For the third time in four weeks the number one Texas Longhorns will be playing a game with the ESPN College Gameday crew on hand. Not too many people voluntarily go to Lubbock but Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso will head to West Texas to see the Horns clash with number seven [tag]Texas Tech[/tag].
Gameday airs from the campus of the biggest match-up of the week. Tune in at 10 a.m. Saturday to see Red Raiders fans in action. The last time the Gameday crew took in a Texas/Texas Tech game the Horns rolled the Red Raider 52 – 17 back in 2005 on the way to a national championship. Let’s hope we’re headed to similar outcomes both for this Saturday and the season.
That’s certainly not breaking news, but Skippy has outdone himself this time. In his latest article on ESPN.com writes that there’s no way Texas should be number one in the country and that we wouldn’t stand a chance head-to-head against USC. It’s one thing to have that opinion (though I think it’s completely wrong), it’s another to then not back it up with rational argument. Hmmm… I wonder why he’d have such an irrational hatred of Texas?
He attempts to bash our schedule so far, despite it being better than both USC and Virginia Tech’s no matter how you look at it. Our opponents have a better combined record. We’ve beaten just as many (or more) top 25 teams. We beat a top 5 team on the road and demolished a top 10 team at home, USC and Va. Tech have done neither. Yes our schedule gets weaker from here on out, but just because we played our toughest games early doesn’t make them any less difficult, in fact it makes upsets even more likely.
He then claims that USC has to take every team’s best shot each week. Um, Skip, do you think the Horns are sneaking up on people? As Walter Cronkite says, “We’re Texas.” No matter what our ranking is, everyone wants to take us down. Factor in our national title aspirations and there’s nothing in the world our opponents would rather do than knock us down. They took “Arizona State’s best shot at Arizona State.” Whoop-dee-freaking-do! They’re 1-3 in Pac 10 play, they’re terrible.
My favorite part of the article is when he states Ohio State would give the Trojans a better game than we would. Wait a second… Didn’t we beat the Buckeyes? At their place? At night*? That doesn’t count Skip says, we didn’t win that one Jim Tressel lost it:
“Ohio State coach Jim Tressel blew that game more than Texas won it. Tressel appeared to be channeling Bevo by starting and finishing with quarterback Justin Zwick, even though Troy Smith led the Buckeyes on five scoring drives and built a 22-16 lead through three quarters. Zwick’s late fumble clinched a 25-22 Texas win.”
His basis for that argument? “Smith led the Buckeyes on five scoring drives.” Wow, five scoring drives? They must have been really rolling with him at quarterback. Oh wait, they weren’t. Not even close. Ohio State had one good drive and it ended with Smith’s best play of the night, a 36 yard pass from Smith to Santonio Holmes for a touchdown, but the rest of the night they did next to nothing with or without Smith at the helm. Those other 4 scoring drives? 5 plays for 8 yards. 9 plays for 22 yards. 6 plays for 11 yards. And finally, 4 plays for a whopping -1 yards. Look out Peyton Manning! Playing Smith the whole game would not have changed the final score.
A valid argument could definitely be made that the Trojans should be number one, but Texas has just as strong of a case. I think most people believe they’re clearly the top two teams in the country. I don’t understand the outrage over this week’s BCS rankings from the national media. The Trojans probably have the nation’s best offense, while Texas’ defense is second to none. Texas has played better against tougher opponents so far, but if USC plays well over their next difficult stretch they’ll likely jump back into the first spot anyways. Both teams deserve to be where they are and the exact order doesn’t mean much. After all, whether you’re number one or two in October doesn’t really matter, as long as both teams win out we’ll find out on January 4th in Pasadena who the better team is.
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