Aggies’ excitement is on big picture
Texas A&M gets test vs. Clemson
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – There’s no way to know if this actually happened. But there’s also no reason to doubt Jimbo Fisher when he says that shortly after he agreed to leave Florida State to become Texas A&M’s head football coach — you might’ve heard, he got $75 million for 10 years — he checked the 2018 schedule and did a double take.
Right there, in Week 2: CLEMSON. Fisher’s reaction: “You’ve got to be — really?”
Yes, really. And really, it’s what the Aggies had in mind when they hired Fisher. Just not right away.
Which is why, even with a huge spotlight focused on Aggieland this weekend, the buzz seems to be more about the big picture than whatever might happen Saturday against the No. 2-ranked Tigers.
“We’re just looking for a good game,” says Jake Swinnea, a secondgeneration Aggie (Class of 2011) whose family owns and maintains the “Aggie Barn,” a landmark on Texas Highway 6 near the hamlet of Reagan, a little less than an hour from College Station. Painted maroon and white, the structure features a cartoon “Ol’ Sarge” and the phrase “GIG ’EM AGGIES,” and it’s a favorite backdrop for photographs.
“We’re just expecting steps forward,” Swinnea continues. “If earthshattering happens, we’ll be good with it.”
Contrast that with the mood not quite five years ago this month and the countdown to kickoff of a home game with Alabama. The pervasive vibe
“We’re just looking for a good game. We’re just expecting steps forward. If earth-shattering happens, we’ll be good with it.” Jake Swinnea The second-generation Aggie (Class of 2011), whose family owns and maintains the Aggie Barn, on the Clemson game
then was of ascendancy.
A year earlier, in its first season in the Southeastern Conference, Texas A&M had gone 11-2. A kid quarterback nicknamed Johnny Football had bedeviled, then beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa en route to winning the Heisman Trophy. Johnny Manziel was back; this time, the Tide were coming to Kyle Field. The Aggies were on their way to everything they’d ever wanted.
“It was unreal,” says Drew Bettiol, another longtime fan. “The energy, you just felt it.”
Also unreal, as it turned out: the notion A&M had arrived as a power. Before the 2013 season started, then-athletics director Eric Hyman joked during a booster function that the Aggies were like the moon, because “both control the Tide.” It was a great line, but of course they did not (Nick Saban did, and does). ’Bama won 49-42, barely besting Manziel, and A&M settled into a pattern of good but not great seasons.
In the wake of that 2012 season, recruiting surged. For $485 million, Kyle Field was rebuilt and expanded (to 102,000, making it the largest in the SEC and, this is important, bigger than rival Texas’ stadium). But on-field results didn’t follow, at least not to the stratospheric levels many expected, which is why Kevin Sumlin was fired last November and why they gave Fisher all that money to replace him.
And it’s probably why this time the atmosphere seems more subdued. Students are camping out for tickets. ESPN’s traveling road show “College GameDay” is coming. But when Texas A&M athletics director Scott Woodward describes a “quiet confidence,” he’s referring to the program’s trajectory, not to Saturday.
It’s not so much about the single data point from Fisher’s tenure — a 59-7 victory against Football Championship Subdivision-level Northwestern (Louisiana) State in the opener — or even what might be doable this season. It’s more about the investment.
“There was a lot of hype during the offseason going around,” says Dillon Beck, a junior construction science major from Marion, Texas. “Nobody’s even seen what he’ll do at A&M. All we knew was A&M paid $75 million for him. There must be a reason.”
There is, and Fisher already has the national championship plaque, jokingly given to Fisher by Texas A&M system chancellor John Sharp: Just fill in the year “20__” whenever it happens. Woodward, who calls Fisher a great fit — “He gets the culture and he gets what it’s about” — says the presentation might have been taken the wrong way “outside of Aggieland,” but acknowledges: “There’s a serious nature to it. We want to win national championships.”
But whatever the program might accomplish during Fisher’s tenure, the beginning seems especially difficult. Clemson will be the highest-ranked non-conference opponent ever to visit Kyle Field. And then Sept. 22, the Aggies travel to play Alabama, the only team currently ranked higher than Clemson.
“You never downplay anything,” Woodward says. “Coach is here to win. He makes it clear it’s his goal. It’s why he’s here and why we’re doing it. But we understand we’re here for the long haul and we want to win wars, not battles.”
Woodward also laughs as he notes the matchup with Clemson was scheduled before he became athletics director.
“He couldn’t blame me,” Woodward says of Fisher.
At least publicly, Fisher isn’t blaming anyone, even as he’s very familiar with the challenge, given those memorable face-offs for Atlantic Coast Conference and national supremacy the last few years.
“The good news is you know,” he says. “The bad news is you know.”
And like so many others, Fisher sounds less fixated on immediate results than long-term potential.
“I think it’s great, I really do,” Fisher says. “It’s an opportunity for your kids to find out what it’s like. Clemson’s been as good as anybody in college football the last few years.”
It’s also an opportunity for A&M fans to find out how the program measures up to the best. Michael Valdez, hanging with friends at a wings joint, says he’s excited for Saturday but confesses a big reason for concern: “Clemson’s ‘ D-line’ is what I’m worried about.”
And his friend Nicholas Logan muses: “Even if we lose by a touchdown, I’ll be OK with that. As long as we don’t get smashed.”
But Logan also says, referring to 2012 and the buildup before ’Bama: “That second year we wanted it, but we didn’t have all the pieces yet. As compared to this year, we feel like we have great talent and really good coaching.”
The next day, Beck is talking football during lunch at Chicken Oil Company in Bryan, about a mile from campus, where the parking lot is filled during lunch with pickups, and once inside, Johnny Cash is followed by Earl Thomas Conley is followed by Merle Haggard — no bro country here. Suggested add-ons to the acclaimed burgers include bacon, onion, mushrooms and for $.50, “Death/ Jalapenos.”
As Beck finishes his cheeseburger, he predicts a win against Clemson or maybe Alabama (but not both), which makes what his friend Tyler Nelson says seem even more apt. Sumlin? Fisher?
“I just love football. They could put my professor out there as the coach and I’d show up,” says Nelson, a senior animal sciences major from Dimmitt, Texas, and a second-generation Aggie — both of his parents are graduates. “Really, the vibe doesn’t change. We’re all crazy and insane all the time.”
Redundant, sure. But he’s not wrong. Aggies are at least as passionate as any college fan base, all the time. And after coming so close a few years ago, they might be hungrier than most. The mood around Aggieland might seem a tad restrained, given Saturday’s opportunity to produce something earth-shattering. But clearly, it wouldn’t take much to spark.
“If we beat Clemson,” Bettiol says, “this place will be on fire.”