For the Year: -- (.500) (-$30) ATS (.667) SU
What we learned last week: We learned that Hawaii football is for all intents and purposes dead…We learned that Chase Daniel may very well win the Heisman, but the only crystal the Tigers will be getting with that defense is from Tiffany’s…We learned that a healthy and successful Mark Sanchez means absolute trouble for the rest of the country…Pete Carroll > Bob Stoops > Dennis Franchione > Mike Sherman > Rich Kotite > Tommy Bowden…Phil Fulmer is the new Ron Zook…Texas might be in better shape than we thought this year.
Anyhow…
Back in El Paso my life would be worthless.
Everything's gone in life; nothing is left.
It's been so long since I've seen the young maiden
My love is stronger than my fear of death. – Marty Robbins, El Paso
Now try getting that song out of your head before the weekend ends.
The Longhorns travel to El Paso this weekend to take on the UTEP Miners, the first meeting between the two schools in the West Texas town that is in a different time zone from the rest of the state.
This is also the first meeting between the two teams since the Longhorns defeated the then College of Mines 22-6 in 1933. The news account of that game could be found nestled in between news of Hurricane Sixteen hitting Haiti, an advertisement for the new nightclub that is surely the cat’s meow, news of the Yankees falling 8 games behind the Washington Senators, and a letter to the editor about how Prohibition being repealed 6 months earlier will be the death of this country.
Sidebar: Can you imagine a tailgate during prohibition days? Well, we don’t want to picture our women in dusters, so let’s imagine a tailgate now but there being a prohibition on alcohol. We’d argue every week over who would go get the keg of Dr. Pepper, while hanging banners for Diet Dr. Pepper alongside our tents. We might actually remember the fourth quarter of games, and drinks would no doubt still cost $5 in the alumni center. The tailgate across the way would play Drinko for shots of Sprite while UT students would be busted for making their own wine to sell to tailgaters. And of course, our tailgate would have moonshine. So maybe things wouldn’t be that different.
Anyways, this is the Longhorns first trip to El Paso since the 1994 Sun Bowl, where the 7-4 Longhorns, coming off a thrilling 63-35 win over Baylor on Thanksgiving Day, played the North Carolina Tar Heels, coached by one……Mack Brown.
The Horns were down 31-28 with 5:41 remaining in the game when James Brown and the offense took the ball at their own 32 yard line. But the star of that game was running back Priest Holmes, who on that drive caught an 11 yard pass and rushed 6 times for 32 yards, including a diving touchdown with 1:17 remaining to give the Horns a 35-31 victory. Holmes ran for 4 touchdowns that day, tying a UT record for most rushing touchdowns in a bowl game.
Mack Brown in 1994?
Why go over a game that occurred 14 years ago, hopefully not just because it featured Mack Brown and the Longhorns in El Paso, right? I’m not risking getting you in trouble with your IT department just to talk about old Longhorn football games, right?
Nope, it’s because what Priest Holmes represents to Longhorn tradition, the 2008 Longhorns must find that inside them.
Holmes led his San Antonio-area high school team to the state championship, then decided to pursue his collegiate career at the University of Texas, where he was expected to be the centerpiece of an offense that was going to be guided by famed offensive mind John Mackovic.
Injuries and the emergence of a star fullback named Ricky Williams slowed Holmes at Texas, however, turning a potential star career into a few iconic games. After floundering for a few years as an undrafted free agent in Baltimore, Holmes moved on to Kansas City, where he earned Player of the Year honors in 2002.
Holmes never was the star, however, even when he was winning POY and helping geeks everywhere win their fantasy football leagues, he wasn’t on the Wheaties box, wasn’t starring in Nike commercials and wasn’t dating supermodels and jetting across the country.
The Longhorns had a great week last week. Colt McCoy had an outstanding day, the defense settled down after the half, all in all, Mack Brown couldn’t have asked for much more. But the stat that stood out to me the most was this:
TD – Cody Johnson rushed up the middle for 1 yard gain
TD – Chris Ogbonnaya pass from Colt McCoy for 2 yard gain
TD – Jordan Shipley pass from Colt McCoy for 9 yard gain
TD – Colt McCoy rushed to the right for 2 yard gain
TD – Vondrell McGee rushed to the right for 7 yard gain
TD – Blaine Irby pass from Colt McCoy for 5 yard gain
TD – James Kirkendoll pass from John Chiles for 29 yard gain
7 touchdowns. 7 different players crossing the goal line.
If the Longhorns are to succeed in 2008, they need to realize, to borrow a phrase from basketball coach Rick Pitino, that Vince Young is not walking through that door.
Now, I know that I’ve stressed that for two years now, but perhaps last week was a sign that this team is starting to come together and play like a team, and not like a team who thinks they are entitled to win because of the name on the front of their jersey.
Whispers out of the locker room this summer were that the cliques that dominated the locker room for the past two years are gone, that the star players from the national championship team are gone, and therefore the divisiveness that permeated the halls of Neuhaus-Royal was swept away along with the dust from the NEZ construction.
Look at any pre-season college football magazine, and you’ll struggle to find a Texas player listed in the top of any position in the Big 12. Colt McCoy? He’s buried underneath Chase Daniel, Graham Harrell, Todd Reising, and Sam Bradford. And maybe the magazines are right. It’s hard to argue with the numbers from last year.
But this isn’t to say that Texas isn’t loaded with talent. A lot of teams would kill to have players like Vondrell McGee starting for them, or Malcolm Williams as a third receiver. But in order to win games in 2008, the Longhorns can’t rely on one player, as they did even last year when Jamaal Charles single-handily won games against Nebraska and Oklahoma State.
It will take efforts like Saturday, where the offense was hitting on all cylinders, but also kept the defense guessing. But beyond the numbers, the Longhorns need to learn to win as a team in order to ward off the losses, and the bad wins, that this team has fallen prey to the last two years.
And that process starts Saturday night in El Paso.
The Longhorns were favored heavily against Central Florida last year, but let a 20 point underdog hang around most of the game, until the Horns hung on by their fingernails (what was left of them) to win 35-32. That game, along with a nail-biter against Arkansas State to open the year, were harbingers to the rest of 2007, a frustrating year that resulted in a 10-3 record that looks good in the media guide but not so good in the Longhorn fans’ memory banks.
The Longhorns are vastly more talented than UTEP. This is one of those games in the video game world where you try to get as many yards as possible for your running back or quarterback to pad their stats for the Heisman Trophy run. The 27 point spread is only that low because it’s in El Paso.
We’ve heard how every spot is up for grabs, about how this team is going to show up in every game this year (scary that the coaches have to reassure us this), about how practices ever since the weeks leading up to the Holiday Bowl win over Arizona State have been intense, about how Will Muschamp brings a swagger to this team…
Well Saturday night is Exhibit A.
Win in convincing fashion, and the Longhorns can use the game as a springboard into a rivalry match-up with Arkansas next week and then into conference play and most importantly, the OU game.
Muddle around and win a close one, and it’s just more of the same from 2007, and we’d better prepare to a 10 win season being our high goal and possibly unattainable with Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas Tech and Kansas on the schedule.
Lose, and well this will be the last column I write because I’ll become a monk and take a vow of silence because football just won’t be that damn interesting anymore.
UTEP isn’t as good as they were a couple years ago, but head coach Mike Price is still 10th among active coaches in victories, and they’re every bit as good as Central Florida was last season. They’re treating this game as their BCS Bowl in El Paso, with the Sun Bowl enjoying a rare sell-out. It’s on national television, which just feeds the frenzy even more.
Do not fear the death that may come chasing after the young maiden.
Marty Robbins rode in as a gunslinger. We ride in as a posse.
Note: Due to overwhelming response (okay one response), I’ve decided to do the Facebook Status Messages all year.
Facebook Status Messages
Bill Byrne commented on Kyle Field’s Wall:
“I was really impressed with the cleanliness of stadium. We work extremely hard in the off-season to power wash and clean Kyle Field, but we still have bat and bird residue reappear no matter how close to game-time we clean. I wish we could find a way to discourage the presence of these creatures, but the bats are a protected mammal in Texas.” Add comment asking Bill what about the pieces of shit on the field!
Stephen McGee and Chris Simms are now friends!
Brandon Collins is wondering how the f*ck some people in the financial aid office receive a paycheck.
Frank Alexander has thrown a knife at you! Throw a knife at Frank Alexander in a Norman bar!
Mike Price is wondering why we scheduled the Buffalo Bills. Wat.
Tatum Bell is now a fan of Gucci Luggage!
Steve Spurrier and Todd Beecher are no longer friends.
Tommy Bowden joined the Looking For D-1 Job group.
The nation is hoping that Chris Wells misses a few weeks so Ohio State will drop a couple of games.
Hurricane Gustav is up in your stadiums, canceling your games.
Georgia and The Coaches Poll are no longer in a relationship.
Phil Fulmer is F MONOPOLY.
Will Muschamp joined the group We Don’t Need No Stinking Band-Aids.
On to the games...
South Carolina -10.5 @ Vanderbilt:
The Gamecocks started slow last week, but eventually throttled NC State to the tune of 34-0, only allowing 138 yards. Vanderbilt had a nice win of their own, beating Miami of Ohio 34-13. South Carolina quarterback left Tommy Beecher left the game with an injury and 4 interceptions to go along with the strained ego. Tommy Beecher sounds like a television detective, no?
Matthew Perry stars as Miami PD detective Tommy Beecher, this fall on ABC…
South Carolina 27 Vanderbilt 14
ATS – South Carolina
SU – South Carolina
Oregon State @ Penn State -16.5:
Penn State took down Nobody State last week, while Oregon State lost a mild shocker to Stanford. On paper, it looks like Penn State all the way…
But then you remember that Penn State is in the Big 10, and the Big 10 is about as athletic as our tailgate. Oregon State might be out-physicalled (new word!) but they’ll put up some points…and might win the game.
Penn State 31 Oregon State 28
ATS – Oregon State
SU – Penn State
Miami (FL) @ Florida -21:
2001 called, it wants it’s interesting match-up back.
Yikes, Miami played 21 true freshmen last week? And are relying on a freshman quarterback (albeit a redshirt freshman)? Miami is close…but too much going against them here.
Florida 41 Miami 17
ATS – Florida
SU – Florida
Texas A&M -3 @ New Mexico:
New Mexico lost 26-3 to TCU last week, while the Aggies took 2 years off the end of Dave South’s life.
The Mike Sherman era got off to a rough start in College Station, as Arkansas State rolled up 404 yards on the Aggies, including 255 on the ground. Wow.
If the Aggies lose this one, they are truly in trouble. New Mexico is out-matched here.
Texas A&M 27 New Mexico 20
ATS – Texas A&M
SU – Texas A&M
Cincinnati @ Oklahoma -21.5:
This one could be interesting. Cincinnati had some good games last year, but this isn’t South Florida they are facing here.
The Sooners had a glorified scrimmage against Tennessee-Chattanooga last week, and this will be the best opponent until they play Texas in Dallas.
I can see the Bearcats playing well in this one, but going on the road to Norman is way out of their element.
Oklahoma 48 Cincinnati 21
ATS – Oklahoma
SU – Oklahoma
Texas -27 @ UTEP:
Well, I was a little more worried about this one before last week, when UTEP went into Buffalo and lost 45-17, giving up 484 total yards and 263 to Turner Gill’s squad. And if they weren’t giving up the yards on the ground, UTEP gave up 22 yards per completion to a MAC team.
Texas is thought to be slightly better than Buffalo this year.
Sophomore quarterback Trevor Vittatoe is a good one, throwing for 3,101 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions last season. But he threw 3 interceptions last week against Buffalo, and we all know how brutal a sophomore slump can be.
UTEP is 3-43 against ranked opponents, and that certainly shouldn’t change here.
The wedding scene in Kill Bill took place in El Paso, Texas. Just sayin'. Do it.
Texas 58 UTEP 17
ATS – Texas
SU – Texas
Random Hot Dallas Chick
For entertainment purposes only. Save your money for UT-Austin Longhorns shirts.
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SWEET!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of the Facebook Status updates, too. ;)