Here's a link to an interesting thread on TexAgs.com. The topic is traditions..the author of the thread says Aggies have them and Irish don't. Ags vs Irish Traditions This one is a thread started by a Domer with deep Aggie roots, trying to say Ags and Irish are more alike than different. He was pretty much shouted down. Irish view of the two schools traditions There were a lot of guys who had positive things to say about the Irish. Just points out that when it comes to this sort of thing that you always think what your school has is cool and the other guys school is not. I've seen lots of posts on ND Boards denegrating the Aggies. Just the way it is. Personally I think the Ag's have lots of great stuff going on. I do have one question for Scott though. Ag's with the largest Alumni Assoc in America and a very loyal group to say the least do not sell out all their home games like the Irish do....I'm surprised. I know Scott is a season ticket holder and goes, but I'd think they'd have a long string of sellouts esp after all the renovations. Terry Terry
We have a large alumni association membership percentage, but a small pool of alumni compared to other state schools. More people have graduated from A&M since 1975 than did in the preceding 99 years... Our season ticket base has steadily been increasing for the last 10 years, and we added capacity in anticipation of continued growth. We will certainly break our season attendance record this year, probably average right at 80k when all is said and done. We are closing in on the point of selling out everytime, which is why a south endzone expansion is already being designed... ------------------ Gig'em Fightin' Texas Aggies Scott Durden
In all fairness I should mention that we at UT don't have a long string of sellouts either. That also surprises me, I'm sort of an oddity in that I'm a UT grad who doesn't have UT as their #1 football team fanwise. Terry
Not much news other then the endless speculation on Davie's fate. One thing though, Vollers will start again at OG. Both Millegan and Mahan are still sort of nicked up but will most likely play. Givens is a game time decision. Terry
Was at the ND Pep Rally last night in Houston. Naturally spirits were high, I'm always amazed that at distant places the Irish turn out a crowd. It was at the J.W.Marriott in Houston, and even the staff of the Hotel were wearing the Green Gameday shirts the ND Club of Houston were selling. Like the Pep Rally that Tim, and JO'Co and I attended in Austin 4 years ago, Dick Vitale was the guest speaker. He was animated and dynamic....I'm taking that as a good sign because we pulled out a victory in Austin in front of a raucous, Texas crowd that was the largest ever to witness a football game in the State of Texas (up till that time). Today we'll be in front of a raucous Aggie Crowd, again the largest crowd ever to witness a football game in the state of Texas! Dickie V said we'd beat Texas, last night he said we'd beat the Aggies...I'm feeling the excitement!!! Soooooooooooooooo Hi Ho It's off to Aggieland I go I'm going to see a cow I'm going to see a pig We are going to win now We are going to do a jig Hi Ho It's off to Aggieland I go The Aggies are old Army They like to dress in Maroon We're going to show them the Blarney We're going to make them swoon. Hi Ho It's off to Aggieland I go The Aggies have traditions That they like to keep The Irish have tradions And we're going for the Texas sweep Hi Ho It's off to Aggieland I go SEE YA AT KYLE!!! <H1> GO IRISH </H1> Terry
Well guys was it as ugly on TV as it was in person? At the end even our cheerleaders had no cheer. Bob Davie has sucked the life out of the fans and the players. Actually I have to give 50% of the credit to Kevin Rogers who can't call a play if his life depended on it. I almost puked when in the 2nd half when it was 2nd and 12 and we're around our own 20 he lines up in the wishbone....oh my talk about grab bagging. I'll have more to say later! Terry
I was so disgusted at the the way the entire club looked I left at halftime and went to a college baseball scrimmage. I don't like to see anyone lose their job but the program is dead under BD. Someone please don't tell me they will beat Purdue either.
Well let's see I think I'm recovered enough from my day to type in some thoughts. First all congrats to the Aggies, they were very good host's for us as ND fans. We had a big tailgate over by the Bell Tower, lots of beer and bar-b-q, esp good potato salad! Friendly Aggies everywhere I walked on campus. First off it's impossible to compare their campus to the Notre Dame campus. They have a small city and we have a traditional campus. There are some very pretty area's, but there are so many buildings that they don't have really have the same feel as the Notre Dame Campus. They have a huge parking problem and thus there really isn't any game day tailgating like at Notre Dame. They do have some area's that the members of the 12th Man foundation can tailgate. But for the most part people spread out all over the campus. Kyle is so different from Notre Dame stadium that you really can't compare them. They have these massively high towers of stands and then in one endzone they have temp style bleachers. I think I prefer the enclosed bowl that we have at ND. I found getting in and out of my seats harder at Kyle, and you have to be a mountain goat to get to the 5th deck at Kyle in the Zone. Our common area's are wider at ND and accomidate the crowds better IMHO. I do think the design of Kyle combined with 30K vs 8K student sections make a huge difference in the noise factor though, in fact the difference. The section I sat had quite a few Aggie fans in it and they really weren't any louder than your typical fan. I think if you had 30K+ ND Students that our stadium would be a much louder place. Aggie Band is of couse unique and always puts on a good show. All in all I had a great game experience. I think it is better than the Texas gameday as far as just hanging around before the game. I like the UT stadium layout better, but then I'm not an impartial observer here! After the game it's hard to beat Austin and 6th street for post game party's and celebrations. College Station and South Bend are about equal, IMHO, after the game. Terry
Game Thoughts: Post game pundits are divided, some say Davie isn't in trouble. Some say he is. I can't beleive he isn't in trouble and in fact I can't believe that White hasn't already begun making inquiries (discreetly) as to who might be interested. I can not see Terry Bowden as having a snowballs chance in hell of getting the ND job. He ended badly at Auburn, maybe there were extenuating circumstances, but it seems that the more he had to play with his own guys instead of Pat Dye's the worse his record became. As I have said Davie/Rogers combination on offense is just horrible. We have 3 QB's on the roster who were all highly thought of comming out of HS. Rogers has had them from day one, and none of them are allowed to throw the ball more than about 5 yds downfield 99% of the time. That means that they don't practice downfield throws during the week, so it's no wonder that we can make the throws during the game. Holiday had no chance. The Aggies knew what was comming, run,run,run,short dump pass. They could put all 11 guys up tight and dare us to pass. With that Holiday had no space to work, so when he did try and create something there were Aggies everywhere. If the Aggies were forced to respect the downfield throw/passing game then maybe CH would have had a chance to pull off some plays. Also our backs have no chance with the defense up so tight. I can't think of one good thing about our offense. We have recruited OL's consistently over the last 5 years that are always amongst the tops in the country. Boberly and Addazzio have coached them into mediocrity. I have no idea how Jeff Faine has developed, maybe he ignores the coaching and goes on his instincts. Our defense, well we're an OK defense but that's just it. If we had a great offense then this defense would be good enough to help us win a lot of games. Our DL can get no pressure on a QB, though and we aren't consistent run stoppers. We have made 0 big plays this year on defense. Punter and PK were again very good and of championship caliber. I fear that Pitt, a team handled by So. Fla. trampled by Miami will give us a terrific game and most likely beat us, unless our offense does a 180. At the moment I think it would not be unthinkable that we could end up 3-8 and I'm not sure what 3 teams we will beat. Holiday is nicked now, Lovecchio is nicked, as teams get down...injuries tend to mount ...we are in danger of total collapse of the team. IMHO. A Chronicle Beat writer raised the spectre that maybe McNeese St. is a better team than the Irish. I wonder also. We have good talent. We have no coaching. I wonder what the staff meetings are like right now...a morgue I'll bet. Terry
One of the best linemen we recruited is Jeff Roehl. He's a starting guard over at Northwestern protecting Zak Kustok...
Terry, et al: Well it is official;: We (ND) is now every teams choice for homecoming. How many days until BB> Stephen
Actually there was one other point I wanted to mention. Left the bar with about 3:00 min. remaining and picked up the radio broadcast. Anyway,--is it Tony Roberts who announces--?, he was as down as I have very heard him. Basically said: we are living in the past, other school's have just as much tradition, and there is something really wrong with this program (I think we all knew that), but I had never heard him so pessimistic. Did anyone else hear him and get the same read as me? Stephen
I can't imagine anybody who has been around the Notre Dame program like Tony Roberts not feel the pain of seeing what has happened to it under Bob Davie. I didn't listen to the game, but I remember listening to a couple over the internet last year and both Roberts and Pagna showed their frustration with the way things were going. Terry
This says it all. Aggies feeling sorry for us...oh woe is us..we have never sucked so bad. Even Jimmy Johnson didn't feel bad about giving Gerry Faust what he deserved for being a lousy coach...an ass whipping in his last game. <b> His longtime friend Slocum had mercy on him this weekend knowing how tough his situation is right now. "I've got one of the closest friends in the world on the other end of the sideline so it wasn't in me to say `Let's throw it up in the air 10 more times,'" Slocum said after the game. "There was a point in the ball game that I told the offensive coordinators not to throw the ball. I hate beating him and I didn't see any reason to take advantage of him or his team like that." Slocum actually felt pity for Notre Dame and took it easy on the Irish. That's the kind of treatment that the Prairie View A&Ms of the world should be getting not Notre Dame. </b> Hey Scott...do you think RC would have the same mercy on the Longhorns! I know Mack won't this year! Terry
Terry, there are only 2 coaches in all of college football that RC would ever run it up on: 1)Lavelle Edwards - for his condescending attitude, and short memory of running up the score on others. 2) John Blake - nuff said. I don't think Mack is there yet, but after some of the stunts he pulled during recruiting, I'm sure he's close... BTW guys, contrary to popular belief, the Aggies did have to walk on the field to win last Saturday. I'm sorry your coaches let you down, but maybe the guys in maroon had something to do with it? ------------------ Gig'em Fightin' Texas Aggies Scott Durden