By ROBERT CESSNATexas A&M football coach Mike Sherman hasn't lost his sense of humor, and he doesn't think his offense has lost its ability to make big plays.
A&M's offense ended nonconference play ranked last in the Big 12 in scoring, rushing, passing and total yards, which prompted a reporter at his press conference Monday to call his offense statistically "kinda sluggish."
"That's putting it mildly," said Sherman, managing a smile. "I appreciate that."
He also appreciates his players' attitude and effort, if not always the results. A&M is averaging only 297.8 yards per game, which is 42.7 behind Colorado.
Inexperience and injuries have hindered A&M's transition to a pro-style attack from an option-based approach.
"It's a new scheme," Sherman said. "[The players] have no familiarity with us and how we do things. Everything is brand new for them, and there's a lack of experience in that group. We only had eight scholarship players here in the spring to work with, and then we brought in the freshmen. So it's a combination of both."
A&M used six first-time starters in the season opener and has had another six make their first start since.
The most inexperienced group is the offensive line, which had three first-time starters in center Kevin Matthews and guards Lee Grimes and Evan Eike. Right tackle Travis Schneider, the lone returning starter, injured a foot against Miami and missed last week's game. Grimes also has missed plays with injuries.
The backfield, which was supposed to be the team's strength in talent and experience, has been hit the hardest by injuries, especially at quarterback.
Senior Stephen McGee, who had started 29 straight games, injured his throwing shoulder in the first series against New Mexico. He missed the Miami game, then reinjured the shoulder against Army.
Sophomore Jerrod Johnson has taken more snaps than McGee. The talented Johnson had started contributing at wide receiver, a unit further weakened when converted third-string quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who had eight catches in the first two games, suffered a high ankle sprain.
The top three fullbacks -- Jorvorskie Lane, Nick LaMantia and Anthony Vela -- have missed time along with tailback Keondra Smith.
"Hopefully, we can have a complete week of continuity with our guys and get them practicing together," Sherman said. "I think that will make us a more efficient offense. The other thing too, no matter what you say, when you're changing quarterbacks as regularly as we have, you lack some consistency."
A&M has struggled to produce explosive plays -- described by several coaches as runs of at least 12 yards and passes of at least 16 yards.
The Aggies have had only 25 such plays on 241 snaps, which is a big reason the Aggies are averaging only 21.5 points per game.
A&M has managed only 13 offensive scores, including four on explosive plays. Nine other explosive plays led to scores, while four more "explosives" put A&M in position to miss field goals.
Tannehill and freshman wide receiver Jeff Fuller have been pleasant surprises with five explosive plays each.
Junior running back Mike Goodson leads with six, but he thinks that number should be higher, and so does his coach.
"In this last ball game, I think [Goodson] touched the ball 16 times, and that's much less than I'd like him to," Sherman said. "I don't know that we gave him a whole lot of opportunities. We talk a lot each week about opportunities we're giving him to do what he does best, and I don't know that we gave him enough. He's a guy that has a chance to break one open at any time."
Goodson had 847 yards rushing as a freshman, averaging 6.7 yards per carry. Last year, he dipped to 711 yards, averaging only 4.7 yards per carry.
This season he was limited in fall camp with a leg injury, and he missed part of the New Mexico game because of injury. He is averaging only 4.2 yards per rush. He was a factor in the passing game last season with 36 catches for 361 yards and four touchdowns. He's continued that trend this year with a team-leading 17 catches for 140 yards and two scores.
Goodson asked running backs coach Randy Jordan why the offense is not making more big plays.
"He said keep hitting it and it will come through," Goodson said.
A&M has had back-to-back explosive plays only once, which happened last week -- a 25-yard pass reception by Jamie McCoy followed by Fuller's 42-yard touchdown catch.
A&M might need more big plays Saturday in the opener against Oklahoma State, which is averaging 562.5 yards and 51.8 points per game.
The 21st-ranked Çowboys (4-0) have had 58 explosive plays.
OSU running back Kendall Hunter, who leads the Big 12 in rushing with 618 yards, has 17 explosive plays. Wide receiver Dez Bryant has 11 and running back Keith Toston nine.
"You have to be able to defend everything with them," Sherman said. "Also, their ability to score a lot of points may change how you play the game offensively. I think that's enough to keep me awake at night right there."
OSU had 18 explosive plays in last week's 55-24 victory over Troy.
Sherman's coaching experience is heavy on the offensive side. He was offensive line coach at A&M for two stints and an offensive assistant for the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks before taking over as head coach in Green Bay. He also helped the Houston Texans climb to 8-8 last season as their offensive coordinator.
Now he finds himself in charge of an offense that isn't producing at a level he's used to seeing, and he admits it's frustrating.
"Well, you know I'm not going to say it's play-calling," said Sherman, managing another smile. "There's things we can do better, there's no question about that. At times we just don't seem to be finishing things the way we need to finish. I think we're getting on the right guys up front, but as I told them [Sunday], that's not enough. We need to displace people, create some space to be able to move the football."
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Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: MILLER
Gig 'em !
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: Seeing Stars
My personal opinions: Excellent point, position injuries bunched could really kill you.! I got to thinking then, your 10-30 injuries won't all necessarily be in your 33 starters, but also in both your 3* and 4* reserves, and you're probably also trying to save 25 red shirt fish as well. Now I'm getting tired, so I decided, let's just get as many difference makers as tu and ou, and let the injury chips fall where they may, at least for tonight. Enjoyed it, and Have a good weekend. miller58
Posted by: On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: RE: RE: miller
One more thought and I'll sign off on this one. I understand the math on the perceived ability to replace an injured 4/5 with another 4/5 however, considering the 10-30 injuries possible each week AND the 4/5 redshirts, you would seem to need a lot of luck with the remaining balance for this to work. You would need almost exact 4/5 numbers at each position along with all injuries spread evenly at each spot. I get LB's going down and I can't replace them with tailbacks. Out of 22 positions, if you get heavy with recruiting 4/5's in say 6 positions and you have injuries at other positions you may become exposed with the weker talent trying to fill in. Without looking, I think we have this problem with 4/5 running backs vs 4/5 offensive linemen. You take the last word on this.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: Seeing Stars
My personal opinions: Good question! Ive never checked out what we actually have, that closely. In Theory it would seem to help us to both have high 3.9's in those places bewteen player 21 and 33, and also to have them to replace your 10-30 injuries. If your looking at a team average of 33 starting players, obviously having 3.9's in sone positions is not going to lower your team average that much. Obviously there is much more difference when you have to stick in a bunch of 3.1', or 2's. To me it seems there are so many other varibles in football tat would come in to play, that a few 3,9's vs a few 4.1's are probably a very insignificant difference. I really have to question how good are our measures on speed, athleticism and size to measure this closely the difference. Over a very large universe it is probably significant, but probably not on a hand full of players, say 5 to 15. Good question, not sure I know a good answer! Thanks. miller58.
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: RE: Miller
Understand the point. Now, can you tell me if we may have had more 3.9's than they had 4.1's. In other words do we realize any relief from numerous "high 3's" against smaller numbers of "low 4's". i.e., could this factor bring us a little closer ??
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: Seeing Stars - Spud re; Stars
My personal opinions: What I try to remember is that A&M is in the exact same division of just 6 teams and we have to beat tu and ou first just to come to come out of this division: tech is also a big factor now . OU and tu have averaged signing 14 4*-5* difference makers each year this decade. I ran the retension rate for every team that has won an mnc this decade for a five year period; it was exactly the same! just over 70%, A&M also just over 70%! the one exception was brown at tu with just over 80%. Now A&M has averged recruiting just over 6 4*-5* difference makers every year this decade. Summing up over a 5 year recuiting cycle, this means tu has 5 years x 14 players x 80+% = 56 players on their squad; ou has 5 x 14 x 70% = 49; and A&M has 5 x 6 x 70% = 21. Simply put tu and ou can put 33 players on offense, defense and special teams; A&M has 21 to spread between the 3 teams. Then in a long 12 game season, a team may have say 10 to 30 players hurt any given week. tu and ou can just put another 4*-5* in for the injury, A&M puts in slower, less athletic, smaller 2-3 star players. My point is tu/ou can afford a bad year and still have 33 starters plus reserve difference makers, we can't afford this luxury; for info ou signed 15 last year and tu 12; normally ou finishes their class with 50 % difference makers, tu is usually earlier getting theirs. Thanks . miller58.
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: RE:spud
Go to rivals.com and click on commitments. Only 2, 5-star commits to the Big-12 so far. tu is the big leader so far with 1, 5-star, 12, 4-stars, and 6, 3-stars. Surprises me that oklahoma only has 5, 4's and 13, 3's to our 4, 4's and 18, 3's. Things will probably change closer to signing but this is not as bad as I thought (at least at this point). I am still not convinced on sherman but see the need to wait this out a little longer. Seems Big12 should not be so far down to SEC right now. Don't know yet.
Posted by: spud87 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: RE seeing stars
guess that means we're not doing so bad recruiting? heck, as bad as miller keep driving the point home that we suck at recruiting we did have the 16th best class last and currently have the 17th rated class. only tu & ou did (and are doing better this year). and yes we did lose some from last years class-can you blame them-who really wants to come in with a new coach/system/rebuilding. but as a previous article pointed out 6 yes SIX of the kids sherm recruiting last year are playing this year (at least 2 of them 4 star-cyrus and fuller). would be interesting to know the 4/5 star breakdown for the rest of the conferences. i think the sec and big 12 are by far the strongest in the nation-just look at the top 10. oh, btw, colorado did sneak in front of us last year on the strength of 5 star darrell scott (best ranked rb in country last year). hey, guess what he's not even starting, a little known true freshman (2 star) from columbus, oh, is starting for the buffs and helped them beat wv a few weeks ago. damn, those star ranking are so accurate! out.
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: LET'S TALK STARS
I may need to rethink my previous position on this matter unless you guys can give me some insight. We (A&M) represent 8.3% of the Big 12 yet we have 14.8% of the 4-star and 17.5% of the 3-star Big 12 commits. Now, I also note the Big 12 has 31 4/5 star commits while the SEC for instance has 68 4/5 star commits. ???? (per Rivals.com).
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: "Doubt and Disblief"
My personal opinions: I'm beyond doubt and disblief! Winning Division 1 coaches have said they win up to 90% of their games at the time they recuit high school seniors. I've reviewed the resume. I've reviewed the resumes of the 9 assistants he hired. I've watched him not re-recruit 17 decommits. I've seen him make over 40 offers to difference makers and commit only 4 in the current class. I've seen 3 difference makers already decommit this class and a forth is visiting 'bama. I've seen the product on the field for 4 games that has gone through spring training and fall camp. It is the most undiciplined team I can remember; good coaching corrects penalties, adjusts to offenses, etc. This team looks like it hasn't been through and needs spring training. I've seen us play like we have a hell of a lot less talent than New Mexico. a fourth ranked sunbelt team, and Army when there is no question, we have much greater talent. I've seen us not playing proven players. Twent-five carries at tailback by Jorvorskie and a time management game plan will beat osu tomorrow unless the coaching figures out some other way to screw it up. Even the most football challenged fan has enough to already have made up their mind; unfortunately he has to the end of the season because decent coaches won't be avalible until Dec 1. miller58.
Posted by: On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title:
miller great job stirring up the doubt and disbelief i know its been awhile since we've actually been good but would it be to much to give the guy a season to try and fix things?
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: Miller
I sometimes do not care for the delivery however I respect your posts because the are based on facts....I've checked. I too feel there is a need for more who point out, based on fact, that "the emporer has no clothes". No spin !!
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/3/2008
Comment Title: Antagonist!
My personal opinions; There are some Ag blogs that censor, and even delete the truth, so that you only get half of an issue, the positive side, or it may be completely out of context! Maybe that's what your used to? Some of these blogs depend on the Ag Athletic Department for access to the various coaches. I try always to back up my posts with facts and quotes; I would never knowingly post anything untrue, or even out of context. I encourage anyone to correct my facts and quotes by referencing a source. I also am truly upset that A&M football appears so negative, when you post the just the true facts, along with your honest opinions. But damn it, we're in last place, and ranked # 109 in the Sagarin, and recruiting for two classes in a row is just terrible, making the next five years look completely lost! miller58.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/2/2008
Comment Title: NegNag!
My personal opinions: --- NegNag!
Posted by: On: 10/2/2008
Comment Title:
Did you sherman defenders talk about fran when he was here like you do when he is gone?
Posted by: On: 10/2/2008
Comment Title: Miller58
I don't know you, and maybe you are a great person, but personally, I don't care if you are right or wrong anymore. I'm just tired of hearing from you. It's the same negative rant/slant every week. It's monotonous. I mean you could replace the meat of your post with blah, blah, blah, and that's what I get from it now. It's the easiest least thoughtful position to take, the antagonist.
Posted by: miller58 On: 10/2/2008
Comment Title: "A&M improved this week"?
My personal opinions: Gawd knows, Bill Byrne tries to spin the political hiring of Mike Sherman in a positive way. And the RC/Wally followers probably loved it; but a LOT of Ags would have liked a hire that can just recruit and coach, too! I choaked when I read the spin that "we improved from last week". Then I checked, and we did actually improve from "# 5 in the bottom 10" to this weeks "#109 in the Sagrin"! Now that even pushes the bounds of spin! Silly me, I thought of improvement as bettering the 9 regular season wins, and the 14 4/5 star difference maker commits of A&M in the last couple of years! miller58
