







After nearly a decade as Texas A&M's athletic director, there was no need to explain the Aggies' potential to Bill Byrne. He understood the potential power of the place. He saw the rich recruiting grounds within a few hours' drive of campus, the passion of a vast base of fans and former students and the modern facilities springing up everywhere.

For myriad reasons, Texas A&M wasn't a football power; the Aggies were occasionally good, rarely great. That didn't mean it couldn't become great, especially when the school decided in 2011 to abandon its longtime home in the Big 12 and the shadow of archrival Texas for the soaring SEC.

This, Byrne believed, was a great fit, a great future. Still, he wasn't naïve. It wouldn't happen overnight, he figured, a belief cemented when he hired a new coach last December, Kevin Sumlin from the University of Houston, to take over a 7-6 team.

He preached patience to the fans.

[Road to Saturday: Texas A&M to take on Alabama]

"My concern was our depth up front, especially on the defensive line," Byrne said Thursday from College Station, where after retiring last summer, he is now Aggie fan in chief. "I thought once we get into it, we can compete, but it's going to take a while to build."

So he was wrong.

"I didn't see this coming," he said, with a laugh of delight.

"This" is the 7-2 Aggies, the 4-2 in-the-SEC Aggies, the 15th-ranked Aggies, the-wind-at their-backs Aggies who play Saturday at No. 1 Alabama in exactly the kind of nationally relevant game they've dreamed about.

This is Johnny Football, the mesmerizing freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel and his 31 touchdowns (16 passing, 15 rushing), this is Sumlin, 48 and already proving to be the perfect hire. This, much to Byrne's pleasant surprise, is a defense with enough depth to average three sacks and just 21 points allowed per game.

Perhaps most of all, this is the instantaneous proof to all the critics who claimed the Aggies were delusional that a program, which, for decades mostly settled into the middle of the Southwest Conference/Big Eight/Big 12 pack, could swim in the SEC deep end.

"It's been a great decision," Byrne said. "I'm so excited about it."

Everyone at A&M is excited, although maybe the best sign is that excitement doesn't equate to satisfaction. Sumlin, for one, doesn't see proving they belong in the SEC as the end goal, not even in Year One.

"We haven't really accomplished anything yet," Sumlin said. "What they have done is play good enough football to put us in a position to play meaningful games in November. And that's all you can ask for as a coach."

[Dan Wetzel's college football podcast: Darrell Royal, A&M-'Bama]

There are winners and losers in conference realignment but perhaps no one has made out like the Aggies. Some decisions were no brainers – TCU jumping from the Mountain West to the Big 12. Others were risky and made out of fear for the future – such as Pitt and Syracuse jumping to the ACC next season.

Texas A&M controlled its own decision, leaving the safe and comfortable for the bold and potentially difficult. Overconfident? Spiteful? Fueled by pure hate of the University of Texas?

Well, in the end, the record is the record, and the two Aggie losses say as much about the program as the victories. No. 7 Florida beat them by three. No. 9 LSU got them by five. That's it. Their four SEC victories are by an average of 29.5 points. In many games they've been able to play backups in the second half, allowing that lack of depth to remain fresh.

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