SB Nation User Blog: whills

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.

Reflections on a Full Season

whills — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:10:04 -0000

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...

I find myself more pleased with this team than many others because they exceeded all expectations, they handled their #1 ranking with grace and style and fought like a champions to preserve it, because most the elemental flaws of 2006 and 2007 have been turned around (except for the running game and run blocking; nothing is ever quite as perfect as you want).

What was seen as a set-up for the future suddenly manifested itself in the present; not just a sneak peek either, but a developmental gaze into what incredible growth this team has before it. And there is so much more to come. And best of all, we still have another game left, another chance to jump start the future.

I wonder what effect the change in the open week could have had, if the Horns had played Arkansas at the scheduled time and had had the open week before Colorado and the conference run. As it was, the Horns played two early games, beating FAU and UTEP while we watched the defense, sometimes playing peekaboo through our hands as things got ugly. We got the big BOOMs but there were many other mistakes and some worried they would last forever. Then the hurricane induced open week, followed by nine games in a row instead of seven. Rice and the Hogs went down easily enough as Colt shifted the offense into high gear.

Colorado was a good contest to start the Big XII, a way to push the D into run defense at a higher level. That would pay off the next week against OU and Muschamp got the kind of performance that made us all shake our heads, oh yeah, big smiles all around. The Horns earned number #1, every single bit of it.

Then the greatest four-game stretch of ranked teams in Texas history. Missouri, Oklahoma State and the final night full of maniacs in Lubbock. The Horns buried the earlier win but came to realize just how fine that line can be between winning and losing. On that night, Michael Crabtree owned that line, just ripped it from our hands. All four those were great football games, with OU and Tech classics.

Then the end of the stretch, with the local nasties, Baylor, Kansas and aTm. True, they weren't powerful enough to stop the Horns march grandioso, but they each fought hard in their own way. The Horns gave up 38 points in those three games as the Muschampions proved they were getting better every day. Colt and the offense took care of business.

So, here is where we stand: 11-1, tied for the Big XII South divisional title, waiting for greater things to come. The Horns are highly ranked and respected. I'm proud of this team. They did a hell of a job in every single game. Few teams can say that.

The Horns lost a game, yes, but it can also be said they gained a future head coach, they earned levels of respect that we didn't foresee early in the season, that our eyes have feasted on a young man that led this team in a way you always hope your quarterback will, and we have a powerful future ahead of us.

Perhaps it is time to stand back and appreciate this season for what it is. We can get so involved in the minutia and emotions of possible bowls we fail to fully comprehend just how much this team has matured this year, how well those steps after the '07 aTm game were implemented, how the additions of Muschamp and Major have powered this team and its psyche, and just how wonderful it is to win this much. We should be thankful during this holiday. For us old timers, it brings a tear to the eye for we know how rare such seasons are.

The Real Game: Recruiting

whills — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:46:31 -0000

Tonight's Texas Tech at Oklahoma game may have epochal ramifications if Tech should win - and no place more resounding than in recruiting in Texas.

OU, Texas and Texas A&M have all had their heydays with Texas recruits. When one or two of the three were down, the others would shoulder the way through the out-of-state schools always nibbling at the fringes of the Texas crop, always deeper and more talented than any other state. This core not only fed the Texas colleges, but surrounding states and any other program who could target and create a presence in the state. And the smaller schools down the line still found plenty of talent.

So, why is tonight so important? Currently Texas under Mack Brown and OU under Bob Stoops have the capability and the big time presence to lure not only the best in Texas, but also pick up stray 5-stars across the football universe. Texas Tech has always been on the downside of the current, picking off enough to be successful but never breaking through the MNC ceiling. Hell, they've never been able to get the key wins when Mt. Olympus beckoned. Was it lack of talent? Lack of coaching? Self-destructive tendencies? Maybe that and more.

Tonight that could all change. Big Game Bob has been losing his touch and while no one denies he's a great coach, the murmurs of discontent echo in the back alleys of Norman. OU has the weight of history and expectation and a not to be discounted home crowd of red clad fanatics. Many don't think there is a way in hell they lose this game. No way.

Tech has everything to gain and nothing to lose. Blasting through a consecutive games that have been the most important and grandiose in their history, making good on their pre-season hype, they have the attention of the nation - and you can betcha your dust visor, the hearts of a few recruits. But the real slice of history is the opportunity to make a grand entry into the recruiting wars. Regardless of your historical period in the last 50 years, only two schools have dominated the process at a time. That has varied, there might have been years when three or four sustained some success, but basically the balance has been between two parties.

Tech can change that balance tonight. Even if Tech should lose, they will have made inroads, they will make some gains, but they will still be just the lead of the pack. But tonight they can shove down OU's throat tonight, for OU and Stoops stand to be the real losers in this equation.

If Tech should win - and especially if they make it to the BCS title game - suddenly they will gain access they have never had on a national and state-wide scale. Texas, in securing Muschamp, can definitely set their case before recruits: Muschamp will be here, Major will be here (albeit for a more questionable period), Mack will be here and you can, too. Tech can't dent this. But Stoops has no such insurance.

Ironically, Texas showed how to play both Tech and OU, both in the second halves of their games. Tech will have to endure a rabid first half crowd, will have to continue to subsume their own self-destructive mistakes, will have to be the best their have been (as in the first half vs. Texas, the game vs. OSU). Their defense will have to prove it is the entity they have ballyhooed all season. This will be a horserace, with OU capable of taking the early lead and staying even on the backstretch. Tech will have to take control on the final turn and be pulling away on the backstretch.

If Tech loses, things return to the "normal" balance. They won't make back-to-back claims; there's no next year. Maybe two or three years, possibly. But this year is what Leach has sought, what he has built in the dusty sands of West Texas and he has overcome everything to get to this point. He has built a monster, one the media really does not fully comprehend. The Big XII has been a great cauldron this season and it is Tech which will rise from the primordial soup.

The Night Thread Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma State

whills — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:52:33 -0000

One down, one got lucky and one to go.

It's been an interesting day. Not a good one for field goals or SEC QBs. Now we get to see some serious football.

Post Game & Game Day Thread

whills — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:00:15 -0000

Texas 45, Baylor 21

Today wasn't a game of beauty but the Horns took care of business.

The drinking lamp is lit.

Now the nation's attention is on the rest of the Top 10.

Love Hurts even in the Cyber Stadia

whills — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:32:26 -0000

Perhaps I shouldn't have been shocked by the pain and anguish gushing forth after last Saturday night's loss in Lubbock. I wasn't happy, not in the least, but my experiences had certainly inured me to a certain amount of despair. If the Horns had played the second half like the first, then I would have been more irascible.

However, the Longhorns came back like champions. The defense controlled Tech about as much as they could have, Colt and the offense made the big plays missing in the first half - with both a senior, Jordon Shipley, and a freshman, Malcolm Williams doing the honors, with Vondrell getting what was, if in a winning effort, the critical score and the kicker making the winning point - and I was particularly happy that the special teams were the real highlight of the night and instrumental in getting the Horns into the lead.

One of the things a professional sportswriter must do is put their emotions aside and get the real story down. Sure, those emotions can infuse your story with passion, but if you're writing for a home town team, you must write about the game with accuracy and truthfulness, you must see things for what they are. That last is essential if you want the public's long term respect. You can be much beloved or Merle Hoge. It's a choice you make.

So, you don't ignore your emotions but you don't wallow in them - you put them at a distance which is appropriate. Those are column material - your personal opinion - but they are not the news: the game is. Sometimes you hurt, the words don't flow out triumphantly, but you write nonetheless as the witness and the chief surgeon at the autopsy, for all after-game sports stories are autopsies of an event gone cold.

If you write sports it is because you have had a life-long love for such spontaneous events. The rest of your life can be in shambles, but the spark of witnessing great games, win or lose, and great performances gives you a means of interpreting this life, for really, that's what writing comes down to. I grew up next to a football coach, a man I respect immensely, and his influence had a great deal to do with my love of the game. I played it and found it a truly wondrous experience, like no other.

Everyone wants an explication of what this life is about. It's not that they want to be spoon-fed, although some percentage does; no, they want validation for themselves and some level of understanding of how this life works in general, if only to know they have some perspective. One of my favorite essayist, the late Stephen J. Gould, entitled his monthly column "This View of Life" in Nature for precisely that reason. Even though his personal expertise was snails, that knowledge of the life of snails, translated to all life. I found that so does football, although I never pretend to have the mastery of SJG of the essay or of science and history itself.

One of the great things about this nation is that it is set-up to engender conflict, whether from our Constitutional set-up, the federated nature of the states, the structure of the courts, the nature of capitalist competition or the simple challenges on the fields of sports. In a totalitarian state, the emotional conflicts build to a boiling point and the key elements are repression, oppression, propaganda and eventually revolution. There is no daily, weekly or yearly relief much less resolution. Stability is imposed and currents run deep, sometimes for generations if not centuries before exploding into new horrors.We're only experienced that once internally, in our Civil War, and it was horrendous by any standard and still not completely resolved.

Football is physical conflict resolution on about as equal terms as can be determined. It reminds us that this life is very much a predatory affair; the big fish eat the little ones, within the nation and among the community of nations. But football also reminds us of the rewards of community, of pulling for a common goals and, despite our various composition, we can and are one at a given time; and that the sacrifice and work of those we are inspired to support benefit not just themselves, but a whole range of individuals outside their venue.

The tubes have changed - and will continue to change - our equations. A new medium reorganizes all elements within a society invisibly and immediately. In the game live blogs, we suddenly can interact and express wide ranging emotions not just toward the team and the game, but with each other; we're in the cyber stadium in real time and so emotionally plugged in that there is little difference between being there and being here reacting in real time. The real notion in this is that this will be going on at all levels within our nation, even with governmental entities. Football, in this sense, is prelude to change with in-depth involvement and the expression of a ever-expanding community. The crowd roars here just as it does in DKR-Memorial Stadium; there is no difference except that you don't have to drive home. Being there is a richer experience, no doubt, but this has a richness of its own, because we share the depths of our emotions.

This game didn't hurt me because the Horns forced the other team to make the championship play. That's the best we could have asked outside of victory. Perhaps I speak more as a father here, consoling a child who has done their best and yet still feels the agony of losing. Life is full of loss; it is one of the daily outcomes we endure, just as victory is, too. Seldom is it so concentrated, but it also points to the undeniable understanding that the celebration of victory is earned and without the losses, they would be empty and meaningless.

Being older, I've had my share of painful memories; I've spent weeks walking around under a dark cloud that no one could lift. It's not that you get used to such pain - unless, of course, you live on the Brazos - but that you come to understand the real context it plays in life. So, even in the darkest hour I can see - and even feel - the resolution that the next victory can bring. Because the truth is there are greater victories to be won. We are fortunate to have the kind of team that can win those victories. Last Saturday was a battle, but just because you lost the battle does not mean you've lost the war.

You've just learned something about yourself that you didn't know - and hopefully found a reserve within yourself that you needed to know about for the future. We humans are capable of extraordinary feats, and in the normal course of life, we generally must be put against the wall to perform them.

This is not just the lesson about football, but about life. Football is an endurance sport in a way no other is...and life itself is an endurance. Sometimes you never know how you will survive. Nonetheless, your will is to survive.

I have always found Baylor to be a tough adversary. There haven't been that many loses to them but some of those have been very dark experiences. They are vindictive; if they can't win, they will still strive to create pain. We've exited that game in recent years with big scores in big wins and a beat-up team. This is a dangerous game.

As a reflection on the season, I will ask you to name the one team that you wouldn't want the Horns to play again. You could even list the top three. My choice would be OSU, without a doubt: dangerous balance.

Hook 'em.