Kansas at Texas 2009

For all of you folks who keep your eyes focused on the Richter scales in fear that the Balcones Fault will unleash havoc upon Central Texas, don’t worry. What happened Saturday night was simply Jabba the Coach (aka Pizza the Coach - see image below) waddling into DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium. There was no major earthquake in Austin. I repeat, there was no major earthquake.



Well, it was the last home game for Texas this year. Kansas put up a fight, but couldn’t withstand the Texas onslaught brought on by Colt McCoy. The game seemed to be something you might have seen from a 2008 game. Texas dominated on offense and had just enough defense to keep the other team in check. As much as I like to see Colt McCoy pass for nearly 400 yards, I am now concerned that the defense has lost too much (either through edge or injuries or both). How will they do against a$m in College Station? I’m having my worries and doubts. I am not worried about whether Texas will beat a$m, but rather if they will look good doing it. I am not convinced that Texas will end up in the BCS Championship game if they go undefeated. I simply don’t trust the system. I think it’s a real possibility that the loser of the SEC Championship game could still finish in the top 2 ala Oklahoma after the 2003 Big 12 Championship game. I think it’s possible that TCU or Cincinnati could overtake Texas if Texas doesn’t look good the last 2 games. I don’t think it’s probable, just possible. Which is why looking good is extremely important. If you don’t have a playoff, then what you have is a beauty contest. If you’re going to be in a beauty contest, don’t skimp on the makeup.

As far as the game atmosphere goes, the crowd was okay considering that there was no real interest in the game. If this wasn’t the last home game, the crowd might have shown up fully asleep before the kickoff. But it was Senior Day, so the crowd made an honest effort to be loud on important plays. It was a little colder and I was looking forwards to wearing my Longhorn Snuggie to the game, but my friends had told me not to earlier in the week.

In other news, it was a sad day for SMU. They fell by 3 points to Marshall and gave up the division lead to Houston. Oh well, SMU is still going bowling. With a win over Tulane this weekend, the mighty Ponies will probably go to a decent bowl game since the rest of C-USA is stinkin’ up the joint this year.

Texas at Baylor

I made the trip up to Waco to watch the annual beatdown of the burly Bears at the hands of the Longhorns. It was senior day at Baylor. Their last home game is in Arlington when they take on the Red Raiders, so it was their last game in Waco this season. For me personally, this was a revenge game. Texas had 2 revenge games this year for me: Texas Tech and Baylor. Texas Tech was a revenge game because of their win against the Longhorns last year. That win knocked Texas out of the national title game, the Big 12 Championship game, and it gave Bradford the Heisman. I wanted revenge on Baylor because Art Briles voted Texas very low in his final regular season poll. Texas finished behind ou in the BCS standings by just a smidgen. Art Briles played too big a role in that smidgen for my tastes. If I had thought Art Briles truly believed that Texas belonged where they did in his ballot, I wouldn’t have a problem. However, it was a revenge tactic on his part. Art Briles came from Houston before he took the Baylor job. Houston and Texas do not get a long at all. So much so, that Texas has vowed to never schedule Cougar High again. The ill feelings for Texas that were born during his days at Houston prompted Briles to vote the way he did. At least, that’s my opinion. But in my opinion, Texas didn’t get revenge against Baylor. They had an opportunity to run the score up or to shut Baylor down. They were up 47 to nothing and decided to take the foot off the gas and off the throat of Baylor (I guess Colt doesn't care about winning the Heisman). Baylor responded with 2 meaningless touchdowns late in the 4th quarter. They may have been meaningless to the outcome of the game, but they meant a great deal to me. A shutout would have been sweet revenge, but alas, I have nothing of the sort. Beating Tech by only 10 and giving up late touchdowns to Baylor have left a sour taste in my mouth. I will forgive everything, however, if Baylor beats a$m this Saturday and Tech beats ou.

As far as the game went, I was on the 2nd row in good position to see the first interception by Texas. Plus, the Baylor cheer squads were close by. The weather was perfect. The little bear was roaming the sidelines. The concession stand people were fast, nice, and the food was cheap. If it weren’t for the guy in the 1st row who insisted on standing the entire game (most of the time with his back to the game while talking to his girlfriend), it would have been great. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to stand and cheer your time on, I’ll defend you ‘til the cows come home. But when you’re blocking my view to the cheerleaders or you’re not even paying attention to the game, then sit down!

Now that my mind is on Houston, their 2 losses this year are to UTEP and UCF. The week before Cougar High played UTEP, UTEP was destroyed by Texas. Texas had more points than UTEP had yards! Colt only played 1 series in the 2nd half. The next week, UTEP beat Cougar High 58-41. 58 points!?!?!? UCF got beat down by Texas. The next week, they beat Cougar High 37-32. So, let this be a lesson for you. I guess. Houston played Tech a week after Texas beat them and won the game. So maybe there's nothing to it. Overall, teams are 7 and 2 this year after playing Texas.

In other news, the Mighty SMU Mustangs are alone atop the C-USA West standings! Pony Up!!

Texas Hosts Central Florida

Texas played UCF at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Why do people think there should be kickoffs before noon? Who are these people and what barn were they raised in? No game should start before noon. Ever. But anyway, the fans got a real treat by seeing a mighty Conference USA opponent. Yes, the UCF Knights, formerly known as the Golden Knights, came visiting. Why do I have season tickets again? I could have just walked up and got tickets for 10 bucks and saved a ton of money. I probably would have found better seats than what I currently have, too. I might have to shell out some dough for the better games without season tickets, maybe, but a season full of games like this make the season ticket package over-priced and not worth it. What was cool on Saturday was Alumni Band day! The old guy that throws the baton way up in the air was able to catch it several times this year. I was sitting near a couple of rookie fans who had no idea what the Alumni Band was. They didn’t know what the cheering was for when the people cheered for the old man catching the baton. They heard the word “baton” and were watching the twirlers in the middle of the field. I thought about telling them, but I got lazy and started looking for the UCF Cheerleaders. Their cheerleaders are apparently major players in national cheer competitions. When the current band, the Showband of the Southwest, joined the Alumni Band, they spelled out Texas Veterans on the field in honor of Veteran’s Day and the horrible terrorist act at Fort Hood. The rookies were having a hard time trying to figure out what the band had spelled out. Once again I thought about telling them, but I figured it’s best not to talk to stupid people.

The weather was perfect and the team players did their part. Even still, the Longhorns and the fans slept through the first quarter and the game was tied zero-zero. Then the Longhorns woke up (The fans woke up near the end when it almost looked like UCF would score for a 2nd time.). At the end, the Longhorns held the Knights to 151 total yards and won by 32 points. McCoy passed for 470 yards. The Longhorn record is 473 held by offensive coach Major Applewhite. There are rumors brewing that Applewhite called for running plays during the last part of McCoy’s last drive so he could retain the record. There is no evidence to back these rumors. Although, Mack Brown did say this when asked about letting McCoy break the record: “I just decided no, we've got some goals out here and neither of them are passing yards.” By the way, Shipley had 273 yards receiving which is a school record. I don’t know what to make of this game in the big scheme of things. If Texas plays Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, for example, will they be able to move the ball with the kind of offensive effort they’ve been putting out? I guess it doesn’t matter if Nebraska can’t score.

In other news, the fightin’ SMU Ponies have a winning record in November! They are currently 5 and 4. Their last 3 games are against UTEP, Marshall, and Tulane. All 3 are winnable. Of course, all 3 are possible losses for SMU. These are the Mustangs, after all. But what if they win all 3?!?!?!?!? There are still possibilities for bigger things. If SMU wins all 3 of their remaining games and Cougar High loses one more time, SMU will win the division and play in the CUSA championship game! I think Peruna needs to start gussying up for post-season appearances! The rumor mill is flying high as SMU is being looked at heavily by the Hawaii Bowl committee (once again, just rumors with no evidence to back them up). The Hawaii bowl would love to have June Jones return to Hawaii. If that were to happen, SMU would play a WAC opponent. SMU might have a shot at actually winning a bowl game! Pony up!