A thoughtful perspective on what it will mean to lose the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. --GoBR--

Tomorrow marks the 118th and (for now) final meeting of the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.  A series that began in 1894 is coming to a close in bitter fashion.  This will end one of the greatest geographical rivalries in sports.  There are many out there who feel that losing this is no big deal.  Unfortunately, I don't consider myself one of them. 

That changed for me in 1999.

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I'm still too hurt and angry to talk about this much just yet, but in the meantime DreadOne has presented a fair overview of the debate. You know where I stand on this, but that doesn't make me any less disappointed in what we saw yesterday, especially in the first half. Talk it out in the comments. --PB--

Last year, I think I'd finally soured on Rick Barnes' coaching abilities.  I'd stated as much here on these pages.  This year, I thought I I'd seen some improvement from the coach early on although I still saw some of the same weaknesses I'd always griped about (e.g., lack of in-game adjustments, poor offensive identity and flow, free throws, etc). 

I got excited when we beat Kansas thinking that perhaps Rick had taken us to another level of basketball that perhaps we'd only approached when T.J. Ford led us to the Final Four.  I sit here today feeling that I was wrong about that.  We can say what we want but we're left with the same result.  Going home.

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Last night, during the national semifinal, Da'Sean Butler went down with an obvious knee injury.  He lay on the floor despondent and unconsolable.  I don't know that I ever expected what happened next.  Bob Huggins can out on the floor and tried to console him.  He was down on the floor calming the wounded star.  He embraced him and spent about a minute or so having the most public of private moments.  When he rose, Bob Huggins was clearly teary-eyed.  Later in the game "Huggy Bear" gave his seniors their moment and took them out.  He hugged them obviously proud of their hard work.

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Last night I was watching Tom Penders' club and I couldn't help but relish the nostalgia I felt.  Granted, we probably had reached a ceiling with Tom and I'm not sure I've ever understood his antics at the end of his tenure or his personal demons.  I saw a squad though that reminded me of the "BMW" days.  The announcers went on at length about Tom teaching "shooting" and I have always heard that you can't really teach that.

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I think that we all went into this season with some excitement.  Let's face it.  It's not easy to cultivate basketball expectations at a football school but Rick Barnes has managed to do that.  We're all disappointed.  The season isn't over but after jumping out to a 17-0 record this team has floundered and looks suspiciously like a "one and done" team in the NCAA Tournament.

I don't get to see as much of the Horns as a lot of you who live in Texas and the southwest but I did see them at UConn and I have seen about a dozen games or so.  I've taken a lot of your observations and some have made sense to me and I agree with them. Others I may not.  Here's my thoughts.  They may fit.  If so, great.  If not, correct me....

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I live in CT, so Storrs is not a huge trip for me.  I was worried that we'd see more of the team that showed up against K-State.

I've been getting crap all week from the co-workers but my 11 year old and I decided to go to the game.  I've never been to a men's game in Storrs (they play half their home games at the Hartford Civic Center).  This was a mistake.

First off, the students filed in two hours before the game and were chanting and heckling.  They not only heckled our team but also anyone in burnt orange.  This included kids.  They were obnoxious, chanting things like "Ala-BA-ma" and "Over-RA-ted". 

I had drunks all around me and they were shooting us the bird...using tons of profanity (try every other word).  When UConn went on it's run in the second half....every turnover and every dunk was just jacking up the crowd even more.  Every positive for UConn meant someone trying to taunt me into a fight....screams of "IN YOUR FACE!" directed at every Longhorn fan. 

Clearly, there isn't a lot you can say when your team gets out-rebounded, out-shot and basically outmatched in the second half.  My son was a trooper.  We've been to enough sporting events to establish the ground rules.  He knows he's going to hear objectionable language.  Finally, down 15 about 2:30 left...I looked at the kid and I said to myself "This isn't fun.  I'm from Texas but my kid doesn't deserve this.".  I grabbed him and we left a few minutes early.  I didn't want to see what these clowns did once there was no security.

I'm not going to tell you that I know a lot of basketball or that I can put my finger on what's wrong with these guys but here are some thoughts from a guy who was there....

1. Damion James is an emotional player.  When things are good, that's great but it seemed like Rick was trying to calm him down a lot.
2. Jai Lucas is inexperienced.  Yes, he's trustworthy in traffic but it seems that Balbay has the offense clicking a good deal more.
3. I NEVER like to point out the officiating but in this game there was a good deal of discrepancy in terms of getting to the line in favor of UConn.  You could argue that it wouldn't have mattered because this Longhorn team is just awful from the stripe but it seemed that Dexter couldn't breathe on anyone without  a foul being called.
4. Free Throws.  Ugh.  This spells an early exit from the tournament
5. I've never seen a Rick Barnes team in person before today but he seems very much in love with the idea that he needs to keep substituting players.  I understand that he has great depth but it seemed like he was changing the lineup after every foul and (just my opinion) it really seemed that this team will continue to lack an offensive identity or any continuity as long as he keeps doing this.  Like I said, I don't trust myself to analyze this too much but it struck me as odd how frequently guys were going in an out of the game.
6. While we didn't play well, UConn just magically seemed to turn off their "turnover machine"; they had 20 through the first 24 mins of the game.  They took out Beverly and we started committing turnovers.
7. I don't know how fast this version of the Longhorns is.  They seemed to have good athleticism and some guys could create driving the lane but it doesn't seem like we have that guy who can break guys down off of the dribble.  To be fair, this team looked a bit tired after a physical first half (added on to K-State, etc).

Any supporting or dissenting views are appreciated.  It was a tough thing to sit through being heckled all-the-while.  My son and I have always talked of wearing our Longhorn gear proudly.  I guess that's part of watching your team on the road.

I took my eleven year-old son to his first Longhorn game ever last night.  We flew across country from Connecticut.   We took in the band and Bevo at the Exes tailgate.  We had a blast.  

I've always told people that 2006 was the best sports experience I've ever had but that I could never tell if I'd felt as good about it if my team hadn't won.  Now, I know it's not quite as good but I did have plenty to feel good about.  It wasn't an easy evening of football to watch but here are my observations.

• I cannot say that Nick Saban was "classless" for the late touchdown.  We turned it over twice deep in our own territory.  They didn't do anything fancy and they were aided by a defensive penalty.  I'll give Saban a "pass" on that one.
• The Alabama band WAS classless.  Don't ask me why I'm so concerned over this but early on at the start of the game the Longhorn band started to play and fifteen or thirty seconds in...the Alabama band started up.  HUH?!?  In over thirty years of going to college football games, I'd never seen anything like that.  I suppose most people don't care but I think that the fans and passion are a big element of why I love college ball more than the NFL...and the band has a lot to do with it.
• I know that we shouldn't criticize the play-calling for Colt getting injured but I have to admit that a short-side option on play number five seemed a bit risky.  It was certainly a fluke injury that seemed like a spear to me but look...they could have called a penalty on that but it wouldn't have changed anything.  Colt was still knocked out of the game.
• As much as we all felt socked in the gut when Colt left, there were 21 other starters on that team that didn't get hurt.  I think that many of them stepped up.  Save the fumble play that sealed it....the protection was generally good.
• The line can't run block to save their asses.  Our center kept getting pushed back into the backfield including one play where he got pancaked.
• The energy in that stadium on the first series with our defense out there was amazing.  After Colt left, the defense was definitely deflated.
• We can thank Greg Davis for this:  With an overmatched offensive line and now a true freshman QB, he decides to do the predictable "run-run-pass-punt" playcalling...again.  He did this until sometime late in the third or into the fourth when he finally gave these guys the advantage of not being predictable.
• Sergio Kindle.  Thanks for finally showing up in a game looking like the guy you were hyped to be.
• I think that a lot of folks in the stands were questioning why our coaches felt the need to take unnecessary risks such as the ill-fated shovel pass and the blitz that Richardson beat for the long TD.
• I heard one old lady behind me extolling the virtues of the level of talent playing in burnt orange and how "this is a testament to the talent of Vince Young and Colt McCoy that they could be so successful with an idiot like Greg Davis coordinating the offense.".  Wow, she's really pissed.
• I was disappointed at the number of Longhorn fans who left before the whistle (no 'Eyes of Texas'?) but I'm certainly not going to blame anyone.  It was tough to watch.
• Finally, I did hear Kirk Herbstreit say how impressed he was with Texas and our grit and toughness.  He was very sincere it seemed and coming from a guy who's rarely been "pro-UT" I can't see why we shouldn't feel proud of that praise.
• Alabama was a very worthy champion.  It irritates me to hear people make excuses.  It's football and football happens.  They were better that night.  Face it.  
• Traveling in airports today, tons of people came up to me and my son and told us how impressed they were and we'd "get 'em" next time.  They were sorry about Colt getting hurt.  It felt good for strangers to praise our school and team like that.
• Our special teams are truly special
• Malcolm Williams and Marquise were seeing single coverage all night long.  Williams had a definite height/size advantage most of the night yet neither really got open.  Very frustrating.
• There were a lot mixed reports saying Colt wanted to play and that either his Dad did or did not want him to and that Mack wasn't going to let him play.   I think we debated this for a good hour after the game.  I think Mack Brown valued Colt "the person" the way Stoopsie SHOULD have valued Sam.  He's got far too much to lose.  There was another side of me though thinking that as a school, we've funded this kid for four years and is everyone now going to start bowing out with any nick or bruise?  I'm just presenting the flow of thoughts.  Keeping him out was the best thing for Colt and it would be selfish to suggest otherwise.  I just would have killed to see Colt come in and add to the legend (think 'Willis Reid').  If I had any selfish thoughts on the matter, they quickly vanished when I saw the Lisa Saulters post-game interview on the field where he choked up.  The Colt is a man.

I don't know if I'm getting old but I actually kept all inside when Bradford went down.  I didn't jump up and down and scream "SUCK IT BRADFORD!" at the TV with my eight-year old daughter and ten-year old son watching.

My son has a game tomorrow and somehow if that were one of his opponents, I wouldn't want him glad that someone got hurt.   I have always hated Bradford as much as anyone.  It just seems, however, that this guy took a big risk to come back.  Yes, it was to beat Texas and win a championship for today's LOSERS.  That said, I can't help but think that it was also partially for our entertainment as college football fans.

The Big East (as crappy a conference as it is) is running an ad campaign about sportsmanship and it features all of these kids repeating the things they hear their dads yell at the TV or the players.   Yes, it's cheesy but I guess, in my case it made me hold up because I want my kids to be better people than I. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I wasn't thrilled to see him in street clothes and have him stay on the sideline for three quarters.  I find it interesting that he and The Colt are such good friends and I guess if it's good enough for The Colt, it should be good enough for me.

I couldn't help but think watching this game that as angry as I was, I knew how the other team's fans felt.  In 1990, when we beat David Klingler and U of H, I was a senior at UT.  That game was pure euphoria.  The #3 team in the nation with a Heisman hopeful at QB came into our place and got smacked in the mouth on national TV.  Now, there are certainly differences here.  Back then we weren't nearly as good as Tech is now and a 21-point underdog.

That said, I laid in bed last light very upset over how we could have won this game.  Given PB's post on the five stat lines that said it all, we were overcoming our first quarter/half performance all night long.  I would point out however, that the second half was ours and we were winning with roughly a minute and a half to go.

I know that some of these may be hypercritical (and please feel free to point out where you think so) but here are things that could have won the game:

1) I feel a little "dirty" and embarassed blaming the officials but apparently holding is no longer a penalty in the town limits of Lubbock.   I'm not saying simply that we weren't and they were but there was a LOT more holding going on on every single play.  On the final drive, Melton got tackled for God's sake.    On the play were Orakpo got hurt the OT had his arm around him from behind. 

Now that I have that off my chest, I will come out and openly recall that in the Mike Leach era we've been the beneficiaries of awful officiating that ultimately won us the game.  Turnabout is fair play.  You can't always have it your way although I don't recall there ever being this much on the line.

2) Blake Gideon.  Damn you.  I really love how far this kid has come this year and perhaps next year the duo of Earl Thomas and Gideon forms one of the best safety tandems in the nation...but last night he dropped the pick that would have sealed the game.

3) We left them too much time.  OK, I understand that you don't give up points when they're there but do you think that Mike Leach's defense on the final TD was inviting us to score so they could get the ball?   We were moving the ball at will.  Could they have been a little more deliberate in milking the clock against a team that had already burned two time outs?  Could Colt NOT have run out of bounds on his run to the left in the red zone?  By rights, Tech still should have run out of time due to Leach's awful clock management.  If Crabtree struggles with the defenders for a second or two inside the five yard line...they run out of time.

4) Curtis Brown (sigh).  Now you know why this guy wasn't good enough to start over Chykie.  On the winning play, I can't blame him for the coverage.  After all, it is Michael Crabtree.  What I do blame him for his tackling effort.  You've gotta do better than that in crunch time.  This doesn't excuse him for his abysmal play in the previous three quarters but let's agree that Muschamp figured out how to keep us in the game.

Those are the obvious things in the fourth quarter.  Disagree if you will (or not).  I could go on about things in the previous three quarters but let's be honest, we were in position to win late...so I chose to focus on the things we could have done differently at the end of the game.

A question:  Does any team have a more thought out play for the end of game lateral-kickoff-return than what we showed last night?  Just asking.

Last night, the broadcasters brought up the fact that UT already has 19 commitments for next year.  While I like getting the jump on people, doesn't it bother anyone that we may be committing guys that still have lots of developing to do?

Perhaps we're getting commitments from guys that were monsters since diapers so the risk is low.  On the other hand, what if the dude injures himself or lets it go to his head and starts hanging with the wrong crowd?

When I first moved to Connecticut twelve years ago, all I could think was "Isn't this a 'Division III' state?".  In those ensuing twelve years, UConn has won national championships in basketball and gone to Division I in football.   Despite their success, it's not as though I was about to forget the Horns and the athletic legacy our university has.

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