SB Nation User Blog: whills

Conservation of Energy

whills — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:44:21 -0000

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.

Oklahoma State is playing well on all levels, from the QB, Zac Robinson, to the newly minted receivers and RBs, and their defense is showing up. There will be greater analysis later this week; the point now is that this can be a lethal team.

I suspect last year's OSU game, which turned into a dogfight in the second half, and the later showing at Tech in the first half caused a rethinking of how to approach this year's three-game road run. Dallas is not really a road-match, but going on the road the next two weeks can create a certain weariness, a loss of energy and attention, which this Texas team just cannot afford.

The Missouri game went pretty much the way you'd want to get your team some rest. Next weekend the Horns will probably need four quarters of maximum effort. And with them coming home to Central Florida, they can afford the all out effort. But they couldn't last night at Columbia.

So when you hear the press moaning and groaning about the second half showing, a miserable six points, no TDs, an INT, etc. etc. etc., it's all just grandiose bullshit. Pay no attention to those who get paid to fill space and not to win football games.

When anything is turning into a popularity contest, it is quality which gets the shaft. That's great if you like buying used movies; the crap movies are overpriced and the good stuff is generally underpriced.

The later in this season it gets, the more we will see some desperate efforts against us. But the hard truth is going to be that no one is going to want to play us at the end of the year. We're bad news and, as far as I'm concerned, we can stay bad news. The Longhorns are getting better every game. Muschamp's defense is becoming a killer.

To those other voices out there, say what you want to say now, say it loud, 'cause we gonna whip your ass when the time comes. And no amount of talk is going to make any difference.

That is all.

Hook 'em

12::12

whills — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:31:59 -0000

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.

Good fortune itself can be a source of perseverance, for on a game-by-game basis, our will can be severely challenged and our support and resolve battered on a play-by-play basis.

Twelve games is a long season, more like long- distance horse race than a simple sprint. Keeping the longer term in mind can be a stabilizing perspective, for the deeper you delve into the gory details, the more you will invest emotionally in the result. You, the fan, up the ante and the possible reward but you also assume more risks. You, like the real players, have to take it as it comes and be ready again in 45 seconds even if a Muckleroy just rattled your physical being in ways you didn’t think possible a few seconds before. You can go from starry eyed to seeing real stars in no time flat. If you want the glory, you’re gonna take some hits.

Fans take emotional hits as well. In the live blogs you can viscerally feel the flow of emotion during a game, especially among those who lose a little perspective one way or another. We like going over the top and indulging ourselves. If I were to ever do that with soap operas, someone remind me to kill myself. But in live blogs I have no regrets; the tribal ritual takes over and the pack naturally moves toward high-depth involvement and will become pumped into frenzy in an instant, good or bad, with a whole range of individual maniacal behavior enacted before the screens. This is light-through behavior, the TV and monitor screens becoming the sanctified multi-hued blissful church aglow in heavenly light. Fiat lux. Reverence in the midst of such violent action represents the enigma of life itself. We revel in crushing bodies. Particularly Sooner bodies.

2009 has acquired a legacy of ugly wins, so some say, the kind that pull the scabs off of issues many thought had healed or at least wouldn’t be much of a problem once the Horns started steamrolling through the schedule. At 6-0 we should be all smiles but concerns for tomorrow outweigh the joys of today. The second half of the 1963 football endured a similar scenario for the Longhorns.

Texas had strong teams in 1961 and ’62. A 6-0 upset at TCU had derailed the Horns in ’61 after eight straight wins. In ’62, five straight wins to start the season were washed away by a tie to Rice, 14-14. A 13-0 loss to LSU in the Cotton Bowl knocked the undefeated but once-tied Horns to the wayside once more. But 1963 started with a bang as the #5 Horns knocked off Tulane (21-0), Texas Tech (49-7) and Oklahoma State (34-7) in dominant fashion. When they faced #1 Oklahoma, Texas had moved up to #2 and wasted no time in bashing the Sooners, 28-7, and claiming #1 in the AP poll. It certainly looked downhill from there. There was no other ranked teams on the schedule.

The Southwest Conference was strong overall at that time and parity was a legitimate discriptor. These were teams, like the others in the present day Big 12 South, who were very familiar with Texas and everything they did. Defense was the real name of the game and nobody got off easy on any given week. It was a black and blue league.

What seemed almost destined turned ugly. Texas went up to Little Rock and barely escaped with a 17-13 win after running up a 17-0 lead in the first half. Then Jess Neely and Rice turned Memorial Stadium into a dog-fight arena, with Texas eking out a 10-6 victory. At SMU the next week put up a stiff fight before going down 17-12. The Baylor game was dramatic with Duke Carlisle’s last minute interception to save the game and a 7-0 victory. TCU wasn’t any easier, although 17-0 looked better. Despite all the high scoring games early in the season, Texas wouldn’t score over 17 points in the final six games of the regular season.

The worst came at A&M, of course. Texas had only three games televised; two of those were in the regular season – OU was broadcast only in Austin, Dallas and Oklahoma City – and A&M was before a national audience. (The Cotton Bowl was the other game.) Unlike now, where most every game is available, then you were either at the game, listened on the radio or read about it in the newspapers a day later.

Rain had saturated Kyle Field and A&M had sprayed the field with green paint so it wouldn’t look like the mud bath it was. It was as butt ugly a mess as you’d ever seen, and the Horns bogged down. Going into the fourth quarter, Texas was down 13-3 and fans were choking on their turkey and dressing as the MNC seemed to be slipping away in the green-tinged slime at College Station. But #11, Duke Carlisle, a skinny 6-1, 178 pound senior from Athens, would sneak in from the one-yard line with 1:16 to redeem the season with a 15-13 triumph that would sweep the Horns into the Cotton for an appointment with Navy and fulfill their destiny.

Texas was not a dominant team in the second half of the ’63 season. In fact, if it had become a beauty contest, they would have washed out long before the end. As it was, they just kept winning as every challenger for the #1 spot kept losing. Slowly but surely, Texas survived more than dominated the national scene. Those six weeks seemed like an eternity, sandwiched in with the assassination of the President at the end, and were filled with anxiety, raw emotion and uncertainty. The end always seemed so near.

The coming six weeks may be just as tough for the Horns and their fans.

Except for the OU game, really, the Horns have had few ugly games where we’re gagging in the mud, the blood and the beer. It might come down to that level of endurance and perseverance. For as much as we know, as much as this feast of information can be, we’re still twisting in the destiny of our time: what seems so real and certain one moment can be just as illusory the next. So, we’ll roll our dice and hope they come up 12s - and that the 12s come up winners every week.

Hook ‘em

The Horns of Perception

whills — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:32:04 -0000

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…

Just how long can you really totally concentrate100%? Joseph Campbell said that becoming totally involved in something was finding your bliss but we know that only happens on Saturdays and certain Rose Bowl dates. Sometimes a relative facsimile will do. For the person with the strong ability to focus, that period of total concentration lasts about three and a half minutes. So short, you say, well, that’s the plight of life, might even be the reason you’re here and not doing your work. Most of us focus at a lesser percentage but can do so for longer. Occasionally we all get deeply involved enough to be totally oblivious.

Complete concentration on our work or some directed activity can't be sustained that long because it is not our natural state. It is a learned skill. Diffuse attention - aka daydreaming - is the natural state. Your boss who is abusing you for staring out the window may not want to agree, but it is taking everything he has to show up everyday and deal with the likes of you unless he is properly obsessed and in the same situation to some degree. This isn’t a case for obsession, although it does seem to have its role in our modern state. We push ourselves - or are pushed - to achieve what we can, on our own behalf or that of others. Concentration takes work...that is, energy.

It is noteworthy that the polar opposites of our attention - that process that channels the universe into our being and creates our perception - have dangerous consequences. To be absolutely concentrating on something or to be totally lost in a daydream means we are excluding the everyday world. If you’re driving or walking in the pasture or any number of activities - such oblivion can be extremely dangerous if not deadly. Most of us live in controlled environments and have some sensibility about bad outcomes, so the danger is diminished to some degree. This situation is a normal everyday occurrence.

Our diffused state has at least two basic components. Once we slip into neutral, the executive portion deals with what is our life and its problems, the immediate future: the nature of thought is planning and problem solving. The other state is fantasy, whether future plans or hero or heroine scenarios, or, especially in the young, sexual fantasies of every sort, the biologic impulses from the tsunamis of hormones of that come rolling through every few minutes.

What in the hell does this have to do with football or history? Plenty. We’re hot wired predators and violent m*therf*ckers. Don’t accept that? Think you are so civilized? Let you and your buddies go without food for a week and see what happens with I throw I charred steak or a juicy carrot into the group. Right. Civilization is a very thin veneer. We can spend the words to make the case we are civilized, but the truth is quite the opposite and doesn’t need any words at all. Either might makes right or we share. Most all of our conflicts are within this spectrum, personal, national and international.

Football is ritualized combat. We don’t talk about that much directly. After 911 the use of war analogies with respect to football diminished greatly, falling out of social favor, although they never went away…they’re quite appropriate in a descriptive sense. Directed and controlled aggression and physical collision are very entertaining in a primal manner. That the rules are balanced and enforced and that the outcome is undecided until the end defines this as sport as opposed to an art like bull fighting (where the outcome is always the same). This replicates much of our human history and the competitive nature of our economic engine.

If concentration is a leaned skill and really something we have to work so hard to sustain with maximum efficiency, what is the accumulated amount of error within a single group of people over a couple of hours?

It doesn’t take Horn Brain to tell you that the accumulated error is staggering and that getting a play perfected with 11 people - or even just five like the OL - is virtually impossible. Coaches will tell you that perfectly executed plays are way up the Bell Curve. And that’s discounting the fact the defense may be perfectly executed on any given play.

In fact, a football game is a mass of errors on every single play. Sometimes it’s a wonder teams can do anything, much less score. Ratchet up the complexity and Sisyphus would be jealous. And you, exalted sports fan, find yourself frustrated with your obsession for perfection, although you probably don’t see it as such. You just want Colt to hit Goodwin on the long sideline route for 97 years ever so often, that’s all.

There are both physical and mental attentions, body knowledge and objective game knowledge. And thinking - except for where it is required - causes more problems than it solves. Just ask a drill sergeant or a position coach. The game is best played with a peak of physical attention and direct intuition - acting directly without thinking. Many positions must have some pre-snap decisions, though, and quarterback moreso than any other player.

The QB has to contend with 11 monsters of the midway than can all morph into a Kindle on any given play, must depend on 10 team components of varying skill and tiredness, and still has to make a bushel of decisions before most snaps, and then physically get the play executed successfully. This doesn’t include dealing with GD’s play calling and Mack’s demands or the fact he got bushwhacked on the last play and can’t find his chinstrap. You’d hope the QB would get Tony Romo rewards after the game, but basically this is for the glory and postponed rewards. It is both about the future and for history.

So keep this in mind when you rip through the information streams, see staggering mistakes and scream for big plays: you are really lucky to be a part of the Horn of Plenty at this particular time and place. Billions of human beings have died over millions of years just so you could show up today. Include that in your pre-snap read.

Hook ‘em

Coronado's Refugees

whills — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:09:49 -0000

(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.

Last year's 33 points were the least Texas has scored in the three losses to Tech in the Mack Brown-era. The Horns earned a 29-17 victory in 2000, the least they have scored in that span.

Four times Tech has won back-to-back games against Texas: '67-'68, '88-'89, '93-'94 and '97-'98. The first two in DKR's era had profound historical implications. Following a season opening loss at USC in '67, Texas lost to Tech 19-13, not only ending a 7-game win streak but giving the Red Raiders their first Southwest Conference victory over the Horns. Then Texas closed the season with losses to TCU and to A&M, which ended a 10-year run over the eternally depressed farmers. Texas fans were seriously upset, somewhat like 2007, and the press brought a lot of heat on the hallowed one. Emory Bellard designed the wishbone at Royal's behest and the stale days of the split-T Texas offense were suddenly refreshed. But not before Texas Tech became the first team to defeat the wishbone (good bar bet) on a fumbling, stumbling day mesmerized by the shimmering Llano Estacado. Then Texas went out and beat Oklahoma State and OU back-to-back, proving that whipping a couple of Okie teams will do wonders for your spirit. They liked it so much they did it a couple more times en route to 28 more wins in a row. I highly recommend it.

Tech only has four wins in Austin in the modern era: '67, '89, '93 and '97; none to a Mack Brown-coached team. The last two are credited to John Mackovic, who was 1-2 at home and 2-1 at Tech, just backwards to all the other coaches. But then Mackovic introduced the word cloud long before word clouds were cool (thanks to Tony Brackens).

Two of my most favorite crowds in the modern era were for the 1990 Houston game, when Texas stuffed David Klingler and brought the curtain down on the run-and-shoot, and the '95 game, when Spike Dykes brought Zebbie Lethridge and the boys to town. Tech was ranked #23 while Texas was tabbed at #13. In each game, the east side student section was well lubed, loud and ravenous for victory, giving the opponents holy hell from the gitgo.

Against Tech, Texas played a pressure defense, getting right up on the receivers, and the defensive line, led by Tony Brackens, gave Zebbie little time to throw and stuffed the running game. There were plenty of big hits in that game, many courtesy CB Bryant Westbrook, and Tony Brackens provided the coup de grace on punter Tony Rogers to crown the whole evening. That's the kind of crowd I'd like to see Saturday night...and the kind of defense.

If Colt and his offense can find a rhythm and have some fun, I have no doubt Muschamp's marauders will fulfill their end of the bargain and haul down the Jolly Roger at every opportunity.

In one of the comments this week, it was said Tech was unpredictable. I would say just the opposite. They may look unpredictable to the novice eye, but the offense operates in a very predictable manner. Tech uses a small number of plays with a wide range of variations, formations and patterns. On offense, Leach plays chess, but so does Muschamp, on a multi-dimensional level. Leach is also prone to gamble, not always with the best of judgment of the consequences, more short-term oriented than long term. His gratification quotient is generally diminished because his defense can't back up his play.

This will be football Theater of the Absurd, where nothing is meaningful or as it seems until the ball is snapped. If this Horns squad is alert and fast enough to stop the screens, the DL can plug the middle running game, and the LBs and DBs pound the living snot out the hot receivers (hello Earl, hello Muck), the Tech offense will be continually diminished each quarter. With essentially a rookie QB at the helm, this might be a most disturbing experience. It's time for Sergio to come out and play.

The Longhorn offense's role will be that of chief psychological tormentor. For decades the key element in beating Tech has been to force Red Raiders to give up, to find a reason to lose and to never give them any opportunity to get back in the game. Tech is so used to this that it is even embedded in fan psychology (sorta like the Aggies without the emotional baggage). To do that, the Horns must create a lead and then control the ball to keep Tech's D, their weakest link, on the field. This is one game where you roll up the score any way you can, as soon as you can, as long as you can and not even feel bad about it. And then you score some more - and a real live crowd should be egging the Horns on.

"69 is divine, 69 is divine"

Last year was a reversal of roles from the outset, with Texas forced to play catch-up time and time again. To their credit, the Horns never gave up, period. At the least, they forced Tech to make the big play: they did and they won. Repeats don't come cheap in this league. It is up to Colt and GD to properly set the roles and aggressively go after points early and often. And I have a sneaking suspicion, as an old safety myself, that the defense will want to throw some chips into the pot as well. This is the game to do that. This is not about revenge...it's a lot more serious than that. We are Texas.

Texas vs. Texas Tech

1928-2008

Texas 43, Texas Tech 15

2008 L Texas 33, Texas Tech 39

2007 W Texas 59, Texas Tech 43

2006 W Texas 35, Texas Tech 31

2005 W Texas 52, Texas Tech 17

2004 W Texas 51, Texas Tech 21

2003 W Texas 43, Texas Tech 40

2002 L Texas 38, Texas Tech 42

2001 W Texas 42, Texas Tech 7

2000 W Texas 29, Texas Tech 17

1999 W Texas 58, Texas Tech 7

1998 L Texas 35, Texas Tech 42

Mack Brown 8-3, all losses at Tech: '98, '02, '08

1997 L Texas 10, Texas Tech 24

1996 W Texas 38, Texas Tech 32

1995 W Texas 48, Texas Tech 7

1994 L Texas 9, Texas Tech 33

1993 L Texas 22, Texas Tech 31

1992 W Texas 44, Texas Tech 33

John Mackovic 3-3, two losses at home, one at Tech

1991 W Texas 43, Texas Tech 14

1990 W Texas 41, Texas Tech 22

1989 L Texas 17, Texas Tech 24

1988 L Texas 32, Texas Tech 33

1987 W Texas 41, Texas Tech 27

David McWilliams 3-2, one loss each at Tech and home

1986 L Texas 21, Texas Tech 23

1985 W Texas 34, Texas Tech 21

1984 W Texas 13, Texas Tech 10

1983 W Texas 20, Texas Tech 3

1982 W Texas 27, Texas Tech 0

1981 W Texas 26, Texas Tech 9

1980 L Texas 20, Texas Tech 24

1979 W Texas 14, Texas Tech 6

1978 W Texas 24, Texas Tech 7

1977 W Texas 26, Texas Tech 0

Fred Akers 8-2, two losses at Tech, two shut outs

1976 L Texas 28, Texas Tech 31

1975 W Texas 42, Texas Tech 18

1974 L Texas 3, Texas Tech 26

1973 W Texas 28, Texas Tech 12

1972 W Texas 25, Texas Tech 20

1971 W Texas 28, Texas Tech 0

1970 W Texas 35, Texas Tech 13

1969 W Texas 49, Texas Tech 7

1968 L Texas 22, Texas Tech 31

1967 L Texas 13, Texas Tech 19

1966 W Texas 31, Texas Tech 21

1965 W Texas 33, Texas Tech 7

1964 W Texas 23, Texas Tech 0

1963 W Texas 49, Texas Tech 7

1962 W Texas 34, Texas Tech 0

1961 W Texas 42, Texas Tech 14

1960 W Texas 17, Texas Tech 0

Darrel K. Royal 13-4, three losses at Tech, one at home, four shut outs

Texas was 8-1 versus Tech prior to 1960. Yes, Texas had back-to-back home games in '60 and '61 when Tech entered the Southwest Conference.

Feel free to employ your own extrapolations. Til Saturday...

Hook 'em

Great Expectations

whills — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:11:10 -0000

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.

"Your days of lying around and pulling tongue all night are over!"

Your days of slinging insults to Okies and the prepuce-encrusted gators in a far pond infested and stirred by fork-tongued snakes and demented Notre Dame beautiful dreamers are over.

Your days of enduring aggies without a clue - or an offense or a defense - are flowing out to sea into an oblivion of monologue are over.

Hitch up the wagons, boys, and you girls get those pom-poms straight and check that damn elastic. Don’t need no sideshow when the real show is about to begin.

For as easy as 2005 seemed, there were still games when the future became blurry and the heroes of the day had to prove their real mettle. It wasn’t the dogfight of 1963 when nothing came easy, and the road was new at every twist and turn. The Horns had never been there before…nor had their fans. Fear rode through the stadiums of the Southwest Conference as the Horns proved their strength and determination as their cleats seem to dig into the very edge of oblivion. They worked their way up from #5 to #1. OU had beat the early #1, USC, and then Texas had crushed the Sooners, 28-7, with passing, of all things. And just a little defense, heh heh.

Outside of Texas the press didn’t think the Horns were really #1 material, and as the Longhorns struggled through the conference gauntlet they didn’t quite realize the task was more like dealing with crazy relatives than top-ranked footballs teams, for those were few and far between (OU was it). The last six games had victory margins of 4, 4, 5, 7, 17 and 2 points. The season really came down to Baylor and A&M, the first in Austin and the last in a muddle green-painted miasma they called Kyle Field. With Baylor in the red zone, a Duke Carlyle interception saved the 7-0 victory. And an interception that wasn’t - the one the Brazos boys still scream about in their recurring dreams where the aggie safety slides out of the end zone on the back of a sheep - Texas then scored the winning TD in the mud, the blood and the tears for a 15-13 triumph. Then there was the pretty boy, the Heisman Trophy winner leading a Navy team ballyhooed and toasted by the eastern press so much they couldn’t get the lipstick of his ass. But Scott Appleton took care of that, rubbing Roger Staubach’s derriere into the turf of the Cotton Bowl until it was green and chagrined as the one-fingered typists on the east coast.

Expectations were high again in ’64, repeat time, but it didn’t happen thanks to the damn Hogs, although the Horns whipped #1 ranked Joe Willie and The Bear and set up even more expectations for ’65. My class, my time. But 1965, 66 and 67 were the doldrums. The offense became stale, the defense lost Nobis after ’65 and sadness crept into our hearts, the kind that comes with 6-4 seasons.

1968 proved to be very much like 2008. The wishbone got off to an inauspicious start and Superbill Bradley just didn’t have the kind of skill set needed. Bradley was like this year’s John Chiles, a great talent waiting to find a new position in which flourish. With a 20-20 tie to Houston and then a fumbling, bumbling day at Tech which resulted in a 31-22 sobering loss, Darrell Royal turned over the keys to the new hot rod to James Street. Bradley went to receiver, then to safety where he found a real home. The Horns dispatched the Okies, OSU and then OU, and soon were rushing for record-setting numbers. No defense in the country had a clue about how to stop them.

So, in 1969 everyone had a pretty good bead on the championship. With a cool hand in Street to guide the machine, with fine running backs, great kicking and a stifling defense, it was time to bust some ass. Very much like now. Not only did the rushing and scoring records continue to fall, at the end of the season, the second-team offense was the #32 scoring team in the nation, with the first team #1. When you see old timers eye glaze over about ’69, the wishbone is the reason: it was a tsunami sweeping across the land and the great herd of the Longhorns were leading the way. And with slobber flying all over the place, we did it again in 1970 right up to the bowl game, when the defense finally caught up with the wishbone and key injuries hamstrung the Horns.

The Arkansas game had been moved by ABC to the end of the season as a fitting finale for centennial year of football in ’69 and the network’s hope of #1 versus #2 was justified in the end, with a truly great game. You know, I never worried about losing, even down 14-0 at the half. I knew the Horns would find a way: that what champions do. I had great respect for the Hogs, this was one of their finest teams ever; they were local legends with songs and stories to their credit and damn fine football players. They had ever advantage up in the hills…and they still were beaten. There was no doubt.

Before all the celebrating and the roosters start strutting around, first comes the fighting. While this year has the prospect to be a fine team, with excellent players on the field and unknown Saturday heroes hiding in the wings, it would be a grand presumption to think this will be easy. It won’t be. The Horns will have to earn it. Saying "We’re Texas" is easy; proving it will be something else. The best asset the Horns have right now is that they are focusing outward. As Steve Wooster later said about the ’69 team, they were not very emotion and were very business-like about the games. This edition seems to share that outlook. If they can execute the offense and sustain a strong defense, the future is there for the taking.

I’m not emotional about this team either, neither high nor low and won’t be until kick off. Just waiting, steely eyed, with a hint of a smile, hoping these Horns can endure 12 weeks in the frying pan and then be ready to jump right in the fire come the Rose Bowl.

Colt achieved what he has by being a man of action. He wasn’t pushed by the great expectations of a five-star athlete; he earned it by working every day. Colt’s ethic of endurance and execution, of firm leadership and direction, is what propels this 2009 Longhorn squad. It’s his team and he can take it all the way.

Of all the attributes of football, the key ones are endurance and perseverance. They are the backbone of champions.

It’s about time to strap it on. What are your real expectations? For those with a long history, how does this season feel compared to prior years?

Tomorrow will be a great day.

Hook ‘em!

Horns vs. Cajuns Game Three Open Thread, 2nd Edition

whills — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:14:08 -0000

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.

Vince and the Future

whills — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:31:49 -0000

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!

If Tennessee should go to the Super Bowl, it will be because of their defense and probably not the offense. As much as I have always liked Head Coach Jeff Fisher, he is tilted toward defense and has always been. My feeling has been that Titan offenses have always been caretakers, not the aggressive machine many teams develop. Think much closer to the ’85 Bears but not as definitive. Their offenses have been far from, say, St. Louis, New England, Indianapolis, or even Dallas when they were loaded. The Titans were effective and efficient at their best, yes, but not overpowering - and ultimately a yard short.

That’s what I think VY has fallen into: a caretaker offense with a team that doesn’t - and probably won’t - surround him with the means for him to play at the level he can achieve.

So, what are those means? A strong offensive line is a given for any dynamic offense. Tennessee is getting closer, but not superb. You don’t have the OL, your offense will struggle, whether passing, running or hybrid. Next are the accompanying threats - and at Houston Madison and at UT Vince had speed surrounding him, all receiver and backs (except the FB) had speed to burn and overmatched most every opponent defense.

It is that speed and the potential threats that will open the playbook for Vince - if the offensive attack is aggressive. That is really the difference I see with Tennessee and Vince and what occurred at Madison and at UT…Vince can’t operate in aggressive mode because the offense just isn’t aggressive.

Tennessee has Chris Johnson - that’s 4.24 speed - and with newly acquired Nate Washington from Pittsburgh and Kenny Britt, a rookie from Rutgers whose three-year’s worth of receptions established new receiving records, they have some receiver speed. I sincerely doubt within the NFL that the Titans have killer speed or even above average receiver speed. They’re faster than they were, but that’s not saying a hell of a lot, especially with a rookie in the mix. Do they have enough to counter what you find in pro defenses? Can Tennessee deploy enough speed to offset the increased ability in the pros to contain, rush and blitz the quarterback? If not, VY is reduced to just taking care of the play-to-play business, and his team is no longer making him the threat he could be. Sure, he could make great plays and runs, but the situations would be more when the offense breaks down than by grand design. He is always a threat - the question is, does Vince have such threats around him to force the defense to cover the whole field?

I really think at this point Fisher - and Bud Adams - made a $58 million mistake. They needed a talented quarterback but they didn’t need someone of the caliber of Vince Young. Vince needed - and needs - a team to build the type of offense which allows him to assert his innate field instincts and aggressive manner of attack. Time is running out on that proposition but still is a possibility as long as VY remains physically gifted. Old quarterbacks all become caretaker QBs if they stick around. If Vince is not the starting QB, it can be stated that damn few teams keep a quarterback pulling $11+ mil a year sitting on the bench for long, especially one in the next to the last year of his five-year contract. He plays or he gets traded. It’s situational.

I’m even wondering if some team is out there thinking exactly that. The calculation could go like this: Tennessee will play Vince a lot in the pre-season - they need to see things for their own means, but they also need Vince to appear as valuable as his contract. Ideally, Tennessee should want to get more than his value but the closer they get to trading deadline, the tighter the deals will become. If VY doesn’t look good, they could be staring at a big problem financially. If he looks great, they still have the decision to start him or trade him. It should also go without saying, most teams have some latitude to design those pre-season games to suit their own ends.

Some might take that last option an admission of failure by Tennessee. Or that they gambled and couldn’t fulfill the gamble - they couldn’t or wouldn’t make the changes to really cash in on the bet.

I don’t know Vince Young nor do I know his mind, so I have no real idea what transpired last year. I know what the news and web stories said, but there is always more - and less, when the hype is stripped away.

I’m convinced that if you let Vince play the kind of football that is keyed to his capabilities, all problems go away. And if you don’t, few problems are resolved. I don’t worry about Vince being Vince.

**********

You can also chew on these things as the summer begins:

* What team(s) would you think likely that VY might go to?

* What team(s) really suit him, if any?

* What teams actually need a Vince Young? (VY and AP?)

* What QBs would you trade straight up for him (Romo for VY, for instance)?

* Why you think he might start and be the exact answer for Tennessee.

Poll

What will be Vince Young's probable future?

Vince will start for Tennessee during the regular season.

85 votes

Vince will lead Tennessee to the Super Bowl.

42 votes

Vince will ride the bench unless opportunity strikes.

268 votes

Vince will be traded this season.

115 votes

Vince will be cut or give his uncondititional release.

64 votes

Vince will voluntarily leave football.

20 votes

594 votes | Poll has closed

The Golden Age in a new Century.

whills — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 02:20:20 -0000

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.

I started my time of viewing Texas Longhorn football right around 1960. Our local football coach, my neighbor for many years, would take a bunch of us down there in his beat-up old green station wagon; tickets were just a dollar in the Knot Hole section in the north end zone.

You couldn't have lived in the Austin area without knowing about the Longhorns, but the scale of just walking into Memorial Stadium the first time stunned my small town outlook. Reading the sports pages was one thing; watching on black-and-white TV another, but being there was altogether different. Simply put, I was hooked. Have been ever since. I still haven't figured how many games I've seen eyes-on in this period, although roughly it's about 20%. However, how many Texas won can be figured quite accurately.

So, I counted games by 10-year generations for this, from 00-09:

* Decade W-L-T

* 1960s 86-19-3

* 1970s 88-28-1

* 1980s 73-42-2

* 1990s 74-44-2

* 2000s 96-18-0

As soon as you lay eyes on this, you can see the flow of Longhorn fortunes. The glories of the '60s with two MNC's and several close misses, but those middle years from 65-67 added to the losses. The good years continue into the 70s, more victories, but the number of losses start increasing as DKR's career waned a bit.

Obviously, the 1980s and 1990s were far worse, at the rate of nearly one less win (and another loss) per year.

The late 90s even enjoyed the benefit of a couple of Mack Brown years in this calculation (18-8: 9-3, 9-5).

Here we are in the new century and it is obviously a golden era. Those of you who have gone to Texas since 2000 have experienced something that might not be repeated. Not only are 96 victories the most for a decade - any decade since 1893 - the good news is that there is a bowl game and next year still to go, with a total of 111 victories possible [edited from 114]. This is really where Mack Brown and staff should receive all our accolades, for this is an incredible achievement.

That's 10.67 wins per year and only 2 losses for the last 9 years..

Of course, more scheduled games and consistent bowl appearances (Texas is second only to Alabama in those) have bloated some of the numbers, but you still have to win the games. When 9-3 (2000) is the worst record in the decade, that says a hell of a lot. Darrell K. Royal perhaps could have equaled this in his 60s heyday with the additional game - the 19 losses are the key. Darrell won 75.6% in that '60s period while Brown is coasting along at 84.2%, so even that is conclusive.

Of Texas' 831 victories, 417 have been won from 1960 onward. In the period of 1893-1959 Texas garnered 414 wins, a little over 6 wins per year. Of course, it wasn't until 1901 that the Horns even played a 10-game schedule, gong 8-2-1 that season. We ought to change centuries more often.

Now, perhaps, it is more understandable why the University wants to sustain continuity of this coaching regime. This is unprecedented success. Texas just didn't get better and join the elite once again: they just muscled their way in and then found the process and the means, the coaches and players, to stay there in the clouds of Mt. Olympus.

I know we expect a hell of a lot from the Horns, and we have the word count to prove it. But, we are also so lucky to be a part of such an era, to share in so many great victories, to create a community where we can interact and get they whole wave of information and just let this luxury wash over us. The players come, the players go, but the constant remaining is Longhorn victory on the field of play.

This is a special age. If you follow sports at all, you understand how rare such occurrences are. So cherish this for what it is. Merry Christmas.

And tell the Big Orange Santa Hook 'Em Horns for being so good to us.

"Let There Be No Question"

whills — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:01:18 -0000

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.

Cool Running: Gilbert flashes VY legs

whills — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:46:03 -0000

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.