Howdy

[dcAg]

As a long time Aggie and semi-fan of the Mustangs I want to congratulate you on a very nice recruiting class.

You have a lot more Aggie fans then you can imagine because of Coach Bennett. He and his family garner a lot of respect in the Aggie community.

Im glad to see that he had a strong recruiting year in his first full year at the reigns and was able to put his recruiting program in place. I hope that you all give him time to build his recruiting program and the Mustangs and remember that compared to last year when he came to the game kind of late because of the timing of his hiring he has made some nice strides.

He is going to be a great head coach!

A nice class with

[Stallion]

maybe you can convince those Aggies to give us a Home/Home-you need to stop these Dallas kids from leaving the State-OU and OSU are killing you guys in recruiting up here. Maybe its time A&M took a second look at the lack of a big presence in Dallas. We promise not to embarrass you like we did the last two games.

[dcAg]

Maybe you should worry about TCU first. Then we can talk.

We had a nice class this year and have a nice diverse group of young men from across the state...

[FloridaMustang]

Franchione is going to turn A&M into a Big 12 powerhouse. I honestly have no respect for the man, but he's still a great coach. I want to see Reggie McNeal again. He's got BIG POTENTIAL.

[dcAg]

Why the lack or respect?

[dcAg]

Why the lack or respect?

[Random Thoughts]

Thanks for the kind words about SMU and Coach Bennett.

He's a very good coach, but Franchiphony is a jerk. The way he left Bama was wrong. I am sure Bama didn't tell him everything, but he didn't have the guts to go tell his own players he was leaving. After pleading with all of his players not to transfer (when they could have without having to sit out a year) he left his principles and took the money from A&M.

[PonyFan]

I can't speak for UNFMustang06, but I can't stand Franocchio because it seems like every time he says "we're going to retire here" (as he did at New Mexico, TCU and Alabama), he ups and bolts for greener pastures.

However, despite what I think of him personally, I think he's a hell of a coach. He'll do well in aggieville.

Good luck to the Ags.

[Dooby]

I hate Fran because I sat through a 62-7 drubbing in the rain in Nov. 2000. We weren't good, and TCU was better; I know that. But TCU had already accepted its bowl invite and had nothing to play for other than to pad Fran's resume. Fran thought it would be funny to leave the starters in and throw deep late in the game.

Fran has never shown me anything other than the fact that he is a classless SOB who happens to be a good football coach.

BTW, I am from Ft. Worth and grew up rooting for TCU. So it isn't exactly like have a big bias here.

[This message has been edited by Dooby (edited 02-11-2003).]

[gostangs]

thanks for the good thoughts dcag! we need all the fans we can get - we agree we have the right guy - and he has a tremendous amount of credibility, and alot of slack from all of us - the good news is nobody wants it more then he does.

[Charleston Pony]

say what you want about Fran, but I'm glad he's an Aggie. Makes it less likely they will ever come trying to hire Bennett away from SMU. Now that A$M has a new AD and football coach, there's a possibility we will get an invite to play them in Coolege Station at some point in the future. That's a credibility game (not to mention a $$$ game) for a program like ours. Slocum was pretty much on record that he wouldn't consider playing any of the old SWC cast-offs, and I like our chances better than TCU's of getting a game with the Aggie$. But, Stallion...I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that home/home deal...unless we agreed to play the game at Texas Stadium.

[FloridaMustang]

I hate Fran for all the reasons that have been listed in this thread. Mostly because he has no sense of loyalty. I have no respect for men without principles. Sure am glad he's at A&M too, he was too good of a coach for the Texas Christian Horned Frogs.

[Nacho]

I love Fran. He is what life is all about--mainly greed.

[dcAg]

Would it have been worse if Bama were undefeated and ranked No. 1 with 2-3 games left in the country and a reporter were to approach the starting QB and ask him what he thought about Fran leaving for A&M? And then have the team lose the last few games of the year? Thats what Bear Bryant did when he was at A&M.

Dennis Ericson had been talking with San Francisco before signing day...Mike Price left Washington State after he said he'd stay there, How about Ty Willingham at Stanford or Butch Davis at Miami or Rick Neuheisel (OK shouldnt compare anyone to that weasel...) the list could go on forever...

Greed? The money that A&M offered to him wasnt significantly different than what Bama offered. At least it wasnt something that couldnt be resolved.

Did Bama lie to him about NCAA investigations? YES.

Would Bama have lost him if their alums werent cheaters? Who knows.

Did Bama know that at TCU Fran had a clause in his contract that said he could get out of his TCU contract without penalty for one of 4 jobs...none of them being Bama and one being A&M?...YES.

Did Fran ask his players to stick around because he thought he would be there long term? YES.

Did he know he would be offered the A&M job when he said that? NO.

Could the players have transferred to other schools? YES.

I have heard reports that the Bama administration wouldnt let Fran talk to the Bama players after he took the A&M job. Can anyone refute that?

Interesting topic.


Greed? The money wasnt much different than what Bama offered.

[StangEsq]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dcAg:
<B>Dennis Ericson had been talking with San Francisco before signing day...Mike Price left Washington State after he said he'd stay there, How about Ty Willingham at Stanford or Butch Davis at Miami or Rick Neuheisel (OK shouldnt compare anyone to that weasel...) the list could go on forever...

Would Bama have lost him if their alums werent cheaters? Who knows.

Did Fran ask his players to stick around because he thought he would be there long term? YES.

Did he know he would be offered the A&M job when he said that? NO.

Could the players have transferred to other schools? YES.
</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

- All of the coaches you mentioned above, with the exception of Neuheisel, went to better programs or to the NFL.
- Are you insinuating that ATM is squeaky clean? Let's hook Jackie S up to a lie detector.
- He probably knew that the ATM job would become available if he were to indicate to them that he would become available (which he obviously eventually did). Give him some credit for forethought.
- Players probably would have transferred but for the coach's word.
- Probably wasn't greed as much as selfishness.

At the same time, I'd like to send a big HA, HA! to Alabama. :]