Coach Mike Sherman

Texas A&M has named Mike Sherman as the new head football coach. Let's see how he stacks up on my list of criteria. Since I don't follow the NFL, it is hard for me to adequately comment of some of these criteria.

1. Not Tommy Tuberville - CHECK
2. Not Steve Spurrier - CHECK
3. Not Jimmy Johnson - CHECK
4. Not an Aggie - Offensive line coach under R.C. Slocum at A&M from 1989-93 and 1995-96; not a Aggie grad/former player but strong ties.
5. Not a "CEO" - General Manager of the Green Bay Packers organization from 2001-2004.
6. Someone who can win a bowl game. - As a head coach his playoff record was 2-4, only slightly better than recent Aggie head coaches in bowl games.
7. Someone who makes his players believe that they can beat any team on any day. - Coached the Packers to three first place finishes in the NFC North; fired after losing season.
8. Someone who shows genuine emotion on the sidelines. - Reportedly stoic.
9. Someone who isn't already a head coach at a major program. - CHECK
10. Someone who has new ideas. - To Be Determined.
11. Someone who is under forty year old. - Sherman is 53.
12. Someone who is flexible enough to make course corrections when necessary. - To Be Determined.

There are a lot of unknowns in this list, but I like that more than hiring somebody who won a national championship ten or more years ago. We all thought that Franchione was going to take us to the top within two or three years just because he had the reputation of being a "turnaround" guy. It turns out he had a couple of big playmakers that helped make the turnarounds happen in his previous jobs. In hindsight, we all set our heights too high, but we were expecting similar results to what had been achieved at earlier coaching stops. With Sherman, we will just have to wait and see. Expectations will be high, but I there a few coaches in the Big 12 who I thought were relative unknowns at the time of their hiring and a couple of them have really advanced their respective programs. Others haven't. Unfortunately, we probably won't know anything next season other than that we made the right decision to move on from the Francione era.

The important thing now is that Coach Sherman make sure to keep the recruits that we have and maybe add a few in the short time that is left. Meanwhile, he will need to hire some excellent assistant coaches to help him change the overall direction of the football program. It does concern me that he is only going to be working part-time until the end of the Houston Texans' season, but I suppose that is a sign of commitment and integrity which is something that our last coach talked a lot about but might have been somewhat lacking.