Below Baylor? For Mike Sherman, Rebuilding Texas A&M Is One Tough Gig

Given an audience, second-year Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman will try his best to convince everyone in the room the Aggies are headed in the right direction.

But do you believe the veteran coach?

The mountain of damaging evidence certainly begs for skepticism. The Aggies, believed to be on a steady decline since a couple years before the program's all-time winningest coach R.C. Slocum was shoved aside after the 2002 season, have fallen way behind Big 12 South powers Texas and Oklahoma and even now trail -- gasp -- Baylor.

And despite having some solid young and talented players returning, the Aggies have been picked to finish last in the ultra competitive Big 12 South -- a spot that has long been reserved for the Bears -- during the league's preseason media poll last month.

Sherman understands that isn't sitting well the vocal and passionate Aggie faithful.

"Aggies are very optimistic every year," Sherman joked. "They expect we will win the Big 12 every single year."

But what was said in jest has more than a hint of truth to it. The Aggies want to win and they want to win now.

They felt they were duped when Dennis Franchione was lured away from Alabama only to produce less than stellar results before embarrassing the University with the 2007 revelation of his secret e-mail newsletter to select paying boosters. And then Sherman certainly did little to ingratiate himself with the Aggies when his debut last season produced an 18-14 loss at home to Arkansas State and a 41-21 blowout loss to -- gasp -- Baylor that all but cemented a dismal 4-8 campaign.

During the Franchione era, the Aggie faithful waited a couple years before they turned on him. Sherman exhausted the equity he accrued as a former assistant under Slocum before his first season was complete. Firemikesherman.com quickly started getting some play again (it was actually in play during Sherman's head coaching tenure with the Green Bay Packers).

Sherman admits he's had some trouble sleeping trying to figure out how to get things right in College Station. But he stops short of saying he's feeling the heat.

"I feel a tremendous obligation and if that's pressure then I guess you can equate it to that," Sherman told FanHouse. " I think pressure can get in the way, but I don't see obligation getting in the way of what I've got to get done."

So Sherman has gone about rebuilding the Aggies program, one that was dominant in the early years of the Big 12, if not the hurried pace Aggies would like to see. His first order of business was to get more speed on the field on both sides of the football with young players like receiver Jeff Fuller and safety Trent Hunter, both true freshmen last season.

Sherman, who coached the offensive line at A&M during some of the program's most successful years under Slocum, is quick to let anyone know that he had just seven recruiting openings when he arrived in 2007 and six of those players got on the field last season.

"Anybody that was a casual observer would probably say when they watched us play that the speed of the tem was deficient and it needed to be addressed," he said. "I feel like we addressed that."

Bigger than speed or schemes, however, Sherman has to fix the damaged perception of A&M. Once a program known for defense and hitting opponents in the mouth, that toughness seemed to fade during the Franchione era and with it so did the Aggies' lofty position near the top of the Big 12 South. The South champs in 1997 and 1998, A&M has struggled to hold third ever since.



To remedy that, Byrne returned with Sherman less than 48 hours after announcing Franchione's firing following the season-ending win over rival Texas in November 2007. Byrne brought back a coach who understood the Aggies and embraced all that they were about, two characteristics that seemed lost on Franchione.

But it wasn't long before Sherman realized A&M's problems went way beyond saying the right things.

This past season, A&M finished tied for last place with the Bears and most believe Baylor will finish ahead of the Aggies in the standings.

So what has happened to the program that still packs 80,000-plus into Kyle Field and boasts some of the best facilities around?

"I can't really say," said Sherman, 54. "When people ask why I came back to college football from the National Football League, I say it wasn't as much coming back to college football as it was coming back to Texas A&M."

What Sherman says he won't do is criticize the five-year run of Franchione, which produced three postseason berths but never better than a third-place finish in the division. But then he offers subtle hints about the Aggies' questionable recruiting practices under Franchione.

Defensively, the Wrecking Crew image of A&M took a hit during the Franchione years because of instability at the coordinator position and an unorthodox scheme Franchione had favored since his days at New Mexico. Offensively, top recruits found it difficult to trust the scheme that eventually morphed into an option offense.

Fuller, whose father starred at A&M, originally committed to Oklahoma but changed his commitment once Sherman came aboard, saying he never seriously considered the Aggies under Franchione. This year, Sherman brings in blue chip running back Christine Michael, who is an exciting blend of power and breakaway speedster.

"I don't want to go back and criticize because I wasn't in the shoes of people to know what was happening and I don't know the ifs and ands of what happened," Sherman said. "I know you can recruit players to Texas A&M, there is no question about that. This is a very competitive recruiting environment we live in and we have our challenges, but there are enough good things about Texas A&M for a player to want to go here."

Junior quarterback Jerrod Johnson, who was recruited by Franchione but has earned the starting job under Sherman, isn't quite sure the argument of A&M being void of top talent is correct. Fran did land highly-touted tight end Martellus Bennett in 2005.

"You have to also understand what Coach Franchione was trying to do, it was a different mindset offensively so he had guys who fit that mode," said Johnson, who was thrust into the starting role last season when senior Stephen McGee got hurt. "Then Coach Sherman comes in and those guys are different players than what the offense fits.

"I don't think it's a knock on Coach Fran or anything, I just think it's a different set of philosophies. Coach Sherman did the best he could with the guys he had and he has now recruited to what he needs."

Which would lead some to believe Sherman is headed in the right direction. That is certainly what Sherman is selling, though he is careful not put any timetable on it.

"I feel like we have a lot of work to do. I'd be lying if I tell you we are ready to go out and win the Big 12," Sherman said. "Are we going to try to? Yeah. But we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of young guys, a third of our team is new and that third is going to contribute significantly to this season. To say we have a lot of work to do is an understatement. We do."