It was 10 years ago this very weekend that the Aggies last defeated a No. 1 team, knocking off Bob Stoops' Oklahoma Sooners 30-26. Adding to the novelty - or, again depending on your preference, the relevance - is the fact that current Aggie head coach Kevin Sumlin was A&M's offensive coordinator at the time. There was something else going on at that exact time, something that touched directly on both Alabama and Texas A&M. Because even as R.C. Slocum was guiding the Aggies to that memorable upset of Oklahoma, the Texas A&M power brokers were working on a deal that would oust Slocum and bring a new coach to College Station. That coach, of course, was Alabama's Dennis Franchione. That move became official Dec. 6, 2002, and reaction was immediate. A&M thought it had pulled off a coup that might make up, at least in part, for Alabama taking Paul "Bear" Bryant away from College Station more than 40 years earlier. (Alabama fans simply regard that as Bryant "coming home.")
Some UA-A&M trivia-TideSports