8. Charles Moran (1909-1914)
Record: 37-8-3
In 1909 N.A. Merriam began the season as the head coach. The team defeated Austin College 17-0 before tying TCU 0-0. At that point the story goes that the student body raised enough money to buy out Merriam’s contract. With Merriam gone, his assistant Charles Moran took over the coaching duties.
Moran went undefeated in his first season as they head coach, including victories over Baylor, Oklahoma, and two wins over Texas (23-0 and 5-0). Moran has the best winning percentage of any coach in Texas A&M history, a mark that has stood for well over 100 years.
He finished 3-1 against Texas with too many impressive victories to count. The Longhorns actually refused to play the Aggies during his final years at A&M because they objected to Moran’s recruiting practices. Could they possibly have been afraid to lose because the Aggies were dominating them on the football field, possibly? But who really knows.
Moran’s Aggie squads lost more than one game just once in six years. In his final year in College Station his team crushed TCU 40-0, steamrolled LSU 63-9, and bested Ole Miss 14-7. Texas A&M would join the Southwestern Conference in 1915, the year following Moran’s departure from the school.