Daily Bull 8.15.18: Contracts, Watchlists, and Magazines—Peak August

Happy Wednesday. You know the drills.

IF YOU CAIN’T BEAT ‘EM ON THE FIELD BEAT ‘EM IN THE COURTROOM PAWWWL. The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Board of Regents is all fired up to sue the hell outta Alabama over former A&M (and current Bama) special teams coach Jeff Banks’ buyout, per The Eagle. Details in the link, but basically Banks owes money since he took another SEC job. What remains murky is exactly how much he’s going to be required to pay back, and that’s what the two schools are squibbling over. I’m no legal expert, but the amount in question seems in the neighborhood of a couple hundred G’s or so. Sure, that may seem like sofa cushion change for an institution that dropped a half a billion on a stadium upgrade and 75 millskies on a coach, but to put things into perspective, that’s a brand-new shiny set of treads for a Regent’s tank. Every little bit helps.

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME. Junior running back Trayveon Williams was named to his 33rd watchlist yesterday: he’s in the running for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. This award is to celebrate Texas-ness, so any position player from any team can be on it if they grew up in Texas or played high school ball here. Williams plans to pay homage to the toughness of the legend of Earl Campbell by doing his part to enhance A&M’s revenues and market footprint in lieu of actually facing off against the namesake’s alma mater in an actual rivalry football game. Gig ‘Em.

COVER BOYS. Uh-oh...seems like some feathers got ruffled over who got to grace the front of the iconic Dave Campbell’s Texas Football this year. Houston Cougars DL Ed Oliver is arguably the most dominant college player in the state. In a recent profile in Sports Illustrated, he revealed that he had done a photo shoot for the magazine and was expecting to be on the cover, only to be disappointed when it was Coach Jimbo with his boots kicked up.

For a Texan, this is akin to gracing the cover of the Bible. When the issue hit shelves, there on the cover was new Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, who won the 2013 national title at Florida State and came to the Aggies after agreeing to a 10-year, $75 million deal. To Oliver, Fisher is 0–0 in the state of Texas. “He didn‘t do nothin’ but get paid a whole bunch of money,” says Oliver.

[draws curtains]

[turns on kitchen sink for ambient white noise so Aggie Twitter can’t hear]

[barely audible whisper]

He’s not wrong.

Jimbo hasn’t actually accomplished anything concrete in the State of Texas yet except for getting paid. But that’s enough. Money talks, which Ed Oliver will learn very soon when he’s a top NFL draft pick.