Final post in a series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

A message from our sponsor:

When you go to a particular school or grow up around college football, you are more than just a fan: it’s who you are. We thought we could leverage this pride in your roots and show that "where you come from" is more than just a statement about geography. By positioning NCAA Football 11 as a game that understands this pride and is authentic to these traditions, the takeaway should be that anything that is in college football is in NCAA Football 11.

And this doesn’t just include game play (though that’s a huge part of it); it’s rivals and mascots; it’s legends and stories; it’s those things that are at the very fabric of the game itself. Of course, the game is great this year as well. With authentic entrances, mascots, and specific offenses for each team, the term "where I come from" takes on a much larger meaning. While playing NCAA Football 11 is ultimately a great sports sim, it should also give you a sense of the pride and emotion one has for being a fan of a team they will never not be a part of.

EA Sports NCAA Football 11 is now available on the shelves wherever games are sold; as I've said before, I'm not much of a gamer and so I will probably resist the siren call of this video game, but if any of you choose to buy the game (you can buy directly from their site by following one of the advertisements on the blog), I'd love to hear your impressions of how they portray Texas A&M, and what they have in our playbook. If I can find a preview online to play, I'll let you know what I think from an Xs and Os perspective, too.

For those of you who are gamers, enjoy today, as it is Christmas in July for you.

This is the sixth post in the Where I Come From series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

The basic expectation for every fan of any team, regardless of the sport, is improvement from one season to the next. Every fan wants to see that their team is getting better, even if only incrementally. When looking at expectations for a season, I always start at the minimum expectations, so we have a demarcation of what results will be considered a failure. Last season, A&M finished the regular season with a 6-6 record and went to a bowl game. Going into the 2009 season, my minimum expectation was to at least make it to a bowl game, and we achieved my minimum expectation. In 2010, my minimum expectation is that we win at least 8 games and return to another bowl game. Anything less than 8 wins will be a failure, in my opinion.

Looking at our schedule, I think we have a good chance of going 10-2, assuming Tim DeRuyter is able to improve our defense from terrible to just average. The two games that worry me the most heading into the season are Arkansas at Jerryworld and Oklahoma at home; I think Arkansas will be much improved from last season, and we haven't fared well against OU recently. The Sooners have lost some players, but our issue with them will be more mental than physical. After the blowout loss we had last year, we should be motivated to beat OU badly, it is just a matter of getting on the field and doing it. Looking at our other home games, we return the most of the same people who dominated Tech in Lubbock last season, and we'll stop a mudhole into them again at Kyle. Nebraska still has to show me an offense before I'll worry about losing to them, and Missouri doesn't have a defense. Baylor and Kansas on the road should be blowout wins for us, Oklahoma State is rebuilding, and we're going to beat texas in Austin this year, so 10-2 is definitely possible, 11-2 if we win our bowl game.

If we go 8-4 and a bowl game, I'll be disappointed, but it will still show progress over the 2009 season. If we go 10-2 in the regular season, though, it will be a significant leap forward from where we were last season, and huge progress from where we were two years ago when Sherman took the job.

What are your expectations for the 2010 football season?

This is the fifth post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Naming the most memorable moments I've experienced as an Aggie football fan is probably the easiest post in this series. In no particular order, my most memorable moments as a fan are:

1999 Bonfire Game: I lost a friend when the Bonfire collapsed, so this game always had a little extra significance to me. The manner in which we won this game, with the defense tightening up and keeping texas' offense under control, shutting them out for the second half, while Jamar Toombs and the offense kept pounding and pounding away at the texas defense, it was just the right way to win the game.

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This is the fourth post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

When discussing your fandom of a team and school with any other fans, the topic of all-time favorite players is one that invariably comes up, because we all have players who make it more exciting for us to watch our favorite team. Since I've been a fan of the Aggies for a while, I have more than one favorite player, so today I'm going to talk about a few of them.

Jorvorskie Lane: The "J-Train", from Lufkin, TX, was a player I had been watching even before he stepped on campus; the first time I saw him play was in high school, when an undefeated Lufkin team played undefeated and defending state champion Southlake Carroll in the playoffs at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco. John Outlaw, the Lufkin head coach, foolishly chose to try to go head-to-head with Carroll's spread offense, which ended with Lufkin trailing at halftime. In the second half, Lufkin came out with Lane playing QB, they direct-snapped the ball to him, he'd barrel forward, and they were gaining 6-8 yards at a clip. The game ended with Lufkin coming up just short, and Carroll advancing on to another undefeated season and a state championship, but I remember marveling how Outlaw didn't take advantage of the significant size advantage he had over the Carroll defense, and begin pounding the ball with the power-running game to Lane in the first half; if they had, there is no doubt in my mind Lane would have come to A&M with a state championship to his credit. Lane saw the first action of his career in his freshman year against SMU, carrying the ball 10 times for 54 yards and a TD in a 66-8 blowout win, and the legend began. Lane was an instant fan-favorite with his power-running style and ability to get the tough yards for first down on third and short and fourth and short. There was something fun about everyone in the stadium knowing who was going to get the ball on short yardage, and yet the opposing defense was never able to stop him.  Lane broke 100 yards rushing twice in his freshman year, against Oklahoma State and against texas, when we went to an option running attack full-time. Lane was often the inside zone portion of the zone read option offensive attack we moved to at the end of 2005 against Oklahoma, and continued until the end of the 2007 season, and teams struggled to contain him. If you didn't respect the inside zone, Lane would repeatedly gash you up the middle, and if you focused on stopping the zone, Stephen McGee and Mike Goodson would shred you with the option outside. During the 2006 season, Lane tied a school record, rushing for 19 TDs, including a career-high four against Louisiana-Lafayette. I have always contended that Franchione never fully utilized Lane's talents, because he was an adept receiver out of the backfield. Along with Franchione's inability to fully integrate the spread passing game into the zone read option offense, it was my one big complaint about Fran's offense. During his senior season, Coach Sherman moved Lane from tailback to fullback, a move Lane never fully embraced. During what was essentially a lost season for Lane and the team, Lane only gained 93 yards rushing the whole year, but he did set the career rushing TD record for A&M at 49. Lane left A&M as the best powerback in our school's history, in my opinion; it is just a shame he wasn't able to control his weight better his senior season, and integrate himself into his new role as a fullback.

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This is the third post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I'll be honest, I don't think I've tailgated at an A&M football game since the end of the 2005 season. After the 2005 season, I dropped my season tickets, because I couldn't stomach the idea of even a few pennies of my money going to pay the salary of Dennis Franchione. Prior to that, I was one of those people who would get off work on Friday night, hit the gym, hit the clubs/bars, go home and pack my stuff up, then drive down to College Station in the wee hours of the morning. I'd arrive at between 4-6 AM, snag a few hours of sleep, wake up at 8 AM, get the grill and the smoker out, and begin my tailgate.

We were never really fancy with our tailgate, we just had a few basics and went from there. I always kept a few camping chairs in my trunk, we always had several coolers full of beer and soda, I always started out the morning by grilling a few Johnsonville cheddar brats and eating them wrapped in tortillas; a bratwurst wrap and a Coke or a beer is the breakfast of champions. I'd set up a canopy tent or two, perfect for those early morning when the sun begins beating down on you, or you get a little rain. Beginning in 2003, we had a tailgating neighbor in our parking lot who used to bring his party bus in for every game; he had a DirecTV dish so we could watch College Gameday and catch the early morning games. We'd get the fire in the smoker going, begin putting the dry rub on the meats, or preparing the mop sauce; once you had the meat rubbed down and in the smoker, sat back in a chair with a drink in your hand, relaxing with friends and family around you, talking and watching football, well, that was what tailgating was all about. I never read the exit plans for traffic leaving the stadium after games, because I always arrived well before the game began, and left long after the game ended; there was never any traffic. We would do the same thing for road games we'd attend, or bowl games. Tailgating is part of the college football gameday if you're at the game, and I don't know how people do it any different.

Click after the jump for my basic barbecue rub recipe, good for beef, great for pork or chicken.

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This is the second post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

When discussing the topic of sports, I think you can clearly identify two types of fans: those for whom the end result is all that matters, and those for whom the process matters. For the first type of fan, it doesn't matter what type of season you have, who on the team gets in trouble, who underachieves or overachieves, if you beat your arch rival or not; the only thing that matters is what happens at the end of the season, if you won a championship or not. For the second type of fan, what matters is how the team plays game after game, if the team shows improvement, if individual players show improvement game-by-game, all culminating in what happens at the end of the season, with either the final result being good or bad. I have always considered myself more of the second type of fan, which allows me to enjoy a season like the one we had last year, because I can look at where our team was at the beginning of the season and where they were at the end of the season, see the significant progress, and feel good about our future. The second type of fan just looks at the fact that we lost our bowl game in an ugly, unacceptable fashion, and wants to fire everyone. I honestly believe being the first type of fan means you have a happier existence as a fan, because everything isn't ruined by a game or a few games at the end of the season. Sometimes, however, you have a season and a team that satisfy both viewpoints, and then you know you have something special; the 1998 Texas Aggie football team is just such a team, and that is why they are my all-time favorite Aggie football team.

People look back at that 1998 team, and I think most of them have forgotten the process. They look back and say, "Yeah, that was the year the Aggies beat Kansas State in double-overtime on Sirr Parker's phenomenal catch-and-run that made Dave South go apoplectic", and they forget that we had a 1-2 record at one point in the season because of a forfeir; they forget that we made national news, and for all the wrong reasons, after a 24-6 win over Southern Mississippi. They forget that we had to come from behind to beat Kansas in Lawrence, that we came from behind to beat Texas Tech despite only 232 yards of total offense, that Toya Jones earned his scholarship on one play against Missouri in our final home game that season, that we considered any game where we went over 300 yards of total offense that year as a reason for wild celebration. People forget what happened throughout that season because they're only looking at the end result, and not the process.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011

My origins as an Aggie began innocuously enough, I suppose. My parents moved to Texas for work, and the first friends they made were an Aggie couple who had a litter of Siamese cats. My mother wanted a cat, so they bought one from this couple, and a friendship blossomed. My parents quickly learned how important college football was in the fabric of Texas culture, and I remember watching A&M and texas play every year on Thanksgiving while growing up. A&M was an easy team to fall in love with, with the maroon uniforms with the block A&M logo on the helmets, the impassioned student body, and their multitude of traditions. 

My uncle Richard, my father's little brother, was the first Aggie in our family, Class of 1987. Richard graduated from high school in New York, and decided going to Texas for college was a chance to experience something different. He came to A&M, went to Fish Camp, and fell in love with the University. As the first official Aggie in our family, he was the host when we went to games at Kyle Field, or when we played SMU at the Cotton Bowl. I remember watching Kevin Murray, Darren Lewis, Bucky Richardson, the Wrecking Crew defenses with Quentin Coryatt, John Roper, Aaron Wallace, and Antonio Armstrong while growing up. As a senior in high school, I took visits to Austin and College Station, and simply felt like A&M was more of a community, more of a family atmosphere, and a better fit for me. When I arrived at A&M in the Fall of 1995, Leeland McElroy, Keith Mitchell, Brandon Mitchell, and Ray Mickens were the stars of the team, and we were competing for a national championship. I arrived at A&M at a significant time, as we were making the move from the SWC to the Big 12. Athletic director Wally Groff had hired 'G' Guerrieri to coach our women's soccer team, brought in Jo Evans to coach softball, and the Rec Center, with its state-of-the-art natatorium. Under Groff, we began the Championship Vision capital campaign, a facilities drive that helped us build the Zone, the Bright Complex, the Olympic Sports Athletic Training Room, and other athletic complexes. Fifteen years and many, many conference championships later, Coach Evans and Coach G (along with Pat Henry, Gary Blair, Mark Turgeon, etc.) and all of these news facilities have helped form the backbone of a very successful athletic department. I'm still waiting for that national championship in football, though.

I was there during the heartbreak of the 1997 Big 12 Conference Championship Game, when we were blown out by Nebraska (Tom Osborne is still a scumbag in my book), and for the wild celebration on and off campus when we beat Kansas State in double-overtime (HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN!! HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN!! OH DOCTOR!!) in 1998. I was there for the dark days of Dennis Franchione in football and Melvin Watkins in basketball, and for the joy of watching Billy Clyde Gillispie resurrect our program and take us to the Sweet Sixteen in basketball. I'm here still as we watch Mike Sherman continue to rebuild Aggie Football back to where it should be.

Although I may refer to somewhere else as my physical home, Aggieland is where I come from.

Where did you come from, and why are you a fan of your favorite team?

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011

We're going to try something different this week, as we embark on a little sponsored campaign in conjunction with EA Sports. For those of you who don't know, EA Sports is releasing NCAA Football 11, their latest-and-greatest update in their NCAA Football series. I'm not much of a gamer, and I've avoided EA Sports NCAA Football with good reason; I know potential addiction when I see it. If I played EA Sports NCAA Football, it would consume my life. You know you can run various college offenses in EA Sports NCAA Football? I'd spend my time running hypotheticals, making the 1939 Texas A&M national championship team play the 2005 texas longhorns, and then posting the results for all to see (the '39 team would SO dominate that game). I'd draw up my own playbooks, and explain how my Quadruple-Option-Wing-Bone-Flex-Parrallelogram-Split-Slot-X offense is the next evolution of college football, and superior to the spread offense. I'd be emailing college coaches across the nation video proof, thanks to EA Sports, of how they should REALLY be playing their games. In short, I'd completely seize to be a productive member of society, lose my job, family, friends, self-respect, and probably end up in some half-baked Gamers Anonymous organization. Yeah. Not.a.good.idea.

Over the next week or so, EA Sports is going to be sponsoring our look at fandom, as we explore Where We Come From. The series of posts will go as follows this week:

Monday July 5: Where I Come From: How I Became A Texas Aggie

Tuesday, July 6: Where I Come From: All-Time Favorite Aggie Football Team

Wednesday, July 7: Where I Come From: Tailgating Traditions

Thursday, July 8: Where I Come From: All-Time Favorite Aggie Football Players

Friday, July 9: Where I Come From: Most Memorable Moments

I encourage community members here at I Am The 12th Man to chime in each day with their own versions of Where I Come From, explaining how they became fans of their particular school, their all-time favorite team, their tailgating traditions, etc. We're a diverse group here, but we're all fans, which is what gives us our identity. In addition to this series, we will continue with our regularly scheduled posting as we get closer and closer to the beginning of the 2010 college football season, so you won't be missing anything.