Spotlight - Texas A&M-Commerce Lions

Location: Commerce, TX...just east of the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex.

Fun fact: The Lions are the real current, defending D-II champions.

Team Record: 1667 wins (9th most in Rockne D-II)

172 playoff wins (7th most)

Conference Titles: 60 (Tied 8th)

National Championships: 8 (Tied 6th)

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Coaches / Seasons Record

Bgreenwald: 2 - 5 - 7-45

Warriorsrise: 6 - 9 - 6-46

MB's Bengals: 11 - 2-11

Nashmj: 13 - 15 - 6-33

Akyarnell: 21 - 23 - 24-15

Majique: 24 - 27 - 48-12

BBlaker: 28 - 9-4

Recasino26: 30 - 31 - 19-9

Shonmurphy20: 32 - 38 - 104-11

Gabby123: 39 - 41 - 41-6

Aegsm76: 42 - 53 - 181-21 2 NC

Gregscar: 54 - 55 - 38-0 2 NC

Fezziwig: 56 - 60 - 72 - 11

Aegsm76: 61 - 16-1

Jas illni: 62 - 14-2

Jbarritt: 63 - 66 - 39-18

Stang200s6: 67 - 6-7

Kblack2778: 70 - 74 - 45-25

Blonddad: 75 - 12-3

Samford 18: 76 - 77 - 24-6

Jtd79: 78 - 80 - 36-10

Eblake: 81 - 86 - 79-18 1 NC

Gr8fly: 87 - 90 - 54-9

Jas illni: 91 - 94 - 54-8

Tnjay615: 95 - 97 - 31-11

Jdoss2504: 98 - 103 - 78-15

Jawz: 104 - 105 - 27-6

Dhomard: 106 - 107 - 28-7

Iceman4445: 108 - 121 - 196-33

Mystickraven: 122 - 125 - 50-11

Warhawks1982: 126 - 13-2

Hogly22: 127 - 12-3

Akua29: 128 - 143 - 261-13 3 NC

Texas A&M-Commerce has had three different periods where its coaches has brought home the National Championship trophy. That tells me that Texas is a good recruiting area. The team has benefited greatly by having human coaches for most seasons.

Coach Akua29 definitely heads the list of the best coach in university history. He took over a decent team and turned it into one of the top five in Rockne D2. Coach Akua29 has three additional title games appearances with two losses to coach Spthibodeau at Northern Michigan and last season's loss to coach Bigpoppa85 at Long Island.

Coach Akua29 was gracious to spend some time answering questions.

Smart Dog: What made you choose TAMC?

Akua29: When I returned to the game after a long break, I had to sort of re-learn the game again. I had to reach out to some veteran coaches to work through the kinks and what all changed, So I played around until I felt like I had a good handle on it again. I've always liked recruiting from central USA locations and when Dobie first opened I had a great time with Mary Hardin-Baylor team that won a few NC's. I thought it would be fun to see if I could re-live that experience in D2 and so that's how it started with going back to Texas. When I searched, I got really lucky finding Rockne so quickly and everything seemed to fit. I was looking for a challenege but didn't want to go through a 4 year rebuild just to start the process, so 12 win (1st-2nd round caliber) was the goal. Angelo State was the conference leader and averaging 16 wins per season. Midwestern State was just coming off 15 wins so the local recruiting scene would be competitive. Finally, the icing on the cake was the super power GLIAC that was just dominating the world in National Championships. TAMC was a 12 win average team playing on the same side as Angelo State, so the fit couldn't of been any better.

StartFragmentSD: What was your favorite win? A: I've had a lot that I knew were "Wow", how in the heck did my team do that moments. However, my memory is not good enough to recount the old games well enough to talk about it. I'd say that in recent seasons, my favorite game was probably my favorite season which was season 139. TAMC was on the verge of going back-to-back and we ere coming off a big win over Long Island (Bigpoppa). In the Heisman world, I kept losing NC's and big games to coaches like Bigpoppa and Jaylien1 and it was only fitting that to go back to back, I'd have to play both in the final four. So we got a big game versus Jaylien1 at Humboldt State that we squeaked by 37-29, only to face Long Island in a rematch NC. This was probably my 2nd best TAMC team with a loaded senior roster and my defense had been controlling teams all season. However at the half, it was TAMC leading 31-29 in a barn burner and my defense was not existent. I remember thinking, man Bigpoppa is gonna pull this one out again. I watched the Wiscast and the game went down to the very end with my offense hanging on and pulled us out in a 45-43 win. SD: What do you like the best about GD / Rockne?

A: I like how much competition there is and when we were running with more teams. The long term coaches really added stability and it seemed like there was a lot of character to certain conferences. The GLIAC really stood out as the conference to beat and so the overall theme of D2 in Rockne was fantastic. SD: What do you think made you so successful?

A: Experimenting and reaching out to fellow coaches. I spent a lot of time experimenting to figure out what the settings and practice plans actually do and then what I could expect as a results in the PbP. When I returned, some things I remembered from the old engine but it wasn't clicking for some reason. I reached out to Mojolad and Pete61 who were able to help make sense on how I can better relate to today's game and it finally clicked. However, the biggest change came one day when I had a "what if I did this" moment and decided to do something different for the entire recruiting cycle and it worked. I kept perfecting it until I had my recruit system down and that likely made the most impact. SD: Have you played under any other user-id? A: Back in the days, yes I had quite a few. In the old days, WIS would give away free seasons or a big discount for the first year. I would use those to study what 100 minutes in one practice area to see how each attribute was really affected the course of a season or how many minutes would it be pointless to put any more minutes in that area. It was less expensive to throw away a season to go that route. I did have a few accounts that would take over a team for a test and then end up doing something cool and I'd stay for a bit longer than intended. One example would be my Pounder account (retired), but they joined Dobie in Season 2 when I got a deal on the season to test a talent growth idea and they won 3 NC's in a row by year 3,4 and 5. SD: If you could change just one thing with the game, what would it be? A: The recruiting interface. I use my cell phone primarily to recruit and have done that for a long time. I also fill my board with about 200 players every season. So an example might be, to add an additional tool bar that allows you to pick an action and then include some available check boxes next to the names to select who you want it to go towards. Very similar to adding a player using the player watch check box. So I could do Campus Visit and pick 5 guys I like, select the box and hit submit. If I want to do more, I can do it again or you could select a quantity of actions. EndFragment

SD: Who has been your three toughest coaches? A: Versus coaches that I've played since coming back, Mojolad and Bigpoppa really stand out due to their offenses being difficult to contain. It doesn't matter if I feel like I have a great defense, their offense has a way of making my defense look irrelevant. Bigpoppa is probably the current coach playing that is the most threat since he shares a very similar approach to game planning defense and recruiting. I had my moments with Coachoatie and Waregl72 as well in the playoffs, they have a unique way of coming back with huge 2nd half surges. The toughest coach I've faced though would be Spthibodeau. I could tell when he actually focused and game planned or when he was probably traveling as he mentioned in an interview. The talent building, recruiting and power his team always had made you feel like every meeting was a major challenge. I still remember when I first joined TAMC and I saw Northern Michigan in my backyard trying to pluck a top recruit out. I thought, what balls this guy has and then he continued to beat me in the battle. Then I finally make the NC game and we get stomped 59-13. SD: Who is your biggest rival? A: I don't know if I have a big rival, but it's been Bigpoppa lately who gets in the way of taking home a trophy. :)

A big thank you for coach Akua29 for providing in-depth responses that you will enjoy as much as I did in reading them. EndFragment

I will be contacting other coaches over time to see if they are willing to participate and share their thoughts with the Rockne coaches.