Tag Archives: Texas Football

Texas loses another squeaker

Texas 10, Oklahoma State 13 in overtime.

Texas, 3-4, has a superior defense but a lackluster offense.

Maybe it’s time to let Buchele quarterback the offense, eh?

And bring back the running game that isn’t Sam E.

Texas wins opener 50-47

Great game, Texas! Tyrone and Shane make a great pair of quarterbacks. Notre Dame also played two and they were also good, just not good enough at the end.

The daily’s sports writer Cedric Golden said they’d win tonight and they did, if just barely. But they looked much better than last year, offense, defense and special teams. May indeed be headed for a winning season and a bowl game for a change. Hookem!

UPDATE:  Then the AP Top 25 poll of sports writers ranked them 11th, first ranking since 2013. Coaches poll has them at 20th which might be more realistic.

Rule 5: Body paint

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Body-painted waitresses in Lewisville, northwest of Dallas, upset a city council but provide us some relief from the mini-massacre in the Little Apple where Kansas State ran over Texas 23-0—the first Longhorns skunking since Oklahoma did it in 2004.  The game stunk, but the body-paint wins. And it sure beats ebola for Dallas-area news.

When the Horns lose

It was sad to watch the Longhorns break their six game winning streak Saturday night with a 38-13 drubbing, especially fueled as it was by three Case McCoy interceptions, two of which Oklahoma State turned into touchdowns.

And you had to wonder why the Texas defense didn’t play near as well as they had in the previous six games, particularly when they had dominated Oklahoma back in October. But then there was the fact that OK State was just about the best team the Horns have played this season. Much better than Oklahoma. Undoubtedly why the Cowboys were ranked 12th, a long twelve spots above Texas at No. 24.

All the recriminations of September, when Texas got whooped by BYU and Ole Miss, are likely to return now. Sure I liked it much better when the Horns were winning consistently, as they did from about 1999 right up through 2009, but other teams that were good then ain’t so much now either.

It is ironic that the Aggies, who once were an easy enough Texas win most Thanksgivings now figure they’re too good to play Texas again. “Not relevant,” as their president put it back in the spring. I suppose not, not with QB Johnny Football running their new SEC show. He wanted to play for Texas, but Texas wasn’t interested. More irony.

Maybe it is time for coach Mack Brown to go. But I still can’t see him being fired. They’ll have to convince him to retire. Might should also find Major Applewhite a job other than offensive coordinator. But he was a star Texas QB for years. He’s not any more likely to be fired than Brown, who brought UT one national championship and at least getting to play for a second one, though they lost it. The Ags are still trying to get “relevant” enough to play for one. Heh.

It’s a hard game, tackle football, fun to watch when your team is wining. Hard to take when they aren’t. But it’s like anything else. Like they say: you ought to dance with who brung ya’. The Horns of old, back in the days of QB Peter Gardere, brung me, so to speak, when I started paying attention to Texas football. And he could be as erratic as Case McCoy. When his teams weren’t.

Can they beat Texas Tech, which got its own whipping from Baylor? Maybe. Can they beat Baylor, their last game of the regular season? Probably not. It’s hard to see anyone beating Baylor this season. And Baylor used to be the Big 12 doormat where every team wiped their feet. Irony makes the world go round.

UPDATE:  Then OK State validated its crushing of Texas by throttling Baylor 49-17, whose last seven points came in garbage time. Might even make Baylor a trifle more vulnerable to Texas on Dec. 7. But only a  trifle.

BYU 40, Texas 21

BYU was David Ash’s winning debut in 2011. This year the boys in Utah were his humiliation. His offense couldn’t protect him. When he dropped back to pass, there were three Brigham Young University defenders in his face. His defense looked comical with one missed tackle after another.

The secret “elevation masks” apparently didn’t make a difference. After sacking him repeatedly, BYU finally knocked Ash out of the game in the first half of the fourth quarter with a possible head injury.

Always hard to see the Longhorns lose, especially when an unranked team like BYU runs over them. Literally—with 550 rushing yards, the most by any opponent ever. In truth, though, it was predictable. The Horns were lackluster in the first half against cupcake New Mexico State last week.

Now Texas, which already was a miserable 15th in the AP ranking, could fall out of the Top 25 altogether. Just like last year. Once more dismantling the pre-season narrative of better, faster, tougher, etc. And, once more, reinstating calls to fire Coach Mack Brown and Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz. Might as well add Co-Offensive Coordinator Major Applewhite to the list, too.

The Horns might come back. Maybe. We’ll see if they can come back far enough to at least win another Alamo Bowl. They certainly won’t beat Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, and may well lose to West Virginia, TCU, etc. Sigh.

UPDATE:  As expected, Texas has fallen out of the AP Top 25, replaced in its No. 15 slot by Miami. That’s what happens when an unranked team whips your ass, like BYU did.

Ironically, USC, the team Texas beat for the national title back in ’05, has also fallen out, for only a 10-7 loss to Washington State. Something to worry about, maybe: Ole Miss, Texas’ next opponent, debuted this week at No. 25.

MORE:  Texas has fired Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz. Pity, I think, but somebody’s head had to roll. It was for sure it wouldn’t be Brown’s.

Texas-Alabama

Have to laugh to see that Rasmussen has a poll out showing 55 percent of “fans” expect Bama to win tonight at the Rose Bowl. I laugh because that was almost exactly the prediction level in 2006 when Texas played USC for the national championship and won. Then, people would say, Texas would be nothing without QB Vince Young. Now they say the same about QB Colt McCoy who they expect will be corraled by the Bama defense. I expect (as I did in 2006) that Texas will win it, but, again, it will be close. It’ll be a defensive struggle most of the way.

UPDATE:  Well, with McCoy apparently out of the game with an injured passing shoulder, Texas is down 18 points at the half, 24-6. Texas was looking great before Colt got hurt. But the Texas defense is not stopping the Alabama run. So, even if backup QB Garrett Gilbert was completing some of the passes he has overthrown or the Texas receivers were not dropping the few good ones, Bama might still be well ahead. Hard to see a way, frankly, that Texas can win it now, without a big improvement of their defense in the second half.

FINAL:  I don’t feel so bad with the 37-21 loss to Alabama. The Texas defense held them scoreless for 29 minutes in the second half while the offense pulled within 3. Then Bama created a fumble and got a pick and scored on both. Game over. It shows that Texas might have won if McCoy had not been knocked out. Funny thing about him, though. He is by far the most injury-prone QB Texas has ever had.

Texas 35, Central Florida 3

Appropriate score at the end doesn’t reflect the slow start of the Longhorns offense in the first half that had UCF ahead 3 to 0 at the end of the first quarter. That was incredible, given the way Texas jumped out to 21 points in the first quarter against OK State, a much better team than U. of Central Florida.

I could see the Horns dropping to third in the BCS rankings tomorrow, especially if Alabama beats LSU. In fact, in that scenario, I could see Alabama jumping to first. Since Florida is only playing Vanderbilt, the SEC’s doormat. With the Iowa loss, however, it seems the Horns are still on track for Pasadena.