Daily Bull 08.24.16 - Bad Aggie Flashbacks, Vol. 1

You thought it would never happen, but college football is happening this week. More importantly, Aggie football is just a week and a half away. You’ve read the hype, you’ve purchased your game day Odd Sox, you’ve turned your Aggie ring clockwise the proper number of times, and now you are convinced despite all reasonable thought processes that this year will be the year.

It is time to return you screaming and vomiting back to earth.

Whenever the glasses become too maroon-colored and the scales of fandom tip to cognitive dissonance, it is time to reminisce on the food truck of failure and remind ourselves that it lurks around every Saturday, waiting to unleash its payload of mayonnaise sandwiches and sadness. This week and next we will go on a journey of the macabre and bring into sharp relief memories we drank away many years ago.

Don’t worry, we'll ease you into this because that’s how true sports ruination happens. It’s not a single catastrophic game, but a slow and steady slide from the peak of domination down a mudslide of blown leads, bad play calling, and snack cakes.

OCTOBER 7TH, 2000

COLORADO - 26 TEXAS A&M - 19

To fully understand the significance here, we need to actually turn the clock back to October 26th, 1996. On that date Texas Tech took a visit to College Station and pulled out a 13-10 squeaker, a game that is only really significant because it was the last time the Aggies had lost at Kyle Field. That’s a 22 game streak spanning almost 4 years that Kyle Field was an unbeatable killing field, much like today.

Samson cut his hair, and Kyle Field grew a north end zone.

While the phrase “1990 National Champion Colorado Buffaloes” sounds an awful lot like “Napoleonic military powerhouse France”, the Buffs were on a streak of 6 consecutive bowl victories. They were also 0-4, a number so integral to their modern history they will have retired it by 2019. So it’s hard to argue they should have beat us. And while Mark Farris never turned pro, he still stands high in the A&M QB records and was tossing the ball to no-names like future Green Bay Packer Robert Ferguson and future Super Bowl champion Bethel Johnson.

It was cold. It rained. I am not 100% sure this is a real memory but I swear I was barefoot for some reason. This loss was not so much depressing as it was confusing, it was like finding out that not only could your friend’s dad beat up your dad, but your dad is actually just your mom’s special friend and hey champ stop crying let’s go get some ice cream. I know I have mentioned this moment on GBH before, but it is important to remember that for four years we had not lost at Kyle Field, which means four years worth of Aggies - freshmen through seniors - had never heard the “12th Man” song. The confused look on the rain-soaked faces of the Aggie faithful as the FTAB struck up that song is to this day my saddest memory at Kyle Field.

Football is a jerk.

Seriously, though, this is the year.

GIG ‘EM!