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  • Westboro Baptist Church Gets a Showdown from Aggies in Texas

    Texas A&M has been doing this for over 100 years. This is just the first time they’ve brought their mighty boom to bear against a hate group like Westboro Baptist.

    Back in 1913, when A&M — which stands for Agricultural and Mechanical — was still an all-male military school, they held their first Yell Practice. Think of it as a pep rally, if A&M students could be cast as regular folk. But A&M students are not regular folk. They are Aggies. And Aggies can yell down anybody.

    On the night before each home football game, an event called Midnight Yell takes place at the A&M football stadium. But it’s when the Aggies take that show on the road that things get fun. At midnight on the night before an away game, a Midnight Yell is held in or near the opponent’s city. Midnight Yells have been going on since 1932.

    The yells that the Aggies throw down are pre-set roars. They are chosen and rehearsed beforehand. There are Five Students elected each year to serve as Yell Leaders. These Leaders put together new yells and organize the all-important Yell Practices.

    One of these Yell Practices is what the Westboro Hate Group ran afoul of when they visited the A&M campus to spread their vitriol.

    “Their moral compasses have been broken by their parents, their teachers and their preachers,” said a Westboro spokesman of the Aggies. “From the time they were born, they were taught lies such as God loves everybody, and it’s okay to be gay, and it’s okay to divorce your wife and remarry another one.”

    So Westboro came to wave their signs and show these kids the error of their ways. But when the Aggies decided to hold an impromptu Yell Practice, the Haters got an earful. About 100 students showed up a short distance from the picketers and held their prectice. Dozens of others marched near the Westboro folks with signs of their own:

    Peace, Love and Gig em’ (a popular Aggie fight phrase)

    God Hates No One

    All You Need Is Love

    “I’m in love with my Aggies, that we brought love and peace, and are doing this in a nice way,” said A&M Senior Meg Hale. “Love is the answer.”

    Yell Practice Organizer Elyssa De Caprio said, “Their message is just one of pure hate, and it’s not something we want people to listen to.”

    This is what a typical Aggie Yell Practice is like:

  • Johnny Manziel Leads Texas A&M In Rout Of Vanderbilt

    Johnny Manziel, like most weeks this season, has led the Texas A&M Aggies to another impressive victory. This week, they faced off against Vanderbilt, in the first match-up for the two schools. The man known to many as simply “Johnny Football” for his excellent skills, led the Aggies to a 56-24 victory on Saturday.

    Texas A&M defeated #1 ranked Alabama last season, and almost did it again this season, in a tough battle that went down to the final minutes. Manziel is one of the top players in college football, and already won the Hesiman Trophy after last season. He is only a sophomore, but will likely be drafted after another successful season with the team.

    There was also a small amount of doubt that Manziel would even play in their game yesterday, due to a recent injury that he had suffered. The coach had expressed doubts about his playing ability, but it seemed as if Johnny had always intended to play. He said that he was always planning to play and said, “It would take a lot to keep me off the field and away from these guys. They count on me and they expect me to be there.”

    Not only is Manziel an outstanding player on the field, but he has become well-known for his actions off the field as well. He was featured on the jumbotron during their rout of Vanderbilt in a segment that had him stating that he would most like to party with the now infamous actor Charlie Sheen and New England Patriots tight end, Rob Gronkowski.

    He also added Tiger Woods to the mix, in a video that was later uploaded to Youtube. At only 20-years-old, Manziel was making headlines during the off-season, due to the way in which he spent his off hours, enjoying the night life with celebs such as Lebron James and Drake.

    After a surprising loss to Auburn last week, Johnny Manziel was able to bounce back and throw for 305 yards and four touchdowns in less than three quarters. They jumped to an explosive 28-0 lead, before allowing Vanderbilt to come back, but their comeback was simply much too late, and the Aggies continued to add on more points.

    Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, and after a great start to the 2013 season, he is looking to earn that honor once again.

    Image via Youtube

  • Alabama at Texas A&M: Highest TV Ratings in 23 years

    Saturday afternoon, No. 1 Alabama and No. 6 Texas A&M made history, not on the field, but based on the TV ratings. The broadcast of Saturday afternoon’s game has earned the highest ratings for a CBS regular season college football game in over 23 years announced on Sunday by the Network. And it was a great game to watch.

    The game earned an overnight household ratings/share of 9.0/21, that’s up 200% from 2012’s SEC season opener on CBS, Alabama Crimson Tide v. Arkansas Razorbacks. The previous highest rating for an afternoon regular-season game was Miami v. Nome Dame played Oct. 20, 1990. The ratings apparently were highest during the fourth quarter of the game as Manziel was leading Texas A&M for an outrageous comeback about 7:00-7:15 p.m. ET.

    But, looks like Alabama will keep their number one spot after a 49-42 victory over Texas A&M, despite Johnny Manziel finishing the game with emaculate stats. This is why they call him, “Johnny Football.” Manziel completed 28 of 39 passing for a career-high 464 yards, five touchdown passes and 98 yards rushing. Two interceptions hurt the Aggies, especially the second one giving the Crimson Tide a commanding lead of three-touchdowns.

    If you break the game down, Alabama had a fantastic first half after they scored seven points in the first quarter, and 21 points in the second quarter. Texas scored 14 points in the first quarter and was shut down by Alabama defense in the second quarter. By the second half, Alabama defense felt a little intimidated by Manziel, after making a bit of a comeback. Alabama offense continued to successfully score and hoped they pulled this one out. Alabama managed a victory, starting Texas A&M out with a 0-1 record in the SEC.

    This victory was fueled by vengeance after their most recent match up last November, where A&M won 29-24. Though it wasn’t an easy win today for Alabama.

    “We needed everybody all in today,” Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban explained. “Even though it got ugly at times, they competed and it was a great win for us.”

    With Manziel still in the spotlight after off-the-field drama in the off season after he allegedly accepted payments from autographs that he had signed in January 2013, he was only suspended half a game. Everyone was a little eager to watch him go down.

    Main Article Image from Wikimedia Commons.

  • Johnny Manziel Shines Against Alabama, Despite Loss

    Johnny Manziel has become quite the elite player in college football and is one of the best according to some people. Yesterday, the ultimate showdown took place between SEC offenses when the Texas A&M Aggies took on the Alabama Crimson Tide. Manziel, Texas A&M’s quarterback is able to get it done in the air and on the ground, and in yesterday’s game, he threw for 464 yards and ran for 98 yards. The Aggies ultimately lost the game in the end, but put up an incredible fight from start to finish. The final score was 49-42 in favor of Alabama.

    Alabama seemed to have no answer for Manziel throughout the game, and the only thing that they could do was retaliate with touchdowns of their own. The defense of both teams was almost not present, while both quarterbacks are also very elite players and like to rack up as many touchdowns as possible. This game was a rematch of the game that they played last year in which A&M pulled off the victory. In last year’s match A&M jumped ahead 20-0, and delivered Alabama their only loss of the season. This year was much of the same, although Alabama was able to hang on and win this one. They were finally safe from the unstoppable play of Manziel when Alabama’s quarterback AJ McCarron took a knee to end the game, leaving Manziel with nothing more to do, according to ABC News.

    The tough play of Johnny Manziel has even earned himself the nickname of Johnny Football. He has been known to get a bit too cocky at times too though, and received a penalty for excessive celebration earlier this season against Rice. He was also one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy last year.

    Alabama soon found that the only solution to stopping Manziel was to keep him off the field and keep their offense on the field for as long as possible. They were executing the strategy of “best defense is a good offense” in this case, hoping to see the aggressive play of Manziel as little as possible. AJ McCarron was quoted saying that “With the type of offense A&M has, you have to eat up some clock and pound the ball.” This seemed to be the only thing that Alabama could do in order to stop him, and it eventually worked. McCarron passed for 334 yards in Alabama’s win.

    Manziel was virtually unstoppable for much of the game, setting records for passing yards and total offensive yards. He set the single-game school record for passing yards and put up the second-most total offensive yards in a game (562), second only to his own total (576) against Louisiana Tech last year, states ESPN.

    Image via Youtube