Okay, I'm out

I'm not much of a college sports fan - I wouldn't even consider trading a future Orioles World Series win or Lakers NBA Championship for even five Aggies Mythical National Championships. And even to the limited degree that I care, I'm not one of those fans who is always calling for the coach's head. That said...it's time for Franchione to go.

This was a season when the Aggies were starting as a top 25 team but had to fight through a murderous schedule with five brutal road games. The first of those, the easiest of the five, on national TV all by themselves, was last night in Miami in what has suddenly after seven decades become known as "The OB" for some reason. It was the kind of game that could springboard them to winning another tough game or two and getting to 9-3 or 10-2, or doom them to another nondescript 7-5 season and a trip to the Gas-X Power Fart Bowl or somesuch.

Four games into the season, in this key game they have been pointing to since spring practice, they:

* still can't pass the ball, leading them to run an offensive scheme that looks like it was drawn up by Woody Hayes in 1957

* still can't defend, even against directional Louisiana schools, down and out WAC teams or 1-AA fodder

* committed what had to be half a dozen false starts, most on first down

* went for it on 4th and 16, a couple of minutes after refusing to go for it on 4th and 5 from the same part of the field and with the game still at least theoretically winnable

* took almost 15 seconds to get a time out called halfway through the 4th quarter, when time is critical, then came out of the timeout to run a quarterback sneak

* I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.

This from a team that also not long ago scored while down 16 midway through the 4th quarter of a tough road game at Clemson, and did not go for 2, leaving them still two scores down as they had been before the touchdown.

The athletes are there, they have been in the top 10 or 20 every year except one in the recruiting rankings, this thing just comes down to being very, very poorly coached on the field. It's time to get out the checkbook and get somebody else in here.