I read through their preview, and didn't have a problem until I saw this little tidbit:
"That part of the bargain he has certainly held up. After struggling -- expectedly -- in his first season and finishing 4-8, the next season the A&M offense began reaching levels it had not yet seen before Coach Fran's arrival. "
Sorry, maybe Blue Ribbon thinks they have some inside information unknown to Aggie fans at large, but while I don't think many Aggies expected A&M to be world-beaters in 2003, we sure as hell didn't expect to go 4-8. We didn't expect to lose a game 77-0. We didn't expect to end up starting walk-ons at LB because the head coach refused to pull redshirts off freshmen, even when the injuries were mounting, and we didn't have anything close to competitive talent on the field. We didn't expect our head coach to come in and completely give up on the season, just trash the first season of his tenure and say it didn't matter, and lose his team in the process. The idea that Aggies would pony up and buy season tickets despite a 41% increase in price, and then expect to lose, and lose in gruesome fashion, is just asinine.
Blue Ribbon goes on:
"Once a school whose quarterbacks did more damage running the option than throwing the ball downfield, the Aggies have now seen three of the four best seasons of individual total offense under Franchione. In 2004, then quarterback Reggie McNeal set the school mark by accounting for 3,509 yards. McNeal followed that with 2,627 yards in 2005 (fourth best in school history), and last year, junior Stephen McGee had the second-best season at A&M by producing 2,961 yards. "
Now this sounds like Blue Ribbon interviewed resident Fran apologist/PR man Mike McKenzie. 3 of the 4 best individual total offense seasons have come under Fran, huh? What does this stat really means? It means A&M has had complete studs at QB, athletically gifted stars who Fran has failed to translate into wildly successful offenses. Saying "we've had record setting years for individual total offense" is another way of saying "our numbers for team overall offense haven't been that terrific". If one player is racking up all the yards, that means there are 4-5 other players on the field who aren't being used to their full potential. This kind of dubious double-speak is McKenzie forte, though.
All is well, nothing unexpected happened. Here, have some koolaid.
Ignoring the libations of McKenzie's koolaid, it's not a bad overall preview, especially for a non-fan site. They overrate Cody Wallace, imo, and spend too much time listening to Les Koenning's thoughts on the offense, but other than that, they do a good job covering every unit and the vast majority of our key players. For a national publication, I give them an A.
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