How I wish football season was here! Because we don’t have any new football games, we are stuck talking about recruiting, what coaches/players say to media, and the ole standby-critiquing last year’s performances. I will stand by my statement that I was proud of last year’s Red Raider football team all the way through the OU game. This includes the two losses to A&M and KSU. Did I wish the offensive play calling was different in those two games? Yes, but overall, I thought the team represented itself very well, particularly in the OU game and including the two loses up to that point. I at least, could look Aggie straight in the eye at work and not feel ashamed of my team. There is no ISU cyclone at my office but if there was, I would not be able to do the same, even to this day.

I was listening to local Houston sports radio and one of the guys was talking Houston Texans football and somehow made note of how Bill Belichick was great at tearing his teams down after winning games and picking them up after losing games. This was mentioned in regards to the question of how will the Texans Coaches relate to the players this year, but I had a thought of how it relates to our Red Raiders, and particularly the melt down after OU last year.

The TTU staff will point to injuries and lack of depth as the main cause of the 2nd half meltdown and those certainly had a negative effect on our performance but the defeated attitude of the team was/is my main concern from the 2nd half of last season. It is also my main concern for the team this year. Injuries will happen, but I just hope they don’t lose their fighting spirit.

The Belichick note about tearing your team down after a substantial win seems to be, from what we have heard from players and those near last year’s team, the course of action that Chad Glasgow took after the OU win. In general, he was a “tear ya down”type coach and from my personal experience which isn’t extensive by any means, I have known many great coaches from this mold and many sucky “attaboy” coaches. Did Glasgow “tear them down” after the OU game and they just never got back up (add injury bug onto this). Did Tuberville participate in the tear ya down, did he simply allow Glasgow the freedom to do it as DC, or did this cause a rift in their coaching relationship?

Tuberville Defensive Coaching tree and why Willis & Glasgow were good hires that didn’t work out

Gene Chizik, Paul Rhoades, Will Muschamp. These are the guys Tommy Tuberville hired as defensive coordinators at Auburn. Not sure if anyone has ever heard of these guys but they all 3 are head coaches in the SEC & B12 (sarc font).

Willis Hire – Young Gun From Alabama – 3-4 was a bad idea for B12 and this guy beat his wife. The fact that he was from a solid program was the one big plus. This shows the arrogant SEC defense type attitude that Tubs held coming in.

Glasgow Hire- Young Gun From TCU – 4-2-5, not necessarily a bad idea for B12 but we didn’t have players for it, and this guy scared the players from his incessant yelling. Again from a solid program, I think he is a good coach, he scheme, not something to implement in 8 months or so before the season. This shows the attitude of: well, I guess we will try something different to accommodate the passing in this league.

Kaufman – Old School Tub guy, aligned with his values, 4-3 which as we know is decent in the B12, does a lot of butt slapin and attaboys . I don’t think we are ever going to see Kaufman as a head coach in the B12 or SEC like Tubs old old DC’s but hopefully we will fair better than 5-7.