1987 was year when a new coach replaced a long time coach who had taken us to a couple of National Championship opportunities and had started to lose his grip on the states recruiting. The Aggies were just getting to their hey day.....The new coach had a pretty good first year with a lot of veteran players and a ton of freshmen......1988 was a year to forget and so was 1989 as we were getting our asses handed to us by the likes of Baylor, OU and Texas AM. When all of those 1987 freshmen came to be seniors in 1990 we had a helluva year.......The problem was that bump gave us unreal expectations for 1991 and 1992 and that coach was gone......The new coach even a long time Longhorn was in way over his head....... The current situation is playing out very eerily similar to those two years.........
Major, In all fairness to David, the 1987 team scored two more points than the 1986 team. The 86 team went to Lubbock with only ONE scholarship LB healthy enough to play. We missed the FG that would have won the game. Fast forward to 87, we made the FG that won the game. It doesn't matter since DKR had mustered the clout to remove Fred, but the truth was, a missed FG vs a made FG.
86 was a down year, 87 they played in the Houston Bowl whatever that was called as they did in 2014. In 87 they also played AM for the conference, and barely had a winning record......
Like I said, the only differences in 86 & 87 were: 1) 87 team was much healthier than the 86 team, which was decimated by injuries. 2) A missed FG against Tech in 86 meant a loss, a made FG against Tech meant a win 3) A bowl appearance against Pitt in the Bluebonnet Bowl, which resulted in Putt taking home a starting QB from Texas and a future all pro RB from Houston. Also enabled one Mr Hager to prove that a 210 lb MLB could make a lard-*** 260 RB not look like "all world". The media was all about how Hager was "too small" to take on Hayward, and "not fast enough" or "strong enough". That game solidified Hager's chance in the NFL, where he made the "All Madden" team as a special teams player his first year. and subsequent years. David got the job and brought that "coaching staff" that made this one look like Allie Sherman's old NY Giant's staff, which had Tom Landry & Vince Lombardi as coordinators. To my knowledge, at least none of Strong's assistants has asked alums to cosign a car loan for his girlfriend yet.
McWilliams beat Arkansas in his first season, which essentially erased the blowout losses to Auburn and OU and the heart breaker to BYU earlier in the season. Texas played a good game against a top 10 aggy for the SWC and lost late in the 4th quarter. I believe that Texas out recruited aggy that year (which pissed off a lot of aggys), despite aggy beating Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl. People were calling for McWilliams head after the first game of the 1988 season (his second). Remember the blowout to BYU, something like 47-6? He also got blown out by UH at home later in the season. They did play Arkansas & aggy competitively and lost by like one point to Tech to finish 4-7. 1989 started out better. At one point i think Texas was 4-2 with an upset win against OU; the two losses were to top ranked Colorado and a ranked Penn State (blocked punt). However, the wheels came off to finish 5-6. David McWiliams was definitely on the hot seat as early on as Strong. To his credit, McWilliams seemed to do a better job recruiting. At that time, Michigan, OU, and the Florida schools were raiding Texas. However, McWilliams put together a few top 10 classes that really shaped the 1990 team. My biggest concern moving forward is that I don't see Strong being a great recruiter. His current class is ranked #50 which is actually pathetic. You can't build a program with your players and expect to do anything magical with sub par recruiting.
