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Dennis!

Dennis! Dennis! Dennis!

The last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what I was going to say in my apology to Dennis.  Ever since I wrote One Minute and declared my displeasure with the A&M Football team and in particular the coach’s performance, the Ags have been winning game after game and disproving my gloom and doom article.

Friends who had read the article would give me looks and ask what I had to say about Dennis now.  I was prepared to write an apology, to confess the error of my ways and my short sightedness.

But, I was also afraid.  I was afraid because like all sports fans I’m a bit superstitious.  If I praised Dennis now and returned the ‘Coach’ title then would all the good luck come crashing down?

And then, October 30th 2004 happened.

That's the lovely day that the lowly Baylor Bears defeated the Aggies in overtime.

There is so much I want to say. Yet, there is so little to say. Perhaps they were looking ahead to the Oklahoma game. Perhaps they had bought into their own hype. If that's the case, it makes me very sad. This A&M team is pretty good, better than I thought after week one.

But this team is not ready for prime time. They are not ready to be players in the BCS. Yes, Aggies, you know who you are. The ones who were looking ahead at the schedule and thinking about how an upset of OU and a little bit of home cooking against Texas Tech would lead to the grand defeat of t.u. in Austin and the crowning of A&M as the biggest dogs in the Big 12. It would be the comeback story of the year or even perhaps of the decade.

Ooops. We all forgot about Baylor.

The game wasn't on the tube so I didn't see it. But the box score says enough. Baylor scored 35 points. Seriously. Perhaps I was picking on the wrong "coach." Maybe it was our so called defensive coordinator that deserved to be called out. Baylor scored 35 points? They apparently ran the exact same play to score the overtime touchdown and the dooming two-point conversion. I'm not even going to ask for the Wrecking Crew of old, lets just ask for a defense on par with Texas Tech.

You've got to be kidding me. The Aggies lost to Baylor.

I would like nothing better than to have to write an humble apology to Dennis and accept that I was wrong and he really is the best coach in the land and the Aggies are once again a great team. But it looks like I've got some more time to work on that speech.

I've talked to a handful of Aggies to try to gauge their reactions to the loss. This is a family web site, so I can't repeat their responses word for word but it is safe to say nobody was happy. I feel bad saying this, really, but when I saw the final score my reaction appears to have been unique among my Aggie friends: I laughed.

I had to laugh. How else do you respond to something so absurd? I am not depressed. I am not pulling my hair out. I am not even upset (unlike my reaction to the loss to the Utes). I honestly find it kind of funny and I'm not sure how to explain that.

I know a lot more about this Aggie team now than what I knew after that fateful game one. I know that we really do have some pretty talented players. I know that we have some guys who can really perform in the clutch and who are amazing athletes. I know that Dennis can construct a devastating game plan and overwhelm an opponent.

But I also know that this team has still not beaten anybody that is actually good. Kansas State? No way. Clemson? Not anywhere close to the pre-season hype. Oklahoma State? They are okay, but they are nothing special this year. I also know that when the prepared gameplan doesn't work out, Dennis has not shown the ability to adjust the gameplan mid-game and find a way to turn things around.

So far, we've only played one really good team. Those darn Utes. And they whipped us good. Would they beat us that bad again today? Probably not. Would I put money on the Ags in a rematch? Well, let's just say I wouldn't bet my lunch money on them.

The heart of the season waits. The big bad OU Sooners are coming town. Then those wacky Red Raiders are up and then we have to travel down to Austin for the regular season's final show-down.

Honestly, all of those teams have shown some degree of vulnerabilities. Of course, they have each taken opponents to the woodshed too. The Baylor loss puts the Ags in a very difficult place while preparing for the Sooners. It would be difficult to claim to be mentally prepared for the number two team in the nation after losing to the Bears. If OU applies another pasting, A&M could be looking at a real ugly end to this season.

That's too bad. Especially since the team had done so much this season to make up for some of last year's blunders. There have been some really great moments this season and lots of reasons to have hope for the future.

The story of this A&M football season is far from complete.

I'm just frustrated Dennis hasn't proven me wrong yet.

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