The Aggies are a once-proud football program. Their fans are enduring a prolonged span of lackluster seasons in which their instate rivals have left them in the competitive dust.
Coaches have come and gone without the desired change of results, but the new guy in town has hopes elevated, even though the desired results might be a year or two away — if he sticks around.
Sounds a lot like Utah State, doesn't it?
But these Aggies are the ones from Texas A&M and, like the USU Aggies, they would like nothing more than to forget about recent failures on the football field and return to the glory currently enjoyed by their rivals.
Mike Sherman, formerly the head coach for the Green Bay Packers, is now the head coach in College Station but is no stranger to the place called Aggieland — having been an assistant coach at A&M for eight seasons.
"There is no doubt in my mind what can be accomplished here at Texas A&M," Sherman said. "I know a lot of coaches will say the same thing, but I know the landscape here. I know the recruiting base. I know the high school coaches in this state. I know what needs to be done. I know the talent that is out here. I know what this school is all about. We don't just want to win football games, we want to win championships."
His first season as Texas A&M's head coach resulted in a less-than-stellar 4-8 record with losses to Arkansas State, Kansas State and Baylor.
The program he inherited was in tatters, though, after a stint with Dennis Franchione ended in controversy and a five-year record of 32-28.
Sherman appears to have A&M on the right track after last year's rebuilding.
A dominating 41-6 beatdown of New Mexico opened the season and, after sharing a bye week with Utah State last weekend, A&M is eager to continue its season.
"We spent obviously a fair amount of time going against each other in uncharted, unscripted game-like situations, whether it be strike-zone, red-zone, third-down ... primarily those three phases of the game ... end-of-game scenarios, last eight minutes of the game," Sherman said. "We worked a lot on special teams. So we just kind of ran the gamut of offensive and defensive components that need to be practiced, and try to give us little more experience, and try to make as much game-like situations as we could and see how our kids handled them."
But, while Texas A&M and Utah State might be in the process of digging out of holes, the maroon Aggies have a significantly less deep hole to climb from.
"They have a lot of skill on offense," USU coach Gary Andersen said. "They have three backs that ran very well in their game. Their quarterback had nearly 60 yards rushing. ... So we have our work cut out for us from a defensive standpoint."
Texas A&M had 606 yards of total offense against New Mexico and is led by Jerrod Johnson — a 6-foot-5, 229-pound junior quarterback who threw for 349 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another score and 57 yards. Running back Christine Michael had 93 yards on 11 carries against the Lobos, while Cyrus Gray and Bradley Stephens combined for 101 yards on 20 carries.
Sharing the ball, obviously, is something A&M is capable of doing.
"It will be a great challenge for us," Andersen said. "I am looking forward to another good test for us to see where we stack up and what improvements we have made."
Texas A&M returns 21 starters from last year's team, and the experience and bye week, Sherman hopes, will pay off.
"We have to make sure we are solid in protection. I didn't think we were really good in the first game," Sherman said. "We worked hard on it this week, just like the previous week before we played. But it remains to be seen where we are with that. You really don't know until you play the game."
Aggies on the air
Utah State (0-1)
at Texas A&M (1-0)
Saturday, 5 p.m., Kyle Field
TV: none
Radio: 610 AM, 1230 AM, 95.9 FM
e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com