AUSTIN -- It's appropriate that the Texas-Texas A&M game was moved to Thanksgiving for the first time in 15 years.
The Aggies can now give thanks the season is over.
It's been a drawn-out, rigorous three months. I can only imagine how the players feel having to deal with winning only four games, which is tied for the fewest since a 3-8 season under Emory Ballard in 1972.
It's got to be discouraging when the worst loss of the season is not a 49-9 drubbing to your arch-rival.
For all intent and purpose, the end of the season came nearly two weeks ago in Waco.
Evidence of that came in the pregame press conference, when nearly as much of the talk was about looking forward to spring camp as it was facing intrastate-rival Texas on a national stage in the next week.
"I definitely feel like [we have] a lot of little kinks to work out but we have a whole offseason," said freshman wide receiver Jeff Fuller, one of the few bright spots this season. "We prepare for eight months and play for three or four, and I feel like offseason will be rough and a grind but I definitely feel like we are going to turn the corner."
When they turn the corner they'd better make sure to look out for that truck heading straight at them, because it's going to take more than a few practices for the Aggies to put their first last-place finish in the Big 12 South behind them.
Having said that, 10 penalties Thursday -- including one for too many men on the field and several false starts -- in the 12th game speaks volumes.
Ironically, two seniors touched on the most pressing problem in that same press conference, which is bringing athletes to College Station and getting them in the correct positions.
"Obviously we've got some huge strides to take to be able to compete at the level kids come to A&M to play at," senior quarterback Stephen McGee said. "[Coach Mike Sherman] is going to have to recruit. You've got to have players, I don't care how good a coach you are you have to have good players."
Tackle Travis Schneider, who didn't dress for his final game at A&M, pointed out that the staff has got to get their "kids in here, [something they've] started this season," and "put the right athletes in the right spots."
Its obvious there will have to be as much work done between now and the beginning of spring camp as there will be the next time the coaches can get hands-on with the players. And it's not just the players who can benefit from that work.
The first season of Sherman's transition from the NFL to the college game wasn't very successful on the field, and that showed up in the second quarter Thursday.
Trailing 14-0 and facing a fourth-and-1 at the Texas 20, Sherman elected to go for a field goal rather than attempt to keep the drive alive and cut the score in half.
In the NFL, you don't take points off the board. In the Big 12, with the high-powered offenses that move the ball up and down the field, you can't throw away an opportunity to score as many points as possible.
Field goals don't win Big 12 games anymore.
The Aggies had two first downs to that point, so it was obvious opportunities to put points on the board were not going to come often. If the score was tied, or even a little bit closer, the field goal may have been the way to go. But it's not like the Aggies were going to hold Texas the remainder of the game and win 17-14.
Sherman said after the game that if he had more confidence in the offense he may have gone for it.
That's the reason he should have gone for it. If you don't have confidence in the offense, how do expect it to be in that position enough times to win? When teams are scoring in the 30s and 40s, trying to catch up in multiples of 3 is not a good formula.
Sherman chose a similar route against Texas Tech, and the end result was the Aggies chasing the high-powered Red Raider offense in the second half.
Looking at the rushing stats on Thursday -- A&M tailbacks had 24 yards on 12 carries -- Sherman's logic is understandable. But kicking with a yard to go to get within 11 against a team that scores 43 points a game is not.
Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.