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Hagbard Celine

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  1. here's the wfaa text article:

    Spoiler

    Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork talks firing Jimbo Fisher and eating the $76M he's guaranteed


    Bjork’s tenure in College Station, and the Aggies’ future, hinges on the decisions he'll make for TAMU's football program in the next few weeks.

    Author: Chris Lawrence
    Published: 9:32 PM CST November 20, 2023
    Updated: 7:36 AM CST November 21, 2023
     

    COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When he walks the concourse at Texas A&M’s football stadium, Athletic Director Ross Bjork sees a field of dreams.

    "It really gives you goosebumps, thinking about what’s going to happen," he says.

    Bjork envisions more than 100,000 screaming fans making Kyle Field shake as the Aggies host their first ever college football playoff game.

    "People have no idea the magnitude of that," he says, "from restaurants to hotels…"

    As he trails off, Bjork is reminded of the immediate reality, and unrelenting questions from from students, fans and boosters.

    "They’ve invested," Bjork says. "And they’ve been wondering why? Why hasn’t this worked?"

    The "this" in question is a major university with access to the most fertile recruiting ground in the country. Playing in the most successful conference in college football, the SEC. Being financially backed by the 12th Man Foundation, which has well over half a billion dollars in commitments to the athletic department.

    "The expectation is we should be competing for a national championship," Bjork says. "That should be the goal. Can we win it every year? No one can. But let’s at least be in the conversation."

    But with only two 10-win football seasons in the past 20 years, the Aggies haven’t even been the subject of small talk. Which is ultimately what got its head coach Jimbo Fisher fired earlier this month.

    "It was my decision, my recommendation," Bjork says. "President [Mark] Walsh agreed. You take that to Chancellor [John] Sharp. He agreed."

    That trio did so knowing A&M will owe Fisher $76 million for the remainder of his famously guaranteed contract.

    Ask Bjork how the university can afford that record buyout, and he's adamant about not asking boosters to pay off someone they fired.

    "I don’t believe it’s really prudent to go to a donor and ask them to buy a coach out of his contract," he says.

    Fisher is due an initial payment of $19 million before January 12. Bjork says the Board of Regents authorized tapping the 12th Man Foundation to pay that part of what Fisher's owed: "We found money that was discretionary, that was flexible money, essentially in reserve accounts."

    As for the other $57 million due over the next seven years?

    "We’ve already found ways to reduce expenses, and we have some new revenues coming our way," Bjork says, noting the home games A&M will host against Texas, LSU and Notre Dame next year. "And then in the fall of ’24, we have a new TV agreement within the SEC. We’re going to be solely on ABC, ESPN.”

    But even that’s not enough to cover $57 million, Bjork concedes. The buyout, he says, will force A&M to confront how much it’s been spending.

    “We’ve had some excess,” he admits. “Our staff pool for the entire football program was over $13 million. Other programs in the SEC are in the $9 million to $10.5 million range.”

    Bjorks says other sports are safe some seeing their budgets cuts, and says job cuts will be confined to the football program.

    “Analysts, recruiting positions, operational positions,” Bjork says when asked where he says fat can be trimmed.

    He also pointed out how the Aggies’ travel budget was out of sync with other teams.

    "Our program under Coach Fisher was leaving [for away games] on Thursday nights," Bjork says. "And so that’s added hotel rooms, that’s added meals. Everybody else leaves on Friday for a road game."

    In the end, A&M essentially paid $2.5 million for each one of Coach Fisher’s wins. And for the money still owed to him, you could run four cities in Texas for an entire year -- Melissa, Royse City, Crowley and Decatur.

    One aspect of the contract will hamstring the university for years to come: After winning nine games and going to the Orange Bowl in 2021, A&M extended Fisher and kept the original parameters of his deal in place, fully guaranteeing his pay through 2031.

    There’s no offset, or stipulation to reduce the amount, if Fisher gets another job. So even if he’s being paid millions of dollars to coach another team, Texas A&M will owe Jimbo Fisher every dime of that $76 million it promised to pay him.

    "It was a mistake, as we look back on it," Bjork says. "There’s a lot of other buyouts where if coaches got let go today, would be more than what our buyout is. But those programs are winning. Ours didn’t work."

    The athletic director says Texas A&M will not give its next coach a fully guaranteed deal.

    “To me as we look forward, somebody has to earn that,” he says. “If they have a plan and really believe in themselves and believe that Texas A&M has all these resources, OK... let’s match that up with an incentive-based contract.”

    With the college football playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, Bjork sees an opportunity to structure a deal based on specific benchmarks: “If you host or make the playoff, here’s a number; if you make the semi-finals, here’s a number. And so far, the feedback has been, ‘Absolutely. I know I can win a national championship at A&M.’”

    Bjork frequently walks around Kyle Field during home games to get a feel for how the program is performing. He says having the season be all but over by the end of October is unacceptable.

    “We can’t put ourselves in that position,” he says. “We had 103,000 people at our game against Mississippi State. I’m walking the field before the game and people from the visiting team were asking me, ‘Why are all these people here?’ To me, you have to have games that matter in November.”

    Bjork’s tenure, and the Aggies’ future, hinges on his next hire. And with the transfer portal opening on December 4th, he confirms that a decision is imminent.

    “Thanksgiving weekend, let’s see where we are,” he says. “Do we need to keep going because somebody’s playing? But by December 3 or 4, to me, we need clarity on who our next coach is.”

    While he opposes asking donors to foot the bill for the past, Bjork is confident they’ll be ready to invest in what’s to come.

    “One thing about Aggies: If they believe in a plan, if they believe in a vision and there’s some excitement, they will help the program financially,” he says.

     

    "It was my decision, my recommendation," Bjork says. "President [Mark] Walsh agreed. You take that to Chancellor [John] Sharp. He agreed."

    Dear Ross: whose decision was it to write a 10-year guaranteed deal?  Whose decision was it to extend during the rona?  Who insisted on insertion of the language about "coach recognizes his job is important...."

    Who?

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Haha 1
  2. kept watching the condensed video from the hold on the touchdown......

    here's first play following jerrin's pic

    box score sez: BAXTER 13 YARDS TO ISU 44

    observe, lord burley......

    FIRST CONTACT

    firstcontact.thumb.jpg.bbfcf0d5c2b464393430a61c207c808d.jpg

    NOT DOWN AT ALL

    notdownatall.thumb.jpg.1fe612d0568488762e35503db2748466.jpg

    STILL NOT DOWN NOTHING BUT HANDS AND FEET TOUCHING GROUND

    stillnotdownnothingbuthandsandfeettouchingground.thumb.jpg.d49ccbb5a98e4f02a27b045d365a423f.jpg

    BUTT HITS INSIDE THE 43

    butthitsINSIDEthe43.thumb.jpg.e9488eadd95ec8413e5d746587201bc9.jpg

    SPOT IS OUTSIDE THE 44 - ANOTHER FISTFULL OF FUCKERY

    spottedmorethanayardbehindatlocationoffirstcontact.thumb.jpg.a0791b35ccc36dcdb37dabdbe6aff5dd.jpg

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. 2 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

    Because he ran in and initiated contact with the lineman, Jesus Christ 

    here's a crystal dissection of your incipient idiocy

    he engaged to set the edge against the potential handoff

    as soon as he sees the play action, the qb roll out away from the pocket and his responsibility (the back streaking by him) he tries to disengage and can't BECAUSE HE'S FREAKING BEING HELD

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  4. 1 hour ago, Paul Wesley said:

    With any reasonable degree of even-handed officiating, this is a 20- to 24-point game. 

    fantastic summary paul

    rig12: mission accomplished

    the etsy commercials airing currently gave me an idea.....  some intrepid RTF students should edit a fuckery package for each game to the mission: impossible theme

  5. 6 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

    Screenshot_20231120-081700_Chrome.jpg

    thank you @Dennis Taylor for posting this clear pic which shows that i was wrong about the hold on murphy

    clone63 has a towel rolled up on his left forearm so he is not reaching under murphy's left shoulder pad for what i thought was a hold

    it was only illegal hands to the face, or facemasking

     

    • Haha 1
  6. 2 hours ago, Auto Driller said:

    I went back and updated the spreadsheet to account for the last two games against TCU and ISU. I also pulled in all conference games from weeks 4-11 that involved either of these teams (previously they were excluded). Here are the results:

    Games not against Texas

    ——

    Average penalties: 5.2

    Average penalty yards: 44.4

    Average opponent penalties: 5.0

    Average opponent penalty yards: 40.9

     

    Games against Texas

    ——

    Average penalties: 4.0

    Average penalty yards: 30.3

    Average opponent (Texas) penalties: 6.4

    Average opponent (Texas) penalty yards: 50.5

     

    Conclusions

    ——

    Our opponents can expect to be called for 1.2 fewer penalties for 14.1 fewer penalty yards than their average in conference play. They can expect their opponent (Texas) to be called for 1.4 additional penalties and 9.6 additional penalty yards relative to the average of their other conference opponents. 
     

    TLDR we are getting consistently fucked to the tune of nearly 25 net penalty yards per game. The sample size is now 53 games. This is not random chance.

    i would love to see a line chart which shows where the flags are thrown minutes 1-60 for all league games with only 2 lines: us, and everyone else averaged together

    • Like 1
  7. 31 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

    This is a great point.   We still have to worry about the fuckery with officiating carrying over to other sports.  Don’t think for a minute as pretty as the Rig 12 leadershp is they won’t try especially if we manage to win the football title.   Basketball is ripe. 

    i had not thought of this

    baseball too

    we can't nuke from orbit until we're actually gone otherwise 2 other title runs will be at greater risk then they already are

  8. 41 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

    I believe he’s made 14 straight fg’s now. Saved our asses multiple times. 

    do not be jinxing

    he was not nails last year (the shank from 19 at end of first half against bama was B.A.D.)

    but he is starting to look the part

    he has yet to hit a dagger walk-off so let's not start anointing him just yet

    that said very very very happy and more and more confident every time he steps up regardless of distance or circumstance

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Rage+1 1
  9. here's the regular version for the bitchassed:

    T+1

    1100 fox :: tcu @ 0u

    1100 cbs :: iowa @ nebraskda

    1430 abc :: utsa @ tulane

    1500 cbs :: missouri @ arkansas

    1830 abc :: texas tech @ The University

    1930 fox :: oregon state @ oregon

     

    T+2

    1100 fox :: ohio state @ michigan (?)

    1100 abc :: kentucky @ louisville

    1100 espn :: aggy @ lsu

    1430 cbs :: alabama @ auburn (?)

    1430 abc :: byu @ oklahoma state

    1500 fox :: washingon state @ washington

    1800 espn :: florida state @ florida

    1830 abc :: georgia @ georgia tech

    1900 fox :: iowa state @ kansas state

    • Drool 1
  10. all times texas

    desired losses bolded

     

    T+1

    1100 fox :: roach @ thieves

    1100 cbs :: underhawks @ corn

    1430 abc :: tedford @ gumby

    1500 cbs :: tigger @ pig

    1830 abc :: tceh @ The University

    1930 fox :: beaverstate @ nikeduck

     

    T+2

    1100 fox :: jorts @ meatchicken (?)

    1100 abc :: kentuckee @ strongbirds

    1100 espn :: aggy @ corndog

    1430 cbs :: saban @ barn (?)

    1430 abc :: brethren @ okielite

    1500 fox :: cougar @ dog

    1800 espn :: noles @ gatah

    1830 abc :: dawg @ wreck

    1900 fox :: clones @ purple wizards

     

    of course i left off a number of great rivalry games

    this is the list 95% of the surl will care about

  11. 1 hour ago, Pods said:

    I edited it 11 minutes before your post, because I knew it was the one thing you would comment on when there were 2 very obvious holds. 

    You obviously aren't going to be swayed by facts. 

    i can't even begin to speculate what his agenda is, other than he is related by blood to eck, deterding, alvarez, yormark, etc.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  12. 1 hour ago, AUS-97HORN said:

    I recognize that you are trying to make a point. and yes, the 49-0 1st half penatly yards was fucked... but to be so stupid as to say the illegal formation penalty didnt matter is completely idiotic.  They converted the 3rd down, and had the ball 1st and 10 somewhere around the 30 yard line.  That  would have given them a punchers chance to either get a TD, or a FG and try to recover an onside.   instead, that negated the 1st down and allowed us to sack them again on the new 3rd down. and then stop them on 4th.

    the DPI call on AD was obvious and legit and resulted in us scoring that drive.

    the hands to the face when we were trying to run out the clock was also an immediate first down and a huge penalty that the refs could have ignored. 

    those were 3 highly impactful penalties against them.

     

    I also agree the reffing is fucked against us, but stop acting like they made zero calls that were correct our way

     

    everything you wrote is true, but does not subvert or counter the reality that those calls at those times DID achieve the stated intent of getting some yards against the opponent on the stat line at the very end of each half when simply calling any of dozen odd holds earlier in the halves would not have made it necessary to make said calls which did have the effects you cite

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  13. 1 hour ago, TrashMaster G said:

    The best, most fairly-officiated game we have had in the last two years was on the road with an SEC crew.

    But, I'm sure that's just coincidence.

    The best performance by both lines in the past 14 years also occurring in that very same game is just happenstance.  Total coincidence.  No correlation at all.

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    • Rage+1 1
  14. 1 hour ago, StassneyHorn said:

    It’s not a hold, and when you initially said I have to look at a different video you gave away your tell

    i listed all 3 holds

    the listing is precise and exact

    you, sir, are blind, or you have an agenda that is unknown to the rest of us

    • Hook 'Em 2
  15. 4 minutes ago, Jewish Wang said:

    Sunset isn’t at 7 on the Equator

    welp, austin is more than 2000 miles north of the equator and there are no cessnas that tow banners that could make it from ecuador

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