The Texas A&M football team continues to move forward, but it's hard to get excited over baby steps when the rest of Big 12 South teams are dominating national headlines.
A&M has back-to-back victories for the first time since early last season, but that pales in comparison to what its rivals are doing.
* Texas Tech is 9-0 and got there by beating a top-ranked team for the first time in school history.
* Texas came within seconds in that epic loss to Tech of remaining unbeaten, almost completing a magical four-week run that earned the Longhorns plenty of attention with victories over Oklahoma, Missouri and Oklahoma State.
* Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are each 8-1 and in the mix for the Big 12 championship and a possible national championship.
Even Baylor continues to surprise with first-year head coach Art Briles and freshman quarterback Robert Griffin. North Division favorite Missouri needed a late interception Saturday to hold off the feisty Bears, 31-28.
Thus, A&M's come-from-behind 24-17 victory over Colorado was barely a footnote in college football's best division, yet it was vital to the team's progress toward closing the gap with the league's elite.
A&M has been playing better since taking a 23-20 halftime lead against Tech three weeks ago. You can see gradual improvement in all phases, but the biggest change has been players buying into what first-year head coach Mike Sherman is doing.
Everyone is on the same page, which was evident Saturday. The Aggies won despite the offense having only one good quarter. It was the kind of game a team with dissenters finds a way to lose.
This has been a smooth transition despite losing the opener to Arkansas State and having unproven sophomore quarterback Jerrod Johnson replace injured senior Stephen McGee. It would have been easy for the Aggies to go 2-10.
This team is far ahead of Dennis Franchione's initial team. The 2003 squad never led in its last three games, being outscored 168-37 and finishing 4-8. That won't happen again. Oklahoma, a 25-point favorite for Saturday's game at Kyle Field, might score 60, but it won't be 77-0.
Now, A&M might lose its last three games. Realistically, the best the Aggies can do is win at Baylor. Yet, if the Aggies can stay within a touchdown of Oklahoma or Texas heading into the fourth quarter, it could be bigger than even beating Baylor.
A&M needed the victories over Iowa State and Colorado to reinforce what Sherman is implementing. Winning in the last three regular season games remains the focus, but the program could move forward in a loss, which was the case when Tech rallied for a 43-25 victory.
It's hard to accept moral victories, because that's exactly where this program was five years ago.
While A&M floundered, Texas Tech's Mike Leach built a program to rival Texas and Oklahoma, and now Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy is challenging to do the same thing.
Sherman understands what's expected. He's put all his energy into winning the next game, making sure the upperclassmen are productive leaders, yet managing to build for the future by relying heavily on freshmen.
Aggies are hopeful these baby steps will turn into national headlines in the very near future.
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Saturday's no-shows for a game that wasn't televised and played in near-perfect weather had to be disturbing to die-hard Aggies. The announced crowd -- which includes sold tickets -- was 78,121.
The crowd looked considerably smaller than the announced crowd of 78,669 for Kansas State. The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury reported for that game that 10,000 fans must have showed up as empty seats. If that's the case, Saturday's crowd for Colorado was in the low 60,000s -- which was still more than Texas Tech's record-setting crowd of 56,333 on Saturday against Texas.
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A&M's victory over Colorado gives the Aggies a 7-20 record in November this decade. A&M hasn't had a winning record in November since 1999. ... A&M averages 110.7 yards rushing per game, which ranks 102nd in the country.
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ABC will televise Saturday's A&M-Oklahoma game at 2:30 p.m. The league's other TV games will be Baylor at Texas, 11 a.m. (FSN), Iowa State at Colorado, 12:30 p.m. (Versus), Kansas State at Missouri, 6 p.m. (FSN) and Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, 7 p.m. (ABC).
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.