Four years ago, after a giddy news conference in which R.C. Slocum raved about the possibilities of his 1995 recruiting class, I was one of the many who went up to Slocum to congratulate him on what was his best Signing Day haul to date.

Smiling ear to ear, Slocum was gracious as always and said: "You're going to have a lot to write about over the next four years...."

Hail, Richard "Carnak" Slocum.

Let's see... just what was there to write about last fall?

The Kickoff Classic. The Nebraska game. Dat Nguyen. Sirr Parker on the slant. The Sugar Bowl against Ohio State.

Yeah, I would say there were some stories that unfolded four years later.

Yes, Slocum talked about the possibility of a playing for a national title with the type of players he had signed in February of 1995. He wasn't totally omniscient with those statements, but he was pretty close.

The Aggies of 1998 beat the defending national champions and upset a team closing in on a possible national title. Then the Aggies fitted themselves with Big 12 championship rings.

So when Slocum appeared before fans and media at his most recent Signing Day sound-off, especially with the same type of praise this group of signees was garnering from around the country, there was the possibility Slocum would reiterate his title talk from four years ago.

He didn't. At least not exactly.

Instead, the A&M coach carefully explained how his program was able to land a top-five class and seemed poised to do so again in the next few years.

You see, everything is falling in place for the Texas Aggies. Just like Slocum said it would.

The day the NCAA announced its five-year probation on the Aggies in 1994 for the summer job problems, Slocum stood at the podium and boldly announced that A&M's program wasn't going anywhere. A cliff was nowhere in sight, he said, and Baylor and TCU shouldn't get too excited.

Five years later, with the school now officially off probation and Big 12 championship banners blowing in the College Station breeze around campus, I would say Slocum could see the lighthouse through the storm.

When the Aggies Ñ thanks to not signing classes like this one Ñ struggled through a 6-6 season in 1996, Rice coach Ken Hatfield proclaimed in a newspaper article that he could foresee A&M struggling in the Big 12 before it even happened. Apparently, A&M's 29-game unbeaten streak in the conference didn't do much for Hatfield.

Slocum knew the claims A&M couldn't compete were way off-base and said so publicly. He predicted the bar, no matter how high it was raised and how firm a grip Nebraska had on the handles, would be touched and jumped by A&M and Texas. And now both are leapfrogging the rest of the Big 12, at least in football recruiting.

Now, as every recruiting analyst across the country has proclaimed the Texas Longhorns to be the next Florida State, they are also spewing such charges that A&M could very well be the next Florida.

In other words, the breakfast battle on the Brazos and the kolache cookout on the Colorado for the next few years could get very interesting.

The recruiting analysts are basing their comments on just what talent the Longhorns and Aggies signed on Feb. 3. But the idea that A&M and Texas could be in for some national title-type games goes beyond just the class of kids in 1999.

This possible scenario has been building for about a year now.

Over the last 12 months, the Horns hired a very charismatic and savvy head coach in Mack Brown. Texas has expanded and polished up its facilities, most notably with the additions to Royal-Memorial Stadium.

A&M, meanwhile, continues to thrive on continuity with its down-home and savvy head coach. The school, meanwhile, is about to unveil an end zone stadium addition that will make Kyle Field an even more unbelievable place to play than it already is.

And, on the field, both teams have made the adjustments to play ÑÊand beat ÑÊtheir Big 12 brethren. Both schools' victories over Nebraska in 1998 just echoed the increased level of play and commitment the programs have been making.

While Aggie fans have had to endure the hype of Texas' No. 1-ranked recruiting class and media love-fest with Brown, Aggies shouldn't lose sight of the fact that A&M, right now, does have a better and more solid program than the folks in Austin.

Yes, the Longhorns won this year's battle on the field of streams, but which team won the conference and beat Kansas State? Which team played on national television at night in a BCS bowl against another national title hopeful?

Which program is really deeper and will have a shot at a national title in a shorter amount of time?

You know. I know. Slocum, eager to continue building Ohio State-like depth by redshirting players, knows.

"I think Texas is going to have a good program," he said. "Texas should have a very good program. They have a great tradition, Mack Brown is a great guy and a very good football coach. He's got a good staff, they have good facilities, and they're in a good state.

"But that doesn't have anything to do with us. We've got great facilities, we're in a great state. Slocum's not a bad coach, and he's got great assistants. So, it's great for all of us. We're all in this together."

While there were several factors that went into A&M landing such a ballyhooed recruiting class this winter, several fingers pointed to the Aggies' victory over Kansas State in the Big 12 title game. Lose that game, and the Aggies would have slipped into obscurity down the path to a lesser bowl.

Instead of playing in the third-highest rated bowl game of the year against a marquee team like the Buckeyes, the Aggies could have been in just another holiday game used for background noise at an office Christmas party.

But, no, the Aggies stunned the college football world on Showdown Saturday. And all eyes ÑÊfrom San Bernadino to West Monroe, La. ÑÊapparently were glued to the tube.

"I was out in San Francisco speaking at a clinic (in January), and all everyone could talk about was the Big 12 championship game," offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe said. "I think it was a big game for us. To win the way we did showed the character our team had. And to play in the Sugar Bowl, that was a key game. We know what it takes to get to that game... now we have to get back there and win it."

"Back there" is back in the Big Easy for the national title game in the 2000 Sugar Bowl.

"We're excited," Kragthorpe said. "It's a great class, there's no doubt about it. We've got great offensive players and great defensive players. It bodes well for the future.

"I've only coached in Texas for six years, but I've never seen it this good. There were excellent players out there who were qualified. You had that great combination of athletes and grades."

The National Recruiting Advisor's Bobby Burton said he had never seen A&M and Texas do so well in the same year as this recruiting season. In fact, he had never even rated the Horns in his top 10 before this season.

And, while Burton knows his job depends on the fans' thirst to hear and read all about the potential of high school seniors, he admitted this recruiting stuff is easy... when you win.

"A Big 12 championship is not too bad," he said sarcastically. "It's not a bad selling tool on the road. I think those are the things that make recruits stand up and take notice.

"I think this (recruiting trend) is very possible for (A&M and Texas.) I also think the only way to make it a recurring theme is to keep winning. I don't think people need to say this is definitely the turning point, but after a couple of years after both teams have been highly successful for a longer period of time, you could point to it."

What should be exciting for all A&M fans is that this latest recruiting class was Slocum's best on paper. The 1995 class was a top-five group, but it didn't have the depth 1 through 25 that this class does.

Slocum often talks of trends and cycles and issues that have hurt his program and those in the state of Texas over the last decade.

Suddenly, the coach was talking about those same trends and patterns favoring his program.

Just last year, Slocum said he would vow to make sure that kids in Texas would wake up and stop leaving their home state to play and win big games.

Look what's beginning to happen.

"I think we are (winning the battle)," Slocum said. "Anybody who got (kids) out of Texas this year had to work hard to do so. I think it's a cycle again. You turn the tide and keep players (in Texas) and, all of a sudden, you play better. If you play better, you're in bigger games and have more attention. I think it's an exciting time for football in the state of Texas."