Texas A M Football
Football is one sport which is popular all across the globe. United States is no different from the rest of the world. The people here are really enthusiastic about playing watching football. Although football is played all through United States but the largest population of football lovers are in Texas. Texas A&M is the name of a
university in Texas. Its quite a famous university not only across United States but also in rest of the world. The university provides opportunity both in the field of academics as well as sports. Various sports played at regular level in the university are: Tennis, Football, Basketball, Softball, Swimming, Golf, Soccer, Track and Field, Baseball etc.
The Texas A&M University provides good opportunity for students who want to choose sports as their career. Although all the above mentioned sports are played in the University but the football is all time favorite of the audiences. The number of spectators for Texas A&M football are more than for any other sports. The game is played in quite a good spirit.
Texas Aggie Athletics is the official name given to the sports team of Texas A&M University. But more often people like to call it by its nickname which is Aggies. Texas A&M was a charter member of the Southwest Conference before its dissolution and formation of Big 12 Conference in the year 1996.
The main competitors of the Texas A&M University are:
Baylor University, Oklahoma State University, Texas Tech University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Texas. As every University has their official color so does Texas A&M. The official color of the university is Wite and Maroon. The mascot of the team is a pure-bred collie which is named as Reveille. Although both men and women participate in various sports but football is only limited to men.
As it was mentioned earlier that Texas A&M participates and competes in the Big 12 conference. Football is not something which is new to Texas A&M University but originated some 112 years ago. In 2006, the team participated in its 112th season of football competition. Texas A&M football team was not known for its football excellence when it was originated but has made its presence felt by wining many major clashes. Nowadays Texas A&M football team is regarded as one of the best in the Big 12 conference. Texas A&M football team has only twice won National title in the year 1919 and in the year 1939. It has come close to wining several times but could not convert the opportunities into a win. The teams performance and quality can easily be made from the point that it has won conference titles 19 times till now. This too when the team under went a lean patch from the year 1944 to the year 1971. The Texas A&M football team managed only two conference title wins during this period which is quite low for the team of their caliber and standard.
But the Texas A&M football team came on the right track in the year 1972 when Emory Bellard appointed as the head coach. The team came back in the form and showed its true caliber. Although Emory Bellard stay with the team was for a very short tenure but he made his presence felt even in that small period of time. His efforts were rewarded by team wining 10 wins in a season that too in two continues seasons. After Emory Bellard gave up, Tom Wilson took over the charge of the team. However he did not succeeded in his efforts and was therefore replaced soon by Jackie Sherill. During his period the Texas A&M football team again returned in their full form. Jackie Sherill was with the team for a period of seven years. During that period of time the team won three consecutive conference titles. The team also won two Cotton Bowl post seasons game. This was truly remarkable effort by the team seeing form before that.
After his tenure of seven years his defensive coordinator, R.C. Slocum took the resposibility of the team in the year 1989. During his tenure the team had mixed performance. However the team was more on the positive side than on the negative. This can be easily proved from the point that the team finished in top 25 during 10 of his 14 years with Texas A&M football team. The team won four conference title in his tenure but the biggest of them all was the the universitys first Big 12 title in year 1998. He left the team in the year 2002 when Dennis Franchione took over from him. Dennis Franchione was before that the head coach of the football team of University of Alabama. He finished the 2003 season at 4-8.Then in the year 2004 the performance of the team was better than the last year finishing up the season with 7-4 mark. But one of the other thing which the team manged to do during that period was to earn an invitation to the Cotton Bowl game. However the team lost their match against Tennessee.
The teams performance went further down in the year 2005 earning a 5-6 mark in the season. The teams anguish resulted in the firing of the defence coordinator, Carl Torbush. He was then replaced by Gary Darnell. The team did not improved much on their attack part but certainly improved in their defence part in the 2006 regular season. Texas A&M football team finished the 2006 regular season with a 9-3 record. The team had a 5-3 mark in the Big 12 League. The team has accepted an invitation to play in Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The game is scheduled to be played on December 28, 2006.
University of Texas Longhorns is considered to be the biggest rival of Texas A&M University. There are few other rivals also but not as big as University of Texas. The desire to win and their mutual respect for each other has resulted in the Lone Star Competition between the two teams. Lone Star Competition started in the year 2004.
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