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Cessna: Talk around town all about Franchione

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Columnist

The Texas A&M; players answered a couple of important questions in Saturday's 34-10 victory over Baylor, but it's going to take a lot longer before we get a clear picture of where this program is headed.

A&M; showed it had no hangover from the Miami loss, dominating both lines of scrimmage. The offense rolled up a season-high 552 yards, and the defense allowed a season-low 254.

Saturday began with the Aggies physically taking care of Baylor. Then they verbally let everyone know they are 100 percent behind embattled head coach Dennis Franchione, who has been under fire since it was reported he secretly e-mailed inside information to 12 to 15 boosters for $1,200 a year.

Franchione was firmly defended by four of the team's biggest leaders during the postgame interviews - quarterback Stephen McGee, offensive guard Kirk Elder, tailback Jorvorskie Lane and defensive end Chris Harrington. And you got the feeling listening to them that the support was teamwide.

Lane said when Franchione apologized to the team, he told them that sending out a secret newsletter "was a stupid decision."

He'll get little argument on that.

But what now?

Lane made the obvious point that we're all human and that we all make mistakes. And he's right. There's not enough space in this newspaper to list my mistakes, and we're just talking last week.

But football coaches making $2 million a year are held to pricier standards.

This already was a pivotal season for Franchione, who in his fifth year hasn't built the Top 20 program he was hired to construct. His biggest critics already wanted him fired, even before the Miami loss and the secret newsletter fiasco.

I thought Franchione was on solid ground heading into the season. Why? Because A&M; athletics director Bill Byrne has said that a new football coach needs six years to recruit his players and fully implement his way of doing things to get his program established. Byrne's a man of his word, and he also officially hired Franchione. Everyone knows Byrne's speciality is the hire, and he doesn't make bad ones. I thought he'd support Franchione to the nth degree.

And looking at next year's road schedule - New Mexico, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas - there's no reason why Franchione can't have success.

Throw in a talented team loaded with players of high character, and I thought people were crazy thinking this would be Franchione's last season in Aggieland, even if A&M; only went 7-5 or 6-6, which was possible with that road schedule. The bottom line appeared to be that the program was moving forward, especially after A&M;'s victory in Austin last season.

I still felt that way after the loss to Miami. Byrne, as expected, put on his Web site last week that he doesn't talk about any coach's status during the season.

Translation: Franchione is A&M;'s football coach; let him and his staff do their job, and let the season run its course.

That might have changed Friday.

How does Byrne really feel about the e-mails? What about A&M;'s board of regents? And the school's movers and shakers? Former A&M; coach Gene Stalllings didn't sound too happy. Does Byrne come out and give a vote of confidence to Franchione in an attempt to bury the flap over the secret newsletter?

Byrne had to love the passion McGee showed in defending Franchione. Now Franchione surely would appreciate just a morsel of Byrne's emotions on his side - on the record. Maybe Byrne has given him a vote of confidence in private, but I don't have to remind you why things shouldn't be done in secret, do I?

I've got to give McGee kudos in that he just didn't rip the media; he also lashed out at Aggies who are bad-mouthing Franchione.

People who send letters to the editor, post rants on the Internet and call radio talk shows to sound off about Franchione aren't sports writers - they're typically Aggies who were among the 82,970 at Kyle Field or the multitude of fans watching on TV at home.

These are not faceless people asking where this team is headed or what's going to happen to its coach. These are the people you see at church and in restaurants. They believe they have a vested interest in this program.

There's no hotter topic than the hot seat Franchione seems to have set himself on. People on Sunday didn't want to talk about Baylor. They wanted to talk about Franchione and McGee's support for him.

Ironically, thus far it's overshadowing a showdown for the Big 12 South lead Saturday when Oklahoma State comes to Kyle Field. The A&M-Oklahoma; State winner is going to have a two-game lead on the Texas-Oklahoma loser just two weeks into the Big 12 season.

If A&M; can knock off the Cowboys, maybe things will start getting back to normal, even though that's hard to define after a weekend where seven of the top 13 ranked teams lost.

McGee can lash out at the media and fans all he wants to, but the more good he and his teammates do on the field, the faster the stuff he's lashing out at will go away.

That's what Franchione has to be banking on. Maybe Byrne, too.

A&M; lost ground in the three major national polls. The Aggies received 29 points in this week's Associated Press poll for 31st place. They had 21 points last week for 30th. A&M; received 10 points in this week's USA Today poll, which is 10 less than last week, dropping the Aggies from 29th into a tie with Michigan for 38th. A&M; is 39th in the Harris with eight points. Last week it was 32nd with 38 points.

n Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.