1) I think the layout of the stadium including very bad acoustics makes the Cowobys Stadium really inhibits the fans and the noise.  You could tell the Longhorns and Cornhuskers fans were in to it at times, but the you couldn't tell it by the sound.  It's great that it can hold 100K plus, but it seems too spread out (i.e. not really on top of the action).  That's just me, but I also don't like the Cowboys so I may be biased.  I think Reliant makes you feel more in the game than the Death Star.  For a bowl game or pro game, I can see where it would be a better environment.

2) I don't know why people are jumping on the Alabama bandwagon.  I think Alabama, Florida, and Texas have all underperformed at times all season.  With all three teams full of talent, they are going to have the ability to pull it all together at certain times as well.  Alabama finally pulled it together yesterday, but they have four weeks to simmer down. And Texas has four weeks to get back on track.

3) Alabama's style of offense plays well into our defensive strengths.  Not a lot of trickery or zone-read.  Running and throwing is what we do well against.  I feel better with our D facing Alabama than playing Florida.

4) What in the heck happened to Cody Johnson?  It looked like Pellini took the OU game and replicated everything from it - Drop half the team back and rush 4-5 guys every play.  Tre and Fozzy can't pick up the blitz.  Cody is a solid body who can handle that rush as well as dish some back.  In the second half, Cody was brought in and he helped give Colt a few extra seconds on more than a few plays in the third quarter.  OC Davis is an idiot for not utilizing him last night as Colt almost got knocked out of the game and the season.  That is unless he was hurt, but I saw him on a few plays.

5) I think Nebraska should have taken a page out of the "Waterboy" playbook and let Suh win the game for them by kneeling on every offensive play.  That one sack of McCoy inside our ten was a play that could have resulted in a fumble.  Thankfully Colt held on for dear life.

Hook 'em!

First, the Heisman will be won this weekend.  Whether it is Spiller in the ACC, Tebow or Ingram in the SEC, or McCoy in the Big 12, whichever player has the best game wins the Heisman.  Spiller is more of a throw-in after his loss to SC, but he is still an incredible player on such an average team.  The rest are pretty solid on solid teams.

Second, the TAMU game was not an establishing of a now-vulnerable Texas Defense.  Muschamp & our defense resembles the Omnidroid from The Incredibles, we just learn and get better when a weakness is exposed.  Tebow can lick his chops all he wants, we won't be fooled twice.  Had Griffin been healthy and played for Baylor a few weeks back, we would have faced a running/throwing QB before A&M.  That's the main reason Johnson got the deserved jump on Texas. Film is one thing, but facing it is another.

Third, because UF and Bama have played mediocre at times in big games, this one is hard to predict.  I don't think it will be a shoot out.  I will cop out and say first team to 20 points wins because I don't see more than 44 points total in this game.  Bama/UT would be a low scoring, old-school BCS Title game affair whereas UF/UT would be faster-paced and definitely more exciting BCS game.  Either way, I am definitely pumped that UT has a chance to finally prove themselves on the main stage yet again in the same decade!

Fourth, Houston wins their conference game with their high-powered offense & low-voltage defense, GT rebounds from a Georgia loss to take out Clemson, & the rest of the unbeatens stay unbeaten.

Finally, who's going to the Big 12 Championship game this weekend?  I am & looking for some good tailgating! :)

Hook 'em!

My best buddy who went to the game with me last night asked what my feeling was before Kris lined up to kick the field goal to possibly tie the game to go into OT vs. the Titans.  I responded that one of two things would occur: Kris makes the kick and puts the two prior misses (end of the Colts game & middle of Texans game) out of his head for good OR Kris misses this one for the trifecta and immediately has uncertainty muddle his mind for the rest of his tenure with the Texans & becomes worthless.  Much like Lidge, Kris with that miss last night is done as an automatic kicker for the Texans.  Now Kubiak will have to wonder how close does he need to be for Brown to kick a makeable field goal, which then starts to shake up a sometimes shaky Red Zone offense when we can't afford to be uncertain with 6 games left. 

Bring in some kickers to audition to put Kris on notice.  Then next season, make a change at kicker and go after LenDale White in FA for a power back to offset Slaton. Maybe Brown recovers with another team much like Lidge did when he went on to the Phillies.  However, Kris Brown can't be a Texan in 2010...

I'm just sayin'....

After A&M's recent misadventures with their retro uniforms so far this season, I would have thought the Aggies might have wanted to ditch the whole concept of change to wrap up the season.  However, this link shows the new helmet to pay homage to the Bonfire victims from 10 years ago.   

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=59574578&id=8350028

For the non-facebook users, here is an alternative link:

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/71695452.html

I am sure they are going to use this as a rallying cry.  The first quarter of the game Thursday night will be hell for the Longhorns in terms of the fans & the excitement in the air.  Yet, all Texas needs to do is weather the maroon storm for that quarter, play their style of offense & defense the entire game, and talent & coaching will win out...

Hook 'em

Last year it was Texas against the world and this year is no different.  This same schedule in 2009 Texas also played in 2008 where the Longhorns played 4 Top 15 opponents in a row going 3-1 then went on to beat a ranked Kansas team a few weeks later before wrapping up the season against another ranked opponent in OSU at in the Fiesta Bowl.  When the dust settled, Texas finished the season 4-1 against top 20 talent.  With a few weeks left in the regular season, it now appears that everyone thinks Texas is trying to beat the system by playing bad teams to go undefeated?  First of all, Arkansas backed out of their commitment for this season so they could beat up on the Aggies for the next 10 years in Jerry's World, which meant Wyoming stepped in.  Next, as far as the Big 12 is concerned, Mizzou, Tech, OU, & Kansas all are down with only Oklahoma State hanging in there.  Yet, it's all Texas's fault that BSU, TCU, or Cincy might miss out on a BCS Title game?  Really?

Rest assured over the next five years, Texas plays UCLA, Ole Miss, Minnesota, & Cal plus the normally daunting Big 12 Schedule when Texas usually faces at least 3 ranked teams from within their own conference. That is unless one of those teams decides not to play us at the last minute (in college scheduling terms that is). Geez…everyone else in the Big 12 has a crappy year AND Texas is the one to blame? Riiiiggghhhttt!  I look forward to an undefeated Texas team facing an unbeaten SEC team to decide the 2009 BCS Champion in what should be the most highly anticipated bowl game since Texas played USC, which coincidentally was the last time two undefeated teams played for the title.  But of course that is the Longhorns' fault as well! 

Hook ‘em!

Today with a win over Baylor, Colt moved into a tie with David Greene of Georgia as one of the winningest QBs in NCAA Div 1 history with 42 wins AND he still has four games left to play.  If he wins all four, that would put Colt averaging a little over 11 wins per season (the record is 51 wins by Div II Grand Valley State's Finnerty, which was helped by their playoff system).  Teams kill to do that once every couple of years AND Colt & the Longhorns will have done that over the four years since he took over the position after Vince Young left.  Add to that if Colt wins whatever bowl game he will be in come January, he will join Pat White of West Virginia as the only QBs to win 4 bowl games (Tebow has a shot also to join that club, but I am thinking he loses his first bowl game to Colt!) in NCAA history.  I have said it before and I will say it again, we are witnesses to a rare commodity in Colt McCoy.  After you add up all of the Longhorns records he will have set by January as well as some NCAA ones, he will go down in Texas Longhorns history AND NCAA history as probably the most unheralded college offensive football player to have a 4 year career like no other.  Regardless of how everything pans out over the next four games, I just think this is something special that we as Longhorns fans will be able to tell our grandkids about someday.  Great players will always be found & made at Texas, but I believe few will do so much with so little expected of them as Colt has managed to do for four solid seasons on the 40 acres. I am happy for him as well as the program as I know you guys are too!

Hook 'em!

Do you know what year was the last time OU lost 4 games in a football season?  Wait for it...wait for it...wait...for...it...that's right...2005!  What happened that year is about as obvious as the backstory on the connection between Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley.  Anyway, we just had the ESPNU college press conferences on at my work (FOX Sports at Bush airport if you ever fly thru) and Bob Stoops was on.  They flashed up the last 5 years of OU football records & a moment of clarity struck me!  Forget 2012...all the signs point towards 2009! :)

Hook 'em!

This time last year, give or take a few days, Longhorns fans were scratching their heads after losing on a last-second TD to the Texas Tech Red Raiders closing out an improbable 3-1 mark against Top 15 opponents in four-straight weeks.  Scratching turned to praying as all we could do is hope that OU might be able to beat Tech and then somehow allow us to go to the Big 12 title game & then on to the BCS Title game.  Of course, we know how all of that ended…

Now, we are on top of the world (or at least in our hearts & minds) while the world itself has us #3.  We are unbeaten, having vanquished all that have come before us in this 2009 campaign - The once formidable OU football team now resembles a beaten stepchild sitting in the corner sucking it’s thumb praying for the nightmares to end; Mizzou and Tech wish they had their 2008 quarterbacks and receivers to return them to a happier time & place; Oklahoma State is still Oklahoma State showing so much promise & potential on paper, yet still getting fitted for their burger place employee uniform at season’s end; and the Big 12 North representative spot for the conference championship game is more undecided than Brett Favre’s 2010 football season. 

Critics point to our weak schedule and how the promise of Big 12 dominance in 2009 has not come true.  However, 2008 taught us that it really doesn’t matter how many rank teams you beat, it just matters that you finish perfect.  And so far, Coach Brown is staying true to plan.  While Colt isn’t the Colt of last year, he is leading a team that is just as good if not better on defense than on offense.  The reality is that if we remain perfect, our opponent will be Florida or Alabama, both of which command respect from an opponent’s defense more so than a willingness to turn into a Conference USA shoot-out. 

Sorry Boise State, TCU, and Cincy, the ultimate perfection in 2009 belongs to Texas and it’s fans! Come this Thanksgiving, Longhorns' fans may finally have something in the past four years to be thankful for!

Hook 'em!

With their loss to Colorado, I hope that everyone can take a deep breath of reality and realize TAMU is just an average team.  Now while we shouldn't take any team lightly, I also don't think we should go all "Lou Holtz" and make a team more than they are.  We have three games left before the Big 12 Championship and we need to use them to get ready to play Florida or Alabama.  The defense is clicking on all cylinders and Colt finally discovered how throwing more than 20 yards down the field can pay off.  Keep getting Cody and Fozzy better & find the last remaining key to our BCS puzzle which is the running the ball effectively.   Get that in place, and nobody will be able to stop our well-rounded attack.

Hook 'em!

PS I got my Big 12 Championship tickets...have you?

The atmosphere was solid as we sat right next to the student section near the end zone.  It made it even more refreshing watching the students start to bail halfway thru the 3rd quarter.  Fans were nice throughout the game as I was one of four Longhorns (or at least wearing the attire publicly) in our section.  Guess they figured with the history of the UT/OSU series the past few years, you have to be careful what you say!

My main observation I noticed in the first half from the UT offense is that they ran more 5 WR sets than I have seen this season so clearly they were going to try and take advantage of mismatches with passing, however, I also think that left Colt way too open for some sacks and pressures than I would have liked.  I am still puzzled why he doesn't pass it down the field more often as he missed some open WRs by dumping it short.  Either way, a win is a win and our defense is going to be what wins us the BCS this year!

On a side note - What is the flavor of the month mentality with Texas A&M all of a sudden?  You look at their schedule and they have lost the games they should have and won the games they should have (if you flip KSU and TT).  I don't know why everyone thinks A&M has grown into some sort of dark horse team?  If they can keep it to within 2 TDs of OU, then I will worry.  If they get blown out like they should going against a more talented team, then they are what we thought they were.  And don't hand me rivalry game.  Mack will have Texas ready for the Thanksgiving Day game & they will be out for blood as they don't want to leave any doubt.  I just find it humorous that all of a sudden TAMU is getting some "oohs" and "aahs" for doing what an average team is supppose to do.

Hook 'em!