Half Baked Nonsense From Bill Byrne
The WSJ-Best of the Web people (and about a million other conservative warbloggy types) have been all over Texas A&M's retarded AD for the comments he made regarding that conservative bake sale and A&M's pitiful football season.
Rather than tackle the political angle, I'm going to suggest, once again, that all those Aggies who were so happy to chase off the winningest coach in their football program's history might want to stop and consider what they've done. Yes, R.C. Slocum had lost the recruiting wars in recent years to Mack Brown, and the program had slipped from its highs of the 90s. But Slocum outrecruited Brown last year (only to be fired). That's no small feat, because all but the most delusional Aggies will probably admit that Bryan/College Station is not the hippest place to show off to the typical bigtime high school football all-star. That R.C. Slocum was able to recruit so many great athletes to that school over the years, and then to send them on to great success in the NFL, is really a testament to the man.
Dennis Franchione will be lucky if he can match R.C. Slocum's success in recruiting. I have serious doubts that he'll be able to surpass it. And it has nothing to do with conservative bake sales on the campus, and everything to do with the nature of the campus and Bryan/College Station. Sure, some kids will grow up in Texas wanting to play for A&M, and that's a big advantage. But all things being equal, Mack Brown can sell Austin to recruits; "Coach Fran" has Bryan/College Station. Big difference.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/03 21:15 | Texas | Technorati
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Comments
Totally agreed... B/CS is a tough sell to someone not already sold on it. I went to school there and loved it, but was from a small town in Texas that looked alot like the campus (90% white and fairly closed-minded).
Recently, I've moved to Austin, and it's just a much cooler town ... and I didn't know that before I lived here believe it or not... not saying I want to be a t-sip (far from it) but the town sells itself, whereas A&M has to sell the town to compete...
Posted by john @ 22:35 on 12/02/03
Mind you, I don't mean to disparage B/CS. I like the traditions of A&M, and I like the fact that one of the greatest universities in the land is sitting smack dab in the middle of farm country around real people. But realistically, it has to be hard to compete with Austin at times for recruits.
Posted by Kevin @ 13:52 on 12/03/03
Glad to see there are some sensible Ags left...great comments on Byrne and Slocum! I love you guys!
Posted by Patrick Carlson @ 01:47 on 12/20/03
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