COLLEGE STATION, Texas — This year’s Texas A&M spring football scrimmage will have a twist. As part of his ongoing efforts to involve the student body with the football program, head coach Mike Sherman invited two students to join the team on the sidelines as honorary assistant coaches for the game.
"It goes back to the basketball game when I talked to the students and said, ‘It’s your team,’" Sherman said. "I want to make it more of their team by letting them coach it. We are going to have the team choose two students — one for Maroon team, one for White team — that will serve as honorary coaches and get to meet the team and do some fun things surrounding the spring game."
To get one of the two spots on the sidelines, students had to convince the football team they deserved it. Students were asked to submit two-minute YouTube-style videos to the athletic department. The football team voted for their favorites Monday.
"Everybody that submitted a video was first class," Sherman said.
"We got a really positive response," said Drew Martin, the assistant athletic director. "We whittled [the submitted videos] down to eight finalists that we showed the team, [then] we tallied the votes [Monday night]."
The winners had been decided, but Martin said they were not ready to share the names yet because they wanted to add flair to the affair.
The Athletic Department organized a Wednesday news conference in which Sherman introduced the honorary student assistant coaches Courtney Roland and Joseph Delgado. The three of them answered questions from the press, and Roland and Delgado were introduced in the same manner that Sherman would introduce any member of his coaching staff.
Roland is a freshman agricultural communications and journalism major whose dad, Steve Roland, Class of 1974, played football for Texas A&M nearly 40 years ago.
Delgado is a junior communication major. "This is it, it’s exciting as it gets as a football fan," Delgado said.
Roland and Delgado will get exclusive inside looks at the football team in the days leading up to the Maroon and White game. They will be invited to practice on Thursday and encouraged to talk to the athletes and coaches.
"This will be a good experience to be around the student athletes around the coaches," Martin said. "There’s talk that they will give a pregame or halftime speech in the locker room. In terms of putting on the headsets and calling nickel packages, it’s really not as much about that, as [it is about] the opportunity to be on the sidelines … with the team, learning a little about football. The interaction is really what the focus is about."
Martin said that it will make for an opportunity for the students to really get to know Sherman. He said Sherman is far from intimidating, despite his large stature, and that he is one of the most approachable people he has ever met.
Aggies will have an opportunity to see the submitted videos at the Maroon and White game. Plans are to intersperse the videos throughout the scrimmage during time outs and halftime.
"[The videos] ran the gamut of very serious and very heartfelt to skits and comedy hour, or comedy two minutes," Martin said. "It really impressed us because there were times the coaches were looking at them and really thought it just reinforced everything we knew about Aggies.
"[The students] spoke very genuinely about Texas A&M and what this experience would mean to them, what Texas A&M represents and how they want to represent the student body. We got a sense that people take pride in the University. It was really neat to see the creativity come out."
This is not the only idea Sherman cooked up to help connect the athletes with the University. Sherman has taken the team to Silver Taps, in addition to making practice open to the public for students to enjoy during a leisurely spring evening.
Sherman plans to encourage those in attendance to vote on which football player will represent the 12th Man by wearing the sacred No. 12 Jersey for the opening game of the upcoming football season.
"It’s just part of my plan to integrate the student body with the football team and the football team with the student body," Sherman said. "That’s what A&M football’s all about, the 12th Man, so we just try to make that connection."
The Maroon and White game will kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday at Kyle Field. Martin said admissions are free for anyone who is college-age, or younger, and $5 for adults.