“Real” = word used to make sure you look at the headline… as if there really could be an upset here.
“Upset” = only if A&M’s defense accidently backs over Ryan Mallet’s ankle and injures him for the rest of the season.
“Reality”= Bleacher Report predicts a high-scoring game with the Hogs winning 41-31. I think they need a reality check. Sure, A&M will score lots of points, but won’t come close to winning the game.
“Turnover” = Jerrod Johnson’s new middle name. Jerrod “Turnover” Johnson. He’s like the candy man, giving the opponents all the candy they want. He throws into coverage while wide receiver streaks down the middle of the field, all alone, screaming “throw me the ball. Just get it somewhere in this vicinity and I will score, just throw me the ball.” The pass, thrown into triple coverage, is picked off once again.
“Coach” = the guy named Mike Sherman, paid $5 million a year to stand on the sideline with plastic sheet full of cartoon in order to keep his mind occupied during the game. And imagine, my wife and Dad got into me for calling for this man to be fired. OK, maybe I was wrong. We will know sometime on Saturday. Otherwise, fire HIM! No, I don’t feel sorry for him. He makes $5 million stinking dollars a year.
“Mediocre” = where Aggies seem to feel the most comfortable when it comes to their sports team.
OK, you can see that I don’t have high hopes for the game on Saturday. Sure, let them prove me wrong. I know what will happen. The Aggies will have a short burst of enthusiasm, mixed with luck, and take the lead at some point in the game. Then they will begin to think they are playing La Tech, revert to their mediocrity and die a quick death on the field. All the while, my hopes will go up, only to be quickly dashed.
Even after last week’s loss to OSU, even a win would not have felt all that great. They looked so bad, it was hard to watch. I probably won’t watch the game this Saturday. Too painful.
Not only all that, but add this tidbit. There is apparently a curse on A&M senior quarterbacks. Look at this piece by Brent Zwernerman of the San Antonio Express:
Perhaps the long-forgotten Dustin Long got it right — by hitting Highway 6 before the dreaded curse hit him.
Seven years ago, Long quietly transferred prior to his senior season, therefore avoiding the blight that has befallen every other Texas A&M senior starting quarterback this century:
The Curse of Dino Babers. Or Kevin Sumlin. Or maybe Vance Smith. As you see, the Curse still needs a proper name. The current A&M senior quarterback, however, prefers another “C” word.
“Coincidence,” Jerrod Johnson said, smiling. “It’s just one of those things.”
One of those things? Every A&M starting quarterback since the turn of the millennium has put up worse numbers his senior season than the year prior — and led the Aggies to a worse record. A senior year is when it’s all supposed to come together for a quarterback — not fall apart.
“It’s the beauty of sport,” Johnson countered. “You’ve also got baseball Hall of Famers who go 0 for 30.”
Johnson’s logic aside, who’s to blame? Let’s retrace the curse to its roots. Eight years ago, then-coach R.C. Slocum demoted Babers from offensive coordinator after some awful play-calling, prompting the scorn of a woebegone Babers. Slocum replaced Babers with Sumlin, the current Houston Cougars coach who showed plenty of promise but never got to truly display his talents when the Slocum regime was dismissed at the end of the 2002 season, leaving long-suffering A&M fans wondering, “What if?”
Maybe poor Smith can be blamed. When the rangy quarterback signed with the Aggies in 1998, Slocum gushed, “He can throw it from here to Navasota.” But alas the dashing Smith, with a head full of wavy hair, rarely even threw it from College Station to College Station, before fading into oblivion prior to his senior year of 2002 — a symbol of unfulfilled deep (really deep) passes.
“I wish I could put my finger on what’s causing (the curse),” the affable Johnson said, gamely playing along while shaking his head. “But I can’t.”
