Doing the opposite may work best for Texas A&M

When it comes to hiring football coaches, Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne is George Costanza.

It was Costanza who once bemoaned, "Every decision I've ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the opposite of everything I want it to be."

Assuming Byrne has his job in the coming weeks, he must pull a Costanza and do the exact opposite of what every single instinct tells him to do when it comes to finding a replacement for Mike Sherman.

No sense kicking Byrne for hiring a man who should never have been given this job in the first place.

No sense in counting all of the millions and millions the Aggies have pooled this decade to just make their football coach go away.

The Aggies need to move forward by not doing it the way they used to. This holiday shopping season, it must be "Don't do as the Aggies do."

The irony is that Byrne has littered his athletic department with good people and good hires with an exception -- the most important one. But he may not even get a chance to make this hire; the way the Aggie powers are routinely going behind Byrne's back (see move to SEC and Sherman firing) there is a good chance this call may not be his.

"I didn't ask why," Sherman said in a news conference Friday in College Station. "I know it was a difficult call for Bill to make."

Sherman later added, "In talking to Bill, I never got the feeling that I wouldn't be back."

The available guy you should want is former North Carolina coach Butch Davis, but considering his run-in with the NCAA he is a can't-touch. Spare me Gary Patterson chatter.

If you believe The Google machine and the Marooners who whisper the loudest, they are in love with Houston coach Kevin Sumlin. The Cougars are undefeated and need to win today to receive the big-ticket BCS invite.

This is where The Costanza Logic must be applied. The Aggies have to find the right fit for their school, and their league, by doing the exact opposite of what they have done.

Dennis Franchione wore the Maroon and White, but he was the picture of a man who looked like he would be more comfortable wearing burnt orange and living in Austin.

Sherman preached the Aggies' way, but he projected the image of a man who belonged not on the sidelines at Kyle but Lambeau Field.

Sumlin is an offensive guy who has built offensive teams with a QB who has diced competition in the spread formation. Both Sumlin and Case Keenum are to be heavily applauded for their achievements in H-Town this season, but it does not mean Sumlin should be the next Aggies head coach.

If the Aggies were a Big 12 team, Sumlin's act may work.

The Aggies no longer are a Big 12 team. They are going to the SEC, where cutesy spread offenses routinely get mauled and shoved around.

Watch the tapes of Oklahoma in the BCS against SEC teams. Or just watch the Aggies' most recent games against Arkansas and LSU.

Do the exact opposite and stay away from Sumlin. The same for Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Boise State head coach Chris Petersen.

Let's just go the whole way and scrap any coach whose background is on the offensive side of the ball. Sumlin, Malzahn and Petersen are all the way Costanza used to think.

This trio is no different than how the Aggies landed a Fran or Sherman. Remember when Fran and Sherman were "great offensive" guys who featured ingenious play-calling and were adept at handling quarterbacks? You needed a guy like that to undo all of the damage R.C. Slocum did. Because that worked out so well.

If the Aggies are going to do anything in the SEC, and there is nothing more than about 10 years' worth of evidence to suggest they won't, they have to hire a ball coach who does defense.

Watching Oklahoma State hang 50 on teams is fun, and there may not be anything more enjoyable this college season than seeing Baylor's Robert Griffin III do whatever he wants on a football field, but these acts don't fly in the SEC.

If you want to do something other than just "hang" in the SEC, you best embrace the brutality and the violence that is SEC defense.

Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart would fit that description, but he has never before been a head coach. Even if Smart isn't your guy, the Aggies can no longer accept what they have been doing.

Go George Costanza on this next move and do the exact opposite of everything you've already done.

Follow me on Twitter @MacEngelProf and The Big Mac Blog.Mac Engel, 817-390-7697

This story was originally published December 2, 2011 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Doing the opposite may work best for Texas A&M."