SB Nation User Blog: Robertpz

We do not need any cheese...

Robertpz — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:49:25 -0000

to go with our whine nor do we need a split title. I was at the game last night and was a little overwhelmed by all of the "split title" talk by fellow Longhorns. Let me say by the way that I was also pleasantly overwhelmed with all of the pre-game festivities and how OSU and their fans proved to be up for the challenge. Now back to the split title...that ship sailed when we were denied access into the Big 12 Championship. Let OU and UF battle it out Thursday night for the 2008 title and let's focus our passion and hopes on 2009. Utah is the only program outside of the BCS Title game participants who can honestly gripe about being denied a title or title shot. In fact, I hope Utah makes all kinds of stink about it and it gets a lot of pub and maybe even a little Congressional talk (not that it matters in today's world). The reality is that until the majority of conferences (which is mostly non-BCS schools) rally against the current system, it will not change. Every three years when a non-BCS conference school gets denied a chance at an unbeaten record meaning something it is also one more chance for the fires of protest to begin to rage.

As far as Texas, I have said repeatedly, both on this website as well as talking and blogging with Houston-area sports people, that this team is eerily familar to the 2004 Texas Longhorns. Just like them, the 2008 team beat a Big-10 team in a BCS bowl game in dramatic fashion. Just like them, the current team will be losing a few, but meaningful seniors, but will also have a core nucleus intact to strengthen going into the following season. The 2005 Longhorns and the 2009 Longhorns have the same conference schedule as the year before. Key players from some of those conference opponents from the prior year are no where to be found the next. This Longhorn team is set up to make an incredible push for the National Title in 2009. I am excited and can't wait for opening kickoff against ULM to start that journey.

However, in the meantime, I would hope that fans can be passionate, yet reserved when discussing what could have been in 2008. That, and all of the drama with it, is out of our hands, yet 2009 is in our collective grasp! Thanks to Colt, the Longhorn Dynasty will add another notch in their belt in 2009 as the keys to the car get turned over to Gilbert in 2010 much like they were with Colt in 2006 after VY helped win the title for us in 2005.

Hook 'em!

Fiesta Bowl Gameday Activities Thread

Robertpz — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:46:05 -0000

I thought I would start this thread to see if fellow fans or local alumni might provide more information on any pre-game or post-game festivities for the Fiesta Bowl. My buddy and I are flying in the morning of the game and have tickets to some sort of pre-game tailgate, but I am not sure how good of a tailgate it will be. Plus, meeting up with some fellow BON'ers might be more fun.

Anyway, any insight as what a Longhorn fan can do on the day of the game would be much appreciated. We are hanging out one more day after the bowl to get in a few rounds of golf, but what else is one to do in Phoenix when not watching the Longhorns beat up on OSU?

Hook'em!

Robert

The greatest Christmas Day ever for a Longhorns' fan...

Robertpz — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:38:38 -0000

It started off by opening a gift to discover my best friend and my wife went in together to get me a plane ticket and a game ticket for the Fiesta Bowl! I am meeting my best friend, who is flying in from Denver, to go the game and then spend Tuesday playing golf! This will be my first Longhorns' bowl game since the '98 Cotton Bowl, which was Ricky Williams last game. Anyway, the surprises didn't stop there! I then learned my wife and I are going to have a boy, which we have picked out the name "Jackson Tyler"! While either would have been great, obviously having a boy gets the old male pride booming!

The day is almost over, but I am still stoked from the double-shot of blessings I received today. I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas and I look forward to hanging with some fellow BON'ers on January 5th!

Merry Christmas to all!

2009 is The Year of The Colt

Robertpz — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:59:51 -0000

I am not surprised to hear that Colt has already announced his intentions to return next year for the 2009 campaign. I also would not be surprised to learn that Sam Bradford is going to cash in his Heisman to enter the 2009 NFL Draft. Especially with the potential Rookie salary cap looming in 2010, any automatic first rounder will be jumping off the ship after this season to make extra dough that they would miss out on in 2010. As much and as long as I have been on the Colt Bandwagon, I think if he has a stellar senior campaign, he is still a 2nd rounder at best with 3rd round being probably the area he lands in. Thus, the rookie salary cap doesn't affect him nearly as much if he returns for one more year.

So with that said and using the "Sam Bradford leaving" theory, in 2009 Colt would play the same conference schedule as 2008 facing Mizzou, OU, TT, and Kansas with new quarterbacks. As far as the Big 12 South goes, only Okie State would be a team to worry about. Throw in Georgia, Alabama, and USC all with new quarterbacks and you could see why 2009 looks golden for Colt McCoy and the Texas Longhorns. The cherry on top would be Tim Tebow who might decide to leave early as well although Florida quarterbacks are as successful in the NFL as . The upcoming Fiesta Bowl game pitting UT against OSU could actually be a rematch in the making for the BCS Title a year later.

With a solid redshirt class getting their chance to contribute in 2009 along with the returning players, I like our chances at supporting Colt McCoy for a bonafide Heisman Trophy run as well as a BCS Title run. Of course, I think Colt kinda already knows that...

"Stoop"-ing to new heights

Robertpz — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:42:51 -0000

As a bona-fide Longhorn fan thru and thru, I begrudgingly applaud Stoops on using the system to his advantage. Using an old saying in concerning bad relationships, “Nothing gets you over the last one quicker than the next one!”, Stoops knew he had plenty of time to make voters and pundits forget about his loss to UT by demolishing a very soft middle part of the schedule leading up to tougher games against TT and OSU. While I do think it a tad much to overvalue OU’s “quality” wins over TCU and Cincy when the Sooners also played a Div I-AA one win team and a no-win Div 1-A team, the system is the system. Either way, Big Game Bob had plenty of time to get the wheels rolling again. Heck, Bob probably pulled out the old tapes of Mack in 2004 campaigning for UT to be in a BCS bowl game with their one loss to future BCS runner-up OU being better than California’s one loss to future BCS champion USC and knew he had plenty of wiggle room left. The truth was that UT’s gauntlet of four games from OU to TT gave Bob the potential opportunity he needed to jump UT provided the Longhorns stumbled, which they did. In the end, Mack got “out-Macked” by Stoops since OU had 6 games to rebound from their loss while UT had less than 3 games to do the same. I say that about Mack and Bob half-jokingly as head coaches should do everything in their power to defend their players and their programs even when the best defense turns into a great offense!

For my final thoughts on the BCS matter, I do think Bob has a stigma to overcome this year that will become very permanent or go away depending on the outcome of their game vs. Florida. While Bob has done a fantastic job of getting to the "Final Five" bowls in the last ten years, he has done a poor job in doing anything with those opportunities. Since losers like to say it’s better to have lost in a big game than to have not gone at all, the reality is that people do remember losers especially when they appear to lose a lot. Scoreboard shows Bob and Mack both having 2 BCS wins with Mack batting .1000 in appearances while Bob is a respectable .333 (respectable in baseball that is) in BCS games. I guarantee that if Bob loses to Florida, then the potential .286 BCS losing percentage will slowly begin to overshadow his .826 overall winning percentage (scary that it’s the same three numbers?).

I will say it one more time, the Texas Longhorns 2009 BCS Title campaign begins in Jan.5th!

Just can't beat a Mack....

Robertpz — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:14:27 -0000

Mack Brown		Bob Stoops
11	Seasons at school	10
11-1	Current record	12-1
3	National ranking	2
114-26 (.814)	Career record at school	109-23 (.826)
1	National titles	1
1	Big 12 titles	6
11	Bowl appearances	10
2 (2-0)	BCS appearances	6 (2-4)
7-3	Bowl record	4-5
3-6	Head-to-head record	6-3
21	Longest winning streak	20
3	Longest losing streak	2

Nice to see Bob has as many BCS wins as Mack. It would appear that one of the coaches is positioned to break that tie with their respective team's bowl appearance in January. I guess some would argue it's better to go to a BCS game and lose than to not go at all, which seem to be what losers say alot. Then again, winning ain't bad either when it comes to alumni supporters, overall bowl records, and smack-talking. It will be nice to see Florida hold the National title before we win it in 2009 vs. the other way around in 2005 vs. 2006....

Hook 'em!

PS Stats pulled from October article from Houston Chronicle. I believe I updated all of the stats thru this past weekend's championship game.

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II?

Robertpz — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:36:27 -0000

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II
US Ranked 4th

(AP) - After recently determining the Big-12 championship game participants, the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II. Despite the controversial move, a BCS representative defended the announcement by saying, "Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work--including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule--our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking."

When questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated "The US only had two major victories--Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren't influenced by head-to-head contests--they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event."

German Chancellor Adolph Hitler said, "Yes, we lost to the US; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks." Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn 'style points' to enhance Germany's rankings. Hitler protested "Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces."

Rounding out the rest of the top 5 did not escape scrutiny either. The BCS commented "France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking, thus they only fell to #2." Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines. Britain dropped to #5 in the rankings after ending their first engagement with Germany in a tie despite the shelling they took from Germany’s overwhelming offense, which British PM Churchill called a “moral victory”. A possible rematch is being negotiated for early next year. On the outside looking in were the Russians, which are prohibited from being ranked for one year due to recruitment infractions found in the eastern Poland, as well as Italy, who is looking to install the West Coast Offense after recently terminating Mussolini’s life…err…contract.

Up next for the BCS Computers are The Napoleonic Wars as well as American Idol Season 2: Clay vs. Reuben--

-- Received via email from a fellow Longhorn so I posted it with a few minor alterations. Figured my history degree might come into use some day....

Gonna party like it's 2004....

Robertpz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:57:31 -0000

While we could go on for days moping about how unlucky ".13" is, I would like to try and shine a ray of hope on us Longhorns during these "dark days.

First off, I have said several times throughout the year that this Texas Longhorns team reminds me very much of the 2004 team - low on expectations, high on production. That year, Brown did a "pre-Stoops" lobbying job of getting Texas to vault over California and into the Rose Bowl vs. Michigan. From Keith Jackson to Aaron Rodgers, no one was happy with the lobbying effort. After losing the previous season's bowl game to Washington State, clearly UT was predicted to be second fiddle to OU going into the '04 season. Perception became reality with our only loss that season being to eventual BCS Title game loser OU. In the end, all UT did was provide what was thought then to be one of the best Rose Bowl games ever by defeating Rose Bowl regular Michigan 38-37. The next season, coming off the optimism from the Rose Bowl win as well as many returning players, UT went on to finish undefeated playing the exact same conference schedule and capped off their National Title win by defeating USC in what is now the best Rose Bowl game to date.

Next, fast-forwarding to 2008, while UT finished strong with a resounding defeat of Arizona State in the previous season's Holiday bowl, many thought Texas was again going to be second fiddle to OU. Some even thought Texas Tech might leap over Texas. Yet, thanks to Colt's incredible play as well as go-to receivers Cosby and Shipley, Texas finished tied with one loss with OU and Tech. While some may say Stoops learned from the 2004 master to get the bump needed at the end of 2008, UT is poised to play in yet another BCS bowl against another Rose Bowl regular Ohio State, but this time the destination is Arizona. With a Fiesta Bowl victory, UT will most assuredly build upon the 12-1 season and begin 2009 as a top three preason favorite. Again, with most of the team returning and a solid crop of redshirt freshmen coming in, Colt in 2009 will have similar building blocks as VY had going into 2005’s season AND will be playing the exact same conference schedule as 2008.

Finally, let’s also hope that the comparisons don’t stop with OU either. In 2004 and 2005, Big Game Bob lost both BCS bowl games including one BCS title game! So while your local sports writer or bandwagon Sooners fan may goad you a little with OU’s BCS finish, relish the fact that next year promises to be another great one for the Texas Longhorns in the decade-long plus campaign under Mack Brown!

Passion of The Colt vs. Farenhype 911

Robertpz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:47:52 -0000

I am making a not so early prediction and saying that if UT gets left out of the #1 or #2 ranking for the BCS title game, then that virtually locks up Colt McCoy for the Heisman. Like the year the Oscars didn't know what to do with "Passion of The Christ" and Micheal Moore's documentar so they left them both out to maintain balance, I bet the Heisman voters pitch their support behind Colt if Texas gets nudged out of the National Champsionship game by a few one hundredth's of a point. College voters of all shapes and sizes will want to keep things balanced out between the Heisman Trophy and the BCS Trophy especially with a befuddling BCS ranking system. Voters are keen to the fact that Colt has been the reason behind UT's success this year. Armed with solid WRs, but no TE and a spotty RB situation, Colt has done about as much as one man can do on offense to keep Texas in winning situations all season. However, if Alabama and/or Florida lose before the BCS games, then a UT/OU BCS matchup might thrust Teabow into the forefront especially if Florida is the one nudged out by a small margin and Teabow looks good in his final two games.

Experience is only painful if you are a hooker....

Robertpz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:38:29 -0000

I have been praising McCoy's abilities since his freshman year. Furthermore, I feel that when he leaves after his four years of playing he will be the benchmark for all future and past UT quarterbacks. Yet his first three years at UT do not translate into guaranteed success in the NFL. So far in the Mack Brown-era, none of the early departures have enjoyed overwhelming success. I am sure Colt is just throwing "the testing of the waters" to see if there are any takers or suitors. However, I am sure most of the NFL scouts would view him as a quality pick and potential steal in the 3rd-5th rounds. He should and will come back for his final year to polish his talents and correct any NFL concerns. Next year, it will be Colt and Sam battling it out for the Heisman as well as potential draft rankings. I can't fault the guy for seeing if someone will throw millions his way, but in the end, Colt will find that money isn't everything and 2009 will be a mighty fine year for the Texas Longhorns!