Just keep all this in mind the next time you see someone slobbering all over Leavitt while dismissing Reed. And I know a lot of you really want to do that right now.<\/p>\n
2. Ross Bjork will always be dragged for the Jimbo Fisher<\/a> extension and subsequent firing, then botching the hiring of the football coach before fleeing to Ohio State, but he does deserve credit for hiring two men and one woman with a vision and a plan. Trev Alberts deserves credit for continuing that trend with the hiring of Bucky McMillan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bjork hired volleyball coach Jamie Morrison all by himself, and then hired Mike Elko<\/a> because he was looking down the barrel of the proverbial gun after the idiotic Mark Stoops debacle. Luckily for Bjork, both men came in with a very clear idea of what they wanted to do. Morrison came in not only came in with a plan to rebuild the Aggie volleyball program quickly, but make it sustainable while making Texas A&M a volleyball hotbed \u2014 two things that go hand in hand. Clearly, Morrison has succeeded beyond anyone\u2019s expectations, as he brought home a national championship in his third season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Having the benefit of coaching at A&M before, Elko knew not only what he wanted to do, but how he wanted to do it. Perhaps just as importantly, he knew what didn\u2019t work and wanted to avoid it. Elko talks a lot about the program\u2019s culture, and he firmly believed that the one he inherited wasn\u2019t working (and he was right). Unlike some people who have a \u201cculture coach\u201d on staff, Elko went right to the locker room and started the rebuild there. Two seasons in, he\u2019s won 19 games, had the Aggies win double-digit games for the first time since 2012 and won more games than any team since the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trisha Ford came in and took over a softball program that was rudderless. She made Aggie softball a national program by expanding the recruiting envelope. NIL helped as well. Ford took advantage of everything she had to work with and has a consistent top-10 team now.<\/p>\n We\u2019re seeing what McMillan can do now. (And I didn\u2019t even talk about track, tennis or golf.)<\/p>\n A&M not only has a bunch of coaches who have experienced recent success, but ones who are cerebral. It\u2019s possible to be sports-smart and otherwise not so bright, but these recent hires seem to get the big picture.<\/p>\n 3. Look for a lot of 3-pointers tomorrow night when the Aggies face off with Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide is first in the nation when it comes to jacking up 3\u2019s, shooting 35.6 per game. A&M shoots almost 31 a game. I don\u2019t know what the SEC record for 3-point attempts in a game is, but it\u2019s probably already in danger.<\/p>\n 4. The Texas A&M baseball team isn\u2019t getting a whole lot of love in the preseason polling, which I can understand after last year \u2014 to an extent. But I feel pretty confident in saying that this team is going to hit, and they\u2019ll do it with a well-designed lineup.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got speed (Terrence Kiel II);<\/p>\n The classic 2 hole hitter, with average and great bat control (Jake Duer)<\/p>\n Then you\u2019ve got big time power and average 3-5, with Chris Hacopian, Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell;<\/p>\n A guy with a lot of gap power and the ability to go yard while hitting .300 in Wesley Jordan (I see him at first)<\/p>\n A bopper at catcher in Bear Harrison;<\/p>\n A guy who had some surprising pop last year in Ben Royo;<\/p>\n Then you can pick and choose with how you want to align things, whether you want Travis Chestnut in the outfield or Blake Binderup at first or DH. Also, true freshman Nick Partida sounds like he\u2019s making a push for playing time, so that could work things around to fit him too.<\/p>\n 5. When putting that lineup together, I had kind of forgotten about the addition of Jordan. He really could be the difference in making this thing click. Having three power\/average hitters is good; having four will give opposing pitchers nightmares. There aren\u2019t many holes in this lineup, if any.\u00a0<\/p>\n 6. With the creation of the Aggie Football Club, Texas A&M has come up with a new funding vehicle for the program and players (probably almost entirely players). That\u2019s just part of the new landscape, and it should be pretty awesome for fans who can afford to join up. But I bring this up not because it\u2019s cool, but because of who was in the intro video posted online and what they were wearing. Terry Bussey<\/a> was wearing number 6 (which he could\u2019ve worn last year) and Ashton Bethel-Roman<\/a> was wearing number 8. ABR had indicated he was changing numbers earlier in the offseason, but the Bussey move is kind of a surprise (at least to me).<\/p>\n 7. The presence of Bussey in that video shows that he\u2019s very much in the plans for the 2026 season. Everyone else in it \u2014 Reed, Rueben Owens<\/a>, DJ Hicks<\/a>, Daymion Sanford<\/a> and ABR \u2014 are key pieces to the puzzle. Bussey\u2019s not in it because he\u2019s a nice guy.<\/p>\n 8. There\u2019s always one transfer who comes in and I immediately start banging the drum for him. It was easy to pick KC Concepcion, but I went with Dayon Hayes<\/a> and that worked out pretty well. This year I\u2019m going with UNC transfer defensive tackle CJ Mims<\/a>. He\u2019s a veteran, had 42 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks last year on a bad Tar Heels team, making him a little more productive than Tyler Onyedim<\/a> was his final year at Iowa State. If he makes the jump similar to that of Onyedim, the Aggie defensive tackle rotation is going to be in great shape.<\/p>\n
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