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  * Non-conference games

  * Non-conference games

Despite the serious implications of the departure of Coach Kienholz, the Farmers maintained an overall-positive outlook on the coming 1905 season. Replacing the innovative coach from Minnesota was George Whitney, a star from Cornell's football team of 1900. In addition to the glory associated with playing for an Ivy team in those days was Whitney's already-impressive coaching resume: an amassed 14-2 record leading Sewanee's powerful 1903 and 1904 football teams. While coaching the Aggies, Whitney implemented the "wing shift," a faster-paced style of play similar to the Western system implemented under Kienholz, borrowed from Pennsylvania's historically-successful teams of the early 1900s. The system required the quarterback to call three plays at a time while in the huddle so that the team could run from the set position. Initially, this was led by Thompson, but starting with the South Carolina game, Thompson was replaced by Steele, who found great success with this system. A second feature of this system was that on defense, the center dropped back behind the left guard, while the fullback moved behind the right guard. Whitney was hired on May 17th, 1905, and replaced Kienholz, who resigned on Monday, May 15th, as both coach and school athletic director (Beezley, p. 15; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 7th, 1905, p. 6; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, May 17th, 1905, p. 3).

Though the Mechanics returned many of their starters, they were without former stars Gardner, Whitaker, Abernathy, and Saddler, all of whom transferred to UNC before the fall of 1905; Though all of those players (with the exception of Abernathy) sat out of the game against UNC, the Techs still lost a great deal of their firepower before the 1905 season. In addition to the players poached by UNC, the Farmers also lost "Babe" Wilson's brother, Harlan "Curley" Wilson; it is unclear what happened to "Curley," as he was a junior in the 1904-1905 school year did not again follow Coach Kienholz to Colorado.

Despite their losses, A&M kept a number of quality players, and brought in several other promising players. Returning members included Wilson, Tull, Lykes, Hardie, Sykes, and former players Beebe and Koon, who had been members of the Farmers' team in in 1902-1903. In addition to those former Red and White wearers, the college had also brought in left end Raymond Clardy, who had previously started as a freshman at Clemson; W. J. Shaw, a fullback who had previously played for the University of Maine; and Frank Thompson, who had formerly played left tackle at Davidson but briefly made the switch to QB at the start of the season. Leading that group was Captain A. W. Gregory, of Halifax, NC, who was elected captain unanimously after the completion of the 1904 season. In addition to Gregory's leadership, the Farmers were also staffed by Graduate Manager C. D. Harris, Manager C. W. Hodges, and Assistant Manager R. H. Smith (News and Observer, September 8th, 1905, p. 5; The North Carolinian, December 1st, 1904, p. 8; Charlotte Daily Observer, September 23rd, 1905, p. 3; The Agromeck, Vol. IV (1906), p. 144).

Long before the season started, expectations for the Farmers were high. Even in August, one paper wrote that "Never has the prospects been brighter in [the] history of the college for great athletics." The paper went on optimistically: "Although the football team of 1904 only lost one game... this year the prospects are that her record will be a clean sweep." Whitney arrived on campus on September 4th, and practice commenced the following day under the guidance of Whitney, Harris, and even Gardner, who had already announced his intentions to attend UNC. With the afformentioned former starters returning as a strong nucleus, the hopes were high that one of the many "promising candidates" who tried out for the team would step up as well. By mid-September there were 43 men on the squad actively practicing (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, August 13th, 1905, p. 5; News and Observer, September 5th, 1905, p. 5; News and Observer, September 8th, 1905, p. 5; The Charlotte News, September 18th, 1905, p. 8).

The team earned respect for their playing over the course of the year. The first All-Southern team put out after the season, by Washington & Lee's coach, R. R. Brown. His All-Southern list included Wilson as one of his two top end players in the South, and many fans argued Tom Sykes should have earned a spot on the team as well. Notably, former Farmers Gardner and Abernathy were also made the cut (The Charlotte News, February 3rd, 1906, p. 6; News and Observer, December 5th, 1905, p. 5). Other players seen as stars throughout the year were Beebe, Shaw, and Hardie, though most players on the team garnered praise at some point throughout the season.

Fairly true to those expectations, the Farmers had a very good season under Whitney. The Cadets met defeat only to the powerful Virginia team and only allowed one touchdown to be scored on themselves. The Farmers took on a full slate of experienced football colleges and walked away nearly unscathed, with wins over the Virginia Military Institute, South Carolina, Washington & Lee, and Davidson. The Mechanics could have added more names to their list of victors as well had scheduling favoted them: a game against Richmond at the beginning of the season fell through, and the Aggies were unable to fill dates on October 14th and November 4th, despite offering games to Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Sewanee, and Auburn. Johns Hopkins had a strong season, going 4-1-2, with wins over Delaware (11-0), Randolph-Macon (29-5), Haverford College (24-5), and the University of Maryland--now known as the University of Maryland at Baltimore (33-0), ties against George Washington (0-0) and the Mount Washington Athletic Club (6-6), and her sole loss against rival St. John's College, who defeated Johns Hopkins 11-5 (The Hullabaloo (1906), p. 157). Attempting to figure out which team would have won through comparative wins is difficult due to the low number of shared opponents, as the only shared team who played a team who played A&M had was Randolph-Macon, but it's safe to say that the Baltimore boys would have put up a strong fight. The Techs would have almost certainly lost to Georgia Tech, who steamrolled the competition en route to a 6-0-1 record, amassing a cumulative score of 243-33. The only team who Georgia Tech didn't defeat, Sewanee, would likely have been about as difficult of a game to pull off, as the perennial powerhouse went 4-2-1, losing only to Texas and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion Vanderbilt. As such, it's probably for the best that those games never took place.

At the end of the season, Wilson was chosen to replace Gregory as captain and lead the Farmers through 1906. Red and White football player Tull was elected President of the Athletic Association, with G. F. Henshaw and L. H. Couch elected to be Manager and Assistant Manager (News and Observer, December 7th, 1905, p. 2).

Another major change which took place at the end of the season was a serious augmentation of the rules of football. Long plagued by criticisms of encouraging dangerous playing and violence, football reached one of its earliest watershed moments between the 1905 and 1906 seasons. In October 1905, Roosevelt hosted an informal meeting between the athletic directors of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale at the White House to open discussions about what changes could be made to make football safer. Though it was noted that these discussions were informal and non-binding, it showed Roosevelt's cognizance of football's growing detractors. Discussion during the meeting focused on simplified rules with no loopholes, the removal of foul play, and increased rules to the umpire (The (Montreal, Canada) Gazette, October 10th, 1905, p. 12; The Burlington Free Press, November 23rd, 1905, p. 3).

Changes began in earnest in late November, following the death on November 25th of Union College football player Harold Moore in a match between Union College and New York University; following Moore's death, NYU and Columbia both banned football, and other smaller colleges in the North, plus some of the colleges in the Western United States, threatened to follow suit. Though just one of the roughly 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries known to have ocurred over the course of the 1905 football season, Moore's death was the most publicized, and seemed to garner the most reaction around the country, with NYU's chancellor, Rev. Henry M. McCracken, remembered as the inaugurator of the movement. Pennsylvania was the first school to publicly suggest a list of rules changes; this list included eligibility reforms to limit the number of years a student could play, the removal of professionalism (professional athletes being hired by college squads), and the removal of so-called "mass plays," among other suggested changes (New-York Tribune, November 26th, 1905, p. 1; The South Bend Tribune, December 2nd, 1905, p. 3; The Illustrated Buffalo Express, December 3rd, 1905, p. 23; The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 8th, 1906, p. 8; The Chigao Tribune, November 27th, 1905, pp. 1-2).

After a long Spring of colleges suggesting changes and coaches variously supporting or opposing those changes, the dust eventually settled and the 1906 football season opened with significantly different rules than in previous years, generally intended to change the game from its devolution to a slow tug-of-war of beef and brawn to a faster, more open game. The game was so changed from its previous years that when football pioneer Walter Camp was asked what he thought football would look like in 1906, he responded "Frankly, I don't know. I don't believe there is anybody who does know." So extensive were the changes that it took The Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa three seperate issues to cover them fully (The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 8th, 1906, p. 8; The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 22nd, 1906, p. 8).