If you have been following Aggie football this season, and you are one of those people that like to drink a lot when you are happy and even more when you are down, then this could be your year. If you find base jumping or downhill skiing thrilling and don’t mind landing in the sewage treatment tank at the bottom or on your bruised backside, then this year’s Fightin’ Texas Aggies are your team.

Through eight games this season the Aggies (5-3, 2-2) have messed with our emotions as much as that aspiring lingerie model we used to date, the one that calls at 2 a.m. and comes over to tell us about the latest bad news from her gynecologist.

We’ve had reasons to get excited, like say the first three games, and reasons to be disgusted, games against Arkansas and Kansas State, but mostly we’re just left with a feeling of confusion. Is this a good team with some promise for the future or a stagnating team closing in on the bottom of the Big 12 South?

Well, unless you really liked those white helmets Ol’ Army donned at Jerry’s Palace or you last saw them play in the 1940 Sugar Bowl, they have played too poorly at times to feel good about what you could soon see more of and they’ve scored too many points (particularly with freshmen) to think they won’t soon meet your expectations. Thanks to a little altering of some Dennis Green words, I am here to tell you that this team “Isn’t who I thought they were!” Frankly, I don’t know who or what they are.

In their three losses (Arkansas, Oklahoma St., and Kansas St.), this team lost by an average of 27 points. If you exclude the 5 point loss to the Cowboys at Kyle Field, when OSU was without wide receiver Dez Bryant (whose talents include pass catching, hanging with Mr. Sanders, and lying himself out of no trouble), this team lost the other two games by an average of 38 points, giving up 858 yard of offense and 5 lost fumbles (one for a touchdown), in the process. After the 62-15 loss to KSU, Mike Sherman, perhaps complimenting the kicking game, said “We couldn’t make the plays. Fundamentally, we didn’t block or tackle, throw or catch real well” and added that “They [the players] should be disappointed. They should be embarrassed, that we had that type of game”. Well said Mike, keep it real.

Yet, this is the same team that has already put together a three game winning streak, finally won a game in Lubbock against the Red Raiders (who were favored in Las Vegas by 24 points), and has won two consecutive conference matches. In their five victories, their average margin of victory is over 25 points. In each of these five games Sherman’s offense has put up at least 500 yards of total offense (averaging 556) and 5 offensive touchdowns.

This team also has seen the emergence of two dynamic (and strangely named) true-freshmen playmakers, wideout Uzoma Nwachukwu from Allen and tailback Christine Michael from Beaumont. Nwachukwu is averaging 20.7 yards per catch, 70 yards per game, and has racked up six touchdowns. Michael, while sharing carries with sophomore Cyrus Gray, is averaging over five yards per carry and has reached the promise land five times. Surely there is something in those stats to feel good about. If only, I could get that picture of the way the first half ended and the second half started in Manhattan out of my head.

This week they head to Boulder to take on Colorado (2-6, 1-3), a team that started the season with consecutive losses to two non-BCS Conference teams in Colorado State and Toledo. Toledo is currently 2-3 in the MAC while Colorado State remains winless in the Mountain West. So should we expect the Aggies to come out slinging the ball all over the field to the tune of 500 yards and 5 touchdowns or should we bet on them playing more like Eric Mangini’s team on Rush Limbaugh’s favorite medication?

We will, of course, have to wait and see. But we can expect that it probably won’t be a close score, one way or the other, and there will be plenty of reason to drink.