If it were possible to track the approval ratings of a newly hired coach six monthsÂ in, I would bet that the approval rating of Charlie Strong following "The Purge" would be as high as any newly hired coach in Texas Football history.

The recent roster purge by Strong has given the Texas program something to sell to recruits and their parents. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

Texas' search for a salesman is over. Not only do we know what Coach Strong is selling, we know that the fans are buying. The biggest question now is will the recruits buy or sell?

The effects of "The Purge" will be felt most in the battle for the state versus Texas A&M. The tension between Longhorns and Aggies is as high as its ever been and Aggie paranoia is at an all time high in the Longhorn Nation. Since we've stopped playing them the tensions have risen to unprecedented heights in what I call the Texas Cold War.

Since they can't actually play one another but still compete for resources and relevance in the same state each program must find a way to conquer the other without ever physically playing them. You prevail in this "Cold War" by winning games and winning the perception battle, and in the last two years the Aggies have been beating us at both.

The sad, inconvenient truth that Longhorn fans don't want to hear is something I have been screaming ever since Johnny Manziel won the Heisman – Texas A&M is on a very similar path and trajectory that Texas embarked on when Mack Brown first took over on the 40 Acres. He inherited a Heisman winner in his first year as a coach, he was able to garner unprecedented donations from boosters, facility and stadium upgrades were happening, and suddenly Texas was the "it" program in the state with a rebel superstar without a cause leading the charge. In recognizing the similarities you must also recognize that it's very possible for them to capitalize on their reinvention and celebrity much like Texas did under Mack.

Are the Aggies a realistic threat to the Longhorns domination over the state of Texas? Yes and no, no because they are decades away from actually substantiating that threat. The Aggies must turn all this pomp and momentum into titles to be a real threat to Texas and even the most diehard Aggies know it deep down. Look at how long it took Mack to turn a Heisman campaign and a No. 1-ranked recruiting class into a national champion.

It was in the seventh season after Ricky Williams left Austin and Mack wasn't in the SEC. This is also assuming Texas Football doesn't disrupt the Aggies' momentum in the state, which we may currently be witnessing on the 40 Acres. After the events of July 25 the perception on both sides of this conflict are now set. Coach Strong is "Coach Stern" and Texas is now the stuffy, blue blood, classy, buttoned up, straight business, conservative, iron fisted program while Kevin Sumlin is "Coach Cool" and A&M is the cool, sexy, hip, rebellious, party, "it" program – a complete reversal of roles from when I first came to Texas in 1999.

This polarity will make recruiting in the state of Texas very interesting over the next few years. While the recruits seem to love Coach Sumlin, the parents are going to love Coach Strong. Jeff Howe sums up Charlie Strong's culture in one classic line:

"America doesn't negotiate with terrorists and Charlie Strong doesn't negotiate with his players.”

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and Strong and Sumlin appear to have different ways of running their programs.

This seems to be Charlie Strong's mantra, backing it up by booting six players from the team in a 24-hour period last week (although Josh Turner is back in the mix after a meeting with Coach Strong). Meanwhile Sumlin's words echoed from SEC Media Days show how much he and Strong differ on the philosophy of building a program and developing young men. Sumlin said it's easy to kick a guy off the team, but they're in the "business of developing men". In criminal justice I learned that there are two dominant viewpoints on crime in America: rehabilitation or punishment. Our current justice system is a blend of both philosophies.

Lets just say that in terms of administering consequences within their respective programs the Charlie Strong model leans more toward the "punishment" model while the Kevin Sumlin model toward the "rehabilitation" model. Unlike a lot of Longhorns I don't judge the Aggies for their off the field woes (19 arrests in 25 months) because no big time college football program is immune. Now that the Aggies are relevant in the national conversation, deviancy just seems to be an unavoidable, unfortunate byproduct. Although, Coach Strong is trying to prove otherwise.

Aggie paranoia is deeply rooted in one strongly held belief among Longhorn fans that Texas and Texas A&M cannot mutually prosper and coexist. They may be right. I was actually shocked when I stumbled upon the stat that Texas and Texas A&M have never had double digit winning seasons in the same season. That is mind-blowing considering how much football talent is in the state of Texas (Texas had 2,147 FBS prospects who received football scholarships from 2008-2013; on average 358 per year, the most in the country). So with all this talent to go around, shouldn't Texas and Texas A&M be able to coexist and prosper in the same state?

The best examples are in the only two fertile recruiting grounds comparable to Texas: Florida and California. The Pac 10/12 example of USC, UCLA and Cal and/or Stanford is applicable because they are all in the same conference. Since USC and UCLA have been in the Pac 12 they have only had double digit winning seasons in the same season twice, in 1988 and in 2005; in both instances UCLA had 9 regular season wins and got their 10th in the bowl game. Its also happened twice between USC and Cal, in the 2004 and 2006 seasons. USC and Stanford have only had double digit winning seasons in the same season once, in 2011. In the same conference/same state, there seems to be only room for one big dog.

The opposite is true in Florida where the three major college football programs were able to operate autonomously for decades, achieving a level of success they would not have been able to achieve in the same conference. Florida State, Florida and Miami have had double digit winning seasons in the same season on three different occasions: 1991, 1994 and 2000, all while in separate conferences (Florida in SEC, Miami in Big East at the time and Florida State in the ACC). All three of these programs were also able to win national championships while in separate conferences, but since Miami has joined the ACC with Florida State they've failed to reach the double digit win mark, giving further credence to the theory that in the same conference/same state only one power program can exist.

That's especially true since Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M, currently the three big dogs in the state of Texas, have never won double digit games in the same season and have been in the same conference for the majority of their existence (Texas Tech and Texas both won double digit games in 2008, Tech and A&M also won double digit games in the same season in 1976).

So can Texas and Texas A&M coexist? It would seem that now they can, as long as they're in separate conferences.

Rod Babers was a top-level recruit in the class of 1999 out of Houston Lamar. He was a multiple-year starter for the Longhorns and in 2002 was a first-team All-Big 12 selection, an All-America honoree and a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe award. He was drafted in the fourth round (No. 123 overall) by the New York Giants in the 2003 NFL Draft. He played for the Giants, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos during his NFL career. He also played one season with Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL. A graduate of the University of Texas, he now co-hosts 'The Sports Buffet' weekdays from 2-7 p.m. on AM 1300 The Zone in Austin. He also served as sideline reporter for the Longhorn IMG Radio Network from 2011-2013.