Mike Sherman to be A&M's new head football coach

by Beergut on Nov 26, 2007 12:32 AM CST Comment 15 comments

I'm hearing from a lot of sources, and the Dallas Morning News is sending out their Inside A&M updates saying that Mike Sherman, current offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans, will be named A&M's new head football coach.

Sherman was the OL coach at A&M bac in the '90s, leaving for UCLA for the 1994 season, and coming back in '95. After the '96 season, he was named the new offensive coordinator, but left to take the position of TE coach for the Green Bay Packers (NFL pays more money). He eventually moved from TE coach to head coach of the Packers, winning 3 NFC divisional titles there. He was also the general manager during his time as head coach.
He was fired after the Packers had a losing season, and has stuck around the NFL since then. He has done a fairly good job as the Houston Texans offensive coordinator, I'm told, but I barely pay attention to the Texans.

What will be notable about Sherman's hiring is that he may bring an all-star staff with him. Kevin Sumlin (former WR coach and offensive coordinator at A&M from 2000-2002, current co-OC at OU) is rumored to be coming as his new offensive coordinator. If this is true, I am ecstatic about this hire, b/c Sumlin is a phenomenal recruiter and coach.
Rumors on the defensive side have him looking at Johnny Holland and Bill Johnson as DC; either one will be fine with me.

While Sherman's hiring isn't a "wow" hire, I think it can be a solid hire if he brings in the right staff.

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as early as tuesday?

I saw an article in this morning's Houston Chronicle saying Sherman was the leading candidate and could be announced the HC tuesday. Not surprising, really. I saw it curious, because of his lack of recruiting experience, but if Sumlin comes, too, then that makes up for it.

atsmahboy Kelson

by BigTexBD on Nov 26, 2007 1:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Just when you thought

it wasn't possible for A&M to hire someone with less personality than Fran.

If Mike Sherman speaks in an empty locker room does he make a sound?

Weird hire. I guess they want someone to come in right now.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Nov 26, 2007 7:27 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

re: Right Now

That must be the case. It isn't like other D1 athletic directors are beating down Sherman's door.

I find it odd, because you would think that the aggs could save Sherman as their last option (read: drunk dial). Why not test the waters at the end of the season and see who their program can attract? Sherman would probably still be there to hire at the end of January.

Announcers say my adopted kid runs a 10.1 in the 300m, and announcers are NEVER wrong.

by Shake on Nov 26, 2007 7:54 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It looks like they beat out

SMU for Sherman.

The Pony must have put in a good word. Or maybe SMU waited too long for Sherman to wake up from his afternoon nap.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Nov 26, 2007 1:11 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

So....

Does this mean that Greg Davis is the frontrunner?

Announcers say my adopted kid runs a 10.1 in the 300m, and announcers are NEVER wrong.

by Shake on Nov 26, 2007 2:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Re:

I'd imagine most A&M fans are irate and most Texas fans (myself included) are pleased that the Ags decided to hire Coach Fran-lite, but let's not forget that Coach Fran was the second coming at A&M when he was first hired, and that didn't turn out so well. So maybe Sherman will turn out to be an unexpected surprise for the College Stationers.

I personally believe that Sherman was hired so early so A&M wouldn't have to go through the public humiliation of being rejected by the "big names," a la Tuberville, Spurrier, Tedford, et al. Because there was no way those guys were going to College Station.

My adopted kid is pure genius at the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model.

by jc25 on Nov 26, 2007 10:24 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Website

Supposedly a press conference was to occur this morning to announce Sherman's hire. I have been trying go to the Aggie's website to confirm this, but for some reason the last known web address I had for the Aggies (CoachFran.com) doesn't seem to work.

by Lincoln on Nov 26, 2007 11:38 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

The overriding consideration for agric

in going after Sherman is that he is, at least sufficiently, an agric. They take a real risk - as does any potential coaching hire - in hiring someone who doesn't know all the idiosyncracies inherent with the job. There's no substitute for first hand experience. Just my opinion.

I never will forget ol' what's-his-name.

by Horntod on Nov 26, 2007 1:06 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Whew

I feel better about this hire than all the other rumored coaches. The guy from Boise State really worried me, adding an upgrade in talent to what they do up there would have been a little scary. Sherman has perfected a "zero personality" - and Mack will kick him around on the recruiting trails.

by realmccoy on Nov 26, 2007 1:13 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

the problem with Chris Peterson

is all of his success has been in the WAC. Sorry, but the WAC isn't known for having defenses, so you don't know how realistic his offensive numbers are. Add in the fact that he's only been there two years, and he's runnning a program that was all set up for him by Hawkins, and you don't know how much of the success at Boise State is him and how much of it is pre-ordained (kinda like the situation at LSU with Miles, you give him credit for not screwing it up, but how much more credit do you give him?).
We already hired and failed with a coach with WAC pedigree in Fran; we didn't need to try that again.

As for the remarks on here that Sherman is Fran-lite, NO ONE can be as bad as Fran was. Anything is an improvement over Fran.
Sherman will hire his assistants and let them do their job, a stark change from Fran's micro-managing style.
If he hires the right assistants, hiring Sherm could be a great hire.

by Beergut on Nov 26, 2007 1:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: chris peterson...

would have been an excellent hire. He only guided Boise State to an undefeated season and a BCS upset over Big Xii champ Oklahoma, and has only lost 2 games in as many years.

But yah, because he coaches in the WAC (but most likely because you're trying to rationalize Sherman as a good hire) you are trying to down grade him.

If that's your rationale the same could be said for Urban Meyer, who didn't "prove" anything in the MWC and won because of Ron Zook's players. And John Gruden won with Tony Dungy's players. Both of those are true, but sometimes it is the coach who takes the team to the next level.

all of his success has been in the WAC.

All of Jim Tressel's successes were at Youngstown State. You think tOSU thinks that was a bad hire?

Now we never know if Sherman will pan out or not, but most Texas fans will tell you that we would have been more afraid of Peterson or Tuberville (if he would have decided to go slumming in agro land).

-flo

by bleed burnt orange on Nov 26, 2007 2:19 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

you're completely right

Were you afraid of Fran when we hired him? (probably so, and he ran the program into the ground).

Were you afraid of Fran on T+1? (heck no, and he made Mr. Football look stupid)

Why does this hiring need to be rationalized? Byrne has been money on all his major hires so far, why do you expect this one to fail? Scaring posters on burntorangenation.com is priority # whatever comes before last, right aobve pleasing the MSM.

by WacArnolds on Nov 26, 2007 4:49 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Re:

Most of the commentary is likely resentment from the beatdown we received from the Ags. And naturally, whether Sherman was a good hire or not won't be clearly obvious until three or so years later.

What us Horn fans are trying to say veiled through all the Sherman bashing is the fact that A&M's fanbase and media outlets were proposing all this puffery about the Ags hiring a "big name" coach to revive the program, someone along the lines of Tuberville or Spurrier. In reality, there was little (Tubs) to no (OBC) chance of those guys moseying on down to College Station. Combine that with the fact that other brand-name schools such as Michigan, Nebraska, Arkansas, (and likely) UCLA and LSU are coach hunting, and it appears that A&M "settled" for Sherman before anyone could say no to them.

It's unclear whether Sherman was Byrne's first choice, but it's clear that he was not in the fans' eyes. It's also unclear whether Byrne could've secured someone like Tuberville to be his head coach, but what Sherman's demeanor is like seems like a carbon copy of Fran: laid back and often stymied. When you look at him, he just doesn't look like a good coach. There's no other way to describe it.

What he does bring is an NFL brand name, but he doesn't have any major college coaching experience (best is OC at Holy Cross for 1 year, o-line at A&M and UCLA). The NFL thing is nice for some (Pete Carroll and Dennis Erickson, most notably), but not so nice for others (see ya, Bill Callahan and Chan Gailey). So there's another reason to wonder if he's going to succeed or not.

Again, we'll see in a few years whether he was the right hire or not. For now, even with his two-game win streak against the Horns, I'm said to see the Fran show leave town. He was often enjoyable and very memorable, but not in the way A&M would've liked.

My adopted kid is pure genius at the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model.

by jc25 on Nov 26, 2007 5:08 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

couple of things

You have to be pretty dense to think that Byrne would settle for Sherman to avoid being told 'no' by other candidates. I see it as one of two things, either:

Byrne had looked into all of the more appealing options (at least in the eyes of all of us internet geniuses) and was in fact already told 'no'; or,

Sherman was Byrne's #1 choice.

At this point, it does not matter, and as you said, only time will tell if this was the correct hire or not.

One other thing,

When you look at him, he just doesn't look like a good coach.

And Mack does? I think the water bottle the punter is drinking from does more coaching that Mack does. I think what you are trying to say, is that Sherman appears to lack that WOW factor. From an technical standpoint, he appears to be held in high regards.

Everyone wants the hire that grabs the headlines, but those old newspaper clippings won't mean jack if you're losing in year 3,4 & 5. Personally, I think Sherman will surprise everyone.

by WacArnolds on Nov 26, 2007 5:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs