Eagle’s 24-mammal forecaster panel begins

There are just 91 days until Texas A&M and Texas play football, but who’s counting? Before then, the Aggies have seven Southeastern Conference games that include trips to Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Auburn and Arlington (to play Arkansas), along with important home matchups against Missouri and LSU. The non-conference schedule includes a team you’ve probably heard of, Notre Dame, which is the season-opening team. It doesn’t get much better than all that. There’s a lot of football to be played before Thanksgiving.

But there’s no question that millions of people will flock to the stadium on Nov. 30, when the Aggies and Longhorns play football for the first time since Nov. 24, 2011. All you have to do is check the ticket prices on secondary markets. It would take a venue larger than Rhode Island to hold all the people who want to see that game.

And the 35th Annual Eagle Mammal Prognosticators Panel of 24 will pay tribute to the rivalry with our guest collectors, led by graduates of Texas A&M and the University of Texas. They’ll put their collecting skills to the test and sharpen their trash-talking abilities as we have three months of fun waiting for the kind of game legends are made of.

We haven’t limited our panel to the Lone Star Showdown rivalry. We have a Texas Tech grad and a Baylor grad. We have a Mississippi State grad, though we couldn’t find any Ole Miss grads. We found a die-hard Ole Miss fan, and lo and behold, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin bought him an honorary degree to be on the panel. We have a Sam Houston State grad and a SFA grad who won’t be intimidated by the Aggies and Longhorns, because they’re two-time progressive champions.

Our rivalry theme hit a few hiccups. We couldn’t find a Utah grad to offset our BYU grad (KBTX sports director Tyler Shaw) and the same went for our attempts to find a Wisconsin grad for our Minnesota guy (Eagle editor Rick Weegman). Yours truly graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and sadly I couldn’t find anyone from Slippery Rock or California (Pa.). We have two rivals and I struck out twice. Sadly, Tyler, Rick and I are the Pac-12 Conference version of the panel. Nobody wants us and we certainly don’t have the money to buy a rival.

Clay Falls, Bryan ISD Director of Media Relations: Clay learned how to pick games from Bryan School District Superintendent Ginger Carrabine, who made a splash in her Prog debut last year. Help is just a step away, though he probably won’t need it.

Bill Hicks, owner of Bryan Broadcasting: Bill is from the UT class of 1976, which for years was his golf score. If he picks the games the same way he handles the links, we’re all in trouble. He had Texas in burnt orange in his picks he sent in this week. I wonder how he did it?

Walter Hinkle, LASER Answering Service: He has served five terms as president of the Brazos Valley Texas Exes, rotating with Clay. He graduated in 1979 and just celebrated his 45th wedding anniversary. He is also a past president of the Bryan Rotary Club.

Amy Vance, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station staff: She is the current president of the BV Texas Exes. She immediately wanted to know what the bet would be between the Aggies and the Longhorns. You have to love the attitude.

Doug Wunneburger, Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture, Professor: He admits he’s the worst kind of fool, because he was on the Longhorn Band. His last game at UT was the final season of UT’s Darrell Royal and Arkansas’ Frank Broyles. Doug has been on the A&M faculty in some capacity since 1988. He also served for 13 years on the Bryan ISD school board and was president for three years.

Austin Dunson, College Station ISD Director of Media Relations: I wonder what kind of bet he’ll make with Clay?

Jon Heidtke, founder of HSE, LLC: Jon, who also teaches a Kinesiology and Sport Management class at A&M, suggested that perhaps a dinner should be held at the contest, based on Amy’s ideas. Jon is in the Texas A&M Journalism Alumni Association Hall of Honor. It must be for his days as a correspondent for The Eagle before moving on to bigger and better things with FOX Sports Southwest.

Kenny Lawson, CEO of CC Creations: Kenny has won almost as many awards as his company has produced t-shirts. I imagine he will be a big winner with the renewal of the rivalry. He is so good that he will probably win Prog and find a way to get the rest of us to pay for a custom-made jacket produced by, of course, CC Creations.

Mike Nugent, Running Arms Company: He’s a die-hard Aggies fan, but can he pick games? At least if he gets run out of town, he’s in shape. He has three children, two are Aggies graduates and the third is a senior.

Scott Raisor, Zwernemann Flooring: Another candidate for Aggie graduates. He’s a former winner of Friday’s Fearless Football Picks Contest, hosted by SportsTalk’s Chip Howard. Scott toured the country that summer with the Lord Howard Cup.

“That’s one of the few unfortunate glories I’ve had in my life,” Scott said. “Now I feel like I’ve been chosen by the greats of the Prog Panel.”

Scott doesn’t mind the Hound beating him up, as long as he doesn’t humiliate him. He also wants to make it clear that he works for Zwernemann Flooring and has no relationship with Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle.

“So please, no hate mail,” Scott said.

Maybe Scott can give Brent an extra n.

Joe Ramirez, vice president of student affairs at Texas A&M: How many recruiting panels have a retired US Army Brigadier General on them? There are companies that would pay good money to have his resume. I hope the Longhorn graduates don’t see this star-studded panel and opt to enter the Prog’s transfer portal instead. A lot went into putting this panel together; I’d hate to think I wasted a couple hours that I could have been listening to the coach speak.

Steve Allbritton, West, Webb, Allbritton and Gentry (Baylor): Steve is retired from work, but not from talking football. The firm’s website says he misses his daily contributions, but “he is a frequent visitor, especially when it’s time to talk football.” Steve graduated cum laude from Baylor Law School and was on the Dean’s List all four years. I don’t think his rival can top that.

Gary Blair, retired Texas A&M women’s basketball coach (Texas Tech): This is Gary’s third year at Prog and he has finished on the front row both times. He takes it very seriously. He made this week’s picks while in Napa Valley, California. Like a fine wine, Gary just keeps getting better, well at least that’s what he says. You can correct him if I’m wrong.

Donnis Baggett, Lucky B Bison Ranch (SFA): Donnis, who twice won the Prog Award while editor of The Eagle, jumped at the chance to return, but he’s so busy that it might be difficult for him to win another title. Donnis, who is in the Texas Press Association Hall of Fame, is the organization’s executive vice president. He runs the organization’s government affairs program and is the state and national newspaper industry liaison. If that weren’t enough, he runs the ranch with his wife, Beverly Brown. They are also active in the National Bison Association and the Texas Bison Association, and do countless volunteer work.

“I didn’t have time to analyze the odds, so I just went with my gut,” Donnis wrote. “Hopefully I don’t embarrass the buffalo herd.”

Thomas Wells, retired air traffic controller (Ole Miss): He’s the mystery guy on the panel. I don’t know much about him, but his references are spot on. He obviously outlived The Grove at Ole Miss for decades, which says something. Let’s see if his picks are Hotty Toddy.

Crystal Dupre, Development Director, Finis Welch Foundation (Mississippi State): Crystal, who had to settle for second place last year, is going all out, choosing the Irish over the Aggies.

“I know this isn’t the time to make comments, but I hope people remember that I choose with my head and not my heart,” Crystal said. “I want A&M to win every game every year except one.”

She’s a two-time champion, so she’s earned respect. And the outlook for her Bulldogs this season is pretty bleak. They probably don’t have much of a chance against Ole Miss, but if Crystal can finish ahead of Chip again, it’ll be a good season.

Chester Cessna, dog: You can tell it’s football season. I couldn’t believe my wife ate the last of the doughnut holes this morning without throwing away the carton. Turns out she didn’t. Chester managed to get to the back of the counter, flipped the lid off the plastic container, ate about 20 doughnut holes, and moved the container about 4 inches. When I confronted him, he had that guilty look on his face. He must have been studying the selections. Fortunately, he didn’t touch the strudel that was at the front of the counter. His selections should be good this week.

Louie Belina of the Louie Belina Show, director of the ZONE program: It will be difficult for Louie to match last year’s third place finish, but he will have fun trying.

“I can’t believe there wasn’t any trash talk in Week 1,” Louie said. “It’s a rivalry that’s going to happen: It’s me versus the English language.”

KZNE SportsTalk host Chip Howard: Is he on the decline? The nine-time Prog champion hasn’t won since 2020, which must feel like an eternity.

Alex Miller, Eagle Sports Writer: Let’s hope he makes a better choice as a sports writer than as a digital director.

Tyler Shaw, KBTX Sports Director: Darryl Bruffett finished 22nd last year, maybe that’s what really made him decide to retire. Tyler should be able to do better than beating the Dog. I wonder if that’s in Tyler’s contract. If he beats the Dog, does he get a bonus?

Brent Zwerneman, Houston Chronicle: He’s a proud Sam Houston State graduate, who chose his Bearkats to beat Rice. Brent is also a two-time champion and is coming off a front-row finish.

Rick Weegman, Eagle editor in chief: Rick had a front-row spot his rookie year, but was upset that he couldn’t get a NIL contract similar to that of his namesake, Aggie quarterback Conner Weigman.

Here’s my take on the rivalry. We’ll split the bracket into six-teams for more competition, with the Aggies and Longhorns leading the pack. Texas’ sixth pick will be Chip.

Steve, Gary, Donnis, Thomas, Crystal and Z-Man will form a team. Louie, Alex, Tyler, Rick, Chester and myself will remain.

The goal is always to be the best manager and everyone wants to beat the Dog, but the team part will be a new twist.

Robert Cessna’s email address is [email protected]