Texas A&M Football: 10 best coaches in program history

24 Nov 2000: Head Coach R.C. Slocum of the Texas A&M Aggies watches the action from the sidelines during the game against the Texas Longhorns at the Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns defeated the Aggies 43-17.Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport /

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Emory Bellard took over for the Aggies after a legendary head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Gene Stallings, bolted for Tuscaloosa. While Stallings would have to be considered on a list of Alabama’s best head coaches of all-time, his best years did not come with the Aggies.

Meanwhile, Bellard had a much different tenure in his seven seasons in College Station. That tenure included accomplishments like three top 16 finishes in the AP Poll, and a conference championship, in the Southwest Conference, that came in 1975.

That 1975 campaign was truly the biggest season of “what-ifs” for the Aggies, as they entered the final two games with a perfect 10-0 record. However, both the Arkansas Razorbacks and USC Trojans knocked them off.

Bellard resigned a few years later, in 1978, before joining another current SEC program in the Mississippi State Bulldogs. He had more of an up and down tenure with Mississippi State than he did Texas A&M. However, that stretch of years between 1974 and 1977 were some of the best string of seasons ever seen with this program.