Cooked...Thanksgiving Turkey Style

Texas experienced one of its most devastating losses Saturday night.  It is a loss that will affect anyone who is a thoroughbred Texan because, as a Texas, you have two options:  Aggie or Longhorn.  Sadly, my stick ended a little short tonight. 

As a proud member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2007 and married to the amazingly handsome world renowned Drum Major of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band for ’07, Paxton Miller, I was devastated.  Not only was I devastated, but I had to deal with an equally depressed husband.  He is now in the Marine Corps, causing him to miss many games, therefore, the past two years have been spent on aggieyell.com, espn.com, through me and various family members/friends, and his own personal searches to track scores, game info, etc.  

Needless to say, this past year, he was more than excited to own cable and view our fightin’ boys.  Beyond that, we are proud contributing members to the Century Club and regret no part in that.  But the part that is bothering me the most is the fact that our pride and integrity, the entire basis for our fight song, “So long to the orange and the white…” is becoming a mockery in our face.  Saturday night we were let down with a vengeance.  We are living on Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton, very close to San Diego, CA.  We had originally planned to attend the game, but due to money, we decided to view it from my in-laws home in Lake Jackson, TX.  Boy am I glad. 

The reason for my letter shall take a turn for the ugly and begins and ends, quite simply, here.  I feel I have explained the back-story enough for anyone to understand we are staunch supporters of Texas A&M University, the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, and all that our wonderful school stands for and holds dear.  We have expectations of our coaches that are not unfounded.  My own mother was the secretary for Coach Slocum, him even being kind enough to throw a baby shower for my oldest brother/sibling and mother in ’78.  

Of course, personally, I hold a kindness for this man, but he was beyond coaching years when my school years began.  This said, I still hold expectations of what a successful, winning college coach should withhold.  Regretfully, Sherman has not lived up to these standards by any means.  Not only has Sherman not lived up... but he continues to allow blame to fall elsewhere.  

The handsome, young quarterback , Tannehill is being looked on as the easiest scapegoat because of the multiple mistakes he made over throwing, hesitating, and quite simply…buckling under the pressure.   As mentioned, I am married to a Marine.  At the end of the day, he commands a unit of easily over 150 men and women.  If he came home and told me he gave a command that went undone, overruled, etc by a lower ranking Marine…they would be DONE.  Cooked. Like that delicious Thanksgiving turkey pulled from the oven.  If you disobey, you are fired.  
It is my belief, as well as that of several others, Tannehill is under that same pressure.  Bad calls in hard times. With a running team like ours who calls for a passing call E-V-E-R-Y stinkin’ 1st down like Sherman does, simply to….FAIL!???? 
And speakin’ of BAD…AWFUL…HORRENDOUS…calls????  How about that last call from an unknown referee for the “so called” personal foul against Texas A&M, basically sealing our fate, despite calls from not only ESPN’s LONGHORN (YES!!!!!!!They SAID it!) Network that it was “a terrible call????”  They recognized their own player for a foul against A&M, noting that he was the one guilty in shoving our own player.  Incredible. 

At this point, I am formally making the request that Sherman be removed as head coach. He has done nothing but dismantle the Aggie name through poor decision-making, lack of risks in his tactics, and zero responsibility for the above-mentioned actions.  He has made the Aggies a poor team to represent; however, despite this, as strong members of the Aggie family, we will always do as such.  I hope you take this letter as was deemed:  one to make the best decisions for our Aggie family.

Best Regards and Gig’ Em

Beth Ann Miller

Class of ‘07