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There aren’t a lot of mountains near College Station, Texas, but if there were, the devoted fans of Texas A&M football might be tempted to carve out an Aggies version of Mount Rushmore.
Texas A&M has plenty of other traditions that few outside of the 12th Man completely grasp.
The team’s on-field history is long, varied and rich. Despite ups and downs, the Aggies have been a fairly consistent national player in the college football landscape for more than 100 years.
Because of that it was tough to decide who should be among the four faces on a monument to Aggies football. Dana X. Bible, for instance, is deserving as a coach who helped Texas A&M claim two national championships. But that was nearly a century ago in a much different college football world.
So with that, here’s a look at the Aggies we would immortalize in a Texas A&M version of Mount Rushmore.
Who’s In?
R.C. Slocum
The coach of the Aggies from 1989 to 2002, his 123 wins are the most in program history. He also won three Southwest Conference titles and one Big 12 championship to make him the only Texas A&M coach to win his league four times. It helped earn him induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
He also hardly allowed a hint of controversy in the program during his reign after taking over for Jackie Sherrill, 7-5 in his final season and facing severe penalties for NCAA violations. Led by the famed “Wrecking Crew” defense, his Aggies didn’t lose a game in the Southwest Conference between 1991 and 1994, going 28-0-1.
A&M fans sometimes felt frustrated as the Aggies lost three straight Cotton Bowls and never really sniffed a national championship under Slocum, his mix of integrity and on-field success came to define a key era of Texas A&M football.
John David Crow
A huge figure in the history of Texas A&M as both a player and an administrator, Crow might be the ultimate Aggie. He played for A&M under Bear Bryant and led the Aggies to the No. 1 ranking in 1957, winning the Heisman Trophy that year, standing out as a running back and defensive back before going on to make four NFL Pro Bowls.
When Jackie Sherrill’s time as football coach and athletic director ended in scandal in 1988, Crow became the new AD and helped Slocum launch the Aggies into a new era. He lived in the College Station area until his death earlier this summer. A street near Kyle Field is named in his honor.
Career numbers: 1,465 rushing yards, 14 touchdowns, 288 receiving yards
Johnny Manziel
You take the good with the bad when it comes to Johnny Football, and while he was at Texas A&M there was a whole lot of good. His redshirt freshman season in 2012 was legendary, culminating in a Heisman Trophy and a host of other individual awards.
He led the Aggies to back-to-back bowl victories and was named the 2013 SEC Male Athlete of the Year before jumping to the NFL after his sophomore season.
Career numbers: 7,820 passing yards, 68.9 completion percentage, 2,169 rushing yards, 93 total touchdowns
Dat Nguyen
Under-appreciated on a national level, Nguyen was one of the most dominant college linebackers of the late 1990s and a key to Texas A&M’s 1998 Big 12 championship team.
Talk about decorated: A three-time All-Big 12 pick, Nguyen was the conference defensive player of the year as a senior. The same year he also won the Bednarik, Lombardi and Jack Lambert Awards. In 2010 he was picked for the All-Time Big 12 team. He graduated A&M having started 51 consecutive games, an Aggie record and was the only Texas A&M player ever to lead the team in tackling four times.
He also became an NFL All-Rookie team member in 1999 and a Pro Bowler in 2003.
Career numbers: 517 tackles, 10.7 tackles per game, six interceptions with two returns for touchdowns.
You’ve seen my Mount Rushmore. Now it’s your turn. Who’s in your all-time Texas A&M Mount Rushmore?
Shane Mettlen is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Texas A&M, Missouri and Alabama.
