Three coaches that Texas A&M fans love to hate
Everyone loves a good villain, and college football fans are no different. That's part of why rivalries are so electric— the animus that each side feels for the other fuels the passion.
But even outside of rivalries against teams, there are simply some coaches that a given fanbase has a grudge towards. Here are three that still give the Aggie faithful bad vibes.
Lane Kiffin
This is an easy one. Even though the Aggies will go two years without playing the Rebels since Kiffin's squad is not on 2025's schedule, the disdain for him still runs hot among the A&M fanbase.
This chiefly comes from all of the shots that Kiffin has taken at the Aggies over the years, stemming first from his bizarre fixation on Jimbo Fisher but extending also to Mike Elko a couple of times.
Kiffin knows how to get a rise out of people, and perhaps A&M fans especially. For whatever you can say about him as a person, you have to give him that much.
Brian Kelly
Kelly is not a guy that would win a national popularity contest among college football fans, but he's especially irksome to Aggie fans now that he's the head coach of one of their rivals. From his strange fake accent right after he was hired to his staff's constant attempts to flip or bring in A&M recruits, he's a burr in Aggie fans' saddles.
The hatred isn't quite as hot for Kelly as it is for Kiffin, but A&M's 2-1 record against him so far has a lot to do with that. If A&M loses in Death Valley this year and Kelly is his normal self about it, you can bet that it'll get under the skins of Aggie fans.
Steve Addazio
This is one that not many people would have on the list, given that he's not active and has never coached a team that A&M has been up against, but the apoplexy that Addazio induces among A&M fans is unmatched.
The ironic thing is that it's because of his work for the Aggies that A&M fans have a distaste for him. Even more than the finger was pointed at Jimbo in 2022 and 2023, it was Addazio that was at the heart of the issues.
If the Aggie offensive line played to its potential in 2022 and 2023, those years look far different— and A&M is probably in a better spot right now. Some would argue that what happened was an inevitability of the path Jimbo was on, and there's some merit there. However, there was some positivity that Jimbo brought that makes fan opinion on him still somewhat mixed— there's no such ambiguity when it comes to Addazio.