I never saw anyone mention this article by Jeffri Chadiha that came out last Friday on ESPN.com, but it's an issue we deal with from time to time around here and has become highlighted by the Almighty VY's recent troubles.  The question he raises (and treats fairly in my view) is whether the Longhorn football program is adequately preparing it's players to be succesful pros.

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I was perusing TrueHoop this morning on ESPN.com and came across a most fascinating link: Gabe Muoneke's Blog!  Gabe tells a pretty good story and has some interesting theories on his life. And did anyone else know Gabe was a petroleum engineering major? I have fond memories of watching Gabe play at Texas back in the day and if you do too, you may enjoy reading his blog.

So, it's "Rivalry Week" once again, one of the CFB world's nods to Hallmark and inventing nonsense events to obsess about. I was reading an article in the Washington Post ranking their top 5 rivalries. I won't link to it, as it's clearly written by a Yankee and not worth your reading time (short-hand: OSU-Michigan, Army-Navy, Duke-UNC bball, Red Sox-Yankees, Barcelona-Real Madrid). Anyway, it got me thinking, but not about what the "best" rivalry is. I don't care what you say, you'll never convince me that OSU-Michigan, Auburn-Alabama, or Notre Dame-USC is a better rivalry than the UT-Techfodder game that happens at the beginning of each October.

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I know that the season is far from over. I know that Tech is going to be a challenge on the football field and that A&M is going to be a challenge in trying to comprehend how Neanderthals managed to create and maintain a full-fledged university.

All that said, I am ready today to nominate one of our players for Longhorn MVP. I came to this by thinking about which player I'd least like to have to give up.

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To lay the groundwork: I didn't see the game. I didn't see any high(low)lights of the game. All I know is what has been written here on BON, the Longhorn Scripture as far as I'm concerned.

As was the case with most of BON, I was a bit concerned when I read all of the commentary about the Arkie St. game. And I've been stewing about it.

This morning, however, I had a revelation. I woke up, jumped in the shower and as soon as the hot water hit my head I thought, "What if Mack and the boys were just sandbagging? What if what happened on Saturday was one of the greatest displays of psychological warfare that CFB has yet seen?" What better way to get the mental upper-hand on your opponents than to make them think that you're going to be a pushover?

I don't know, that's what I'm going with until Saturday proves me right or wrong. And I'll be able to enjoy the next couple of days. Hope y'all can too.

Hook Em.

I've been reading BON ever since it was born fully-formed from the head of All Things Longhorn, way back in the run up to 41-38 in 2005. I'm very proud that I was the 85th person to register here and always tend to mouse over someone's name when I read a provocative diary or comment to see their "number", mostly to get an idea for how long they've been around.

Anyway, after noting these recent "Howdy" diaries, I also noticed that the registration "numbers" are rapidly approaching 2000, if not already past that plateau (occasionally there are posters that don't have numbers for some reason...). That number, and the approaching 2 year anniversary led me to reminisce about the countless hours I've spent here enjoyably.

First off, congratulations to PB and all of the Burnt Orange Nation for creating a strong and lasting haven for Longhorn fans of all stripes. Second, shouldn't that 2000th person get an award or something? Maybe a special title? Or is 2000 registered users a negligible number? I don't spend much time on message boards or other web sites like this so I don't know.

Anyway, welcome to our new Longhorn friends and congrats to all of the crew from the bad old days.

Saw this over at Deadspin and figured y'all would get as big a kick out of it as I did:

Draft Kevin Durant

I've got your 300 characters right here...

A reader over on EDSBS referred to a particular play as "considered by many to be the greatest run in Colorado history".

That lead me to wonder what the BON believes is the greatest run in Texas Longhorn history. The first couple that came to my mind were Ricky's record-breaker (for sentimental and Ag-bashing reasons) and more recently, the pair of 80-yarders by The Almighty VY and Jamaal Charles. I don't think I have a preference, but it seems like a good off-season, non-Barry Bonds related thread-starter...

What say you, BON?

JD Quinn says, "All I did was take cash."

How dumb do you have to be to think you don't deserve to get punished for breaking one of the NCAA's cardinal rules? Clearly, "Sooner-dumb" is one answer.

He is right in that he didn't break any laws, by stealing a car or something. Heck, I'm not even sure that's a crime anymore. There've been a lot of changes in the law.

Anyway, first Arkansas gets bush-whacked and now this. For a day with no action, this one is shaping up well in my book...

http://kidcleveland.blogspot.com/2007/01/gibson-to-start-tonight.html

Ruh roh. Somebody better send the Cavaliers fans a video of Gibson playing point for the Horns last year (horrifying images of the black uniforms flashing through my mind). They might not be so excited...

And to avoid castigation, I noted last year that DGib wasn't the best point guard around. Speaking of which, Gibson played pretty well at point his freshman year but didn't get it done his sophomore year. AJ Abrams seemed to fill in well last year at PG (for a freshman anyway), but is clearly our SG this year. Is this a trend or coincidence?

Looks like Bill Simmons agrees with PB and thinks Durant can be the next savior of basketball.

After last night's performance, I think I agree as well.

So, I'm up at 7:30 on Sunday morning.  I can hear you asking, "What in the hell is wrong with you, Kahuna?"  The answer is simply that the hot wings I had while watching the game yesterday have now become a fiery spear of retribution impaling my bowels.  Enough said.

Anyway, I awoke this morning with several CFB thoughts running through my brain which I thought to share:

1. When that crying Sooner kid came on screen, my buddy and I jumped up and cheered.  That will be the most indeliable college football image for the year,  this side of January 4 of course.  My fiancee gave me a stern talking to later about how morally reprehensible it was to take joy from that kid's pain and suffering.  I think my brother said it best later when he IM'd me: "oh well, his life is pretty much shit anyway growing up in a sooner family".  Exactly.
2. Cripes, that first half was pretty rough, huh? Am I really wrong to blame Greg Davis for most of UT's failings?  Sure, he fixed things in the second half, but why exactly does it have to come to that?  Anyway, good things come to those that wait.
3. Forget the bubble screen, my official least favorite GD play is the gd shovel pass.  That freekin' play didn't work last year either when His Holiness Vincent I tried to run it.  I suppose I see its technical validity as an option, I've just never seen it actually succeed in surprising anyone.  Oh well.
4. A couple weeks ago the LSU-Auburn game was on at the same time as the Texas game and at the end of that 7-3 monstrosity, I made some inebriated comment about it being a "classic" SEC matchup.  Some SEC fan at the bar told me I was ignorant, or something to that effect anyway, and I shut up quickly, worried that maybe I didn't know anything.  But you know what?  Yesterday told me all I need to know about the SEC.  With the probable exception of Florida, all of those teams are seriously flawed and I refuse to admit that the SEC is the best conference in the land.  At this point the Big 1(1) and the <gasp> Pac-10 are better in my mind.  As Jean-Claude Van Damme showed us in Bloodsport, just because you're the brawniest ugly out there doesn't mean you're the best fighter.
5. I knew Colt and the boys had it in them.  Let the defense do it's thing and take the leash off of the offense for at least one half a game and the Longhorns will do alright for themselves.  Hook 'Em Horns!!!

In case you didn't see it, the WaPo ran a feature article on former Runnin' Horn Chris Owens on Wednesday.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901758.html

I can't remember if I ever knew Chris is related to Olympic great Jesse Owens.  Anyway, it's a good read and nice to see that Chris is still playing ball, even if it is in Germany...

If nothing else, I'd like to give thanks for the Burnt Orange Nation taking Saturday night in stride and not setting fire to anything (other than perhaps our livers).  I knew when I got home I'd read some informed arguments on what went wrong and be able to get my head wrapped around this debacle.

I did get to watch some of the game, but it wasn't too far into the first quarter when some women who were "members of the Country Club" (where the wedding I was attending was being held) kicked 20 or so of us Texas and OSU fans out of the room so they could watch the women's tennis final.  I've met some loathsome people in my life, but these women took the cake.

Anyway, look at it this way folks:  Colt McCoy just got a hell of an education and my bet is that the loss will galvanize the Longhorns for the rest of the season.

<non-original rant>That said, I have been and continue to be a Greg Davis critic.  I couldn't give two craps about the Broyles award, it was named for an Arkansas coach who couldn't beat the Longhorns when it counted.  GD is an offensive coordinator whose claim to fame is handing over control of the offense of major college football team to a 21 year old student-athlete (thankfully for us all that student was the greatest college football player in the history of mankind ever in the universe).  This man has made his name by riding on Mack Brown's coattails and abdicating his professional responsibilities.  Now that he has a QB who isn't a wunderkind, it's back to pounding the patsies and choking to the strong teams because offensive creativity is "for the youngsters".  I can hear Bob Stoops cackling over the replay of the game from here. Whether or not Texas can beat the Land Thieves (I, for one, think we can), it's got to hearten those jerks to know the Texas playcalling from two years ago is back.  ARGH!  If I was just an uneducated bumpkin who couldn't tell a bubble screen from a regular screen (ok, I think I know, but I'm not sure), it would be one thing, but everybody sees it!  People who understand the intricacies are saying "WTF?"  It's like Jeff Bowden at FSU, how can you not see that he's missing something important?  What will it take to get Mack to understand that a change needs to happen?</non-original rant>

Ok, thanks, just needed to get it off my chest.  The Texas Longhorns will be ok.  I can handle 10-2 and 9-3 seasons while the memory of last year keeps my soul warm.

And thanks again to BON, for being here when I need you most.

http://www.rpongett.phpwebhosting.com/osupreview.html (Found via The Boys at the MZone)

Don't know where this came from, but it's a masterful piece of work diagramming and illustrating the nuances of tomorrow's game.  Kudos to that guy, whoever he is.

I'm a little ashamed but on the above site, there's a clip at the very end with the last couple of important plays in the Rose Bowl.  Sitting here, in my office, I started tearing up a bit.  I'm like a freaking woman every time I see footage from the last 6 minutes of that game.  Criminy.

I also have a different sob story.  At 4pm tomorrow, I will be attending a wedding in which my fiancee is a bridesmaid.  I have been told that the engagement (which I fought long and hard for) will be in jeopardy if I try to escape early to join my compatriots to cheer on my beloved Longhorns.  The reception is at a country club and the understanding groom said there's a TV in the bar so I'll try to catch as much as I can, but I'll probably be alone or in the company of strangers (worse yet, Buckeyes).  So, I ask you, my brothers/sisters in arms, cheer a little harder in my absence, try to make up for my karmic shortcoming.  We'll all feel bad if Texas, God forbid, doesn't quite make the grade tomorrow, but I feel that I might be at the bottom of that pile of sorrow for not doing my part.  Woe is me.

Anyway, y'all that are in Austin, cheer like you've never cheered before.  Those of you rooting from satellite extensions of DKR across the globe, focus your mental energies until your noses bleed.  The Longhorns could probably do it without us, but why take that chance?

HOOK EM HORNS!

So, I moved to Virginia recently from DC (note to all:  I cannot think of one single feature of the District of Columbia that was worth the exorbitant rent, taxes, insurance etc. I had to pay to live there) and had the chance to get new license plates.

Vanity tags are only $10 a year in VA so I went ahead and got these babies:

Yeah, it's kind of cheesy but I figured if anybody would understand, it would be you guys.

Hook 'Em Horns! (and enjoy your Labor Day weekend by not laboring)

Who won the motivational poster contest from a while back?  I hate to be greedy or anything, but it seems to me that very few people followed the original terms of the contest and I sure would like me one of them purty t-shirts...

One-line diaries are prohibited on McCovey Chronicles. Give your diary a bit more thought, then give it another shot. If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.

The minumum is 300 characters.

Pat Forde at ESPN.com has an interesting column about the best/worst scenarios for each of the 64 Tourney Teams.  For someone like me who doesn't focus much on hoops outside the Big 12, it has some good tidbits here and there.

My favorite of all is at the end of the worst case scenario for aTm:  ...and Texas wins it all.  That's almost as good a motivation for Texas to win out as achieving the Big Trifecta in my book...

Asking who won the Civil War is akin to asking who won the Yom Kippur War: it really depends on which side you were on.  The North could declare a military and economic victory, having crippled the South in both of those areas, mainly thanks to the cruelty and sadism of Grant and Sherman scorching the fertile land of Georgia and the Carolinas.  However, the South could declare a moral victory in standing up for its culture and the right of states in our not-quite-perfect union.  It could also claim that Lincoln, the supposed champion of liberty, actually was just the opposite with regards to his abrogation of Constitutionally mandated personal freedoms and his occupation of Maryland.

In the end, no matter how you look at it, the true winners of the Civil War were...

The 2005 University of Texas Longhorns who beat the evil, awful USC Trojans by a score of 41-38, don't you ever forget it you filth-ridden, scum-sucking Californian Yankees!!!  Oh, sorry about that, got a little worked up.  Never mind.