My expectation for the Ags in September

I just secured my tickets to the A&M opener, and I am bringing my daughter to her very first Aggie game (in fact, it's her very first football game). She has been to Kyle Field before, for Spring practice in 2004, but never to a game. Hopefully, this weekend will mark the beginning of her rehabilatation from her seemingly burnt orange leanings, but I'm not counting on it (fifth graders are very prone to band-wagonning).

The opener on Saturday night versus the Citadel kicks off the softest A&M non-conference schedule I can remember, as they will follow with U-La-La, Army, and La-Tech.....all are basically home games (Army at the Alamodome). Now, I was amongst the Aggies who brutalized Tech fans for their pitiful non-conference schedule last year. Even Norm Hitzges piled on, verbally assaulting Tech for their lineup of Florida International (newly D1-A), Sam Houston State (D1-AA), and Indiana State (D1-AA).

The thing is, looking back at that schedule, and Tech's 2005 season, you really can't pick on them much anymore. Tech fans claimed that non-conference schedule was a "warm-up", or a "preseason", and Tech effectively used it as such. The Red Raiders' average margin of victory in those games was 56 points. It wasn't skewed by one big game either. They won by 53, 59, and 56 points respectively, then went on to finish the season with losses only to Oklahoma State, Alabama, and national champion Texas.

So, in my opinion, if A&M is to effectively utilize their weak-ass non-con games as a "warm up", they had better be showing us a dominating performance every week. I don't expect a margin of victory of 56 every week, as part of that was achieved by Mike Leach pouring it on those beaten teams down to the final minute, but I will say that we should win each of these four games by more than 30 points, and should hold each opponent to less than 14 points.

Nothing less than total domination of all four non-con games will leave me feeling confident moving forward into the conference schedule, which begins with the beloved Rooster back on the line on 9/30.