The lasts have begun:
Last first day of spring semester. Done.
Last second day of spring semester. Done.
Last first week of spring semester. Done.
This means I have less than a year left (as planned, at least). Which, if you are only counting integers, means I have zero years left! In school, that is.
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Also, A&M has hired a new defensive coordinator. This year, our defense
improved to something like 114th. When your offense is somewhat highly ranked, it would be nice to have a defense to go with it. Coach Kines resigned/retired at the end of this year.
One problem that has been said to affect the Ags is a lack of personnel. Coach Kines had some good teams in the past, I hear, but he had little to work with the past couple of years.
Enter Tim DeRuyter, defensive coordinator for Air Force. If you aren't familiar with football, let me fill you in a little on the service academies. They can often be painted broadly as having a lack of high caliber athletic talent, but are disciplined in their play. You might be surprised to learn, then, that the Air Force defense was ranked 10th in points allowed and 11th in yards allowed, and in the Armed Forces bowl, they held the #2 scoring offense to 20 points and had 6 interceptions. And he did it with service academy athletes. Hopefully, that means he will be able to do more with less at A&M, as well.
(Some info from http://www.statesman.com/sports/aggies-hire-deruyter-as-defensive-coordinator-190430.html)
In other almost as important news, the board of regents has named Interim President Dr. R. Bowen Loftin (and President of A&M Galveston) as the sole finalist for president of Texas A&M. I don't know a whole lot about him, but one thing I have appreciated is his communication. Every week or so he sends out an email update on campus goings on and maybe what he's been doing, as well. From what I heard today or yesterday, you can tell he loves A&M, its culture, etc.
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Finally, maybe these don't quite show it, but to me, there is a similarity:


(picture of coach Sherman from http://espn.go.com/blog/sportscenter/tag/_/name/texas-am-aggies)
(picture of Mel Gibson from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15954748/)