My personal opinions:
The Ag athletic department surrogates would like to spin the lie of only 8 wins for A&M so that the newly hired #8 ranked Big 12 coach and #46 out of 66 bcs coaches, RC's boy and Byrne's Sherman, will look like a better hire to Aggies when A&M goes 11-1 or 12-0 this season.
Especially after mostly recruiting only leftover no stars in the current class.
Everyone who follows A&M football closely knows that this team is loaded at every position this year with experienced talented backups at every position. The defensive starters at every position are acknowledged as the best we've had in many many years.
The red shirt juniors and seniors this year are the same starters that as red shirt fish and sophs, led A&M to a 9 win season, and within one point of beating ou to play in the Big 12 champ game for a bcs bowl. They are all back and hungry.
The gross distraction of uncertainty, created and fostered by Byrne last year, cost the A&M team and coaches several wins as well as 14 top ranked decommits.
If Byrne's Sherman doesn't coach as badly at A&M as he did, taking over a Green Bay team with Brett Farve, then A&M is your Big 12 champ this year, period.
RC's boy, Byrne's Sherman was fired at Green Bay, and his replacement almost immediately led Green Bay back to being champs again this year with the same players.
Every Big 12 team lost 17 or more seniors this year, many of them starters, and so is definitely A&M's year.
Remember it was the same Ag athletic department surrogates just a few months ago spinning the lies about "the emphasis on recruiting" with the hire of each of the 10 new coaches, when an actual review of their individual resumes showed that the new coaches had only recruited 2 four star and zero five star players, between all 10 coaches in the last five years.
This A&M team will be a surprise Big 12 Champ only to those who haven't been following them closely for the last five years.
miller58
A&M a rebuilding and a winning season in 2006, and champs in 2008!