by HorsePower » Fri Nov 28, 2003 11:54 am
Good! Sure hope that's right. Anything that lessens the accomplishments of A&M is a good move, as far as I can tell. As far as women's soccer goes, that's the team I'll always root against. Their coach thinks he's some kind of coaching genius, but all he can do is promise the world to recruits so he has superior athletes, and then hand them off to some pretty capable assistant coaches who actually teach. Have you ever watched him at a game? He struts around like he knows something nobody else does, when all he knows is speed - he can spot a fast player in high school, then hopes his assistant coaches can teach them to be good overall soccer players. To his credit, he's hired some assistants who can really coach.
But I just can't stand hearing the claims that he has some great program down there in College Station. He doesn't. Give his caliber of athletes -- and A&M's patsy schedule -- to Coach Coss or Coach Van Linder or Coach Kirkup and SMU would have rolled to a nice fat record, too.
If what you're saying is true, good. A&M might have been better than SMU this year, but if so, it was by the smallest of margins. A&M beat SMU early in the season -- barely -- and then tied the Ponies in the playoffs at home in front of a horde of those weird, whooping jarheads who wouldn't know a corner kick from a goal kick, much how to explain soccer's offside rule. Yes, A&M went on after winning the PK shootout. Big deal. What SMU showed this year is that the Ponies are right there at A&M's level, but did we ever get credit for it? No! Were we ranked? No! We even had to win the WAC tournament to ensure a bid to the NCAAs. But there's A&M sitting up there in the top part of the rankings, when there's no difference between their team and ours. I say to hell with them. If they think they're all high and mighty, let them roll through their schedule which has a few good Big 12 teams and a bunch of scrubs. Then, when they face a good team like Penn State in the NCAAs, they get drilled. No way we should help them by making them tougher.
If those teams you mention are, in fact, on next year's schedule, that's obviously Coach Coss calling on his west coast connections. And what that (plus his recruiting ability) will do is make the Ponies more talented and tougher as a team come playoff time. And if we get another shot at those fraudulent Aggies .... look out.
Go Ponies!