Oscar Thomson
ESPN Staff Writer
Sunday, August 13th
Reuben Spencer has been officially released 5 games into the 2022 Texas A&M season.
Spencer, who is also responsible for arranging team travel, made some unforgivable mistakes in week 5. One of the premier SEC rivalries between Arkansas and Texas A&M decided to play its annual Dallas game in Atlanta for the first time. Coach Spencer was, somehow, unaware of the rivalry's location change and booked team flights, hotels, meals, etc. in Dallas for the weekend of 8/15.
This was the first of two very irreparable decisions.
Luckily, the error was identified early enough in the week so that the 3rd year DL coach was able to make arrangements last minute but cost the university a large sum of money in cancellation fees.
The Aggies arrived in Atlanta late Friday night with just enough time to unload their bags at the team hotel and make it to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a walkthrough after the Arkansas Razorbacks held practice. An exhausted Coach Spencer lay down on the first row of the bleachers when he noticed a laminated sheet that he thought was the Razorbacks' gameplan.
It clearly described a run-heavy approach and the Aggies would prepare as such. Spencer was able to convince the defensive staff to pull an all-nighter preparing their team to play against a run attack with this sheet in hand.
As turns out, one of the offensive Arkansas coaches planted the false flag.
The game was too far gone and the coaches were too exhausted from their overnight session to adjust on the fly once they realized what had happened. Arkansas QB Chris Diaz would go on to throw for 47 attempts, up from just 29 the week before. He torched the 6-1-4 run-heavy Aggie defense for 365 yards and 5 TDs (more than doubling his previous 2 TD game) going on to win 35-33.
"It's a sad day anytime you have to lose, but being duped in this manner in which I consider a very winnable ball game just makes things wore", Coach GigemAgs went on to say, "Rueben has been an elite recruiter and position coach for years but I had no choice but to let him go at this time".
Aggies return home to Kyle field for a night matchup against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday, August 20th.
Coach Spencer won't be around to be duped again.