Max Johnson and Haynes King are the front-runners, by a good bit, for the starting quarterback job this season. I think the choice will come down not to their physical attributes, but what’s between the ears. It’s going to be their decision-making that will make the difference, but not in the same ways.

King’s issue is making the right decisions. Only one of his interceptions against Kent State was really on him, but he misread the coverage and the route and it was a bad throw. We saw a couple of those instances in the spring game, and each time it’s strange, because he’ll be good, make the right calls, the right throws and then all of a sudden, wham, a big blunder. He’s got to cut that out.

Johnson’s problem isn’t making the right decision, it’s making it faster. If you go back and watch his film from LSU, there are a lot of instances where he pumps or holds onto the ball too long and ends up taking a sack. He doesn’t make things worse by running around or scrambling from ghosts like some quarterbacks we’ve seen, but that indecisiveness can hurt.

Ainias Smith’s suspension from the football program is over with, and well it should be. This is going to end up being a big zero. What’s going to stick, the 51 in a 35?

This is a situation where nobody ends up looking good and everyone should be embarrassed. Smith was still speeding, still had been drinking and someone had weed in the car. BUT, and these are big BUTs (like Sir-Mix-A-Lot big), he was not intoxicated, did not have THC in his system and his passenger said the weed was his. So that means the gun charge will be thrown out and should have never been.

University PD is going to end up with egg on their face for this one and they should. A cop’s job is very difficult and never easy, but this one has had the feel of pushing for bigger charges from the get-go. They knew when he blew at the police station that he was under the limit. So that should have eliminated the DWI and gun charges right there (though he could certainly face a hit on an “implied consent” charge). This became something when it shouldn’t have.

So this is an embarrassment Smith will have to deal with for the rest of his life. He was national news when he should have been at SEC Media Days, and you know 99% of the country will just recall that he was arrested and charged with being drunk with a loaded gun in the car. So he’ll be a punk (which he’s not). He also will have the pleasure of explaining what the bleep he was thinking, or not thinking, when he talks to NFL general managers in a few months.

The NCAA is now going to allow for player transfers as many times as they like without restrictions. This, frankly, is stupid and counterproductive. If you thought other programs were poaching players from other teams before, wait until you see what’s coming. Coaches aren’t going to have to re-recruit their players at the end of the season, they’ll have to do it week-to-week. College coaches, by and large, get paid well. But it’s getting to the point that, thanks to the supposed “overseer” of the game, that it may not be worth the trouble.

Courtney will have a list of some more players coming to town this weekend, but QB Austin Novosad, I’ve heard, is supposed to be one of them. That’ll make it a busy week for him, with trips to Notre Dame and Baylor along with the A&M visit. But getting him on campus again is a big deal, especially for the pool party.

The Aggies may need three safeties in this class, and I think they’re going to have a couple of their top targets in town for the pool party. But when you look at why they need more safeties, it stings a little bit.

Demani Richardson is gone after this season. Ok, that was always happening. Antonio Johnson will likely go too, if he has a halfway decent year. But then Brian Williams, who was supposed be a big part of the safety group the next two seasons, had to retire. Erick Young left (though he may be back). And they really haven’t recruited safety very heavily the past few years; they’ve been more likely to take nickels and corners who could play safety (like Deuce Harmon). The exception was Jardin Gilbert in 2021. That changed last year, when Jarred Kerr and Jacoby Mathews were safeties all the way.

Right now, the safety group looks like this:

Senior Demani Richardson, sophomore Jardin Gilbert, freshman Jarred Kerr, freshman Jacoby Mathews. And then you have Antonio Johnson who will play some, and Deuce Harmon, who could as well. But take away Richardson and Johnson next year and you’re pretty short-handed. Investing in safeties will be important this time around.

The Big 10 Media Days are going on this week, and their coaches are saying similar things about NIL that the SEC coaches did last week: something’s gotta change. The two easiest things to fall back on there are the NCAA and Congress, but the NCAA is not going to do anything and Congress won’t for some time at least. But I would propose dumping the NCAA entirely and the Power 5 conferences setting up some kind of uniformity for NIL. Would it be tough? Yes. Would it even be legal? I think so, but I’m not sure. But something’s got to change.

One of the bigger names coming in for the pool party is 4-star WR Shelton Sampson. For months, all I’ve heard on him is LSU and maybe some Alabama, but recently that has started to change. Clearly, by getting him in town this week, the Aggies are in this deal too. LSU people will dismiss A&M’s chances, but they did last year with Jacoby Mathews too. And, well, he’ll be hanging out with Sampson this weekend.

I’m very happy to see the indoor track and the practice bubble coming down. They were subpar in comparisons to the programs using them — hell, they were flat ugly and were outdated when they went up. And maybe that’s a good way to describe the legacy of Bill Byrne: high aspirations and big talk, then taking the cheap and easy way out. It’s amazing how badly A&M hired athletic directors for decades before hitting on two extremely good ones in Scott Woodward and Ross Bjork.

I saw a tweet tonight from a Texas fan claiming “there’s not much difference” between Texas’ defensive line and A&M’s in terms of talent. And that, kids, is why Twitter should come up with a “This is a very stupid tweet. Are you sure you want to proceed?” feature.

Back in 2005, the National Baseball Hall of Fame (you know, Cooperstown) had a traveling exhibit that came to Houston. And several hall of famers showed up at the Museum of Fine Arts to act as tour guys for members of the press — and I got to go. Talk about a highlight moment. But anyway, the list included Yogi Berra (the media swarmed him), Earl Weaver (I talked to him for a half hour), Ryne Sandberg, Dave Winfield and Gaylord Perry. They were all incredibly nice men, but Gaylord was a hoot.

He told us a great story. He was a horrible, horrible hitter. His manager, Alvin Dark, said man would walk on the moon before Perry hit a home run. This was so memorable I can still remember it pretty much verbatim 17 years later.

“So I was on the mound at Candlestick Park on July 20th, 1969, and they came over the PA system and announced that Neil Armstrong had stepped foot on the moon. There was a silence, and people were just amazed, and then everyone cheered and clapped.

And I came up the next inning and hit a home run. So Alvin Dark was right.”