The Aggies always have inflated expectations; anything short of a Big XII championship is a disappointment. The only thing that keeps a coach off of the HOT Seat is an occasional win over Texas and that didn’t even work for Fran.

or lose a game 77-0.

Fran was a whole lotta hot air backed by no substance, aka all hat, no cattle.

I wouldn’t say anything short of a Big 12 title is a disappointment, but anything short of 9 wins is a disappointment. There isn’t any reason A&M shouldn’t be competing for the Big 12 title year in and year out, with an occasional rebuilding year thrown in.
We have the resources to be a national championship-caliber program, but we haven’t had the coaching.
Sherman’s biggest problem is that Fran left him with huge holes on defense.

That said, I don’t like Murano’s quote. No point in making excuses before the season has even began.

I also agree that aTm should be able to contend for the Big XII title, maybe not every year considering the strength of the conference. May main argument was that I don’t think any team in the Big XII can expect to win the conference every year.

Oh, I don’t think we should expect to win it EVERY year, I do think we should expect to be in the mix, i.e. finishing in the top two in the Big 12 South, every year. The Big 12 is a strong conference, and the South in particular is ridiculously strong. However, if we want to get where we should be as a program, we’re gonna have to knock off the teams at the top, and become on of the top dogs.

This is a rebuilding year and aTm fans should be happy with an 8 or 9 win season as you mentioned.

If we win 8-9 games this season, I’ll be thrilled. I’m really concerned about our defense, and a whole new offensive line learning a new offensive scheme means we will probably struggle early.
I have no problem acknowledging this will be a rebuilding year, I just don’t think our president should be tempering expectations before the season even begins.
I also took issue with her comments on Bill Byrne and our high ticket prices. I don’t buy this “we need to pay through the nose to be a world-class program” statement when we’re not a world-class program, and we have the highest ticket prices in the conference and in the nation. We’re not getting a return on our investment when you look at prices versus success, and it disappoints me that Murano buys Byrne’s line of bullsh*t.

Wow. I seem to remember a time…was it back in 1999….when every single aggie I knew was hailing Coach Fran as the second coming of Christ. And there was hardly any basis or resume for those inflated projections.

Now all of those same friends (and most of Aggieland for that matter) have sworn him off as the anti-Christ, blaming him almost entirely for their demise over the past decade. Does he deserve the criticism….probably to an extent. But still kinda reveals how blind aggie fans can be to hail anything and then tuck and run moments later.

Its good to see, however, that aggies are much more hesitant to jump on the Sherman bandwagon and are showing some extremely rare aggie restraint before boasting and bragging about their shiny new coach. I think Sherman will be pretty good, not great…but I wonder if a pro-style offense can work in the Big XII…...we all saw how that worked out for Coach Callahan at Nebraska…..........