Texas A&M officials take playful jabs at Alabama as SEC rematch looms
Sometimes things just work out.
Like when you move to a new conference to escape being the little brother to your rival and quickly find yourself the coolest school in Texas. Then your new coach’s offense is a perfect fit for your redshirt freshman quarterback and they make beautiful music together, winning the Heisman and the Cotton Bowl. And on top of that, you catch the defending national champion and number one team in the country the week after they went 12 rounds in Baton Rouge and take advantage to spring the upset.
Texas A&M is coming off a great year, so why not crow about it a little? At the Aggies Coach’s Night, athletic director Eric Hyman took a playful jab at Alabama, whose only loss last year came at home to the Kevin Sumlin/Johnny Manziel tag team:
“What do the moon and Texas A&M have in common? They both control the Tide.”
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Following his zinger Hyman, hired a year ago from fellow Southeastern Conference foe South Carolina, then introduced second-year football coach Kevin Sumlin before a crowd of about 800 in the Memorial Student Center ballroom.
He also added to Sumlin he “wants to be able to say the same thing” in a year.
“No pressure, Eric,” Sumlin said when he reached the podium. “Thank you.”
An old joke but a perfectly acceptable one, but then things got even more entertaining. On Twitter, radio host Paul Finebaum – whose show is known for fielding calls from some of the craziest of Crimson Tide supporters – said “Nick is going to be mad!”, referring of course to Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
In response to that, A&M president R. Bowen Loftin kept it real:
@finebaum @CecilHurt @BrentZwerneman Paul, he is already mad.
— R. Bowen Loftin '71 (@aggieprez) June 14, 2013
Perfect. It’s the offseason, everyone is getting antsy for football and I doubt this hurt Saban’s feelings like when it was suggested he might be Mephistopheles. The game that perhaps looms largest as we look ahead to the season is the Aggies/Tide rematch - which will likely be a battle of top five teams - so it’s completely justifiable for the A&M officials to start hyping it up this far in advance.
Alabama travels to Kyle Field on September 14th, as A.J. McCarron tries to get a little revenge against Manziel and both teams attempt to get an early advantage in the race for the uber competitive SEC West. Folks are just a little excited for the contest, with it currently costing about four hundred dollars to even get in the door.
(Related Saban reading: Grantland’s Holly Anderson has put a quiz together comparing the quotes of the Tide coach to those of “Mad Men” showrunner Matthew Weiner. Good luck.)
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