Aggies coach Mike Sherman has taken sharp exception to Red Raiders coach Mike Leach's quirky one-liner about the Dallas Cowboys selecting A&M quarterback Stephen McGee in the fourth round of the NFL draft this past weekend.

Leach told the Dallas Morning News following the draft, "The Dallas Cowboys like (McGee) more than his coaches at A&M did."

Responded Sherman on Tuesday: "I'm not one to say that's just Mike being Mike. You're not going to get a free pass with me. I don't get a free pass. I would never comment about any of his guys."

McGee won the starting job last preseason, but was injured in the second game and never fully recovered. Sherman, who said he tried calling Leach on Monday to no avail, wasn't sure what to make of Leach's comment.

"That could have been taken as a shot at Stephen McGee - that if he was so good then why didn't he play?" Sherman said. "Or it could have been taking a shot at the Cowboys , or at (former A&M coach) Dennis Franchione."

"Coach Franchione's job wasn't to try and make Stephen an NFL quarterback, it was to win Football games. And if it was his feeling that running the Football was his best choice, like it was when I was here (as an assistant) with R.C. (Slocum), then that's what he did."

Leach also wondered in Tuesday?s Dallas paper in what round Sherman, a former Green Bay head coach, would have selected McGee. Sherman responded that he has said all along that McGee was a third- or fourth-round pick.

"I told (NFL) people that if you wait until well in the fourth round you're not going to get Stephen McGee," Sherman said. "I told them he would go in the third or early in the fourth round. I said that from beginning."

Sherman said he couldn't let Leach slide on this issue, all quirkiness aside.

"He can make a joke once in a while and everybody can laugh," Sherman said. "But not at our expense."