By Richard Croome
Eagle Columnist

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The Texas A&M football program has gone full circle in five years.

Sure, 42-14 is not exactly 77-0, but it might as well be for the Aggies, who were playing for a share of the Big 12 South lead only to find themselves on the short end of such a lopsided result that half the home fans were headed to the exits before A&M got on the board.

Coming in, the odds were stacked against A&M with OU having won 18 straight Big 12 games at home and losing at Memorial Stadium only twice in the last 53 starts. Oklahoma also had put up at least 30 points at home for 10 straight games.

Oh, and as so many pointed out during the week, the Sooners were coming off a bye week.

In short, not many gave the Aggies much of a chance, and they didn't disappoint.

The Aggies must have stage fright. For the third time in front of a national TV audience, they appeared to forget their lines. A&M scored 42 points combined against Miami, Kansas and Oklahoma, and outside of a few diehard fans, no one probably saw any of the scoring. In two of those TV games, the contest was definitely over by the time the Aggies scored, and in another, it didn't appear as if A&M would ever score.

What's most disconcerting is this is almost exactly the same offense, personnelwise, that was held to less than two touchdowns only two times last season, and A&M won one of those games. The other was the bowl game.

But if the OU game was an example of A&M's current offensive prowess, it's easy to see why the offensive numbers are fading as fast the Aggies' hopes for a respectable bowl.

The problem: touches.

As in: not enough for the three guys that should be carrying the load.

Jorvorskie Lane, Mike Goodson and Martellus Bennett saw the ball 17 times combined.

Stephen McGee ran the ball 16 times, and threw 21 or 22 balls not in Bennett's direction.

With Goodson holding his helmet on the sidelines in the first half because he missed practice this week, Lane had four carries, none until the second quarter.

Bennett was even more invisible, not having a ball thrown his way and sitting out a couple of series in the opening half, after which A&M walked off the field trailing 21-0.

Aggie fans would have been happy to see anyone carrying the ball on a fourth-and-1 at the Oklahoma 44 later in the third quarter. But down 28-0, Franchione elected to punt.

On third-and-1, McGee rolled out and tried a pass. The play made sense with A&M needing to score quickly to get back into the game. It made sense, that is, if on the next play the Aggies had gone for the first down to keep the drive, and any hope they had of making a game of it, alive.

A&M didn't go for it, and even the Sooner fans started losing interest.

With the Aggies having to travel to Missouri next week, this can only get uglier. Missouri is still playing for a berth in the Big 12 title game, and the Tigers tore up Colorado 55-10 on Saturday to keep their North Division title hopes alive.

What might the Tigers do to the Aggies on their home turf?

At least A&M's trip to Missouri won't be seen by as many. That one will be on FSN.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.

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