Monaco joins TA Live as A&M's 2024-25 athletic year comes to a close

Texas A&M's 2024-25 athletic year is coming to an end, and Andrew Monaco was there for it all. "The Voice of the Aggies" joined Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Live to dive into the state of the football, basketball and baseball programs and what is to come.

Key notes from Andrew Monaco interview

• It’s a good move to keep him, because Michael Earley is invested and understands what went wrong in Year 1. I think he had to tell Trev Alberts what would be different in Year 2. My problem with the SEC is that Earley was treated by umpires as a first-year head coach and not a head coach. There’s a difference there. I think he earned the respect of being the head coach of Texas A&M. What do you do differently in year two? What works? You continue with. What doesn’t? Do you see the growth and development?
   
• Some people say Earley inherited a No. 1 team and shouldn’t have had their record. Yes, he did, but you can’t take two first-round picks out of your lineup and expect to automatically be in Omaha. Then you see, how do you work around all of that? We’ll see another offseason of Earley recruiting, but if you didn’t get Wyatt Henseler, Ben Royo and Terrence Kiel II this past year, where are you? How much did you accelerate Kiel’s growth? If you get rid of Earley after one year, what does that say to other potential coach candidates about the A&M job? What he said last year to get the job, I think it still applies. I think it’s the same blue-collar mentality of making this work, but not being stubborn about doing it the same way as last year. You could see how he adapted throughout the season. I think he’s the right guy at the right time for this team. Despite being disappointed, I think the players, based on what Jace LaViolette said at the SEC Tournament, will run through a wall for Earley.
   
• I think you make a good point. If someone from the outside comes in, this era of Aggie baseball is gone. I think the players are gone. Not to say a new guy can't bring talent in. Brian O'Connor at Mississippi State will probably bring a very Virginia look. For better or worse, that's the era of sports in 2025 with the transfer portal. The difference in hiring coaches now is that it’s sitting coaches, not coaches on the sideline waiting to get back in.
   
• I think Earley is the right guy. You could see some of that development by the team by the end of the season. Could you see the turning point for the bullpen? Yes. You had a starting staff that was solid for most of the season. I think there are building blocks, but I just can’t get past Gavin Grahovac playing six games and Caden Sorrell playing half a season. If you double Sorrell’s numbers, you’re talking about an All-SEC selection and one of the best players in the nation. That’s hard to overcome, but they did by putting players in there who were able to develop. At no point did Earley quit. The important part of the players loving him is that those players who have a stake in the team matter in 2025.
   
• I think the basketball team can compete. I think what you said is spot on. I think it’s important to see where they came from and who they played for. I think we focus just on numbers sometimes in the portal. I think how they play and fit presents something exciting about how this team will grow together. Bucky McMillan might have to do this a couple of times and then start adding in his guys. I think Buzz Williams did well bringing in guys who were here for a long time. Henry Coleman III was here for three years. Manny Obaseki came from high school. Wade Taylor IV stayed through a coaching change. Even from the portal, guys stayed here for a long time. This might be more short-term, but off the bat, you’re seeing someone who can adapt. This is a blank slate. This is the guy kids get to play with. I think it says a lot about who these players are.
   
• Pop Isaacs wanted to play at A&M. Williams and the staff said “No,” twice. When we played Creghton in Vegas, all I heard was that Isaacs wanted to go off. I know it's not the same staff, but it makes it interesting.
   
• There’s so much talk in the conference about how teams are investing in basketball in the SEC, and the coaches. Sometimes, we forget the talent that is in the SEC. You'd better have it. Rylan Griffen, who was at Alabama and Kansas... Especially someone who was in Alabama under Nate Oats. McMillan was in Alabama and saw that, but he’s a Texas kid. 
   
• Mackenzie Mgbako probably had a very difficult decision because he was turning heads in the NBA. If you’re not going to be one of the 60 that are picked, then you come back. It’s different from baseball, getting into the minors. It’s tougher with basketball. We’ve seen how it’s paid off for Quenton Jackson going through the G-League. It’s paid off for Alex Caruso, too, but you don’t want to rush into being a pro. Come back for one more year, and you will become one of the 60 in the next draft. The lineage for those guys, where they've played, their minutes and their competition… For Pharrel Payne, when he played here, the difference in the Big Ten was the speed.
   
• What was Tony Vitello’s first year at Tennessee? You have to throw all the curveballs. Every coach gets that. When I was with the Magic, Chuck Daly would always tell his coaches that his seat was warmer than the ones they were sitting in. I would have loved to play Tennessee with Braden Montgomery. I think that would have been a different series. Don’t forget. We started Zane Badmaev in Omaha. I love him, but you’d rather have Shane Sdao going in that. Even then, it caught up to A&M. It's No. 1 versus No. 2, but No. 2 wasn't fully armed and still went to three games. It was such a long season, but you did miss Montgomery and Sdao in that. This year, you were missing Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell for almost the entire season.
   
• If people think it’s going to be the same baseball team running it back, that’s not the way sports work anymore. You want to be stronger. You are what your record is. You were 14th in the SEC. Not good enough. You’re watching the regionals. You are not in them. What do you have to do differently? You’ll see that on the recruiting trail and in the portal. Player retention has to be step No. 1. To see all these players say they are “all in” is great. I’m not mad at the guys that do transfer, because they have great opportunities. The key players coming back are huge.
   
• Anytime fans wonder where something came from in football, I call it guys who were bubbling under. Redshirts, freshmen becoming sophomores. If you take Leon O'Neal Jr.'s first two and last two years, that’s two different players. Preseason polls are looking at last year. Can you see some warning signs? Yes.
   
• For A&M, retaining your whole offensive line, bringing back all of your running backs, Le'Veon Moss being healthy and potentially another one of the best backs in the SEC, Rueben Owens, will be back. How much does that help Marcel Reed? Mike Elko said this last week. Reed now knows what it takes to be an SEC quarterback. That’s why I talk about work in the dark. Are you going to work on strength, tackling technique, catching radius and all of that stuff? You see that maturity more than anything.
   
• Then there’s the confidence of “I can do this.” Terry Bussey now knows he has a position going forward. We weren’t sure where he would play. Elko cautioned us not to put the whole season on a 17-year-old. He is now 18 and has played in the SEC. You have Mario Craver. Will Lee III said he’s glad he’s a teammate, so he doesn't have to play against him. Those dynamics, with that player retention, when guys want to stay and play with one another, they up the ante and set the culture. You can say what you want. When you watch development, you're not the same guy as a freshman or as a senior. You hope they are better in November, December and January.
   
• The worst thing to be as an athlete is a “what if.” You want to take all the “ifs” out. That’s why you do one more rep in the offseason. That’s what has to drive you. In the past, when a team played to their strengths, they won. But now, it’s how do you hide your flaws the best or eliminate those flaws. That “if,” that lasting image, is the drive to why you want to be better coming out of the tunnel against UTSA in Week 1.
   
• I’m going with “disappointing” for Aggie sports this year. That’s because we want it for those student athletes. What we miss, going back to Williams, we lost to Tennessee at home. You’re disappointed because you didn't come through at the end of that game. Williams sits down and says, “That was a really good basketball game.” I want to be in a super regional right now, but we are forgetting that we watched to watch a top ten pick play centerfield and bat every day. We’re forgetting the performances.
   
• We’re disappointed because we’re not the best. I don't want that to change, but I want us to be the best in the best A&M way. That’s the disappointment, in that we invest so much. I get it, but let’s not forget the performances and not just root for laundry. Let's root for the people in those jerseys. Let's not forget what Trisha Ford is building here. Yes, we’re disappointed. You hate the way the football season ended. But trust Elko, trust Earley, trust what McMillan is about to build. Trust what Joni Taylor is about to do in the offseason. Look what track is doing under Pat Henry. If we just root for laundry, we’re like everybody else in the country in sports. Not that we can’t be disappointed, but we can’t forget the performances, what’s being built, what we’re watching and the student-athletes investing their time at A&M.