The Aggies take on the Crimson Tide Saturday Oct. 7 at Kyle Field and allied health senior Chris Patch wants someone other than just Reveille and the Yell Leaders to lead the team on the field — he wants Sam Tomaso, or 12th Man Jesus, to do the honors.
Patch started a petition on Wednesday Oct. 4 on change.org, directed toward the football team, the university and the athletic department and at time of press it has 4,023 signatures of the 5,000 goal.
Patch said the whole idea started on a TexAgs forum and the message was spread around the GroupMe for the water ski team that Patch and Tomaso are both members of.
“Some person in the comments on TexAgs, someone said ‘Someone get 12th Man Jesus down in the tunnel,’” Patch said. “I was like, wait why don’t I just start a petition, so I did and told all of my friends to share it and it kinda took off like wildfire.”
The response so far is not surprising and Patch said he kind of expected it, especially given the crowd reaction when Tomaso, who is a civil engineering senior, was shown on the jumbotron last Saturday.
“On the North side of Kyle this last game, I wasn’t sitting in the student section, and when they showed him on the screen, you could tell that people were just louder,” Patch said. “It was just so cool and so I just thought, if I make this and share it with the right people I’m sure it’ll catch on.”
Tomaso said last year at the Tennessee game was the first time he shaved the number 12 into his chest as an attempt to get on the jumbotron.
“The night before I kind of randomly just sent a message to my roommates and said ‘Hey, will one of you help me shave a 12 onto my chest tomorrow morning before the game?’ And one of them said sure, so that was how it started,” Tomaso said.
The South Carolina game was the first game Tomaso has done it this year, though, as he said he missed one game for a water ski tournament and was in the corner of the first deck at the other.
“The game wasn’t going quite as well as it could’ve and people started getting excited after that missed call, that not so great call, possibly of targeting, and people were getting upset and there came a point where they were shooting people in the crowd on the camera and so we decided hey this is probably a good time so my friends picked me up to try to get on the screen and pretty soon got up there, got up there again later in the game,” Tomaso said.
As far as being called 12th Man Jesus, Tomaso said he thinks it’s funny.
“I didn’t come up with the name, I think it’s entertaining and it’s a pretty descriptive way to refer to me,” Tomaso said. “Everybody kinda knows who that is talking about, so that’s just how it’s been.”
Patch said Tomaso is pretty recognizable at games with the 12 and supporting something like this petition is not something necessarily seen at college football games.
“They say we have the best student section, so it’s kinda shows how much character that’s in our student section in just this little thing,” Patch said. “It’s neat, it really is neat.”
Business freshman Alex Apple said having Tomaso lead the team on the field Saturday would be huge and he hopes it happens.
“I think it might be the most redass thing that I’ve ever seen at this school and I’m only a freshman, so I guess it’ll only get more redass from here,” Apple said.
Tomaso said he definitely would lead them out if offered to do so, but he isn’t expecting it to happen, even with over 4,000 signatures on the petition.
“But if Sumlin decides hey why not, this could be fun, maybe it would get the crowd really excited, ready to get involved with the game,” Tomaso said. “If it helps the 12th Man and they decide that, I’d be happy to.”
Even if the 12th Man Jesus doesn’t lead the team, Patch said he hopes his friend gets something out of this petition.
“I know how much Sam would appreciate it, that would probably be honestly one of his top moments of his senior year, so I really hope [to] at least get him something out of it,” Patch said. “He’s redass and it would be really cool to see something come out of it, even just bringing him on the field or even at Yell Practice.”