The University of Texas (at Austin) and their delusional mentality

"Texas QB Tyrone Swoopes said he, "expects to be in the College Football Playoff." This year, he said. "We have the talent to do it." With two losses? He said yes." - @kbohls (Kirk Bohls, senior writer for the Austin American Statesman)

Let me start with this - I have a lot of friends who went to and/or are fans of the Texas Longhorns. For them, to a large degree, I say this with some sadness. And actually, as I will explain below, for Aggies as well. There are so many people who are good people, good fans of the sport, who should not be colored by the mentality that is dragging down their football program. And as a citizen of Texas, I want to see all Texas football teams do well - yes, including TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, etc. I love what is happening at UTSA. I was happy to see Rice win CUSA last year.

But there are enough that are not like that, that it just has to be said - the delusional perception that "We're Texas, we should get the best players because of who we are, and we should win national championships because of who we are" is just . . . frankly, pathetic. It is a large reason that many don't like or even hate the Longhorns.

This may sound odd coming from an Aggie, but I actually don't hate the Longhorns. I cheered for Ricky Williams and Vince Young. I want them to be as good as they can be. Why? Well, one, hate just isn't a good thing. But two, the better UT-Austin is, the better football in the state of Texas is, and ultimately, the better football in the state of Texas is, the better the Aggies are going to be. I would love to see UT-Austin get back to being great and to have the Aggies play them on Thanksgiving. It would be phenomenal. For the same reason that I loved the Aggies going to the SEC, playing Alabama and LSU, etc. Play the best to be the best. Learn from conflict, grow. I am not surprised by the level of success the Aggies have had in recruiting since going to the SEC.

So I don't hate them, although I do get frustrated by Longhorns, especially when you look at all they have at their disposal, add in the arrogance that seems institutional and reflected in many of the university's actions, and you have quite a mix.

In the same way that Cowboys' fans are frustrated with Jerry Jones, you have an organization that has more resources than any other team out there, yet you squander that advantage by being self-centered and assured of your own greatness. In terms of the Cowboys - you are in a league with a hard salary cap. So why aren't you spending all of that extra money on the best coaching, scouting and facilities out there? Why are you basically operating without a general manager or a real coach? The two most important leadership positions in an NFL team and you have emasculated them both. By the way, this is nothing new. One of the issues Jimmy Johnson had with Jerry Jones was the lack of resources being put to the scouting efforts....

So here sits UT-Austin, with the most revenue of any team out there, a 100,000 seat stadium in a city that they own. Their ratings potential is always fantastic. Yet they let Mack Brown run out of quality assistant coaches and the institutional rot that follows is epic. The fact that Oklahoma has almost double the amount of national championships as UT-Austin ought to be reason alone to get Longhorns of their collective butts to make things happen. Granted, Oklahoma is very very good, but if you compare assets, it isn't even close.

Now in comes Charlie Strong. He is trying to do the right things and get them back to being a football team. As I said above, I personally hope he has success in turning the program around. I would love for it to be enough that they would be willing to play the Aggies on Thanksgiving again, and for that to be the penultimate college football game, overshadowing the Iron Bowl, etc. Yes, I will admit, in large part, I think that A&M is so far ahead of UT-Austin that no matter how much catching up they do, they won't surpass us. Even with the resources, revenue, etc., the Big XII is no comparison to the SEC. Again, play the best to be the best, and sorry charlie, but no one is going to get excited about your NFL prospects watching you play Iowa State.

The nice thing is this. It doesn't matter. The Fightin' Texas A&M Aggies are going to be fine, one way or the other. We have found a home where our unique passion for the game is not mocked, but embraced. And our team has risen to a level where we have never been before, and things are only going to get better. (I have visions of the games against Oregon in '18 and '19...)

But it does hurt my heart a little that challenging ourselves against a good team in the Longhorns just is not possible right now.

Quick footnote - as you may have surmised, there certainly things that some Longhorns have done in the past that I do hate. The arrogant dismissiveness towards other schools, obviously including A&M, is one. Efforts to have the school turned into a mental institution, for example. But the way the Longhorns generally responded - especially the Longhorn band - to the Bonfire Tragedy, really made it clear to me that there are a lot of really good people who are Longhorns, and they and their school deserve some respect. So Charlie, Dustin, Eric, Nissa, and many others, for you and those like you, I really do wish the Longhorns would do well.