I want to bring back the 12th Man Kickoff Team. I'm not talking about having a walk-on wear #12, or even a group of walk-ons who try out to be the 12th Man who get to wear the coveted #12 for one game a year each, I am talking about a whole team of walk-ons, at least 10 players on the field being walk-ons (I figure the kicker will be a scholarship player). The benefits to bringing back the original concept of the 12th Man Kickoff Team are numerous.

Special teams makes up one-third of the game, with offense and defense being the other two-thirds. However, special teams account for more injuries per play than either offense or defense. The very nature of special teams play, particularly punt return, punt team, kickoff return, and kickoff team, lends itself to injury. You have people flying down the field at extreme rates of speed, ready to collide with players on the other side of the field, going at varying rates of speed. Having a 12th Man Kickoff Team peopled with walk-ons would lessen the risk of injury to scholarship players.

A player who starts or is second string on offense or defense is going to be somewhat careful on special teams, because special teams isn't his full-time job. Playing on offense or defense is really his job. However, if we have a team of walk-ons, we can make playing ont he kickoff team their full-time job. The second-stringer can now focus on playing his position on offense or defense, without worrying about possibly getting injured on special teams. The walk-ons can fling themselves down the field, with complete disregard for their own personal safety, because they don't have to worry about being ready for the next play after the tackle is made, or injury, for that matter. If a walk-on is injured, we can just plug another one in to take his place.

An all walk-on 12th Man Kickoff Team would also increase our depth on the team, because it would mean we have 30-40 more players available on the squad to play special teams, and only special teams. This means our scholarship players and preferred walk-ons can be used on scout teams to emulate the opposition, and, if needed, we can add players from the 12th Man Team, if we have too many injuries. I would prefer that the 12th Man Kickoff Team players only concentrate on kickoffs.

The 12th Man Kickoff Team could be coached jointly by the special teams coordinator, and a graduate assistant. This would give a graduate assistant invaluable experience working with special teams, which would help further his coaching career after he leaves A&M. The media would also love the idea of focusing on a fellow student coaching undergrad walk-ons to go down the field and tear someone's head off.

Bringing back the true 12th Man Kickoff Team would give the undergraduate population another tie to the football program, and get them even more into the game. If we have 30-40 walk-ons on the team for this purpose, that means 30-40 more people the students will know who are playing football for A&M, and increases the chance that they will be rooting for one of their friends down on the field. The frenzy this will create on the East Side of Kyle every time we kickoff would be fun to watch.

12th Man Kickoff Team tryouts could become an annual tradition, much publicized around campus, something we do to hail the beginning of Spring Football. I think the media would love to cover it, to see who the newest members of the Aggie football team are, especially since they are "no-names" coming from the regular student body.

The 12th Man Kickoff Team would most likely be made up of people who are former high school football players. If we can get 30-40 guys who played football and/or ran track in high school, we can get some speed on the field who can get downfield, make a tackle, and make a difference.

As he is rebuilding the team, bringing back the 12th Man Kickoff Team would also engender a lot of goodwill  for head coach Mike Sherman and his staff. By bringing back and embracing the true tradition of the 12th Man Kickoff Team, Sherman would just be showing again that he "gets it" when it comes to A&M. Bringing back the 12th Man Kickoff Team would also make games at Kyle Field more fun, because it would mean once again, the student body has a true representative of themselves down on the field, ready to wreak havoc.

I know we stopped the original 12th Man Kickoff Team after more schools started focusing more on special teams, and started putting better athletes on their special teams units. However, we've given up a return for TD with scholarship players on the kickoff team, so using walk-ons can't make much of a difference.

For all of the reasons listed above, I think it is time for A&M to bring back to the original all walk-on 12th Man Kickoff Team.