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Jimbo 2022: Balls To The Face


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Liucci
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This was a reply I had written up to an earlier post discussing Bama fans crying foul as they watch Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies inch closer to securing the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time. It also comes on the heels of the ridiculous '$25-$30MM' NIL rumor that Sooner fans have passed around and pushed to go viral over the past two days. Rather than let it be buried in the thread, I figured most of you would enjoy the discussion and didn't want anyone to miss it.

Here you go:

Welcome to the world of the haves, ladies and gents.  

As I've already said, Bama doesn't fear Texas A&M but - between this year's walk-off win and the way the 2022 recruiting classes shook out - you can bet your ass that the Aggies have the attention of the Crimson Tide.

With that will come all of the accusations of paying players, including ridiculously false numbers like '$25-30 million.' It's amazing coming from fanbases (and even site moderators in some instances) of teams like Bama, Georgia, LSU and OU. LSU??? Does 'Our Lady of the Lake' or Will Wade ring a bell? Bama? We talking about the same program that the rumor for the past few years - pre-NIL, mind you - has been that the Tide are operating with a $2-3 million 'salary cap?' I'm not saying that's true, and frankly I don't believe it is, but my point is that when you're recruiting at this level, those coming up way short (Texas and OU, I'm talking to both of you) are going to accuse you of nefarious tactics. Dabo Swinney and Clemson became famously defensive several years ago and now I'm even seeing some Tiger talking heads in my mentions for the first time, accusing the Ags of cheating. Wonder what kind of 'NIL deals' that entire 2018 defensive line worked out behind the scenes that convinced all four starters to return and, in a couple of cases, pass up top-15 money.

...and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media? Also the same group that celebrated signing Quinn Ewers for 'first round money' and has fully embraced the concept of paying whatever it takes to dig Sark out of the deep hole he and his staff plummeted into this fall.

Oklahoma??? The Sooners, who have been the most vocal lately when it comes to questioning the validity of the Ags' success on the recruiting trail, have a real mess on their hands and are currently lashing out at everyone and everything. The boys of Big Red Auto and Barry Switzer are tweeting through it this past month, trying to convince themselves that they're better off with Brent Venables and Dillon Gabriel than they were with Drifit Riley and Caleb Williams. It's been wild to watch a proud program coming off of an 11-2 season spiral so badly that even the 5-7 Longhorns sense blood in the water. Maybe the Sooner faithful should worry more about cringe-worthy press releases following a player entering the portal and less about Jimbo and A&M kicking the ever-living crap out of them in the recruiting arena.

They're going to do everything they can to keep A&M from ascending to the upper-echelon, folks. This is simply the first step from a few moderators at fan sites and a bunch of loudmouths who will believe whatever they're told on social media. In the meantime, all the Ags can do is continue to recruit at the highest level and start becoming bigger winners on the field. The 2020 season and this year's win over Bama have to serve as the launching off point, as it goes without saying that expectations are about to be at an all-time high in College Station and everyone is (clearly) lining up to see Fisher and the Aggies fail.

The thing everyone tweeting their thumbs to the bone over this either don't see or aren't bothering to acknowledge is that Fisher and the Aggies have been building to this for quite some time (and long before NIL was ever a thing).  

In his head coaching career, Jimbo Fisher's complete classes have ranked 4, 11, 4, 3, 3, and 6 at FSU and 4, 6, 8 and now 1 in Aggieland. That's an AVERAGE class ranking of 5 over a ten-year stretch at two different schools. Jimbo has always been an elite recruiter, dating back to his days as Nick Saban's top assistant at LSU...a fact that folks seem to have conveniently forgotten of late.

A full year ago, I was pretty outspoken about the stated goal in Bright. The Aggies believed they had an excellent look at signing the No. 1 class in the nation in 2022 and they were going to go for it. An absolutely loaded crop of talent in Houston was going to be the foundation and Fisher's staff had already proven capable of doing heavy lifting throughout the SEC footprint and even in the Northeast.  

Closing out last year by adding several Houston-area standouts, including five-stars LJ Johnson, Bryce Foster and Tunmise Adeleye set the stage in the Bayou City and the Ags then kicked things off by landing Katy blue chips Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, the Dickinson duo of Donovan Green and PJ Williams and, not long after that, superstar QB Conner Weigman. The ball was rolling early and, today, the Ags' 12-man haul from the city of Houston alone would rank as the No. 10 class in America, one spot behind Michigan and one spot ahead of Oklahoma.

That momentum started during and following the 2020 season. Rival fans can discount it all they want, but the Aggies spent most of the 2022 cycle recruiting juniors and then seniors-to-be during a 9-1 run to the Orange Bowl, six weeks of playoff contention and a top-5 finish. After that, they were recruiting throughout an off-season of high expectations and top-10, SEC title-contending talk. Things obviously didn't go according to plan in the fall when Haynes King was lost in game two and the Ags dropped back-to-back games to open SEC play but the stunning, walk-off win over Bama came exactly two weeks after A&M fell to Arkansas. With damn near every priority target in the stands at Kyle Field when Seth Small drilled the field goal to beat Nick Saban and the Tide, the Aggies were right back in the center of the conversation. They stayed there for six more weeks, including another big win over Auburn in a battle of top-15 teams in an electric Kyle Field. What am I getting at? Texas A&M had it rolling and was regularly mentioned alongside the likes of Bama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State for damn near the entirety of the '22 cycle. They were out of the conversation for only two weeks in September and then again for the final two weeks of the season. By then, however, Maroon momentum was a snowball rolling downhill, as the Aggie commits and longtime priority targets were locked in, had known where they wanted to play for quite some time and had the added incentive of being part of the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time.

It's not that hard to figure out. You have to go out of your way to blow past the obvious en route to your '$30 million conspiracy theory,' in fact.

And remember, there's this thing called 'loser's limp.' You've all heard of it. It's very popular amongst college football coaches/recruiters and has been for decades. I've heard many an A&M coach go that route over the years and I've heard countless coaches from other programs lean on the tried and true "they dropped a bag" line whenever a coveted prospect signs elsewhere. The Ags didn't do a lot of losing this year and, as a result, you're seeing the other side limping around. The result is what you're seeing from these various fanbases and even rival site moderators is "I know someone who knew someone who heard..." Alabama in no way 'lost' in a recruiting cycle that has the Tide currently sitting at No. 2, but they wanted Denver Harris and Anthony Lucas in the worst way down the stretch and also did all they could to sign several other Aggies, including one-time Bama commit Le'Veon Moss. Georgia is sitting at No. 3 but the Dawgs desperately tried to flip Smoke Bouie back, coveted Enai White and lost Marquis Groves-Killebrew to the Ags on NSD. Texas? Where to begin. Name an A&M signee and Steve Sarkisian and the Horns probably wanted him. That's what happens when you sign 20 prospects ranked among the nation's top-102 versus something like three in Austin. OU and LSU? Head coaching changes certainly hurt momentum on the Sooner and Bayou Bengal side but that doesn't change the fact that Ags lapped both of their regional rivals in this year's recruiting race, which has left the folks in Norman and Baton Rouge limping around more so than anyone else.

Bring on the hate. All of it. It's pretty entertaining to watch.
 

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22 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:
  Reveal hidden contents
Liucci
Staff
AG
This was a reply I had written up to an earlier post discussing Bama fans crying foul as they watch Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies inch closer to securing the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time. It also comes on the heels of the ridiculous '$25-$30MM' NIL rumor that Sooner fans have passed around and pushed to go viral over the past two days. Rather than let it be buried in the thread, I figured most of you would enjoy the discussion and didn't want anyone to miss it.

Here you go:

Welcome to the world of the haves, ladies and gents.  

As I've already said, Bama doesn't fear Texas A&M but - between this year's walk-off win and the way the 2022 recruiting classes shook out - you can bet your ass that the Aggies have the attention of the Crimson Tide.

With that will come all of the accusations of paying players, including ridiculously false numbers like '$25-30 million.' It's amazing coming from fanbases (and even site moderators in some instances) of teams like Bama, Georgia, LSU and OU. LSU??? Does 'Our Lady of the Lake' or Will Wade ring a bell? Bama? We talking about the same program that the rumor for the past few years - pre-NIL, mind you - has been that the Tide are operating with a $2-3 million 'salary cap?' I'm not saying that's true, and frankly I don't believe it is, but my point is that when you're recruiting at this level, those coming up way short (Texas and OU, I'm talking to both of you) are going to accuse you of nefarious tactics. Dabo Swinney and Clemson became famously defensive several years ago and now I'm even seeing some Tiger talking heads in my mentions for the first time, accusing the Ags of cheating. Wonder what kind of 'NIL deals' that entire 2018 defensive line worked out behind the scenes that convinced all four starters to return and, in a couple of cases, pass up top-15 money.

...and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media? Also the same group that celebrated signing Quinn Ewers for 'first round money' and has fully embraced the concept of paying whatever it takes to dig Sark out of the deep hole he and his staff plummeted into this fall.

Oklahoma??? The Sooners, who have been the most vocal lately when it comes to questioning the validity of the Ags' success on the recruiting trail, have a real mess on their hands and are currently lashing out at everyone and everything. The boys of Big Red Auto and Barry Switzer are tweeting through it this past month, trying to convince themselves that they're better off with Brent Venables and Dillon Gabriel than they were with Drifit Riley and Caleb Williams. It's been wild to watch a proud program coming off of an 11-2 season spiral so badly that even the 5-7 Longhorns sense blood in the water. Maybe the Sooner faithful should worry more about cringe-worthy press releases following a player entering the portal and less about Jimbo and A&M kicking the ever-living crap out of them in the recruiting arena.

They're going to do everything they can to keep A&M from ascending to the upper-echelon, folks. This is simply the first step from a few moderators at fan sites and a bunch of loudmouths who will believe whatever they're told on social media. In the meantime, all the Ags can do is continue to recruit at the highest level and start becoming bigger winners on the field. The 2020 season and this year's win over Bama have to serve as the launching off point, as it goes without saying that expectations are about to be at an all-time high in College Station and everyone is (clearly) lining up to see Fisher and the Aggies fail.

The thing everyone tweeting their thumbs to the bone over this either don't see or aren't bothering to acknowledge is that Fisher and the Aggies have been building to this for quite some time (and long before NIL was ever a thing).  

In his head coaching career, Jimbo Fisher's complete classes have ranked 4, 11, 4, 3, 3, and 6 at FSU and 4, 6, 8 and now 1 in Aggieland. That's an AVERAGE class ranking of 5 over a ten-year stretch at two different schools. Jimbo has always been an elite recruiter, dating back to his days as Nick Saban's top assistant at LSU...a fact that folks seem to have conveniently forgotten of late.

A full year ago, I was pretty outspoken about the stated goal in Bright. The Aggies believed they had an excellent look at signing the No. 1 class in the nation in 2022 and they were going to go for it. An absolutely loaded crop of talent in Houston was going to be the foundation and Fisher's staff had already proven capable of doing heavy lifting throughout the SEC footprint and even in the Northeast.  

Closing out last year by adding several Houston-area standouts, including five-stars LJ Johnson, Bryce Foster and Tunmise Adeleye set the stage in the Bayou City and the Ags then kicked things off by landing Katy blue chips Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, the Dickinson duo of Donovan Green and PJ Williams and, not long after that, superstar QB Conner Weigman. The ball was rolling early and, today, the Ags' 12-man haul from the city of Houston alone would rank as the No. 10 class in America, one spot behind Michigan and one spot ahead of Oklahoma.

That momentum started during and following the 2020 season. Rival fans can discount it all they want, but the Aggies spent most of the 2022 cycle recruiting juniors and then seniors-to-be during a 9-1 run to the Orange Bowl, six weeks of playoff contention and a top-5 finish. After that, they were recruiting throughout an off-season of high expectations and top-10, SEC title-contending talk. Things obviously didn't go according to plan in the fall when Haynes King was lost in game two and the Ags dropped back-to-back games to open SEC play but the stunning, walk-off win over Bama came exactly two weeks after A&M fell to Arkansas. With damn near every priority target in the stands at Kyle Field when Seth Small drilled the field goal to beat Nick Saban and the Tide, the Aggies were right back in the center of the conversation. They stayed there for six more weeks, including another big win over Auburn in a battle of top-15 teams in an electric Kyle Field. What am I getting at? Texas A&M had it rolling and was regularly mentioned alongside the likes of Bama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State for damn near the entirety of the '22 cycle. They were out of the conversation for only two weeks in September and then again for the final two weeks of the season. By then, however, Maroon momentum was a snowball rolling downhill, as the Aggie commits and longtime priority targets were locked in, had known where they wanted to play for quite some time and had the added incentive of being part of the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time.

It's not that hard to figure out. You have to go out of your way to blow past the obvious en route to your '$30 million conspiracy theory,' in fact.

And remember, there's this thing called 'loser's limp.' You've all heard of it. It's very popular amongst college football coaches/recruiters and has been for decades. I've heard many an A&M coach go that route over the years and I've heard countless coaches from other programs lean on the tried and true "they dropped a bag" line whenever a coveted prospect signs elsewhere. The Ags didn't do a lot of losing this year and, as a result, you're seeing the other side limping around. The result is what you're seeing from these various fanbases and even rival site moderators is "I know someone who knew someone who heard..." Alabama in no way 'lost' in a recruiting cycle that has the Tide currently sitting at No. 2, but they wanted Denver Harris and Anthony Lucas in the worst way down the stretch and also did all they could to sign several other Aggies, including one-time Bama commit Le'Veon Moss. Georgia is sitting at No. 3 but the Dawgs desperately tried to flip Smoke Bouie back, coveted Enai White and lost Marquis Groves-Killebrew to the Ags on NSD. Texas? Where to begin. Name an A&M signee and Steve Sarkisian and the Horns probably wanted him. That's what happens when you sign 20 prospects ranked among the nation's top-102 versus something like three in Austin. OU and LSU? Head coaching changes certainly hurt momentum on the Sooner and Bayou Bengal side but that doesn't change the fact that Ags lapped both of their regional rivals in this year's recruiting race, which has left the folks in Norman and Baton Rouge limping around more so than anyone else.

Bring on the hate. All of it. It's pretty entertaining to watch.
 

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22 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:
  Reveal hidden contents
Liucci
Staff
AG
This was a reply I had written up to an earlier post discussing Bama fans crying foul as they watch Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies inch closer to securing the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time. It also comes on the heels of the ridiculous '$25-$30MM' NIL rumor that Sooner fans have passed around and pushed to go viral over the past two days. Rather than let it be buried in the thread, I figured most of you would enjoy the discussion and didn't want anyone to miss it.

Here you go:

Welcome to the world of the haves, ladies and gents.  

As I've already said, Bama doesn't fear Texas A&M but - between this year's walk-off win and the way the 2022 recruiting classes shook out - you can bet your ass that the Aggies have the attention of the Crimson Tide.

With that will come all of the accusations of paying players, including ridiculously false numbers like '$25-30 million.' It's amazing coming from fanbases (and even site moderators in some instances) of teams like Bama, Georgia, LSU and OU. LSU??? Does 'Our Lady of the Lake' or Will Wade ring a bell? Bama? We talking about the same program that the rumor for the past few years - pre-NIL, mind you - has been that the Tide are operating with a $2-3 million 'salary cap?' I'm not saying that's true, and frankly I don't believe it is, but my point is that when you're recruiting at this level, those coming up way short (Texas and OU, I'm talking to both of you) are going to accuse you of nefarious tactics. Dabo Swinney and Clemson became famously defensive several years ago and now I'm even seeing some Tiger talking heads in my mentions for the first time, accusing the Ags of cheating. Wonder what kind of 'NIL deals' that entire 2018 defensive line worked out behind the scenes that convinced all four starters to return and, in a couple of cases, pass up top-15 money.

...and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media? Also the same group that celebrated signing Quinn Ewers for 'first round money' and has fully embraced the concept of paying whatever it takes to dig Sark out of the deep hole he and his staff plummeted into this fall.

Oklahoma??? The Sooners, who have been the most vocal lately when it comes to questioning the validity of the Ags' success on the recruiting trail, have a real mess on their hands and are currently lashing out at everyone and everything. The boys of Big Red Auto and Barry Switzer are tweeting through it this past month, trying to convince themselves that they're better off with Brent Venables and Dillon Gabriel than they were with Drifit Riley and Caleb Williams. It's been wild to watch a proud program coming off of an 11-2 season spiral so badly that even the 5-7 Longhorns sense blood in the water. Maybe the Sooner faithful should worry more about cringe-worthy press releases following a player entering the portal and less about Jimbo and A&M kicking the ever-living crap out of them in the recruiting arena.

They're going to do everything they can to keep A&M from ascending to the upper-echelon, folks. This is simply the first step from a few moderators at fan sites and a bunch of loudmouths who will believe whatever they're told on social media. In the meantime, all the Ags can do is continue to recruit at the highest level and start becoming bigger winners on the field. The 2020 season and this year's win over Bama have to serve as the launching off point, as it goes without saying that expectations are about to be at an all-time high in College Station and everyone is (clearly) lining up to see Fisher and the Aggies fail.

The thing everyone tweeting their thumbs to the bone over this either don't see or aren't bothering to acknowledge is that Fisher and the Aggies have been building to this for quite some time (and long before NIL was ever a thing).  

In his head coaching career, Jimbo Fisher's complete classes have ranked 4, 11, 4, 3, 3, and 6 at FSU and 4, 6, 8 and now 1 in Aggieland. That's an AVERAGE class ranking of 5 over a ten-year stretch at two different schools. Jimbo has always been an elite recruiter, dating back to his days as Nick Saban's top assistant at LSU...a fact that folks seem to have conveniently forgotten of late.

A full year ago, I was pretty outspoken about the stated goal in Bright. The Aggies believed they had an excellent look at signing the No. 1 class in the nation in 2022 and they were going to go for it. An absolutely loaded crop of talent in Houston was going to be the foundation and Fisher's staff had already proven capable of doing heavy lifting throughout the SEC footprint and even in the Northeast.  

Closing out last year by adding several Houston-area standouts, including five-stars LJ Johnson, Bryce Foster and Tunmise Adeleye set the stage in the Bayou City and the Ags then kicked things off by landing Katy blue chips Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, the Dickinson duo of Donovan Green and PJ Williams and, not long after that, superstar QB Conner Weigman. The ball was rolling early and, today, the Ags' 12-man haul from the city of Houston alone would rank as the No. 10 class in America, one spot behind Michigan and one spot ahead of Oklahoma.

That momentum started during and following the 2020 season. Rival fans can discount it all they want, but the Aggies spent most of the 2022 cycle recruiting juniors and then seniors-to-be during a 9-1 run to the Orange Bowl, six weeks of playoff contention and a top-5 finish. After that, they were recruiting throughout an off-season of high expectations and top-10, SEC title-contending talk. Things obviously didn't go according to plan in the fall when Haynes King was lost in game two and the Ags dropped back-to-back games to open SEC play but the stunning, walk-off win over Bama came exactly two weeks after A&M fell to Arkansas. With damn near every priority target in the stands at Kyle Field when Seth Small drilled the field goal to beat Nick Saban and the Tide, the Aggies were right back in the center of the conversation. They stayed there for six more weeks, including another big win over Auburn in a battle of top-15 teams in an electric Kyle Field. What am I getting at? Texas A&M had it rolling and was regularly mentioned alongside the likes of Bama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State for damn near the entirety of the '22 cycle. They were out of the conversation for only two weeks in September and then again for the final two weeks of the season. By then, however, Maroon momentum was a snowball rolling downhill, as the Aggie commits and longtime priority targets were locked in, had known where they wanted to play for quite some time and had the added incentive of being part of the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time.

It's not that hard to figure out. You have to go out of your way to blow past the obvious en route to your '$30 million conspiracy theory,' in fact.

And remember, there's this thing called 'loser's limp.' You've all heard of it. It's very popular amongst college football coaches/recruiters and has been for decades. I've heard many an A&M coach go that route over the years and I've heard countless coaches from other programs lean on the tried and true "they dropped a bag" line whenever a coveted prospect signs elsewhere. The Ags didn't do a lot of losing this year and, as a result, you're seeing the other side limping around. The result is what you're seeing from these various fanbases and even rival site moderators is "I know someone who knew someone who heard..." Alabama in no way 'lost' in a recruiting cycle that has the Tide currently sitting at No. 2, but they wanted Denver Harris and Anthony Lucas in the worst way down the stretch and also did all they could to sign several other Aggies, including one-time Bama commit Le'Veon Moss. Georgia is sitting at No. 3 but the Dawgs desperately tried to flip Smoke Bouie back, coveted Enai White and lost Marquis Groves-Killebrew to the Ags on NSD. Texas? Where to begin. Name an A&M signee and Steve Sarkisian and the Horns probably wanted him. That's what happens when you sign 20 prospects ranked among the nation's top-102 versus something like three in Austin. OU and LSU? Head coaching changes certainly hurt momentum on the Sooner and Bayou Bengal side but that doesn't change the fact that Ags lapped both of their regional rivals in this year's recruiting race, which has left the folks in Norman and Baton Rouge limping around more so than anyone else.

Bring on the hate. All of it. It's pretty entertaining to watch.
 

9a0a3a16b0e11e6c0635eca57f198241.gif

The predictable side effect of this recruiting cycle is that Billy Liucci has officially bought a mansion because the aggys have arrived. Nobody, and I mean nobody, does more offseason barking than that fanbase.

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43 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:

...and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media?

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2 hours ago, Lobwedgephil said:
  Reveal hidden contents
Liucci
Staff
AG
This was a reply I had written up to an earlier post discussing Bama fans crying foul as they watch Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies inch closer to securing the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time. It also comes on the heels of the ridiculous '$25-$30MM' NIL rumor that Sooner fans have passed around and pushed to go viral over the past two days. Rather than let it be buried in the thread, I figured most of you would enjoy the discussion and didn't want anyone to miss it.

Here you go:

Welcome to the world of the haves, ladies and gents.  

As I've already said, Bama doesn't fear Texas A&M but - between this year's walk-off win and the way the 2022 recruiting classes shook out - you can bet your ass that the Aggies have the attention of the Crimson Tide.

With that will come all of the accusations of paying players, including ridiculously false numbers like '$25-30 million.' It's amazing coming from fanbases (and even site moderators in some instances) of teams like Bama, Georgia, LSU and OU. LSU??? Does 'Our Lady of the Lake' or Will Wade ring a bell? Bama? We talking about the same program that the rumor for the past few years - pre-NIL, mind you - has been that the Tide are operating with a $2-3 million 'salary cap?' I'm not saying that's true, and frankly I don't believe it is, but my point is that when you're recruiting at this level, those coming up way short (Texas and OU, I'm talking to both of you) are going to accuse you of nefarious tactics. Dabo Swinney and Clemson became famously defensive several years ago and now I'm even seeing some Tiger talking heads in my mentions for the first time, accusing the Ags of cheating. Wonder what kind of 'NIL deals' that entire 2018 defensive line worked out behind the scenes that convinced all four starters to return and, in a couple of cases, pass up top-15 money.

...and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media? Also the same group that celebrated signing Quinn Ewers for 'first round money' and has fully embraced the concept of paying whatever it takes to dig Sark out of the deep hole he and his staff plummeted into this fall.

Oklahoma??? The Sooners, who have been the most vocal lately when it comes to questioning the validity of the Ags' success on the recruiting trail, have a real mess on their hands and are currently lashing out at everyone and everything. The boys of Big Red Auto and Barry Switzer are tweeting through it this past month, trying to convince themselves that they're better off with Brent Venables and Dillon Gabriel than they were with Drifit Riley and Caleb Williams. It's been wild to watch a proud program coming off of an 11-2 season spiral so badly that even the 5-7 Longhorns sense blood in the water. Maybe the Sooner faithful should worry more about cringe-worthy press releases following a player entering the portal and less about Jimbo and A&M kicking the ever-living crap out of them in the recruiting arena.

They're going to do everything they can to keep A&M from ascending to the upper-echelon, folks. This is simply the first step from a few moderators at fan sites and a bunch of loudmouths who will believe whatever they're told on social media. In the meantime, all the Ags can do is continue to recruit at the highest level and start becoming bigger winners on the field. The 2020 season and this year's win over Bama have to serve as the launching off point, as it goes without saying that expectations are about to be at an all-time high in College Station and everyone is (clearly) lining up to see Fisher and the Aggies fail.

The thing everyone tweeting their thumbs to the bone over this either don't see or aren't bothering to acknowledge is that Fisher and the Aggies have been building to this for quite some time (and long before NIL was ever a thing).  

In his head coaching career, Jimbo Fisher's complete classes have ranked 4, 11, 4, 3, 3, and 6 at FSU and 4, 6, 8 and now 1 in Aggieland. That's an AVERAGE class ranking of 5 over a ten-year stretch at two different schools. Jimbo has always been an elite recruiter, dating back to his days as Nick Saban's top assistant at LSU...a fact that folks seem to have conveniently forgotten of late.

A full year ago, I was pretty outspoken about the stated goal in Bright. The Aggies believed they had an excellent look at signing the No. 1 class in the nation in 2022 and they were going to go for it. An absolutely loaded crop of talent in Houston was going to be the foundation and Fisher's staff had already proven capable of doing heavy lifting throughout the SEC footprint and even in the Northeast.  

Closing out last year by adding several Houston-area standouts, including five-stars LJ Johnson, Bryce Foster and Tunmise Adeleye set the stage in the Bayou City and the Ags then kicked things off by landing Katy blue chips Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, the Dickinson duo of Donovan Green and PJ Williams and, not long after that, superstar QB Conner Weigman. The ball was rolling early and, today, the Ags' 12-man haul from the city of Houston alone would rank as the No. 10 class in America, one spot behind Michigan and one spot ahead of Oklahoma.

That momentum started during and following the 2020 season. Rival fans can discount it all they want, but the Aggies spent most of the 2022 cycle recruiting juniors and then seniors-to-be during a 9-1 run to the Orange Bowl, six weeks of playoff contention and a top-5 finish. After that, they were recruiting throughout an off-season of high expectations and top-10, SEC title-contending talk. Things obviously didn't go according to plan in the fall when Haynes King was lost in game two and the Ags dropped back-to-back games to open SEC play but the stunning, walk-off win over Bama came exactly two weeks after A&M fell to Arkansas. With damn near every priority target in the stands at Kyle Field when Seth Small drilled the field goal to beat Nick Saban and the Tide, the Aggies were right back in the center of the conversation. They stayed there for six more weeks, including another big win over Auburn in a battle of top-15 teams in an electric Kyle Field. What am I getting at? Texas A&M had it rolling and was regularly mentioned alongside the likes of Bama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State for damn near the entirety of the '22 cycle. They were out of the conversation for only two weeks in September and then again for the final two weeks of the season. By then, however, Maroon momentum was a snowball rolling downhill, as the Aggie commits and longtime priority targets were locked in, had known where they wanted to play for quite some time and had the added incentive of being part of the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time.

It's not that hard to figure out. You have to go out of your way to blow past the obvious en route to your '$30 million conspiracy theory,' in fact.

And remember, there's this thing called 'loser's limp.' You've all heard of it. It's very popular amongst college football coaches/recruiters and has been for decades. I've heard many an A&M coach go that route over the years and I've heard countless coaches from other programs lean on the tried and true "they dropped a bag" line whenever a coveted prospect signs elsewhere. The Ags didn't do a lot of losing this year and, as a result, you're seeing the other side limping around. The result is what you're seeing from these various fanbases and even rival site moderators is "I know someone who knew someone who heard..." Alabama in no way 'lost' in a recruiting cycle that has the Tide currently sitting at No. 2, but they wanted Denver Harris and Anthony Lucas in the worst way down the stretch and also did all they could to sign several other Aggies, including one-time Bama commit Le'Veon Moss. Georgia is sitting at No. 3 but the Dawgs desperately tried to flip Smoke Bouie back, coveted Enai White and lost Marquis Groves-Killebrew to the Ags on NSD. Texas? Where to begin. Name an A&M signee and Steve Sarkisian and the Horns probably wanted him. That's what happens when you sign 20 prospects ranked among the nation's top-102 versus something like three in Austin. OU and LSU? Head coaching changes certainly hurt momentum on the Sooner and Bayou Bengal side but that doesn't change the fact that Ags lapped both of their regional rivals in this year's recruiting race, which has left the folks in Norman and Baton Rouge limping around more so than anyone else.

Bring on the hate. All of it. It's pretty entertaining to watch.
 

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7 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

The fact Liucci continues to insinuate that Bama is scared of aggy might be his funniest bit. He can't actually believe this can he?

Saban is playing for his 7th title at Bama and Liucci thinks they're worried about a program with 1 ten win season in the last two 2 decades?

there is a reason the Baghdad Bob meme gets posted about him pretty often.

bagdad-bob.gif

not even Looch believes most of what he says.

honestly, he is actually pretty good at what he does and has a great gig - inside access, pretty good money, tickets, connections - and in trade all he has to do is be the mouthpiece of the university. he (personally) doesn't have to report news or show up to shitty pressers.

he is everything Ketch wants to be, but isn't. for the small price of his journalist integrity (which Ketch has none of anyway.)

at least Looch wants what is (in theory) best for A&M. he doesn't actively hurt the program like Ketch and those buffoons at OB...who have done it countless times chasing clicks over the last few years. he has not (allegedly) stolen money from a charity golf tournament for a deceased former player.

 

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Just now, Hookem2147 said:

Kiffin must be a pain in the ass to work for. Seems like a lot of coaches want out of there quickly. 

I think part of it is he's always looking to move to the next job. He was campaigning behind the scenes for several jobs this offseason 

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1 minute ago, Fud said:

I think part of it is he's always looking to move to the next job. He was campaigning behind the scenes for several jobs this offseason 

I believe a story came out this season that he sucks as a recruiter. The Mississippi high school coaches aren't a fan of him and think he's out the door soon.

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1 minute ago, Hookem2147 said:

I believe a story came out this season that he sucks as a recruiter. The Mississippi high school coaches aren't a fan of him and think he's out the door soon.

He's a great recruiter when he gives a shit

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1 hour ago, Hookem2147 said:

Kiffin must be a pain in the ass to work for. Seems like a lot of coaches want out of there quickly. 

Yes, from what I've heard in coaching circles that is definitely the case.  And he also apparently doesn't make a lot of friends of administrators.  It seems to remind me a lot of what we heard about Herman.   I heard Kiffin desperately wanted the Miami job but they didn't have much interest so wonder how much of that rep is widely known.   If he loses both coordinators, position coaches and obviously his star player, it's going to be interesting to see how much of a leash he gets at Ole Miss if they take a big step back.   I mean on one hand he probably bought some time considering this was their best season ever.  But as we saw with Herman, if you are an asshole, that goodwill doesn't last long.

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1 hour ago, Dr. Teeth said:

So for the next two weeks, Aggys on Twitter will become experts on hydration, workouts, and football deaths. 

That will get all the attention (rightfully so) but just from a DC hire it really doesn't make much sense. 1) Durkin has operated primarily in a 3 man front and 2) His resume as a DC is remarkably thin. 

Here are Durkin's numbers as a DC where he was the one actually running the defense/calling plays. 

SP+ Defense: 36th, 80th, 10th

FEI Defense: 28th, 118th, 19th

Scoring Defense: 54th, 117th, 11th

Total Defense: 100th, 129th, 4th

Durkin has had 1 top 25 defense in his entire career dating all the way back to 2015 and the Michigan defense was already pretty good in 2014 prior to Durkin. 

 

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2 hours ago, Getafix said:

 

Tarp on Durkin/Partridge

  Hide contents

 

image.thumb.png.701313be442ed9fbd3cb951b9804d0f3.png

 

 

It'll get spun as that's the guy Jimbo wanted all along... he just decided to you know wait until after signing day and all the bowls are wrapped up before he reeled him in.

Durkin should fit in wonderfully with a bunch of newly "minted" 18yr olds. We'll know how much actual control Durkin has if Jimbo forces him to stay with the 4-2-5 scheme as he's stated even if that is what they told recruits.

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5 minutes ago, Hank_Hill said:

Lolz. The coordinated media effort to tell everyone they definitely aren’t cheating makes it look like they’re definitely cheating. Idoits.

They are also telling their commits/players to push their story. Nothing says cover up like the media and party involved colluding to change the narrative.

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

No sunshine pumping tweet from Looch on the Durkin hire.

I posed this a few days back but it's fairly obvious Liucci doesn't think this is a great hire but aggys are too stupid to figure it out. Liucci is going to put his normal aggy spin on everything to placate his base but in Liucci terms he was telling them Durkin only has 1 good year as a DC and isn't a splash hire. 

 

Spoiler

Dude is a very good DC. Wouldn't be the kind of splash hire that Chavis (disaster) or Elko (home run) was but if you just watch that group play football and consider the lack of All-SEC or NFL talent he was working with and then combine it with the year one to year two improvement in Oxford, he did a very good job. And, yes, coaching defense while working for an offense that plays and scores as fast as Kiffin and Lebby do tends to destroy certain numbers and typically keeps your defense playing tired. Was impressive enough in one year at Michigan to land a head job in the B1G and he's a guy that Coach Sumlin mentioned to me more than once as the guy he should have went with for his last DC hire. Came extremely highly-recommended by Muschamp when he turned down the job.

 

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Defensive FEI rankings of the schools Durkin was at before, during, and after his time at those stops, with the years he called the defense in bold. Draw from this what you will

Michigan

2013- 39

2014- 28

2015- 19 (Harbaugh's first year)

2016- 5 (Don Brown replaces Durkin)

2017- 8 

Maryland (supposedly Durkin called the defense)

2014- 59

2015- 58

2016- 84 (Durkin hired as HC)

2017- 89

2018- 50

2019- 90

Ole Miss

2018- 91

2019- 42

2020- 118 (Kiffin's first year, covid offseason used as a reason for the poor defense)

2021- 28

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9 minutes ago, Fud said:

Defensive FEI rankings of the schools Durkin was at before, during, and after his time at those stops, with the years he called the defense in bold. Draw from this what you will

Michigan

2013- 39

2014- 28

2015- 19 (Harbaugh's first year)

2016- 5 (Don Brown replaces Durkin)

2017- 8 

Maryland (supposedly Durkin called the defense)

2014- 59

2015- 58

2016- 84 (Durkin hired as HC)

2017- 89

2018- 50

2019- 90

Ole Miss

2018- 91

2019- 42

2020- 118 (Kiffin's first year, covid offseason used as a reason for the poor defense)

2021- 28

Very meh is my conclusion. If they had to money whip Durkin they could have hired a much better DC IMO. 

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