A) Texas A&M has never been an elite program. They've been very good at times. At Times. Not consistently or anywhere close. Heck, even Bear and Stallings couldn't go big at A&M. Only 17 SWC conference titles when the main school you had to get past to win it was Texas. Heck, Arky had 14-15 SWC titles by comparison. Texas had 27. TAM last NC was 1939. To think JF was going to take them higher than KS to places they've never truly been was a waste of loud money.
B) See A.