This is one group of people that I can easily tell exactly what they want.

Some are more demanding than others, but that is an issue of style and aggression, not the deeply felt need we all eventually express. I see those title-room eyes. There is really no substitute for our desire.

Right now this time is more sensitive than most years because we got punched in the face, kicked in the ass and wound up bleeding in the bar ditch with all sorts of tire tracks mangling our ego and what little was left of our confidence. For a considerable period we rehabilitated ourselves, reconsidered our future and goals, blaming many bitterly, often parsing that with a more 'reasonable' approach and tried - dammit, we did try - to keep our eyes on the future, sometimes even the long, long view where there might be just a little more assurance of success. But you know, August is only four hot damn months away and as soon as she starts shimmying and sashaying in our presence, all those well-considered promises will fly out the damn door. Yeah, we're demented but we like it like that.

What do we want? There's only one thing - and then there's everything else, which soon disappears.

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I have yet to see any good sense in conference tournaments as they now operate. I think it is profoundly stupid.

Now, you may ask, "What in the hell did you do last night, whills?" I saw something ridiculous...worse than proving a negative.

Now those who are tolerably sane and stable, with good sense rooted deeply in how things are are the moment, may well ignore this. The rest of you are fish in my barrell.

My rigorous and unrelenting analysis - well primed I might add, with special secret ingredients - shows that conference tourneys usually either reiterate what we already know or they merely inject some inane, irrational consequence into the Big Dance. But whichever outcome occurs, a couple of prime teams almost always enter the NCAA playoffs with tired bodies and legs if they don't have the good sense to lose early (h/t 54b).

This is what is stupid and utterly without merit for either the teams involved, the Big 12-2 or the NCAA tournament. We all appreciate redemption but do you think the Big 12-2 conference tournament and conference tournaments in general are the proper stage for this? The hell, you say. Gird your loins and jump over to the dark side...bring your own special ingredients, if need be.

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Jeff Fisher and the Tennessee Titans have parted ways, There was some question about whether the longest tenured coach in the NFL was fired or is just leaving or what. But for our purposes here, he's gone. Brings a smile to my face. Here's the story as it broke via SI.

While the tweets are flying fast and furious, there is no early lead on how this affects Vince Young but it certainly does change the equation in Tennessee.

Fisher took over as interim head coach for the Houston Oilers when Jack Pardee left and then was named the head coach the next year, 1995. His overall record ended as 142-120, with a 5-6 playoff record. Three of those five wins came when the Titans reached the Super Bowl in 1999, in which they fell just a yard short of victory.

A new era is truly beginning in 2011.

Kudos to silky51 for catching this in the FanPosts.

From Titaninsider:

The Tennessee Titans and Jeff Fisher have agreed to part ways and Fisher will no longer be the head coach of the team," the team said in a release.

A head coaching search will begin immediately, but a source indicated to TitanInsider that offensive line coach Mike Munchak, who signed his contract extension earlier this week, is the leading candidate to fill the vacancy.

Once upon a time I used to create an NCAA National Championship Football playoff for either 16 or 32 teams and publish it in the local newspaper. I have railed against Bowl Championship Series since it was created. Since I was the sports editor at this bi-weekly, I would just up and create the brackets and playoffs (with better graphics, unfortunately). This year 32 teams would have just been more complex than I wanted to deal with. But this particular 16-team bracket is pretty damn good and a tough road for any team to win. They'll deserve it in the end.

For one, such a creation shows how easy this actually would be. Doing the picking and the set up was the hardest part. I explain the nuances, but basically all conference champions (and in most, but not all cases, the team who lost the CCG) are accounted for, with a three-team limit per conference. You get some possible stinkers, Nevada (12-1) and UConn (8-4), but every fairy tale needs a Cinderella.

The most striking thing this year - like most - is that winning one game is a pretty easy route to the title. Here you have to win four and they're all reasonably tough games. Plus I include a Christmas break between the second and third rounds. So, in this ideal world, we'd be talking about the semifinals and the four teams with a shot at earning the on-field title.

From my point of view, this type of playoff would put more of a premium on conference play rather than out of conference games. You certainly don't have to be undefeated if you win the conference title or if you're a major school and have a loss or two. Doing well in the conference counts. Thus, I think it would probably lead to the development of manageable conferences without great numbers current realignment suggests more and more. This would push more regional conferences and conserve costs.

I kept an eye out for good regional contests because I would think that this type of playoff should be fan friendly and available. As a matter of fact, with the  bulk of these schools being public institutions using public funding, I would insist all televised games be on public TV as well, accessible to all. Not the present monopoly created by ESPN where 32 of the 25 bowl games are on cable, including some of the major BCS bowls and the MNC. Someone should sue the sonofabitches over that.The point of the NCAA doing this is so member schools - and all Football Bowl Division teams - get the lion's share of the profit. The TV networks just witness and telecast; not direct and control.

You might quibble with the seeding, with #17 who should have played just a little better, or the way I have drawn up the brackets with the logical rules I developed for this; you might even have some improvements. You might disagree that the NCAA and its member schools shouldn't get the benefit of the cream of the crop playing. But you gotta admit, this isn't that hard. Even 350 rabid monkeys on speed could have done this in 24 hours. Unfortunately, we have college presidents making decisions instead of rabid monkeys, and we're much poorer for it.  Join us over the jump for a dip in the more practical side of modern college football, 2010 version.

Update: Standardized seeding bracket now included.

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This morning Cleveland coach Eric Mangini named Colt McCoy as his starter for the rest of the season.

 "I felt like he's earned this opportunity and I want to give it to him," Mangini said. "I want to see how he continues to grow. This is by no stretch just throwing a young guy in for the sake of throwing a young guy in. If I didn't think he could go out and lead us and be successful doing that, then I wouldn't make this decision. But I do feel that way and I feel strongly about it."

Colt hasn't played since November 21 when he incurred a high ankle sprain.

Definitive good news is always welcome, but this really shows a high degree of confidence in Colt not just for the present but for Colt's future as a NFL QB. As someone who had questions about his performance at the next level, this provides an answer about how substantial his contribution has been, for he's not just a fine QB, he's an excellent team leader.

This has to be a wonderful Christmas present for him and his family and what we might characterize as his extended family here at BON.

The Browns travel to Cincinnati Sunday. Colt can even his starting record to 3-3 with at win.

While we pay attention to all things Longhorn, the overriding truth is we're steeped in Texas football and all it's lore. This starts early and begins in high school and remains accessible to us long after we've left those fields of play.

Right now the Texas high school playoffs have progressed to the semi-finals and, in the case of 3A Division I, the finals. There is a richness to these games that replenishes the well-spring of our love for football - our football. Texas football. With more schools and more teams than any other state, it is no wonder that there is a world of talent and innovation saturated and fired by great competition in whatever class you may choose. Late in the season, new talent emerges, seniors that were missed in early recruiting who matured in their final season, junior and sophomores just making their mark, occasionally the remarkable freshman...these are the games where reputations are created and transferred into the lore we call Texas football.

This is the week of dreams, where the perspiration of summer and aspirations to greatness finally pay off for a select few teams. Are they the very best? Maybe not, but they've earned it in the time-honored Texas tradition - on the field of play. These are the hot shot gunslingers of our day, just as fast, just as quick and sleek, and just as sneaky, as anyone who ever set a boot in the Texas dust. No more talk. This is for forever.

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                                        Lake Travis Cavaliers (11-2) vs. Cedar Park Timberwolves (13-0)

                                                           Class AAAA, Division I, Region IV Final

                                                 Saturday, 1:30 PM CST, Royal-Memorial Stadium

Lake Travis has won three consecutive state championships in Class 4A but this Saturday will face its greatest challenge to win another. Cedar Park, a team from its very own district, decisively beat the Cavs in their early November district match, 35-21, to win the District 25-4A championship.

Back in September GhostofBigRoy covered the rare and powerful clash between 2009's two Class AAAA state champions, Aledo vs. Lake Travis. The Cavaliers were riding a 48-game winning streak which included three state champions, two directed by QB Garrett Gilbert, and was ranked #1 in the state and #10 in the nation. Despite being without QB Michael Brewer due to injury, LT jumped to a 10-0 lead before Aledo countered with a TD late in the first half to make it 10-7. The game turned defensive and somewhat sloppy but Johnathan Gray finally bowled into the EZ with six minutes remaining to give Aledo a 14-10 victory and break Lake Travis' win streak.

Lake Travis would continue their winning ways and, with injured QB Michael Brewer's returning to form, looked to be headed downhill toward another state title. However, many considered Cedar Park to have one of the best offensive lines in the state regardless of class, and they were simply pulverizing everyone in their path. When they finally faced off with district title at stake in early November, Cedar Park pretty well crushed Lake Travis, jumping off to a 28-0 lead and holding on for the 35-21 triumph.

Lake Travis developed from Lakeway Resort, a development by the oil-rich Hunt family of Dallas, in the mid-1960s. Thus, it is a relatively new school and never had much success through its early history until they started winning in the late 1990s. Cedar Park is much newer, a result of the increasing population movement north of Austin, and will eventually go back up into 5A. As the crow flies, they're really not far apart geographically across the Colorado River, about 20 miles. In between them is Lago Vista, once a doorstep for everyone, but not this year. They're 12-0 and facing Rice Consolidated (8-3) for the Region IV final in Class AA in San Antonio Saturday at 4 PM in the Alamodome. That's a lot of talent in a relatively small area.

So, what interest does this have for Texas fans?

First, there are Texas commitments on either side of the ball: Lake Travis' OL Taylor Doyal (6-5, 270) and Cedar Park's LB Chet Moss (6-1, 219).

Plus, Horn fans would get to see some serious offensive and defensive line play from both teams, something that was missing from their Longhorn menu this season. I've seen Cedar Park earlier this year and they are awesome, one of the best I've ever seen - and I've really never seen a running team go hurry-up like they do, just a brutal, cruel way to dispatch the opposition. Get up, kid, I wanna knock you down again, very much in the Rocky I mode. And their defensive line is just as fine.

In Lake Travis you'll see some fine pass blocking and pretty much the offense Garrett Gilbert once owned. You might assess just how far he was this year from those glory state championship journeys of two-three years ago.

Finally, it is that time of year in the state when there's plenty of high class high school football action. If you're going to a game this weekend, let us know in the comments.

Tickets are $10 at the gate and $8 if you purchase them early from the individual schools.

KEYE 42 in Austin announced tonight that Mack is replacing Curtis Brown and Aaran Williams with sophomore Kenny Vaccaro and freshman Adrian Phillips for the Kansas State game Friday night in Manhattan.

According to Brown, both Vaccaro and Phillips have shown sure-handedness before.  "Kenny was a great receiver in high school. In fact, when we took him, we did not know whether he would be a receiver or a safety. He has great hands. Adrian was actually a receiver and quarterback in high school, so he has played everywhere. We feel like both of those guys now have played in big games, even on the road, because Adrian played a lot at Nebraska and Kenny has played a lot for two years. We do not think that they will be nervous about the opportunity."

Not only have neither returned punts for Texas, only Vaccaro shows some KOR yardage from 2007 HS.  DC Will Muschamp and WR Coach Bobby Kennedy recruited Phillips while Kennedy and ST Coach Mike Tolleson teamed on Vaccaro.

Vaccaro is the starting nickel back, while safety Phillips is the back-up to Blake Gideon. At 4.47 he's got some speed on his 5-11, 199-pound frame and played well against NU. Vaccaro may not have as much speed but he probably should be measured in foot-pounds per square inch anyway. There's no doubt he should have the aggressive attitude a punt returner needs...once he has the ball.

Many here would have made some change many weeks ago, no doubt. There was no mention of other players in the mix. We're going to have to endure a rookie or two on a chilly Manhattan night (high in 60s, dropping to lower 40s,  but clear).

Better than the alternative? We'll see.

We're gonna dance around a bit. Good for cheering us up. We need to collect our restless spirit from the dark night winds swirling around us now. 

So, at appropriate interludes there needs to be some music to fill up this bye week. You can help with that.

No one is writing much because, frankly, there's not much to cheer about and the sense of anticipation is about like a pen full of young bulls when it's nut chopping time in the spring. Although it is so slow in this desperately needed bye week, and there really nothing to say, I've never been one to let that deter me from my appointed mission, whatever in the hell that is.

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Hot damn, I know what I want now.

I want some of that Comprehensive Offensive Philosophy Insurance, heavy on the collision, and plenty of towing, these sonofaguns run out of gas at the damnedest times and their propensity to go sideways puts them in the bar ditch ever so often.

I'd also need a binder as well, one to tie up Greg Davis and stick him in a closet right at game time, letting him watch four intensely entertaining hours of Greg Davis' Greatest Hits, every single one a bubble screen of the finest vintage. I'd have a little speaker positioned right about his left ear telling him the actual play that would have worked so much better in that particular situation. He'll love every second and won't even know the actual game has come and gone.

In the meanwhile, Major will have slipped into the booth and using a special voice synthesizer replicating the monotonous tones of GD, proceeds to unroll a game plan that was so clever and so predatory, OU Coach Bob Stoops actually offered to stop the game late in the third quarter when the score hit 70 zip. A forfeit would actually look better. Mack just told him, "F*ck you Bob, get used to it. I hate red."

It seemed a reasonable attitude at the time. Mack had never seen such marvelous efficiency in an offense and just didn't want to be distracted.

GD couldn't speak for three days. He went temporarily blind and couldn't tell anyone why, which was so ordinary no one noticed.

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The immediate effect of a loss like this is to lose all perspective, amply verified all across the Longhorn Nation. Hell, it was a damn stampede, with blue electricity playing off the horns as the thunder rumbled and the lightning flashed each terrible second. Soon the herd split into smaller and smaller groups, mooing their discomfort as if the winds of the storm would carry an answer when there was none, at least in the short term.

Only pain and agony, measured by how much emotion and expectation you invested in this year's edition and how much self-importance you piled on top of that perspective remained. Of course, the perspective fell into the mud immediately and nothing good could be said afterward.

Being a grisly old fart, I've seen a lot of these. Sure, they hurt. If you wanna be a fan and reap the rewards, then there's gonna come a time when it's gonna hurt. At heart, it's your own damn fault, although the first reaction is to blame the coaches, the team, the individual players, and anyone up the line.  Of course, being responsible and taking the blame yourself - when you didn't have a damn thing to do with it except pile up your emotion - is not easy for a fanatic. That is what we are, like it or not. Those with less emotional investment and especially those with none bring out the daggers and spill even more of our orange blood.

All is not lost even if it feels that way. I once met an old time sociologist, wise in the ways of people, and he told me the two most important things he learned about people were: one things leads to another and it takes one to know one. It was funny as hell at the time and didn't seem so wise. The longer I've lived, the more truthful it became. Simple things become complex quite suddenly, and the complex of our hopes and dreams can become pretty damn simple in an instant.

Where are we? Take a walk on the dark side...

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Led by Kevin Durant's 28 points, including seven treys, the USA "B" team whipped Turkey, 81-64, in Turkey's home stadium in Istanbul Sunday. Durant also set a US tourney record for more points scored in the World Championship tournament. The Championship is the first for the US since 1994 and the leadership of Durant was evident throughout the tourney.

ESPN report here.

He may be a very young man, but his maturity as a person and a player will keep yielding great returns for the University of Texas for many years to come.

Texassports.tv has about a two-minute video mosaic of yesterday's evening practice, along with still shots available on the main site. Editing at a hyper BlackHawk Down pace, there's lots of images to consume.

Two long and high Garrett GIlbert bombs float down to Marquise Goodwin and James Kirkendoll to start the video. Then the Horns are off and running, Tre and Fozzy and a sleeker Cody Johnson. There's a play action shot from behind the QB with a long out pattern to D. J. Monroe. Yeah, there's more, your morning teaser.

So, what are we seeing here? Is it the editing or the real story? Are the Horns selling the explosive edge? Aside from a strident sound track, there is no comment or narrative.

At any rate, it is football, Longhorn football, and although not the feast we are longing for, it is a tasty little snack.

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When we're mired in a period of relative misfortune, we often find a scapegoat for our problems. Our wisest course of action is to accept that no matter how we fell into our situation, chances are we should be focusing outward, looking for solutions to our dilemma as opposed to feeling sorry for ourselves and blaming someone else.

In sports, such wisdom doesn't always apply so easily because we are an abstraction removed from being able to actually do anything about our team's misfortune: we don't play in the game and we don't coach. We are merely witnesses who invest some amount of emotion into our teams. The amount of our investment dictates how great our final rewards are. We have some control over ourselves as we tie our fate to our teams. We actually don't need any dogma or out sized hype - although there is plenty of both to go around - to make our highly personal decisions. 
In the past, except for those close to us, few know how high the ecstasy or low the depression when our teams didn't perform to our expectations unless we had a public means of expression or confession. Of course, there is always Okies and Aggies around to sink the barb in the bad years, but for the most part these emotions remained private expressions to your friends and buddies around the proverbial water cooler.

With the advent of sports blogs, there is wide range of public expression available, especially the immediate revelation and spontaneous interactions of live-blogging the games. I have found those live blogs to be one of the most enjoyable and pleasurable aspects of BON. While I can't be at the game, the virtual audience amplifies the game for me. In great games we get excited and holler and yell, able to sneak in quick projections of the near future and rejoicing within our herd when we triumph. In slow games when the outcome is decided, we can spice up the proceeding and have a lot of fun playing with the pencils, abusing the announcers and each other, joking, laughing and enjoying the glow of victory and looking at the next game. When it goes all bad, we hear recriminations (GDGD), disgust and usually some reconciliations - we taste the anger as well as the bitterness of defeat and of those with little faith or forbearance.

I'm sorta glad we didn't have live-blogging in the dark ages. The things I would have said about Jackie Sherrill would have burned up the ether and melted all the innerwebs. Hold on milevin, we'll have to go over the ledge for this one.

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Here we are, deep in the heart of Texas and deep into the summer doldrums, usually that vacant relentless blue sky period of sweltering temperatures and the absolute minimum of football news. Now we have tropical clouds and high humidity, even rain, and it’s Houston all over again.Still, there's little real football news, however much dime scours the webs of our being.

The swings of the sports pendulum have been Texas-sized this past season as we rose to giddy heights of anticipation only to spiral far, far down the line to a place we didn’t expect when we were ridin’ high in the saddle.

There was a chilling aspect as to how these teams – football, volleyball, basketball and baseball – met their fate. Volleyball just ran into someone as good as they were, and when it counted, just a hair better. Baseball encountered two damn good TCU pitchers – of all the teams, these two went down in the most traditional manner. Basketball showed a strong chemistry that quickly fell apart, like a crystal with a flawed lattice structure, once broken the team changed into merely an amorphous mass of players. Football, though, suffered a different fate, where the destiny of one player was altered -and so was that of the team. We didn’t get to play out our hand…not that unusual in football, but one of those haunting things that can leave unrequited pieces of emotion and a sense of destiny unfulfilled. I was touched by the anonymous alumni who donated a memorial to the 2009 Longhorns. I doubt if last season will ever rest in peace.

 Within me I have some of those unrequited emotions that I want to explore in this little doldrums’ series. We didn’t really get ambushed this past year but I will talk about some football games that were ambushes, games that both angered and mystified me at the time.  I’d be walkin’ around for days going wtf was that, how and why did that happen at this particular time?

As the weather turns Houston-like here in Central Texas, that is where we will start. Start ducking thunderstones flying from Thor’s hammer and join me on the flip for a little walk on the dark side of the pasture.

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So much for gratitude. Everyone seems to be up to their eyeballs in anticipation and no small amount of anxiety. And rightfully so, this is as big as it gets in the world of college football and if your sphincter isn't puckering, maybe you aren't that heavily invested.

But this isn't about the one-upmanship of fandom, this is about the other side of rationality, about the superstitions that surround the sport and exactly what you'll be doing tomorrow to entice good luck and overcome the dark side.

Here on this site there is a somewhat unwritten ethic during live-blogging a game about those knock-on-wood moments when someone inadvertently calls on the forces of evil instead of light. Just like on the field and in the dugout of a baseball game, what is and isn't allowed isn't stated, but any transgression is quickly addressed. And sometimes you can't correct those words that slip out into the ether; once loosened, they roll on their own, so beware. 

Irrationality always has a certain role, one many may want to ignore or diminish it but you can't, because both the world and the human mind, a non-local entity, are quite mysterious places where a single act can instantly change our very conception of what is.This is about our visceral reaction to this world and to this game in particular. 

So, what's your personal range of quirky superstitions in preparing for the game? Is it clothing and pre-game rituals, or how you deal with bad times within the game or incantations for changing the flow of luck? How do you make that blue lightning jump from horn-to-horn and start a stampede in the right direction? Just how crazy do you get? You're not alone, you know.

It's said by his family that he had to borrow fifty cents to send a telegram from East Texas to accept the Democratic nomination for the governorship of Texas. There had been a stone cold deadlock of the two leading candidates. Oran M. Roberts became the compromise candidate and was unanimously accepted upon his consent.

He was the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court at the time, where he had been appointed in 1874 by Gov. Richard Coke, and won a second term by regular election. After the Civil War he had returned to Gilmer, a county he had help set up when he was a District Judge and where he  opened the state's first law school in 1868. One of his students became a Texas Supreme Court Justice (Sawnie Robertson). Never a man of great means, he did care about the law and about education.

Our concern here is about education, for Gov. Roberts would be the man who worked with the Legislature to get the money for endowing the University of Texas - and made sure it would be open to both men and women of the state. (A&M was restructured and funded at this same time, for males only.) At the time he knew there were no public universities in the state available to the school children of Texas aside from the private and parochial schools. He had migrated to Texas with his wife, Francis W. Edwards, in the early 1840s and had been a lecturer in law at the University of San Augustine.

In 1883 before he left office, the University of Texas would open its doors. Roberts was appointed a professor of law and taught at the Texas Law School for the next 10 years. He wrote the The Elements of Texas Pleading in 1890, which was used for decades. He was affectionately called the "Old Alcade," a title he first got while serving as Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

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( Ed Spaulding is a 1969 graduate of the University of Texas and a former sports editor of the Daily Texan and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He worked for the Houston Chronicle for 21 years. The South Texas town of Freer, where Steve McMichael went to high school, was part of the area covered by the Corpus Christi paper. Ed covered McMichael during his high school days, and later at Texas. Tomorrow, McMichael will be honored for his contribution to football with induction into the College Hall of Fame. Fifteen Texas players and Coach Darrell Royal have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including McMichael’s UT teammate, Johnnie Johnson. Thanks, edsp.  whills)

You start in a dusty South Texas town. Population maybe 3,000. In high school, you play every position except quarterback and defensive back. Your first start in college is at defensive end. Your dad dies, violently, in a shooting incident, that same day.

Skip ahead. Let’s find out how the story ends. You end up an All-America defensive tackle. You start for one of the great (and most adored) Super Bowl champions. You do a stint in the pro wrestling ring, do a gig behind the microphone. As you pass age 50, you coach an arena league team to a championship (and a perfect season). And, this week, you join an elite handful out of the many thousands who have played the game with induction into the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame.

The life and times, as it were, of former Longhorn star Steve McMichael.

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Right now it is a Monet sky and a beautiful burnt orange sunset here in Central Texas, a tremendous fall evening. The weather isn't the game we are considering, as great as it may be. 

I'd bet the Horns have planned the Missouri and OSU games as a two-fer. I intuit that the plan was to run it up the first half, nail down what we could in the third quarter and get some rest for the starters on both sides of the ball. And, as a special benefit, get a complete quarter of playing time for subs to build depth for the stretch run as well as next year.

Any complaints about the second half need to be couched in terms of the plan. The plan for the second half seemed to be to smother the Tigers and reveal as little as possible to OSU. For the third week in a row, it will be a short week again for practice and with travel, so conservation of energy is the real name of the game.

Sure, running up the score could have been great for the style points and palaver for the talkin' heads. The Horns don't need frickin's style points - the SEC propaganda machine, ABC and ESPN would just chew them up anyway - so screw 'em. What the Longhorns need is a critical victory in Stillwater. This falls under the cliched 'must have' win.

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The future is uncertain and the end is always near. Roadhouse Blues, The Doors

 What are the odds of one team having two All-Americans wearing the same number?

Twelve turns out to be the propitious number, the first 12 steps in the MNC quest and the players wearing #12 become some of the key anchors in that quest.

 But no one ever said it would be easy for the 12s, for the team or for the rest of us.

Football is endurance and perseverance. There’s really only one option: to play or not play. If you play, it is for keeps. You are committed to battle on the field and to survival of the herd.  You can quit at any time, usually the sooner the better.

 We, as fans, have our own perseverance and endurance, too, both inside us and with respect to other fans. Some, like our brethren over on the Brazos, are sorely tested. Some are more fortunate and can celebrate their victories. Some always question, even in the best of times, because change can occur so quickly. 

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In the agony of the workday world, it is no wonder obsession can demean the most patient and balanced of individuals. We only have 12 games, maybe 13 if we’re lucky or good, and after an interminable wait through the sweltering sweat box we call summer, the glorious weekends can’t get here quickly enough.

Finally, in the smoky aftermath of the games, when the emotions have simmered down and that brief respite we call sanity ensues, suddenly next Saturday seems so far away. In the meanwhile, we dwell on the details, hang on every word and implication, and scratch through the stats and analysis like mad ethnographers reconstructing ancient relics from what seems like only yesterday. Mid-week has come and gone and we’re still waiting, dammit, less than  48 hours out and just counting down the minutes.

Grab a bowl of chili, maybe some beans and we’ll obsess on the jump…

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 (This feature will be a regular on Thursdays before game day exploring some relative function of Texas football history and that of our upcoming opponent. This particular one takes a long and broad view at the history of Texas and Texas Tech, focusing on the Southwest Conference era up to the present. Despite the depth of modern stats and the ever-present verbiage everywhere, there is usually something to be gained by an intuitive study of the historical record. whills)

Prediction for the game: Texas 43, Texas Tech 28

Actually, the prediction is the actual average score in the Mack Brown era. Darrell's teams skunked Tech four times, and Freddie garnered two more shut outs. In this era, that is just a dream, although I'm sure Will Muschamp dreams it. Early Mack teams twice held the Red Raiders to seven points, but those dirt-bound pirates have scored in the 40s three times, winning two of those in '98 and '02. In 2007 Tech scoring peaked with 43, but Texas ran up a big lead in the first half behind Jamaal Charles and essentially played tit-for-tat in the second half of a 59-43 victory. The 59 is the most points scored in the series by either team.

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He was slobbering all over himself, which I thought a little odd for someone with only two drinks under his belt. Normally he was sane and could hold his booze.  

No, this person was a football fan counting down the 24 hours before the first full Saturday of the season. He’d been panting since the first of August, feeding on every sliver of data the dog days could provide. Objective: he has none - forget it. He hadn’t been objective since the Fiesta Bowl. He had those glassy eyes, cut crystal reflecting the hopes and glories of the new season: 2009. If greatness was measured in slobber, this was one for the ages.

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The game is now tied 4-4 and the comments are flowing deep and fast, so it's time to rewind and bring this baby home.

Workman is holding steady on the mound and LSU is close to having to dig into their tired bull pen.

Tonight's the night.

I had written this several weeks ago and was waiting for the appropriate time. Seems like it is now. I do this as a big thunderstorm is bearing down on me, including a tornado watch. Sorta appropriate, considering everything.

When Vincent Young left the University of Texas I felt that he had made an error in judgment, that his style of play had reached a pinnacle which would and probably could not be repeated in the National Football League.  

After three years in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, his career has seen early highs and recent surprising lows but certainly, in my mind, he is far from the peak he achieved with the Longhorns in 2005.  I realize that the Titans are within reach of winning a Super Bowl and within that infinity of possible moments, Vince might win a ring.  He also might be on the bench when that occurs, but I doubt that unless it is injury-related.

Onward through the fog!

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Happy Holidays to one and all.

A few weeks ago I suddenly wondered just how many of the 831 games Texas has won had I been witness to in one fashion or another, and how many of those victories had occurred in my period of interest with the Longhorns. So, I did most of the research that is related deeper in this post and then let it stir around in my mind until I came across the propitious moment.

Then something disconcerting happened a couple of days ago. The Austin American-Statesman rolled out a front page of sports feature about Texas eclipsing Notre Dame in total victories. Somewhat close to what I had in mind, but not quite. On top of that, the AA-S put the jinx in. Notre Dame won last night, whipping up on Hawaii, and now we're tied. I deduce they were actually afraid ND would win and tone down their slack time, no-big-news, front-of-the-sports-page filler. I would have put Slinging Sammy Baugh's funeral on that page anyway; better story and it actually was news. But that would have been more holiday work, so....

Let's jump down to something for which we can be thankful.

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There are those times in life when an inch becomes a mile, a second becomes an eternity. When those things occur and you have no power to change those situations, it is time to collect your attention and focus on your intent for the future. In our specific situation, next season begins in January and fulfills the intent of "Let there be no question."

Sometimes your very best is just not enough. That is the nature of competition in this life. While the moment of recognition may send you into an emotional rage or to intense introspection, the wise position is to understand your responsibility in the situation, however large or small it may be, to accept it and to focus outward. Life does not stop just because we get lost in a moment. In fact, that moment is a serious vulnerability if you have enemies at the door and your vigilance is wavering.

Life is not full of replays. But the generations of humans are a spiral in time and sometimes you will get the opportunity to balance the past and reset the future. It is the most human of things to grasp at what slim and diminishing hope that you may have. But when that finally slips from your grasp and you have still survived, life is about the future, about right now.

The Sooners will reap what they have sown, with or without our collusion. We will have our opportunity next October. There is nothing we can do at the moment that will alter their fate. I suspect there are many who are thoroughly enjoying our discomfort. This board is about expressing ourselves and, by definition, is not particularly stoic in the warrior sense. However, that ethic should guide some of our sensibilities. We're Texas - and we're big enough to take it. And we're strong enough to do something about it in the future.

The Horns, as a team, do not have the luxury of dwelling in the past. In a month or so they'll face someone who would just love to wax our ass and to prove this whole interlude was cosmic joke. You youngsters need a little of that Clint Eastwood squint, to screw your butt into the ground and "get mean, get real mean." Because the future is not kind by nature, and it is coming straight at us right now. 

Hopefully, the Horns have buried this along with the other artifacts of this season and are strong and wise enough to face the future and begin the quest for next season when they alone can make sure there is no question about who is #1.

Garrett Gilbert has suddenly turned into a running QB, dashing for 15 TDs in three playoff games.

Friday night Gilbert rushed for five TDs and threw for one to lead defending state champ Lake Travis (13-0) to the Class AAAA regional finals with a 55-32 victory over unbeaten Alice in the Alamodome.

Not that Gilbert has forsaken the pass; he's got seven aerials for TDs in the playoffs as well (that's 43 for the season if I remember correctly).

In the Austin A-S story his coach asserts:

"On the sidelines I was telling Garrett, 'That's why you are who you are.' Some people have said Garrett's been a classic dropback passer, that he can pass but not run," Lake Travis coach Chad Morris said. "That's bull. He's a multi-dimensional player."

Although Gilbert doesn't have notable speed, it's good to know he has acquired some running skills. I wonder if Colt's tough running this season has been an influencing factor.

Congratulations are in order for the Longhorns for the masterful job during the regular season, from the coaches and staff to Colt McCoy for demonstrating levels of football maturity and leadership and to this team for believing in itself without fail.   And as a special achievement on the side, the Texas Longhorns became the second winningest football program in the history of NCAA football.

The worst times of the season was when the Horns showed the most heart. First was against the Sooners in Dallas, where they had the wherewithal to stay with the land thieves early, survived the body punching middle rounds, the Texas defense came up with the muscle to stop the OU running game (48 yards/26 carries)  and Colt and the offense acted decisively in the end to win by a TKO. OU was still standing, but they were whipped - and they knew it. Just like they still know it now.They didn't have a glass jaw, but they did have a tin heart.

However, the finest moment came in the toughest combat, when the Horns were almost down for the count in Lubbock, backed into the corner, the crowd in their ears, with every reason in the world to give up...but they didn't. Colt pulled them together, Muschamp's defense blunted the Harraled attack and the Horn fought back well enough to take the lead...until the final heartbreaking moment.

The Longhorns whipped both OU (I heard it was 45-35) and aTm (49-9) and the herd is most content with accomplishing those pre-season goals. Things have been set right in the vastness of Texas. More than anything, this team achieved so much more than we anticipated back in the sticky days of August, when there were so many question marks that our expectations were reduced and talk of '09 seemed just as relevant as 2008.  Little did we know...

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