Aggie Town Hall: Episode 3
Apr 06, 2020 | General
Welcome to another weekly Aggie Town Hall, it's presented by CHI St. Joseph Health, the official health care provider of Texas A&M Athletics.
Andrew Monaco: Along with our Director of Athletics, Ross Bjork, and with Will Johnson of 12th Man Productions, I'm Andrew Monaco. We're so glad you are with us. And what a week it has been, Will. I know you don't like this drought until football, but there was some uniform talk that our quarterback and our A.D. engaged in on Twitter.
Will Johnson: Well once the quarterback says it, and the A.D. predicts it, there's gonna be some chatter. And he was dead on with this list of questioning I have right here for Ross Bjork today.
Ross Bjork: Well, you know, I was missing Kellen so much that I'm glad he tweeted that, and I figured that we'd have a little fun and throw that out there. Nothing like offseason uniform rumors. And that spurred on the message board threads I'm sure, posts and tweets. You've gotta have a little fun in this situation that we're in. So, thanks to Kellen. Good job, buddy.
Andrew: So…?
Yeah, I was gonna pull it up on my phone here. No, no, I'm just kidding. We have a plan to unveil what our new uniforms will look like. Obviously, given the current situation, one, we hope they're produced the right way. We hope they're shipped, given the current environment, since these are made overseas. But we do have some plans I think in the coming weeks, with some content planning, just to show Aggie fans what our new uniforms will look like. So I just can't do it on my phone. I can't do it over a tweet. Can't do it that way. We've got to do something cool. So our folks are working on that.
Will: So, Ross, the first three questions that were replied to you this week, one was from Hayden, just in all caps, UNIFORM UPDATE. From P. K., can you give us more information on these potential new uniforms? And then from burner, DROP THE UNIS in all caps with the fire emoji. So you got three people asking the same question, but I want to go to Cody Blain, because he kind of gets in depth when replying to you on Twitter. He said, do you have to approve uniform designs? What does this process look like? And how do we make sure adidas gets the uniform right?
Great question. Matt Watson is one of the best equipment guys that I've been around in my travels in college athletics, he really spearheads the process. He works with the adidas team, obviously works with our football program. We get some input from the coaching staff, a few players as well. Our marketing folks are involved. You want this to be a retail component as well, so it's layered. But that's really how it works. And I think part of it is how do we make sure adidas gets it right? I mean, we give them the ultimate design. There's an input process that we go through, and then ultimately we say, that's it. That's the one we want to go with. That's how the process works. But Matt Watson, we'll give him all the credit in the world for spearheading everything, and we think Aggie fans are gonna be really thrilled, and it's gonna be exciting as these things are unveiled.
Andrew: Ross Joel for is part of the fight in Texas Aggie class of 2013 out of Kingsville, though he said it's their talks of starting the football season later than August?
It's been really the topic. I think, you know, once we got through all the spring sport cancellation and some of the eligibility conversations, everyone is pointing towards the fall as we go into, you know, these late spring and early summer months. And, you know, I was really excited to see earlier today that the PGA Tour announced some dates for some major golf tournaments. I think that's a great sign. I'm reading things about Premier League Soccer starting up. You see things happening in the NBA where they're having conversations, you know, everyone anticipating that we're going to start up. We know that this is gonna be, you know, something that does go away and that we can get back to our normal lives. And so there's all kinds of really planning and conversations going on right now about modified seasons, truncated has been a word that's been thrown out, delayed, things like that to me. It's, you know, it's only April the sixth. Right now. it's way too early. We've seen a lot of data come out today about maybe the curve will hit us sooner. So that's a good thing, right? So all this social distancing that we're now into the fourth week of, at least from my standpoint, these things are working. And so there's lots of conversations happening right now. We don't know the answers, but we're ready to pivot and adapt, and prepare our players and prepare our fans and our University. It's a big decision when we talk about these things because it's not just athletics. it's really you know, how does the university operate? How do our normal students come back to class? And so it's very layered. But that's part of the process of what we're talking about, really on a daily basis at this point.
Will: Sticking with that Ross, we got a few questions last week from Facebook that we didn't quite get all of them, and Travis Reese asked a question along the lines of this topic, going down to the bottom part of his question, he asks after will the coronavirus affect upcoming football season? Are all the athletes healthy right now? And do you think the virus could affect attendance in upcoming games in the fall or beyond?
We are monitoring our student-athletes from a health and safety perspective. Right now, there's a lot of zoom calls. There's a lot of facetime calls. Our coaches, they're staying plugged in. Our trainers are staying plugged in. We did have some athletes that were rehabbing injuries. And so we're making sure that they're in the right position to overcome those injuries and get back on track in a healthy way. So that's occurring. There are some distance rehab. There's also some student-athletes who are still here in College Station rehabbing as well. So we're paying attention to all of that as we speak. It's ongoing. The rehabilitation, the monitoring is all ongoing right now, and we're keeping track of it in this virtual world.
Andrew: Ross, Mason Pruitt went to 12thman.com/askross, he's in the Class of '22 here in College Station. He asks do you plan on making the Arkansas game go back to a home and home series instead of at AT&T Stadium?
That's a great question. It's something that kind of hit my plate right when first got here about the future of that series, and my conversation at that time, and my response, was we should have every SEC home game here on our campus. Every other year, obviously, we're playing an "SEC home game" at AT&T Stadium. That's been a good set up when it got started, it was a nonconference game. But now that we're in the conference, we should have every game at home. And so when that contract expires after the 2024 season, our position will be that that game should be played on campus. Arkansas has some challenges on their side. They play a game in Little Rock. They have this game in Dallas. I believe they want more home games as well, so over the next couple of years, we'll have a final decision on that. But that's my anticipation, that we should have every SEC home game on our campus. That's what our fans deserve. That's why we built the stadium that we have. And that's our plan when that contract expires. Good question.
Will: Speaking of Kyle Field, we've got a question from San Diego, California that's from Brandon, Class of '17. Should we expect to see any changes to Kyle Field this year?
Yeah, you know, those are questions that are somewhat pending right now. We had some plans to maybe look at some signage inventory, some digital upgrades in a few areas, things like that. Changing out a few of our concessions, and those sort of things. We need to upgrade a few infrastructure things related to concessions. But right now, given the financial uncertainty, a lot of those things are on pause right now, and so we hope that we can engage in some upgrades. But right now, given the uncertainties, we don't anticipate anything major at this point in time.
Andrew: Along those lines, John Pasquarette asked on Facebook, any thoughts to share on Reed improvements or Olsen expansion? If that is still on pause, do you still kind of look ahead with everyone in facilities and try to plan things out for the future?
Great questions and really, yes, there are plans. We have tons of ideas. We have lots of things that we've studied already since I've been here, and we want to keep studying those things and really do a lot of the internal work. And so really, how we're approaching our facilities projects are let's keep planning. Let's keep putting concepts on the table. But anything in a public way, any capital campaigns, seating plans, revenue generation, given the circumstances, we need to set those on the shelf. But again, the internal planning, the preparation of the logistics of everything, we want to keep those things going. We want to keep our architects engaged. We don't want to lose thought processes and things like that, so that's how we'll approach it. We'll plan internally, but then the public phase will just have to sit there a little while until we know what the certainty looks like, how we open back up, what the financial situation is. We want to be very sensitive. So that's how we'll look at any sort of long-term major projects at this time.
Will: Well, we knew this young man would arrive and find out about these Aggie Town Halls soon enough. And he's a good friend of our program, always at the coaches shows with Andrew. He's sent in questions to you on Studio 12. Ian Curtis has caught on to the Town Halls today, the young man from College Station. He wants to know Ross, who was the person you are most glad to meet during your career as an Athletics Director?
Wow. That's a hard one, because I've been fortunate to be around some really cool people, amazing people, leaders, et cetera. But when I was at UCLA, I was the Senior Associate Athletics Director, really the number two person, and we were getting a visit from Jackie Robinson's family. His widow, Rachel Robinson, and their son, David Robinson, lives in Africa, and he actually is a coffee farmer. And David had never been to the campus at UCLA. It was the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. So the Dodgers were doing a bunch of things. UCLA was involved, obviously with Jackie Robinson playing there, track, football, basketball and baseball at UCLA. So great history there with the Robinsons. I was giving David Robinson a tour of our athletic facilities. A lot of things had changed, but one thing that had not changed is the location of the track and field stadium. It was really in the same spot that it was in when Jackie Robinson competed at UCLA. And we're standing there on the track and David Robinson looks at me and he said, do you mind if I take a lap around the track? I'm like, of course, I mean holy cow. So he took off his shoes and he ran a lap barefooted around that track facility, and as he comes around the end of the lap, he's crying. Like he is just losing it. He's so emotional and he's like, I can't believe I'm running on the same track as my father. It still gives me goose bumps because I remember it. I remember him crying. I remember how emotional the whole family was. No one really knows who David Robinson is. They know his father. But that's one of the coolest things that I've ever seen, because of the historical significance of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and just doing so many things for our society and really allowing us to be where we are in today's world. It was really a cool moment, and just to have that experience and to see that and to be there to witness that was so cool. So that's something that really stands out when you talk about who have you met along the way? I've been very, very fortunate, Ian. So keep asking those very challenging questions. Ian keeps us on our toes, that's for sure.
Andrew Monaco: Along with our Director of Athletics, Ross Bjork, and with Will Johnson of 12th Man Productions, I'm Andrew Monaco. We're so glad you are with us. And what a week it has been, Will. I know you don't like this drought until football, but there was some uniform talk that our quarterback and our A.D. engaged in on Twitter.
Will Johnson: Well once the quarterback says it, and the A.D. predicts it, there's gonna be some chatter. And he was dead on with this list of questioning I have right here for Ross Bjork today.
Ross Bjork: Well, you know, I was missing Kellen so much that I'm glad he tweeted that, and I figured that we'd have a little fun and throw that out there. Nothing like offseason uniform rumors. And that spurred on the message board threads I'm sure, posts and tweets. You've gotta have a little fun in this situation that we're in. So, thanks to Kellen. Good job, buddy.
Andrew: So…?
Yeah, I was gonna pull it up on my phone here. No, no, I'm just kidding. We have a plan to unveil what our new uniforms will look like. Obviously, given the current situation, one, we hope they're produced the right way. We hope they're shipped, given the current environment, since these are made overseas. But we do have some plans I think in the coming weeks, with some content planning, just to show Aggie fans what our new uniforms will look like. So I just can't do it on my phone. I can't do it over a tweet. Can't do it that way. We've got to do something cool. So our folks are working on that.
Will: So, Ross, the first three questions that were replied to you this week, one was from Hayden, just in all caps, UNIFORM UPDATE. From P. K., can you give us more information on these potential new uniforms? And then from burner, DROP THE UNIS in all caps with the fire emoji. So you got three people asking the same question, but I want to go to Cody Blain, because he kind of gets in depth when replying to you on Twitter. He said, do you have to approve uniform designs? What does this process look like? And how do we make sure adidas gets the uniform right?
Great question. Matt Watson is one of the best equipment guys that I've been around in my travels in college athletics, he really spearheads the process. He works with the adidas team, obviously works with our football program. We get some input from the coaching staff, a few players as well. Our marketing folks are involved. You want this to be a retail component as well, so it's layered. But that's really how it works. And I think part of it is how do we make sure adidas gets it right? I mean, we give them the ultimate design. There's an input process that we go through, and then ultimately we say, that's it. That's the one we want to go with. That's how the process works. But Matt Watson, we'll give him all the credit in the world for spearheading everything, and we think Aggie fans are gonna be really thrilled, and it's gonna be exciting as these things are unveiled.
Andrew: Ross Joel for is part of the fight in Texas Aggie class of 2013 out of Kingsville, though he said it's their talks of starting the football season later than August?
It's been really the topic. I think, you know, once we got through all the spring sport cancellation and some of the eligibility conversations, everyone is pointing towards the fall as we go into, you know, these late spring and early summer months. And, you know, I was really excited to see earlier today that the PGA Tour announced some dates for some major golf tournaments. I think that's a great sign. I'm reading things about Premier League Soccer starting up. You see things happening in the NBA where they're having conversations, you know, everyone anticipating that we're going to start up. We know that this is gonna be, you know, something that does go away and that we can get back to our normal lives. And so there's all kinds of really planning and conversations going on right now about modified seasons, truncated has been a word that's been thrown out, delayed, things like that to me. It's, you know, it's only April the sixth. Right now. it's way too early. We've seen a lot of data come out today about maybe the curve will hit us sooner. So that's a good thing, right? So all this social distancing that we're now into the fourth week of, at least from my standpoint, these things are working. And so there's lots of conversations happening right now. We don't know the answers, but we're ready to pivot and adapt, and prepare our players and prepare our fans and our University. It's a big decision when we talk about these things because it's not just athletics. it's really you know, how does the university operate? How do our normal students come back to class? And so it's very layered. But that's part of the process of what we're talking about, really on a daily basis at this point.
Will: Sticking with that Ross, we got a few questions last week from Facebook that we didn't quite get all of them, and Travis Reese asked a question along the lines of this topic, going down to the bottom part of his question, he asks after will the coronavirus affect upcoming football season? Are all the athletes healthy right now? And do you think the virus could affect attendance in upcoming games in the fall or beyond?
We are monitoring our student-athletes from a health and safety perspective. Right now, there's a lot of zoom calls. There's a lot of facetime calls. Our coaches, they're staying plugged in. Our trainers are staying plugged in. We did have some athletes that were rehabbing injuries. And so we're making sure that they're in the right position to overcome those injuries and get back on track in a healthy way. So that's occurring. There are some distance rehab. There's also some student-athletes who are still here in College Station rehabbing as well. So we're paying attention to all of that as we speak. It's ongoing. The rehabilitation, the monitoring is all ongoing right now, and we're keeping track of it in this virtual world.
Andrew: Ross, Mason Pruitt went to 12thman.com/askross, he's in the Class of '22 here in College Station. He asks do you plan on making the Arkansas game go back to a home and home series instead of at AT&T Stadium?
That's a great question. It's something that kind of hit my plate right when first got here about the future of that series, and my conversation at that time, and my response, was we should have every SEC home game here on our campus. Every other year, obviously, we're playing an "SEC home game" at AT&T Stadium. That's been a good set up when it got started, it was a nonconference game. But now that we're in the conference, we should have every game at home. And so when that contract expires after the 2024 season, our position will be that that game should be played on campus. Arkansas has some challenges on their side. They play a game in Little Rock. They have this game in Dallas. I believe they want more home games as well, so over the next couple of years, we'll have a final decision on that. But that's my anticipation, that we should have every SEC home game on our campus. That's what our fans deserve. That's why we built the stadium that we have. And that's our plan when that contract expires. Good question.
Will: Speaking of Kyle Field, we've got a question from San Diego, California that's from Brandon, Class of '17. Should we expect to see any changes to Kyle Field this year?
Yeah, you know, those are questions that are somewhat pending right now. We had some plans to maybe look at some signage inventory, some digital upgrades in a few areas, things like that. Changing out a few of our concessions, and those sort of things. We need to upgrade a few infrastructure things related to concessions. But right now, given the financial uncertainty, a lot of those things are on pause right now, and so we hope that we can engage in some upgrades. But right now, given the uncertainties, we don't anticipate anything major at this point in time.
Andrew: Along those lines, John Pasquarette asked on Facebook, any thoughts to share on Reed improvements or Olsen expansion? If that is still on pause, do you still kind of look ahead with everyone in facilities and try to plan things out for the future?
Great questions and really, yes, there are plans. We have tons of ideas. We have lots of things that we've studied already since I've been here, and we want to keep studying those things and really do a lot of the internal work. And so really, how we're approaching our facilities projects are let's keep planning. Let's keep putting concepts on the table. But anything in a public way, any capital campaigns, seating plans, revenue generation, given the circumstances, we need to set those on the shelf. But again, the internal planning, the preparation of the logistics of everything, we want to keep those things going. We want to keep our architects engaged. We don't want to lose thought processes and things like that, so that's how we'll approach it. We'll plan internally, but then the public phase will just have to sit there a little while until we know what the certainty looks like, how we open back up, what the financial situation is. We want to be very sensitive. So that's how we'll look at any sort of long-term major projects at this time.
Will: Well, we knew this young man would arrive and find out about these Aggie Town Halls soon enough. And he's a good friend of our program, always at the coaches shows with Andrew. He's sent in questions to you on Studio 12. Ian Curtis has caught on to the Town Halls today, the young man from College Station. He wants to know Ross, who was the person you are most glad to meet during your career as an Athletics Director?
Wow. That's a hard one, because I've been fortunate to be around some really cool people, amazing people, leaders, et cetera. But when I was at UCLA, I was the Senior Associate Athletics Director, really the number two person, and we were getting a visit from Jackie Robinson's family. His widow, Rachel Robinson, and their son, David Robinson, lives in Africa, and he actually is a coffee farmer. And David had never been to the campus at UCLA. It was the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. So the Dodgers were doing a bunch of things. UCLA was involved, obviously with Jackie Robinson playing there, track, football, basketball and baseball at UCLA. So great history there with the Robinsons. I was giving David Robinson a tour of our athletic facilities. A lot of things had changed, but one thing that had not changed is the location of the track and field stadium. It was really in the same spot that it was in when Jackie Robinson competed at UCLA. And we're standing there on the track and David Robinson looks at me and he said, do you mind if I take a lap around the track? I'm like, of course, I mean holy cow. So he took off his shoes and he ran a lap barefooted around that track facility, and as he comes around the end of the lap, he's crying. Like he is just losing it. He's so emotional and he's like, I can't believe I'm running on the same track as my father. It still gives me goose bumps because I remember it. I remember him crying. I remember how emotional the whole family was. No one really knows who David Robinson is. They know his father. But that's one of the coolest things that I've ever seen, because of the historical significance of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and just doing so many things for our society and really allowing us to be where we are in today's world. It was really a cool moment, and just to have that experience and to see that and to be there to witness that was so cool. So that's something that really stands out when you talk about who have you met along the way? I've been very, very fortunate, Ian. So keep asking those very challenging questions. Ian keeps us on our toes, that's for sure.
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