Jared Baxter: Administration’s actions lack Sherman’s character, integrity
Published: Sunday, December 4, 2011 Courtesy of The Battalion
Updated: Monday, December 5, 2011 02:12
Dustin O’Donnell — special to THE BATTALION
Following his termination, former A&M coach Mike Sherman didn't have to welcome the students who surrounded his house in support. He didn't have to tell high-profile recruits that A&M should still be their school of choice. He didn't have to stand in front of reporters and express gratitude for anyone.
But he did, and that speaks more of his character than any of the individuals who decided Sherman's time in Aggieland was finished. You won't see Loftin explaining why he fired him. You won't see regent James Wilson — the supposed ringleader of athletic decisions — making any public addresses on the matter.
It's all written statements and controlled messages meant to glaze over the situation. They would rather wait until A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne has a maroon jacket ready to hand the next coach than face their mistakes.
The administration lied about its commitment to integrity. It lied about giving Sherman a contract extension, cheated him and his players out of the years they thought lay ahead in College Station.
Disappointing 25-25 record or not, consider this: If A&M beats Texas, does Sherman still have a job?
Yes, he does. He's still our head football coach. University President R. Bowen Loftin finally picks up his pen and signs the contract extension he conveniently failed to when given the chance in October. Then it's off to the SEC, with Sherman ushering in one of A&M's most talented recruiting classes in school history.
But nope, here we are — in shambles. In just four months time, this University went from BCS bowl expectations to condemning the coach that led us into believing we could accomplish as such in the first place. All of which are knee-jerk reactions to the addiction of winning football games.
So, Loftin and the regents did what any group of high-powered, demanding Aggies have typically done: they fired the head coach — the easy way out.
And where did this decision get us exactly? It led to the media learning of an honorable coach's firing before him and his own family. It embarrassed Byrne, the man who backed Sherman from the beginning and whose own job is rumored as being in jeopardy after leaking the administration's verdict.
And worst of all, it has left in question whether any official at A&M involved in this situation knows what they're doing anymore. Why was Loftin, a 62-year-old physicist, driving the movement to fire a football coach? Why are regents — individuals who probably couldn't tell one defensive coverage scheme from another — spending their time making Athletic Department decisions based on Aggie football pride?
"We live in a society today that is motivated by anonymous people who write baseless texts and twitters and it gets thing stirred up," Sherman said. "There's no accountability to that type of society, and the immediacy they request. It's important that people make decisions based on facts and what's real."
What's real is that before Sherman arrived, A&M's football program was a national joke, where upsetting Texas was the achievement of a lifetime and losing by 60 to Oklahoma rolled off the shoulders of fans. And what's factual is that A&M was by no means on the path toward constructing some of the finest athletic facilities in the nation before Sherman's vision was set in place.
Those dreaded second half collapses of 2011 will seem meaningless by the time A&M faces SEC foes with almost an entirely different set of core players. The Aggies did not need to take another step back as it headed into college football's most powerful conference, but it's done exactly that.
What this administration has shown is that coaches and players are not people first; they are dollar signs — the means to which this University expands its visibility and brand. The culture of football takes priority, placed on a pedestal above all other campus issues.
I thank Sherman for trying to accomplish the opposite with his players.
"You're constantly trying to get them to walk on solid ground and not the ground people put them on," Sherman said. "I told them last night, ‘If you're only a football player and I'm only a football coach, that's a sad testimony.'"
Maybe Sherman's effectiveness to improve his team and win games had run dry. Maybe this step back — despite all the mishaps along way — leads to a coach who can bring A&M to greater success. But for now, we're short a program leader heading into uncharted SEC territory. Not to mention the Top 10 recruiting class that's far from locked in.
Our standards are higher than this. They have to be — we're Aggies.
Jared Baxter is a senior media studies major and managing editor of The Battalion.
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