Texas A&M will be making a change in conference affiliation beginning next year. Could they be doing the same with the position of head football coach?
Depending on which side of the rumor aisle you’ve been sitting the past couple of weeks, Mike Sherman will either definitely get to lead the Aggies through their first season in the SEC or he most certainly will be replaced before A&M officially leaves the Big 12. There’s not a lot of clarity to Sherman’s situation at the moment, and the coach’s bosses did little to help a muddled situation recently.
Speaking after a school athletic function Tuesday, A&M president R. Bowen “Putz” Loftin was asked by the Bryan-College Station Eagle about Sherman’s future with the school. As you’ve probably gleaned by now, Loftin -- a mere eight days after giving Sherman the dreaded vote of confidence -- was decidedly noncommittal on said future.“I’ve been talking to [athletic director] Bill Byrne for the last couple weeks,” A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said Tuesday after serving as guest speaker at the women’s basketball luncheon. “We’re thinking hard about [the season and the future].
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Loftin said that “the athletic director evaluates coaches after every season,” and that “there is no timetable on when a decision will be made.”
And there’s Exhibit A as to why they call it the “dreaded” vote of confidence.
As noted by the Eagle, Sherman and the Aggies came into this season with high expectations -- too high from this vantage point -- ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press’ preseason poll. Six losses later, including a handful of embarrassing second-half collapses after building double-digit leads in the first half, question marks litter the football program, and those answers must come from Sherman.
Actually, the biggest answer must come from Byrne and Loftin: if Sherman’s going to struggle mightily in the Big 12 with most talented on-paper team, what’s going to happen when they get to the top football conference in the country? If the answer to that question is anything other than “compete at a high level”, then they must rid themselves of Sherman sooner rather than later.