I'm always interested to know who we've faced for the last time and who we'll have to face again in the RRS.  Below are the Srs. who will use up their eligibility, and the Jrs. who might jump early to the NFL from OU's depth chart.

Offense

QB

Bradford - Jr. - Not a 100% done deal, but most do not expect him to risk his payday again.

RB/FB

Brown - Sr.

Clapp - Sr.

Murray - Jr. - I honestly have not heard anything regarding his plans for next year, or even his draft stock.

TE

Gresham - Sr. - I'm not sure if he could get another year of eligibility if he wanted, but the consensus is he is gone.

Eldridge - Sr.

WR

Tennell - Sr.

OL

T. Williams (starting LT) - Sr.

B. Simmons (starting LG before injury) - Sr.

Eldridge (starting LG this week - also included above as a TE) - Sr.

Defense

DT/NG

McCoy - Jr. - Most people expect him to jump this year.  He almost did last year as a RS Soph.

Cordero Moore - Sr.

Granger -  Sr.  (not currently listed on the depth chart)

DE

English - Sr.

Beal - Jr. - but may leave early.

LB

Clayton - Sr.

Reynolds - Sr.

CB

Brian Jackson - Sr.

Bradford and Gresham aren't really losses from what they had on the field this year, but I included them as neither will be back next year (probably).  OL, WR and the secondary actually return quite a bit, and I expect Landry Jones to be a pretty good QB by the time the RRS rolls around next year. 

Pretty big hits along the front 7 on defenese (5 starters if Beal jumps).

Newton is listed as a co-starter along with McGee and Johnson.  Not exacly a huge move to the front of the rotation, but at least playing him starter snaps now appears to be in the coaches minds.  Glad to see he is getting rewarded for having a good game running the ball in addition to all of the other things he brings to the table.

Tech depth chart

Few other things that caught my eye:

-Curtis Brown is low listed as a starter ahead of Chykie Brown (and their is no co-starter, "or" designation).  I like this move and think Curtis has outplayed Chykie so far this year.

-Huey is apparently healthy enough to be listed as a co-starter at RG with Snow.  Surprised he is back so soon after being carted off in week 1.

-Luke Poehlman is the backup LT.  In reality I think Hix moves over to LT if anything were to happen to Ulatoski, but I don't remember seeing Luke at this spot last week.  Speaking of backup OT's, anyone noticed either Mitchell or Poehlman in the first 2 games and can make any comments on how they are playing?

-Tevin Mims is a co-backup to S. Acho at DE, along with Eddie Jones.  Rusell Carter isn't listed at all.

-Jared Norton and Mason Walters are absent from the depth chart.  As are Collins, Scott and Beasely.

-Vaccor is a co-backup to Gideon at safety, along with Ben Wells.

-Shipley is still the punt returner.

-Looks like M. Williams and DJ Monroe have locked down the starting KO return duties, and that M. Goodwin is also in the mix.  This may be the most explosive KO return talent we've used as far back as I can remember.

A buddy of mine is having a party at his house Saturday night and has offered to get the UT vs. ULM game for the Horn fans that will be there.  He called Direct TV today and the lady told him it was not available on Pay per view and that he could only get it by ordering ESPN Gameplan.

Anyone know if this is really the case?  He is in San Antonio.  Thanks in advance for the help.

Future UT QB Garrett Gilbert will be making an early appearance at DKR this week as his 13-0 Lake Travis team takes on Killeen in the state playoff quarterfinals.  UT OL committ Paden Kelly (number 70) also plays for Lake Travis.  LT beat Killeen 50-9 earlier this year.

Could be a great opportunity to check out 2 future Longhorns while taking in DKR one more time.

Note:  Several different sources have the game scheduled for 2pm on Saturday.  However, the Lake Travis website shows it being at 7:30pm on Friday (including a banner running across the top of the screen).  Make sure to confirm day and time before heading out.

Despite all of the arguing, debating, campaigning on each side, in the end I don't really feel like we got screwed.  My worst fear was that OU would pull out the human votes for finishing with a stronger schedule and being the hotter team.  The fact that the unbiased computers pushed us back is much easier to take.  Ultimately OU got lucky with Cincy and TCU's records (which offset the unlucky draw of Washington).  I truly hope this makes us tweak our out-of conference philosophy.

Even though it didn't favor us, I still think that that Big 12's 3-way tie breaker is better FOR THE CONFERENCE than those of the SEC, ACC, etc.  It may not be viewed as fair, by the 2 teams that get left out, but it give the conference the best chance of having a participant in the BCS championship game.

Having said all of that, and after all we've done this year, it is amazing how many small things had to happen for us to be in this position.  What if any of these happen:

-Davis calls a better play on our first play against Tech

-Shipley doesn't drop that long pass against Tech

-Any number of our receivers don't get a case of the drops against Tech.

-We run the playclock down on our last drive against Tech.

-Gideon doesn't drop it

-Curtis or Earl push Crabtree out of bounds, or better yet tackle him in bounds.

-Nebraska stops tech on 4th and 20 from Tech's 30.

-Nebraska doesn't hit a 57 yard field goal to beat Colorado.

-Chase Daniel actually completes a 4th quarter comeback (o-fer in his career).

-Missouri DB's decide that letting receivers behind them is bad.

-OSU's DB's decide to cover anyone.

-Art Briles puts his team on his best player's back when it counts.

-Baylor's defense doesn't jump offsides negating big turnovers - TWICE.

Rice won but UTEP, FAU and Arkansas all lost.  UTEP and Arkansas games were very close, so that really sucks.

Meanwhile TCU and K-State won and Cincy is pulling away from Pitt, while Washington managed to pull defeat from the jaws of victory against an equally terrible Washington State.  Their AA opponent Chattanooga also lost.

Missouri, Colorado and Nebraska were all idle.

So in the SOS component, OU's opponents picked up 2 wins on UT's opponents.

Some type of illness.  Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll pull a Michael Jordan.

If Chykie is out we'll either have to move one of the safeties to CB, or rely on a walkon to fill out a 2-deep at CB.  We really need the offense to dominate and the defense to play mistake free.  Our margin of error is getting smaller and smaller.

Too bad we had to have a gazillion WR and moved Monroe from CB.

This is for Texas to play in the Big 12 Championship.  There are lots of other teams to root against (mainly Alabama, Florida and USC) as far as NC game implications.

1.  Root against everyone outside of the Big 12 that OU and Tech have already beaten:

-Chattanooga

-Cincinnatti

-Washington

-TCU

-Eastern Washington

-Nevada

-SMU

-UMass

2.  Root for everyone outside of the Big 12 that we have played:

-FAU

-UTEP

-Rice

Arkansas

3.  Root against everyone in the Big 12 North that we did not play:

-Nebraska

-Kansas State

-Iowa State

4.  Root for everyone in the Big 12 North that we did or will play, unless they are playing Missouri:

-Missouri

-Kansas

-Colorado

5.  Root for Missouri

6.  Root for Baylor and OU against Tech

7.  Root for OU against OSU.

8.  Root for A&M to beat Baylor.  At this point we want to finish the season against an A&M with the best record possible.

9.  Root against OSU.  We want OU to finish the season against an OSU team with the worst record possible.