College Football Confidential

A&M-Arkansas series headed to Arlington

Texas A&M and Arkansas will renew their football rivalry, which has been dormant since their days as Southwest Conference rivals, with a series of non-conference games in Arlington, officials from both schools announced today.

The teams will meet at the new Cowboys' stadium in Arlington on an annual basis, beginning with the 2009 season. The initial agreement between the schools and the Cowboys is for 10 years, followed by five consecutive, four-year rollover options. That means the Aggies and Razorbacks could play in Arlington for 30 consecutive seasons, with the first game to take place on Oct. 3, 2009.

All of the games will be played on one of the Saturdays that overlaps the dates of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas (late September to mid-October).

Both schools expect to net about $5 million per season from the game, largely because the Cowboys are charging only $100 per season to rent the stadium and are not taking a cut of ticket revenues. The financial ramifications of the agreement are such that A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said his school stands to make more by playing the contest in Arlington than the $3.5 million the Aggies clear from a typical home game.

Asked how long he hoped to keep the Arkansas series in Arlington, Byrne said: "We hope to be there forever."

In terms of what the game means to Aggies' fans, here are some highlights:

-- Byrne said A&M would continue to play six or seven home games each season in College Station, in addition to the annual neutral-site game with Arkansas.

-- Tickets for the A&M-Arkansas game figure to cost around $100, officials said. Multi-tiered pricing will exist, with discounts for students and deference given to season-ticket holders.

-- Capacity for the game in Arlington is expected to be 100,000, with each school receiving half the tickets. A&M fans will sit one one side of the stadium, Arkansas fans on the other.

-- Arkansas will be designated as the home team in odd-numbered years, A&M in even-numbered years. When Arkansas is the home team, the game is expected to be picked up by CBS, the SEC's primary network outlet. When A&M is the home team, the game is expected to be televised by ABC/ESPN, the Big 12's primary network affiliate.

-- Byrne said the opportunity to play each year at the Cowboys' stadium should aid recruiting efforts and qualifies as an "important" way to reach out to fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Byrne said roughly  25 percent of A&M's season-ticket holders live in the Metroplex.

"It's important that we have an annual presence in the Metroplex, like we did in the days of the Southwest Conference," Byrne said. "We lost that when we stopped playing TCU and SMU (as former SWC rivals)."

-- In terms of future non-conference schedules, Byrne said some tweaking will be necessary to free up a date each year to play the Razorbacks while the State Fair is in Dallas. Byrne pointed toward a potential issue in 2011, but said it should be remedied "easily." With Arkansas as a staple on the Aggies' non-conference schedule for the forseeable future, Byrne said A&M would focus on playing the brunt of its remaining non-conference games in College Station against Division I-A opponents.

Aggies-Horns to play on Thanksgiving night

The long-anticiapted move of this year's Texas-Texas A&M football game to Thanksgiving night became offical today, when representatives from the competing schools and ESPN announced the move.

The move is part of a two-year agreement with ESPN that includes the teams' 2009 game, which also will be played on Thanksgiving night. This year's game is in Austin. The 2009 game is in College Station.

It marks the first time since 1993 that the Longhorns and Aggies have played on Thanksgiving, their traditional date for a season-ending showdown. During the first 12 years of the Big 12 era, the teams have played on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

In announcing the move, A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said he was "thrilled" by the decision and praised officials at ESPN and within the Big 12 conference for allowing it to happen. Texas officials also praised the move, with coach Mack Brown noting that the move to Thursday would allow an extra day for either of the teams to prepare for a berth in the Big 12 championship game, played the week after the A&M-Texas rivalry, should either school qualify.

From a Big 12 standpoint, the move adds another national telecast to its Thanksgiving weekend series of contests.

Under the existing TV agreements with the Big 12, the ESPN networks (ESPN and ESPN2) can televise seven Big 12-controlled contests each year, with games to be played on Thursday or Saturday. The Texas-Texas A&M game is one of two contests announced for the 2008 season. The other is the West Virginia-Colorado game, to be played on Thursday, Sept. 18 in Boulder, Colo.

_ Jimmy Burch

A&M-Arkansas game in Arlington looking probable

Momentum continues to build toward the probability of a Texas A&M-Arkansas football series in Arlington, starting in 2009. Negotiations have been ongoing for some time between the schools for a five-year series of games to be played at the Cowboys' new stadium, from 2009 through 2013.

Nothing has been signed or officially announced between the former SWC rivals. But Arkansas officials recently asked that their 2009 home game against Texas be postponed until 2014, apparently because the Razorbacks did not want to play non-conference games against both the Aggies and Longhorns in the same season on top of their normal SEC conference campaign. Texas officials have said they would be amenable to the postponement, which could expedite a final agreement between Arkansas and A&M.

Texas and Arkansas have agreed to a home-and-home series, with Arkansas scheduled to play in Austin this fall. If the Longhorns' game in Fayetteville slides to 2014, as Arkansas has requested, Texas officials would begin looking immediately for a 2009 replacement opponent. And the Arkansas-A&M series in Arlington, in all likelihood, would clear the final hurdle needed to make it a reality.

_ Jimmy Burch   

A&M coaching trends

There are two trends in new Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman's hires for his staff.

First, on the offensive side of the ball, there's a lot of NFL experience. Sherman has been gone from the college game for a long time. Offensive coordinator Nolan Cromwell came from the Seahawks and has never coached at the college level. New running backs coach Randy Jordan is a nine-year NFL veteran and then went to Nebraska in 2004 under coach Bill Callahan.

Which leads us to the second trend. Jordan is the fourth hire from Nebraska. The first hire by Sherman was Tim Cassidy, who has strong A&M ties and was brought in to be the associate athletic director for football, a similar position as he held at Nebraska. Since then, they've hired the strength and conditioning coach, the defensive line coach and the running backs coach from Nebraska. All of those coaches were under Callahan, who went to Nebraska from the NFL before he was fired after this season.

One concern about the hires is if there might be too much of an NFL flavor on the new staff. The coaches in the NFL get a lot more time to work with the players than they will in college. Callahan brought and NFL-type of offense to the Cornhuskers and one criticism of him was that it was too complicated for the players, especially given the time constraints.

It will be interesting to see how it all works in College Station.

_ John Miller

New OL coach for the Aggies

New coach Mike Sherman continues to fill out his staff as he announced the hiring of Jim Turner as the offensive line coach on Thursday.

Let's hope his stay with the Aggies last longer than his last gig. He was hired last January to be the offensive line coach at Boston College, his alma mater. Evidently the fit wasn't right for Turner, as he suddenly resigned from the Eagles in April.

Sherman has known Turner from back when he was a coach at Green Bay.

“Jimmy and I share similar philosophies when it comes to the offensive line,” Sherman said. “When I was at Green Bay, he would come and visit. When I watched tape of his line play, I observed a group of excellent technicians and that comes from coaching.”

Turner also served as a Marine from 1990-94, which is another thing Sherman likes about his new offensive line coach.

As a former Marine officer, Jimmy will be our conduit to the Corps of Cadets because the Corps is very important to me and our staff here at Texas A&M," Sherman said. I can see the discipline, leadership and mental toughness learned from being in the Marines Corps passed along to our football players. I think he is an excellent coach."

_ John Miller

Aggies hire TCU assistant

Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman continues to fill out his staff and raided TCU on Friday, hiring cornerbacks coach Charles McMillian away from the Horned Frogs.

Overall, McMillian had a pretty nice run with the Horned Frogs. In 2005, he coached cornerbacks Drew Coleman and Quincy Butler, who both earned All-Mountain West honors. The next season, he started the year with two freshman at cornerbacks, Rafael Priest and Nick Sanders, and the Horned Frogs only allowed nine passing touchdowns that season.

_ John Miller

Sherman retains Malone

New Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman announced that he will keep one coach from the Dennis Franchione staff, as Van Malone will remain with the Aggies. He has spent the last two seasons as the cornerbacks coach for Texas A&M and will be the defensive backs coach under Sherman.

It's not a big surprise that Sherman elected to keep Malone. The former Longhorn defensive back has the reputation as being the top recruiter from Franchione's staff and will play a big role in keeping their current class as intact as possible.

_ John Miller

Open quarterback battle

Mike Sherman said it will be an open competition for every position on the football team.

What could be an interesting battle to watch will be at quarterback. While Stephen McGee has started the last two years, Jerrod Johnson has shown a lot potential, both with his mobility and his arm strength. It won't help McGee that he will be limited to basically non-contact drills during the spring because of offseason shoulder surgery and Johnson will get the majority of the spring snaps. That's not the best scenerio for McGee, who will be trying to learn a new offense which will rely more on the passing game. McGee has had more success running the ball than throwing the ball.

What works in McGee's favor is his experience and his leadership ability. While Johnson has shown a lot of potential, he's still very raw. He didn't start playing quarterback until his final season of high school. McGee has been playing quarterback all his life and played in a pass-oriented offense in high school.

_ John Miller

Sherman's take on Martellus leaving for the NFL

New Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman had phone conversations with tight end Martellus Bennett about entering the NFL draft, but did not actively try to persuade him to return for his senior season.

"That is a decision they have to make themselves," Sherman said. "I really believe this _ if you have to convince someone to come back, they don't come back as the same player a lot of times. So if they're really eager to go, to turn their mind and somehow sway the numbers to make it look like he needs to come back, I didn't want to do that. He got some pretty good information from the NFL. I thought I gave him some very accurate information in terms of what his draft status would be. And he made his decision based on what he accumulated. So, we with him well."

_ John Miller

Decisive choice ... good decision?

Texas A&M has made the 72-hour journey from Dennis Franchione, coach on the hot seat, to Mike Sheman, new man in charge.

It's a decisive move. But is it the right move?

Clearly, A&M athletic director Bill Byrne thinks so. The timetable of this regime change suggests Byrne identified his target quickly and has been huddling with Sherman and his representatives for quite some time -- long before anyone could start a "post-season" evaluation of his sitting coach.

But this isn't about the semantics involved in determining how long a post-season review should take or when it truly should start. Obviously, Fran had to go. The middling record (32-28) and VIP Newsletter fiasco made that clear.

What is unclear, at this point, is whether Sherman's NFL pedigree will transfer well to the college game. Bryne clearly thinks so. Sherman has impressive offensive credentials at the NFL level. Former A&M coach  R.C. Slocum considered him an asset as a recruiter during Sherman's previous stints in Aggieland.

But can Sherman be the recruiting magnet A&M needs to upgrade its personnel? At Green Bay, he was hardly the face of the franchise, even when he was the Packers' head coach. He'll need to be that at A&M for the Aggies to pick up the pace in landing more difference-makers. And I don't think Sherman is about to announce Brett Favre as his new offensive coordinator, a move that would excite lots of potential recruits and could jump-start a banner recruiting class.

In recent years, more NFL returnees have struggled, rather than succeeded, when returning to the college game. USC's Pete Carroll is the exception.  Sherman could be, too. It will all come down to his recruiting abilities. He's got to persuade more blue chippers to shun Texas, OU and LSU -- the Aggies' logistical Bermuda Triangle in the recruiting process -- and choose A&M over those programs. Can he? I don't know. To me, is the great unknown about this hire. The answer to that question will ultimately determine the success or failure of today's announcement in Aggieland.

_ Jimmy Burch

_ Jimmy Burch