DENNIS FRANCHIONE’S SECRET GOSSIP SHEET
TMZ.com’s blowing up like crazy these days, so they must be hiring, meaning you should forward Dennis Franchione’s curriculum vitae their way with all due speed. The brilliant, mold-breaking, team-building-exercise-lovin’ 1997-motivational-guru-of-tomorrow isn’t only a colossally overrated coach who ditched an entire organization overnight. He’s also a hell of gossip columnist for his own team.
The skinny (that’s what they say in gossip columns!):
Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione said Thursday he has discontinued a secret e-mail newsletter sent to select boosters willing to pay $1,200 per year for team information that Franchione routinely has withheld from the public.
“I knew it was probably going to be controversial,” Franchione said. “I certainly didn’t mean for it to be that. When I knew you guys were starting to ask around a bit, I thought, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do this.’”
There’s your peaches, right there: Franchione saying that he didn’t think he should publish the newsletter once people started asking about the letter. The newsletter, as the article details, went out to around 12 subscribers who signed confidentiality agreements, a nice bit of frosting for the story since the newspaper was able to get a hold of the super secret, confidential newsletter in the first place.
This indicates several things. One booster among these 12 has sold off all his shares in FranRon, Inc–otherwise, how the hell did the paper get their hands on it in the first place? Second, Coach Fran trod on a real ethical line here, since leaking information on games that are always wagered on by gamblers (potentially the boosters themselves, no?) in secret isn’t illegal, but is certainly jankety, skeevy, and questionable at best.
But enough about character. We don’t know Franchione, the person. We only see Franchione the coach and his actions, leading us to our next point.
Three, it indicates something you can only write on the internet, but it’s something we feel comfortable saying because we think there’s ample evidence of it at this point: Dennis Franchione is a fucking idiot. A total fucking idiot.
–Overwrought game plans are high school offenses in disguise and never fail to squander the talents of players like Reggie McNeal and Jorvorskie Lane.
–Craig James was laughing at your defensive scheme on national television. That’s enough, right?
–Aggie record is 28-24 going into this season with an annual salary of over 2 million dollars.
–Claimed his father was buried in an Alabama sweatshirt…two months prior to leaving the job for Texas A&M.
–Left a team without saying goodbye to his players at Alabama.
–Lost 77-0 to Oklahoma in 2003
–Hit your grandmother with a semi and dared to claim the right of way.
Dennis Franchione parked your car for you.And now, it’s come out that he’s selling exclusive info about the program in an extremely insecure format to subsidize CoachFran.com, including player injuries and unflattering player assessments, in a year when his job is clearly in danger.
The explicit editorial stance from here on out at EDSBS is that Dennis Franchione is a fucking idiot. A total goddamn piss-shitting paste-eating fucking idiot. We wouldn’t trust him with sinking a leaky barge full of bricks with the U.S.S. New Jersey. We wouldn’t trust him to feed our pet alligator Lawrence if we had freezer full of dead chickens and a shovel at the ready. We’d send him an email telling him all this, but we’d have to get in line, and he’s too busy emailing those friendly Liberians back with his bank account numbers. “I’m going to roll in my African riches! EXCELSIOR!!!”
Proven: Dennis Franchione is a fucking idiot. Q.E.D, motherfucker.
Note that no, this isn’t an attack on his character. This an attack on his intellect or lack thereof. These are all very public and very stupid actions on behalf of a person. It’s not garbage, Mike Gundy, if you can back it up. Franchione has a habit of doing very stupid things in the public eye. Objectively stupid things, like this, like leaving Alabama without saying goodbye, like pretty much everything about the Miami gameplan, like his mismanagement of Reggie McNeal. There’s plenty out there to back it up. His resume of dumb is deep, compelling, and documented.









1
Southern Papa says:
So why is he doing this the week of the Baylor game, and not the week of the Texas game? Are there subliminal messages here? Will Baylor pull this one out in Kyle Field?
September 28th, 2007 at 11:42 am
2
CatFanInDC says:
Wow. Simply wow.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:46 am
3
Fine Bottled Water says:
Frantastic!
September 28th, 2007 at 11:48 am
4
Kernel says:
I call him Gamblor, and it’s time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!
September 28th, 2007 at 11:49 am
5
DevilGrad says:
Has he claimed that his father was exhumed and reburied next to Reveille? ‘Cause that’s the only way I see him keeping his job into next year.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:50 am
6
Johnny says:
Craig James laughing at anything you do is reason enough to be called a fucking idiot. O, do you have kids? Gundy’s going to be asking.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:51 am
7
Rival says:
I remember watching the Miami game and thinking, “Why isn’t A&M handing off to their giant?”
Then ESPN cut to Franchione on the sideline, finger squarely in nostril with a “Duuuuhhhh…” thought-bubble above his head.
So, you may have something here.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:51 am
8
NewAZTiger says:
Fran – Hold the Rope!!!
September 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
9
Doug says:
In the words of Sadly, No!, one of my favorite political blogs:
There’s dumb (D). There’s fucktard dumb (FD). And then there’s clueless fucktard dumb (CFD).
That was somewhere below CFD.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:54 am
10
Brewster Crew says:
I’m still claiming that I will name my firstborn Orson*.
* Of course, this implies that I get a choice in naming.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:58 am
11
Geaux Irish says:
Geez, O, tell us how you truly feel about Coach Fran…
I’ve seen ‘bama boosters less fired up about this than you. Although, that didn’t occur until Mike Shula was shown the door to make room for Nick Saban.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
12
Boston Frog says:
New Mexico warned us.
We warned Alabama. When Fran wore a (Crimson) red tie to the Heisman ceremony the year LaDainian Tomlinson was invited to New York (and should have won), I started cutting Fran out of photographs and press clippings. He was dead to me.
Who know what Alabama said to A&M? And who cares? I’m just glad that Fran’s house of cards is currently scattered all over College Station. Fran and A&M deserve each other.
By the way, check Fran’s record with and without Gary Patterson as his defensive coordinator. It’s revealing. We stole Fran’s thunder, kept it, and ended up with some big wins, some nice bowl victories, a couple of conference titles and a top-10 final ranking in 2005.
Two guys were more responsible than any others for the revival of TCU football: Gary Patterson and LaDainian Tomlinson. Most of what Fran did was try to take credit.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
13
Orangeblood says:
Apparently that A&M-Alabama coaching pipeline only works out in one direction.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
14
LSUJoshua says:
The scene: Conference call going on right next to my cube as I am reading EDSBS.
Key moment: The clever line about Fran and my grandma a semi and a right of way at the end of a littany of serious points.
Result: Spontaneous, uncontrolled, knee slap laughter followed by unhappy coworkers and quizzical looks on people across the country on the other end of the phone.
Shit I love this site.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
15
Papa Lou BSU says:
Fun Friday theoretical question to the Longhorn fans on the board…
Assume the T+1 game (that’s your local shorthand for UT vs. A&M, right?) is played this year. UT’s out of the national title race and locked in to their post-season destination. A&M is decent enough that an Aggie win might save Fran’s job, ensuring another year or two of Fran-tastic mediocrity at your arch-rival. A loss gets Fran the ax, and puts them in play for the top coaching candidates this off-season, and you can’t guarantee they’ll whiff again.
What do you do? *What do you do?*
September 28th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
16
Brian says:
Im trying to see how this is any worse than “Head Ball Coach” premium website offerings.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
17
gerry dorsey says:
i ran out of fran jokes like 2 years ago. can this motherfucker just fade into bolivia already???
September 28th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
18
Eric says:
I was debating who is going to be the next A&M coach…but after reading about Fran’s most recent stroke of brilliance, I realize that they’d probably do better by just not hiring one.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
19
the12thManchild says:
“..he’s too busy emailing those friendly Liberians back with his bank account numbers. “I’m going to roll in my African riches! EXCELSIOR!!!””
can’t. stop. laughing.
oh god, i’m fucking giggling.
….and crying.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
20
Brian says:
Is Fran-Tastic mediocrity and better or worse than Chan-Tastic mediocrity? Just askin, yo.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
21
Orangeblood says:
Papa Lou BSU,
The scenario you described is exactly what happened last year. That win over an out-of-mnc-contention, crippled Longhorn team is why Fran is still gainfully employed this year. It was the silver lining in the loss.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
22
JeffAU says:
I love the venom the uat fans still spew Fran’s way — reality check: you guys ate this shit up when he was yours.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
23
The Truth says:
100%, no question about it, this little “elite newsletter” was the brainchild of Francis’s personal lapdog, former low-bred sportswriter Mike McKenzie. They’re quite the pair, these two.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
24
Herb says:
Paul Johnson installing the flexbone at A&M, with McGee running the option, Javorskie at Fullback and Goodson in one of the slots. Just let that marinate in your mind for a while. Fran must go!
September 28th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
25
Year2-Dave says:
Brian (#20), It depends on whether you like you mediocrity to be mind-numbingly boring with poor talent wasting the good talent on the team (Chan-tastic!) or if you want it to be mind-numbingly idiotic with horrendously bad coaching wasting the good talent on the team (Fran-tastic!).
Or you could opt for paying too much for cable and getting poor customer service to boot, in which case it’d be Comcastic!
September 28th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
26
SenorFeliz says:
A shame this had to happen the day before their biggest game of the year.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
27
Orangeblood says:
By the way, head over to the texasags.com forum if you want to rubberneck a fanbase melting down.
They do have some interesting next-head-coach Christmas lists.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
28
jmaze says:
With convincing home wins against Fresno High and Monroe of Louisiana, Aggies are probably assured a 7-5 record, and are in the thick of the hunt for a Humanitarian Bowl birth. Suck on that Notre Dame.
(As a Longhorn fan I will do everything in my power to help Franie keep his job. )
September 28th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
29
gerry dorsey says:
#25
i was just doing the same thing. as a bama fan living in texas, if you think bama nation is crazy, its only b/c aggie nation has not been relevant of late. they are shit nuts.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
30
Troy in Columbus says:
Since you didn’t attack his character all you need to know, in any to “my dad was burried in an Alabama sweatshirt” is he talked a bunch of freshman and sophomore players into staying the course to help him rebuild the program despite the NCAA sanctions, then decided to haul ass to A&M.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
31
gerry dorsey says:
and #22
the man hadn’t been exposed for what he is yet when he as at bama. not to mention he was winning…something he isn’t doing at a&m.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
32
Albino Tornado says:
Shoot, it’s not like Dollar Bill Byrne’s going to fire Fran — that implies he cares about excellence in football. Byrne’s quite happy with mere competence so that he can elevate the less successful programs, as his goal is to win the Director’s Cup.
Have fun, Aggie Fan. We knew what we were losing with Dollar Bill.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
33
Eric says:
Herb,
Honestly – someday, some big school will be smart enough to hire Paul Johnson as their coach, and reap the benefits.
Regardless of what system he runs, he wins, and he puts the right people in place to help him win.
If you don’t believe that, meet me down at City Dock so I can kiss your ass…I’ll even give you 3 days to gather a crowd!!
September 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
34
Jim in Jax says:
Q.E.D. – nice legal/latin/math reference
September 28th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
35
jebushchrist says:
I agree with everything you said there, except where you mentioned his win-loss record and his salary. You people act as though a coach is somehow responsible for every loss and that if he makes more money than 99% of the other coaches out there that he’s somehow a magic man who has all the answers and he should win more games. That’s just not true. Please cease and desist from making such comparisons.
Thank you.
Kirk Ferentz
September 28th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
36
Baby-faced Genius says:
Bravo on a job well done. I am sure Fran left while he could since the sanctions were coming down, and thank God he did. The beatdown he got 77-0 on a National Television stage was the retroactive revenge of Bear Bryant, since he coached at A/M before Bama, and Fran bolted like a thief in the night. As an Alabama fan, I felt so used, like no call the morning after a drunken fling with Pamela Anderson….. What a piece of work. He freakin talked like Kermit the Frog.
I am sure Texas A/M will build that logpile and put Fran on top before they light it this year.
$1200 bucks a yr for a Secret Newsletter aka Injury Report…. I am sure there are ties to organized crime….for that kind of cash I better get to injure the players myself if I lose money on the game…
September 28th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
37
panhandler says:
“fade into bolivia” would make an excellent indie band name.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
38
Dave says:
Orangeblood,
Re #21: You’re absolutely right that Fran’s continued employment was the silver lining, but it wasn’t exactly the same scenario. The Horns weren’t locked into their post-season destination – the loss cost them their spot in the Big XII title game and a BCS bowl bid.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
39
B says:
Liberians are crafty and hilarious.
Any of ya’ll ever received 9 fake USPS money orders totaling over $10,000?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
40
Cincy says:
I dont know who is dumber… Fran for trying to peddle injury reports or the dumbass alumni that want advance notice of the mediocrity they will be witnessing on Saturday.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
41
Laugh says:
At Herb-
Sweet Jesus, you’re right.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
42
Orangeblood says:
Dave,
Oh, that’s right. It’s just as well.; the team wasn’t in any shape to compete in a BCS game. The other silver lining was OU got the losing end of that Boise State miracle upset. That could’ve been Texas.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
43
NoleinTexas says:
#15
You do the only thing you can do. Shoot the hostage, or the dog.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
44
Music City Crimson says:
#22 – Jeff.
First off, Jeff, no bama fan gives a damn what some dumbass Barner thinks. You barners wish he was still in Tuscaloosa since Saban is kicking your ass in recruiting and will soon be busting that ass on the field. Good luck with Cox this weekend.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
45
blazin says:
Career limiting move
September 28th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
46
Raider Red says:
[Coach Kline] Franny sucks. He really really sucks. [/Coach Kline]
How is this news? Have any of you actually watched Aggy play the last few years?
A poster on Hornfans compiled Fran’s record at all his D-1 stops; the results were astounding. Essentially, Fran has compiled a good record by beating up on medicore teams…take those games away, and his winning percentage is way below the Mendoza Line. I think Air Force (while at UNM) and Texas last year were the only ranked teams he’s ever beaten.
Reading Texags is sweet sweet candy. They’re just now coming to the realization that Emperor Fran has no clothes.
I can’t wait to play them on October 13th. Graham Harrell might be yanked by the third quarter after he gets his 500 yards and 6 TDs.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
47
Sabanite says:
The picture of the ass doesn’t count as Friday bunda does it?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
48
beast in 'bama says:
#15 – Agree with NoleinTexas: definitely shoot the damned dog!
Unless, of course, Houston Dale Nutt is available…
September 28th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
49
LL says:
Nice work!
September 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
50
Raddman says:
This ought to qualify Fran for the Aggies Hall of Honor. Only an Aggie could be so dumb as to sell out his players confidential information for personal gain.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:42 pm