Howdy Husker fans, I thought I would chime in on this topic since I have a unique view on both Texas A&M and Nebraska. I was born in Lincoln to parents that owned season tickets in Memorial Stadium for more than 20 years, my sister graduated from UNL in 1995 (not bad years to be a student). I attended my first game in Memorial Stadium with my dad when I was 7 years old and my heroes growing up were Gerry Gdowski, Jon Bostick and Ken Clark. We moved to Texas in the early 90's and while I always loved the Cornhuskers, I was fortunate and blessed enough to receive an engineering scholarship to Texas A&M. Like most Aggies I was indoctrinated and fell in love with the school from day 1. Both schools are very similar and have much in common. Both are conservative universities with great Ag, Business, and Engineering schools along with great traditions and passionate fans and former students.
When it comes to this season, I know November 20th is a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then but I think many of you have a misunderstanding of this year’s Aggie team and Mike Sherman in particular. While our game in 2007 (36-14 Aggie win) may lead you to believe that Dennis Franchione left Texas A&M in better shape than Bill Callahan left Nebraska, I don't think that's the case. A&M's 4-8 season in 2008 was derailed before it even began. Reggie Herring (former Arky D Coordinator) was hired by Sherman to lead the Aggie defense and left the team before the season even started to take the LB job for the Dallas Cowboys. This left us scrambling for a D Coordinator and forced us to take Joe Kines, a 4-3 coach and much older, over the younger 3-4 minded coach that Sherman wanted. When you combine that with the fact that Sr. QB Stephen McGee (now with the Cowboys) got hurt early in our 2nd game and we were forced to play several young players the season spiraled out of control.
2009 was much better, but we played 18 (that's right 18) true freshman significant minutes. This lead to a ton of inconsistency which you can see given our results (62-14 loss to Kansas State in Manhattan followed by 52-30 win over Texas Tech in Lubbock). Meanwhile Bo inherited players such as Suh, Asante, Pierre, Amukamara, Dillard, Helu, and Paul. Talented guys that just needed to be coached up. I know many of you likely compare Sherman to Bill Callahan (NFL offensive coaches running a west coast system) but I don't think they are anything alike.
First Mike Sherman had a connection to A&M (asst coach from 1989-96) he understands our culture whereas Bill Callahan had no connection to UNL. Sherman also had some credible NFL success (5 straight winning seasons and the 2nd highest winning pct in Packers history behind Lombardi) while Callahan only had a 1 year flash with Gruden's players in Oak. MS has shown the commitment to overhaul his staff while BC couldn't even get rid of Kevin Cosgrove. After last year’s abysmal defensive results we went out and got Tim DeRuyter, a young and fiery up and comer who led a bunch of service academy players at Air Force to an 11th ranked total defense that held the nation's #1 offense (Houston) 250 yds below their season avg and picked off Case Keenum 6 times. Some of you might say he reminds you of a young guy Nebraska hired in 2003. We changed every defensive coach but 1 adding former Lombardi winner Dat Nguyen who spent the last 3 years coaching the Cowboys. We also got rid of our horrible special teams coach (ST gave up 28 of Georgia's 44 points in our bowl game....I also believe they're responsible for our loss to Texas).
I believe these changes will make this year's A&M team drastically different. The offense, which no one questions, returns 8 starters. Jerrod Johnson had 4085 total yards 38 TDs and 8 INTs last year (the great Jake Locker had 3188, 28, and 11 respectively and Tyrod Taylor couldn’t carry his jock). Those talented fish and sophs are now sophs and jrs. If the defense can get into the top 60th statistically, possible given our talent and coaching change, I think this becomes a 9 win team. Nebraska has a great team and will be a tough challenge, but it's not impossible to think that A&M, a great offensive team with an improved defense and special teams playing at a home stadium that gives them a significant noise advantage might win this game. I've already got my tickets and am looking forward to it. I would love to share some beers with Husker fans at Northgate and at my tailgate. I hope you can make the trip to what might be Nebraska’s last trip to a great college stadium and experience. Good Luck, Beat the Hell Outta tu (Texas), and Gig'em.
(Sorry this was so long, just wanted to get my introduction out of the way)
