Pirate Galaxy » didnt play that well for the rev

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Five seasons have gone by in a blink, until you stop and think about how far Texas A&M has come in the Kevin Sumlin era.That is hard to do, stopping and thinking, given the ongoing telenovela that has been Aggies football: big wins, bigger losses, revolving-door coordinators, revolving-door rosters, lewd assistants and, of course, Johnny Football. Behind the scenes of the drama, however, the Aggies program underwent a complete makeover.While this is the third time that Texas A&M (6-0) has reached No. 6 under Sumlin, the Aggies team that goes to Tuscaloosa on Saturday to play No. 1 Alabama (7-0) is a more muscular animal, financially and literally, than ever before.That may not be enough to knock off a Crimson Tide program that has people searching history, not to mention Rogets Thesaurus, for the appropriate descriptors. But it is an indication that the program is on firmer footing than when Sumlin arrived.Youve got, really, a couple of ways you can do it, Sumlin said in his office Monday. You can go about it and say, Heres what we believe in, and Im going to start here and work through philosophically the way you want to do things.He cited Bret Bielema as an example of that method. Bielema brought a physical style from Wisconsin to Arkansas in 2013, and the Razorbacks lost the first 13 Southeastern Conference games they played trying to adapt to his demands. Since then, they are 8-6 in the league and 16-8 overall.Over time, he was able to do that, Sumlin said. I wasnt sure I had that amount of time.Sumlin knew what had happened to the Aggies in the 10 years before he arrived. A&M fired R.C. Slocum, who pretty much went straight from College Station into the College Football Hall of Fame, not to mention Dennis Franchione, who had taken teams to first place in four different conferences, and Mike Sherman, the former head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers.Those three men won a combined 422 games in college and pro football, and their careers screeched to a halt at Kyle Field.The Aggies team that Sumlin took over had speed. It didnt have size. Time, again, to stop and think. The up-tempo spread offense that is the norm these days didnt exist in the SEC that Texas A&M joined. As unique a talent as Johnny Manziel proved to be in 2012 and 2013, no one in the SEC knew how to deal with the scheme that showcased him, either.For most linebackers who timed the snap perfectly and crashed through a gap to confront a quarterback, thats where a play ended. With Manziel, thats where it began. Manziel thrived because he could buy himself time. But his greatest legacy may be that he bought the entire program time.You have to have a chance to win, Sumlin said, so to do that, we were different and utilized our skill set. Of course, Johnny was not only maybe the best player in the country, he was certainly the most exciting player in the country, which gave us the opportunity to increase the roster.Manziels success -- he won the 2012 Heisman and propelled the Aggies to a final AP ranking that year of No. 6 -- gave Texas A&M the entrée to compete for top recruits such as defensive end Myles Garrett, now a junior. Manziel also bought time for the administration to come to grips with the financial commitment and mental will it would take to engage in the SEC arms race.Winning had a lot to do with that -- resource commitment, Sumlin said. But they also saw what this league had.Since Sumlin arrived, Texas A&M has spent $450 million on an expansion and makeover of Kyle Field, turning an erector set into a showplace; the program also has built a $12 million player performance center (nee weight room) and a $12 million nutrition center (nee training table).Texas A&M also understood that it had to ramp up its coaches salaries. In Sumlins mind, the doubling of his salary, to $5 million this season, is less relevant than the increase in the salary pool for assistants. According to USA Todays annual survey of coaches salaries, that pool increased from $2.68 million in 2012 to $4.4 million in 2015.The toughness of the Aggies defense reflects the coaching of coordinator John Chavis, whom Sumlin lured away from LSU two years ago with a salary of $1.6 million per season. Last winter, Sumlin hired Noel Mazzone from UCLA to be his offensive coordinator for a guaranteed three-year deal that at completion will have paid Mazzone a total of $2.56 million.They are coaching a more talented roster than Sumlin found when he arrived. When he signed recruits such as Garrett and strong safety Armani Watts in 2014, they were good enough to start that fall. Part of the reason is that the Aggies lost three juniors in the first round of the 2013 and 14 drafts: offensive tackle Luke Joeckel, Manziel and wide receiver Mike Evans.As much talent as Garrett and Watts brought to College Station, theres a reason the Aggies went 3-5 in the SEC in 2014. Boys played men. Watts started the season with an interception in the opener against South Carolina, but when we got to around Game 6 or 7, and Armani just got overwhelmed, Sumlin said. Had to take him off the field. ... But now hes a junior.He understands that his body has changed. His mental preparation during the week and his physical preparation during the week are different. And that comes with education and experience.That brings up the last change that Sumlin engineered. Over the last 10 months, strength coach Larry Jackson revamped the way the Aggies work out to expedite a transition from a speed-based team to one more balanced between speed and strength.Sumlin had seen the Aggies wear down too many times in the fourth quarter. Some of that had to do with playing teenagers. Some of it had to do with the emphasis on speed, and some with the realization that the SEC had learned how to defend the up-tempo spread.We changed our philosophy about who we are, Sumlin said. We looked at the end zone tape. The mass just looked different. Meaning the Aggies were not as big from hip to hip as their SEC opponents.This season, Texas A&M made a goal-line stand in the final seconds to stop Arkansas. The Aggies beat Tennessee in double overtime. They are not wearing down. Texas A&M under Sumlin has engineered a complete makeover and gone 42-16 (.724) while doing it.The next test will be getting to the fourth quarter against Alabama. This is not the Aggies team that, with Manziel, upset No. 1 Alabama 29-24 in Tuscaloosa in 2012. More important, its not the Aggies team that Alabama humiliated 59-0 at Bryant-Denny in 2014. By every measure, Sumlins team is bigger and stronger.Wholesale Fake Vans . John Tavares, Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo were also being counted on to slow down sizzling Rangers forward Rick Nash. That plan didnt go so well early. Fake Vans Slip-on .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. http://www.fakevans.com/ .com) - Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer were easy first-round winners Tuesday at the Australian Open. Fake Vans Shoes . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. Fake Vans Free Shiping . But what about the officials? Every sport has officials and they also have stories about hard work and sacrifice but their accomplishments are seldom recognized by anyone outside their inner circle.Through the noughties, the SSC pitch was so flat Sri Lankans were granted a Test hundred there along with their birth certificates. There was a bleak, authoritarian air to SSC matches in that decade. Games took on the unsettling aspect of a military parade.Mahela Jayawardene scored hundreds almost by rote here, and towards the end of his career, appeared more relieved than joyful at the milestone, almost as if he would have been court-martialled for falling short. Captains then had Muttiah Muralitharan wheeling away for days on end. Like with the generals favourite jeep, his wearing parts would be continually replaced - limbs reattached when they fell off, eyeballs popped back in their sockets when they went rolling along the floor.In 2014, though, the old pitch was dug up along with the fossilised remains of generations of bowlers, and a new layer of clay had been put down. It is on this new strip that Rangana Herath smothered Pakistan with slow, lovable left-arm, in 2014. It is this strip that had been so seamer-friendly last year, that it inspired sweary, caveman, head-banging from Ishant Sharma. And it is on this pitch that South Africa almost lost a Test - saved on that occasion by rain, and batting so sleep-inducing that even its memory might prevent the conclusion of this sent...But if there is a Sri Lanka batsman who is the opposite of the noughties SSC surface, it is Dinesh Chandimal. His strokeplay is by nature, effervescent. He is so talkative he could chat up a power pylon. Chandimal, as character and cricketer, is more like Galle on day five, where the outrageous routinely occurs. Even on his quieter outings, he is Headingley on the first morning. He drives wildly, cuts extravagantly, throws his every atom into the sweep, and is in general like a human baila tune at the crease. It is not always great, but it rarely fails to get a few feet tapping along.In this innings, though, when the new SSC was contriving excitement with a score of 26 for 5, Chandimal embraced everything he is not, annd contrived for viewers the old SSC experience.dddddddddddd He made 132 from 356, when less than a year ago he famously struck 162 not out from 169. From the three sessions that he batted through, his returns were 30, 27 and 41. This was ballad batting. The block and leave were played again and again: two endlessly alternating chords.If there were two strokes that woke you up like the passing of a freighter, they were the slogged four off Jon Holland, and the reverse-swept six against the turn of Nathan Lyon, hot on its heels. But soon enough, disruption forgotten, his innings, and the SSC, was allowed to drift peacefully off again.This transformation of character took so much out of Chandimal that he was unable to take the field after his almost six-hour innings. Often a verbal runaway train after he has scored a hundred, Chandimal could barely muster one-sentence replies after play on Sunday. I was under pressure before this innings, he said. I didnt play that well for the reverse swinging ball. Because of that, I changed my approach a bit.Batting in partnership with Chandimal, it was Rangana Herath who provided the days liveliest moments. Clearly in the midst of a batting revival at this late stage of his career, Herath waddles to the middle frowning like an old man peeved to find kids playing on his lawn, and brandishes his stick irritably, slapping Josh Hazlewood over midwicket for four. Having exerted himself, he hobbled off soon enough, retiring hurt for 33 after he was hit in a nasty place. Thankfully, he recovered. His gentlepersonly bowling avatar was seen later in the day.Through their second-wicket stand, Australia have now moved towards parity. But it is partly because of Chandimal that Sri Lanka can still dream of that rare whitewash. His was not one of the SSCs handout hundreds. No matter what the surface was doing, for this one, he had to wrestle himself. ' ' '