rep: Nice write up!!!

[AggieFrog]

If Fran were our Stoops we'd be no worse than 10-1 right now... A&M has the talent, a very favorable schedule, and the injury bug hasn't bitten us badly this year.

Remember - OU was 3-8, 4-8, & 5-6 the 3 years prior to Stoops (Blake era). Stoops then goes 7-5 in year 1 (and beats the hell out of A&M at home that year), and 13-0 in his 2nd year - he didn't wait for his recruits to arrive, he won straight away.

We had everything going our way this year and did not get it doe. Fran is not our Stoops, he's our Blake (good recruiter, bad coach).

[hmiles619]

If Fran were our Stoops we'd be no worse than 10-1 right now

How can you say that when he has to play their Stoops every year? Mack is a great coach too. These are great coaches who will try to find a way to win with superior talent and skills. We have played them close, but they have a head start on us.

[Loftin]

How can you say that when he has to play their Stoops every year? Mack is a great coach too. These are great coaches who will try to find a way to win with superior talent and skills. We have played them close, but they have a head start on us.

Mack is a great recruiter. Stoops is a great coach.

Big difference.

[ftaggie09]

thank you hmiles for writing this

[hmiles619]

Mack is a great recruiter. Stoops is a great coach.

Big difference.

All part of being a coach, Mack Brown led the sips to a nat'l title, I think that would make him a great coach too.

If what you said is the case, I don't care if Fran is a good coach or not....i just want to win championships.

[Dustin00whoop]

If Fran were our Stoops we'd be no worse than 10-1 right now... A&M has the talent, a very favorable schedule, and the injury bug hasn't bitten us badly this year.

Remember - OU was 3-8, 4-8, & 5-6 the 3 years prior to Stoops (Blake era). Stoops then goes 7-5 in year 1 (and beats the hell out of A&M at home that year), and 13-0 in his 2nd year - he didn't wait for his recruits to arrive, he won straight away.

We had everything going our way this year and did not get it doe. Fran is not our Stoops, he's our Blake (good recruiter, bad coach).

You can't even compare the two. Blake was a recruiting machine when he was in Norman. Same thing with what Charlie Weiss is doing at ND. When the talent level is already where it needs to be when you arrive, the potential for a quick turnaround is there. When the talent level isn't there, you have to build it back up. That takes time.

BTW, good write up, oreo. :rep:

[macduff93]

Welcome home, Dusty!

[thissamguy]

Fran is known for turning programs around, next year might rock. Just be happy you don't have Callahan.

[Pumchavas28]

Also, go back and watch the Baylor game. Reggie really stepped his game up in the 4th quarter. With McGee at QB, we would have lost that game.


I see only 1 big play he made in that game...

http://www.agclips.com/images/football/2005/05baylor/index.html

And you do realize that these were his stats...
http://www.aggieathletics.com/sports/games/boxscores/MFB_2137_BAYLOR.HTM
Reggie
Att-Comp-Int-Yds
12-31-2-132.

Reggie
Att-Rush Yds
12-83

How can you say that McGee would have lost that game? At home no less.... McGee went on the road where Reggie lost at & won....

Not to mention that in that game we lost to bu Reggie threw another INT.... in 2 games against bu Reggie had 2 TD passes & 3 INTS..... and in both game he suprisingly had 31 attempts exactly....

While McGee on the road had 21 Attempts and threw for 215 yds & 2 TD's......

So how McGee would have lost that game... I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. :confused:

Especially when that was the game that bu got up for more than any other game this season which is evident by the way they have played since (completely dejected).

[Pumchavas28]

2. We had the worst defense and special teams in the Big XII. That had NOTHING to do with Reggie McNeal. Period.


Tell that to sip fans who think McCoy being knocked out of the KSU game actually being a factor.

[Pumchavas28]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA112106.6D.atm.harrington.2a1ef59.html


Despite his Aggies lineage, Harrington nearly didn't make it to A&M out of Houston's St. Pius High. In 2002, then-A&M coach R.C. Slocum wasn't recruiting Harrington because he didn't fit in with Slocum's 3-4 defensive scheme.

Slocum was fired at season's end. His replacement, Dennis Franchione, immediately began recruiting Harrington, who at the time was leaning toward LSU.

"He wasn't a slam-dunk when we got here," Franchione recalls. "He had to kind of get to know the coaches and talk about the scheme. I knew it meant a great deal to his family that it all worked out."