It was a thing of beauty Thursday night as the Longhorns put the Aggies back in their place with a 49 – 9 thumping in front of a national Turkey Day audience. The Texas defense was completely dominant in the first half and the offense was led by an incredible night running and throwing by quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]. We won’t know till Sunday if it was enough but Mack Brown’s kids won with both class and style, something that should make any Longhorn proud.
Watch the highlights:
Texas head coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] was on ESPN yesterday (and replayed a ton this morning) discussing tonights Texas A&M game and of course BCS rankings. It sounds like he’s saying all the right things and wants the kids focusing on the Aggies, but I imagine if the team takes care of business tonight he’ll be on the phone doing interviews during several games Friday and Saturday. He also does a great job at subtly reminding voters that the Longhorns beat the Sooners head-to-head earlier this year.
Watch the interview:
Will the Longhorns avoid a third straight upset?
The Texas Longhorns are 35-point favorites on Turkey Day against the Texas A&M Aggies and they might need to win by even more than that to impress the voters and hold onto their number two BCS ranking. The two rivals face off on Thanksgiving Day for the first time since 1993 when one of the Aggies many transgressions landed them with TV restrictions due to NCAA penalties. This year the Aggies are again playing with nothing to lose, can the Horns avoid another upset? Will they come out and earn enough “style points” to win a Big 12 South title and a chance for a national title? Find out how bad the Aggies will lose below:
Brian – Lots of poll watching and complaining by Texas fans this week but none of that will matter if the team doesn’t take care of business Thursday night. The last three seasons the Horns have been big favorites but didn’t come out strong and let the Aggies stay in the game. This year Texas needs to put some early points on the board against an overmatched team and never give them any hope. The Texas defense might give up a few points but the offense is going to have a field defense against a team that gave up 41 to [tag]Baylor[/tag]. Yes, Baylor! Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] is looking for payback and his first win over A&M and he’s going to have a huge game in front of a national audience both passing and running. Texas 56 – Texas A&M 20
Matt – A lot more than just the usual rivalry bragging rights are on the line this Thanksgiving against Aggy. First and foremost is the fact that Texas currently sits at the #2 spot in the BCS and is desperate need of some style points with an impressive win (I am thinking by 40 or more). [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] will likely jump Texas no matter what with a win, but we can use all the help we can get. Second is the fact that Colt McCoy has yet to beat Aggy in his ridiculous career at Texas (probably the only thing he hasn’t done). I think these two scenarios make for a huge Texas win, as they will be looking to dominate this game. I am thinking 50+. Hopefully they don’t eat too much turkey before. Texas 60 – Texas A&M 10
Mike – Texas has every reason to blow out Texas A&M. The Longhorns enter the game with a slim lead over Oklahoma for the Big 12 tie breaker, and oh yeah, the Aggies have beaten the Longhorns for the last two seasons. At least one of the losses cost UT a conference championship and a BCS bowl. [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] is usually hesitant to embarrass an opponent by leaving in his starters and running up the score, but this week holds special circumstances. His team needs style points because it looks like who goes to Kansas City next week will be determined by who plays best this week. The Longhorns get the first shot to impress the voters on Thanksgiving night in front of a national audience. Texas needs to win dominantly from the opening snap to the closing one. In years past I’d be worried about how Texas would respond to such pressure but with the leadership on the team combined with the passion the coaching staffs brought to this squad I have no doubts this one is going to get ugly. Colt McCoy will have a huge day that will move him to the front of the Heisman race and the Longhorns will make it real tough for voters to put OU in front of them on Sunday. Texas 55 – Texas A&M 13
Obviously this year’s Texas vs. Texas A&M football game has more on the line than just bragging rights. The Longhorns enter the game at number two in the BCS, but hold such a slight lead in the standings that many worry that an [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] win over [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] will propel the Sooners into the Big 12 Championship game and with that into the National Title game.
On top of all the BCS hoopla, Texas also wants to erase the memory of the Aggies ruining their last two seasons. The Aggies are awful, but they were for the last two years so the focus for [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] and his staff has been to keep their players focused on the task at hand. There are some aspects of this puzzle that the football team can control and some that they can’t. The Longhorns must focus all their energy on what they can control.
For this week’s preview we look at what the Longhorns must do to sway a few voters back their way.
- Beat the Hell out of A&M. The fans yell it, the team must do it. Even if the BCS wasn’t in the picture the recent history of this game should give these players enough motivation to put it on the Aggies. There is no doubt Texas has had the better team the last two years, but there is also little doubt who wanted the game more. A&M have been more physical than the Longhorns over that stretch and in football the team that hits the other in the mouth first usually has the upper hand. Keep in mind that while players like [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] have beaten the Sooners twice in their career, they have not beaten A&M. Texas needs to do it big this week.
- Don’t let up. Mack Brown is a nice guy. Too nice at times. Coaches like Bob Stoops and Mike Leach make no bones about putting up big points even when the game is well out of reach. And while common sense would suggest that the voters would understand that a win is a win style points do count. There is no doubt that Oklahoma will put a as many points as they can if given the opportunity on Saturday night in Stillwater and Texas must do the same on Thanksgiving night. Texas needs to let their players play the whole game and put up over 60 points. All the voters know that Texas beat OU head to head, but many have given the nod to the Sooners in the polls because they feel Oklahoma has been more dominant in the last few games. Texas needs to put up a huge score on Thursday because the vote on Sunday will likely come down to who looks better this week.
- Run the ball. Oklahoma is being viewed as the better team because people feel they have more ways to beat you. Last week against Texas Tech the Sooners did something Texas couldn’t do. They controlled the line of scrimmage and moved the ball on the ground at will. Voters, especially the coaches, want to see balance. Texas has not had balance this year unless the running comes from McCoy. With [tag]Foswhitt Whittaker[/tag] back in the mix and the emergence of a health [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag], the Longhorn running game has improved over the last few weeks. The Longhorns need to be able to run the ball when the other team, the announcers, and everybody watching knows they are about to run it. The Longhorns have struggled with that this year, but voting is a what have you done for me lately job and if Texas can come out and dominate it will erase a lot of the concerns people have had about the UT offense all season long.
- Shutout. It might be a little much to ask for a shutout, but this team needs something close to that to impress the voters. I think most people consider Texas’ and OU’s offense on par with each other. Oklahoma gets the advantage in most people’s mind because of a perceived opinion that the Sooner defense is better than Texas’. A score of 42-6 would help Texas more than say a score of 65-24. Texas needs to be dominant in every aspect of the game, but a complete whipping of the Aggies on defense would impress the voters tremendously. All eyes will be on Texas this weekend and [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] needs to prove why he is being selected as the next head coach at Texas.
- Remind the voters 45 – 35. This is going to be on the fans. Mack Brown and his staff have rightfully put all the week’s energy on beating A&M. It will be up to the fans on Thursday night to get the word out that what happens on the field should matter the most. It can be done with chants of “45 – 35” and with the signs that the Longhorn nation is looking to print out and distribute to all the people in attendance. When the cameras go into the stands in between plays or coming back from commercials the viewers at home need to be bombarded with evidence of the victory at The Fair Grounds.
Even with all this done it might not be enough to stay in front of Oklahoma, but at least UT would have done everything they could to get there. If the Big 12 Championship is OU vs. [tag]Missouri[/tag] it will be a match up of two teams Texas beat by double digits on the year. The Longhorns have over achieved for much of the year and deserve to catch a break. Hopefully they will this weekend. No matter what happens just remember: Go Baylor Bears.
Some video has been posted on the Statesman’s site of the Will Muschamp announcement from yesterday featuring comments from AD [tag]DeLoss Dodds[/tag] talking about the continuity of the program and why they locked him up with this deal. Muschamp also has some really good comments about why he took the deal and how much his family loves Austin. [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] gives Coach Boom some very high praise and discusses the supposedly non-existent timetable for when he’ll step down.
Watch the video:
In exciting breaking news, the Texas Longhorns have announced that defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] will stay at Texas and will eventually succeed [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] as head coach. Thoughts and predictions on the future of the Texas coaching staff will come later, but the university release is below:
The University of Texas has struck an agreement with Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp that will keep him in Austin and eventually lead him to the head coaching position for the Longhorns, Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds said on Tuesday. Details of the contract are still being finalized but it will start with Muschamp’s salary being raised to $900,000 on January 1, 2009.
“This is a plan that has been enthusiastically agreed to by Mack Brown, President Powers and the Board of Regents,” Dodds said. “With the landscape in college football and all of the changes around the country, I’ve been looking at this for the last couple of years. When it’s not working, you have to go outside and make changes. Things are going well here, it’s working, so it’s best to be prepared to build from inside and that’s what we’re doing.
“Mack has provided outstanding leadership and continues to elevate our football program to a level as high as anyone in the country. We hope he stays a long time and he will be our coach as long as he wants, but this assures us that when the time comes, we have the right guy to step up into that position and continue to build on the great things we’re accomplishing.”
Muschamp joined the Longhorns this season after highly successful stints at Auburn, LSU and in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. As defensive coordinator, he helped LSU claim a National Championship in 2004. He was a finalist for the Broyles Award (nation’s top assistant coach) in 2007.
“This is first and foremost about keeping Will at Texas,” Brown said. “He’s had several opportunities to interview for head coaching jobs, but we wanted him to stay here. I’m going to continue coaching as I’m enjoying it. I have eight years left on my contract, I am not thinking at all about moving on, it’s simply that I think Will is a great young coach, a perfect fit for this place and he wants to stay. Nothing will change in our structure. He will continue in his role as defensive coordinator and when the time comes, will be ready to step in and take over the program.
“Everything we’ve talked about since we’ve been here, the premise of our program, has been about family. This is about family. When at some point I do step away, the fans can be assured the program can continue like it is. It will not miss a beat because the family will continue. Will believes in all the same principles we believe in. This assures recruits, our coaches and our players that Texas football will just keep on rolling.”
Muschamp’s Longhorn defense is leading the Big 12 in rushing defense (82.5 ypg/25th NCAA) and scoring defense (19.5 ppg/25th NCAA). UT ranks second nationally with four sacks per game. The Horns have held all of their Big 12 opponents below their season scoring average and limited six foes to 14 points or less.
“I was really excited when they presented the opportunity to me,” Muschamp said. “I’m not in any hurry to be a head coach and hope Coach Brown’s around for many more years. I’m just glad I’m going to be able to stay at Texas. This is the top program in the country, my family loves it here and there’s no better person to watch and learn from about running a football program than Coach Brown.
“President Powers, DeLoss Dodds, the administration and the leadership at Texas are outstanding. Coach Brown and a great support staff are in place. I’ve really enjoyed the kids in our program and everyone I’ve been around here. Texas has all the resources, facilities and a great recruiting base. It is the elite program in the country. No disrespect to any of the other places I’ve worked, but this is a really special place.”
A native of Rome, Ga., and 1994 graduate of Georgia, he was four-year lettermen at safety for the Bulldogs (1991-94). He was selected as defensive co-captain as a senior and was a part of two bowl teams. He also earned a spot on the SEC Academic Honor Roll in 1993.
“When I first came here in January and my wife, Carol, and boys, Jackson and Whit, stayed back in Auburn, I got such a great feel for the community and people. When Carol and the kids moved here in May, they fell in love with Austin. If I would have left, I would have left on my own because she was staying here. She really loves the community and the people, and our kids love their schools. It’s just a special place and somewhere I want to be for a long time.
“I really appreciate the confidence that President Powers, DeLoss Dodds, the Board of Regents and Coach Brown have in me. I hope Coach Brown is here for a long time and look forward to continuing to coach our defense, learning from him and eventually carrying on the outstanding Texas tradition.”
Feel free to have your own opinion of what Buck Burnette’s punishment should have been and whether a mistake that destroys a team is worse than other criminal offenses, but at least don’t base it on “facts” that you made up yourself.
Read the story below from SI.com, no link because they don’t deserve it:
Crime and punishment at Texas
Bill TrocchiSorry if I’m late on this topic, but let me get this straight.
Texas linebacker [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in the summer of 2007 and got a three-game suspension.
Texas defensive end [tag]Henry Melton[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in the summer of 2007 and got a three-game suspension.
Texas defensive tackle [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in September and got a one-game suspension. Here’s a link on all three arrests.
Texas center Buck Burnette posted a text message he received from a friend that contained a racial slur directed at Barack Obama on his Facebook page and was dismissed from the team.
Huh?
Ah, now I see. Look at the depth chart. Kindle, Melton and Houston all start. Burnette was a backup. Hmmmm.
Clearly, discipline needed to be handed out in all four cases. But the Facebook incident is by far the least punishable. Offensive? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Endangering the lives of others? No.
You can’t suspend a guy for one game after a DWI arrest and dismiss another for a Facebook racial slur. It is an insincere attempt to show you run such a clean and virtuous a program that you boot (backup) players when they post stupid, racially insensitive remarks on a Facebook page.
And then you hope nobody notices you start three drunk drivers on defense.
Let’s review those facts…
- Melton, Kindle, and Houston received lighter punishments because they’re starters. – Actually only Houston was a starter at the time of his arrest. Kindle was a second stringer who mainly saw time on special teams while Melton was buried on the depth chart after switching to defense from running back.
- “The Facebook incident is by far the least punishable.” – Actually, threatening the life of the President is a federal offense, but it doesn’t sound like he knew what Burnette actually said. Just today a Spring man was sentenced to 30 months in jail for threatening George W. Bush and another man faces up to 35 years in jail for threats he made on Internet message boards. Sounds pretty serious to me. The first DWI offense in Texas is punishable with up to 180 days in jail.
- Backups don’t matter so it’s okay to punish them. – With the injury this week to starting center [tag]Chris Hall[/tag] the importance of backups is even more clear. Texas will be starting a true freshman at center against [tag]Kansas[/tag] instead of Burnette.
I can see that he’s easily confused.
I’m not sure what fact checking Sports Illustrated does of their FanNation blog, but this article should have never gone up. Despite repeated corrections to the article being posted by commenters the original story still hasn’t been updated or corrected.
Will Colt McCoy have room to operate against Tech?
Texas faces another top ten team in what has to be the game of the week (sorry [tag]Florida[/tag] and [tag]Georgia[/tag]). This will be the third nationally televised game in the last four weeks for these Horns. Texas Tech is building this game as the “biggest” game ever to take place in Lubbock. The Tech fans are going to “black out” the stadium and the Longhorns are trying to do to Tech what [tag]Alabama[/tag] did to Georgia when the Bulldogs held a “black out” on ABC primetime. Let’s look at what we’re in for.
When Texas has the ball:
In this year’s Big 12 conference I feel like I could write the same thing each week. The Longhorn offense faces a team that gives up and puts up points and yards in bunches. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and his offense should have no problem putting up points; the question will be the strategy offensive coordinator Greg Davis uses to achieve those points.
UT went over a quarter and a half without scoring a point to end last week’s [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] game. Texas had their chances though, as McCoy committed two turnovers deep in OK State territory that allowed the Cowboys to stay in the game. The running game was lacking for the first time since conference started and I think the coaching staff would like to get that part of the offense back on track. When this team can run the ball the middle of the field becomes wide open for McCoy and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] to work their overhyped roommate magic (they’re not over hyped, but their story has been). Most have been looking for Fozzy Whittaker to get his chance, and it might be this week.
Tech has a new defensive coordinator but remains the same defense it always is. They give up points on big plays and can be overmatched physically if a team stays within striking distance. The Red Raider defense thrives when an opposing team gets so far behind that they become one dimensional out of necessity. The Longhorns keeping the game close in the first quarter will go a long way in determining the outcome. It will be up to the offensive to control the ball and come away with points on virtually every possession because Texas Tech will score points.
The Longhorns will use short passes to set up the run as the game goes on. At this point in the season teams know who they are. The Longhorns are a possession passing team with the ability to run at times. Colt McCoy is the leader of the offense and this unit goes as he goes. If McCoy can eliminate turnovers it is very doubtful Tech will be able to slow Texas down.
When Texas Tech has the ball:
This is where it gets tricky. Everybody knows what the offense does, but I’m not sure even the coaches or the players know much about this defense. On one hand the talent is not in question. When the outside guys get to rush the quarterback there is not another team in the nation that is more dangerous. The linebackers have been playing as well as a unit as any group under [tag]Mack Brown[/tag]. And the young secondary is getting better and better.
On the other hand, this same group just gave up over 200 yards of rushing offense in a game, Texas as a defense, including leading tackler [tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag], struggled with open field tackling, the two safeties are still freshmen, and injuries are plaguing the best two cornerbacks on the team. All this the week the number one ranked Horns take on the most explosive offense, when clicking, in all of college football.
The good news is unlike the previous three weeks, the Tech offense won’t have a NFL caliber tight end. The bad news is Michael Crabtree still is in college. People talk about Jeremy Maclin and Dez Bryant, but neither of them compare to Crabtree. The guy is unbelievable and no one man is going to guard him. Defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] has shown he likes to leave a safety over the top against elite receivers, as he did with Maclin and Bryant. Tech’s offense makes it hard to do that to a particular receiver because every wide out can line up at all the receiver positions in the Mike Leach offense. This is the first year Muschamp has gone up against Leach, so it will be interesting to see what the first year coordinator does. Odds are [tag]Duane Akina[/tag] will be giving out advice this week because Texas has done relatively well against the Tech offense.
This is another game where it seems the running game will be an after thought. Tech uses short passes, much like Texas coincidentally, to supplement the run game. This will force UT’s linebackers and safeties to tackle well in space. Open field tackling by the Texas defense will be the difference in the game. If Texas can stop plays immediately after a reception they have a good chance of making some stops and getting off the field. But if Tech’s skill position players are able to make big plays after the catch the Longhorn offense will be forced into a shootout.
It wasn’t the high scoring game most of us expected but the number one Texas Longhorns were able to hold off a valiant effort from number six Oklahoma State Cowboys yesterday. The Horns got in front early and stayed there but the game was tight through out and the team had to stop a hail mary attempt on the game’s final play to win.
Watch highlights and post game interviews below:
In what has probably been his best coaching job at Texas, head coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] has taken a team not many pundits were expecting much from and put them in the driver’s seat for a second national championship in four years. He’s recruited standout players, hired good coaches, and has the whole team playing incredible football this season. Even after winning the national title, somehow all the credit went to [tag]Vince Young[/tag] and none to Brown.
And now finally some much needed love is coming Mack’s way. Check out this article on SI.com and read an excerpt of the main points below:
But here’s the thing: Mack Brown IS the best college football coach in America. I’m not offering this up as an opinion. I don’t even see how anyone else has a case. I mean, let’s break this down here. What do you want a college football coach to do? I can think of six main things:
1. Win.
Brown has won more games this decade than any coach in the country. He is the only coach in America to win at least nine games every season for the last dozen years.
2. Win the big games.
Brown was the winning coach in the 2006 Rose Bowl — USC vs. Texas — perhaps the greatest college football game ever played. His Longhorns have beaten Stoops and Oklahoma three of the last four years. In the Longhorns last 25 games against Top 25 opponents, they are 21-4.
3. Go to bowl games and win them.
Brown has taken his teams — Texas and North Carolina — to 16 consecutive bowl games, and Texas has won four straight bowl games.
4. Make game adjustments.
Texas has made 21 fourth-quarter comebacks under Brown — the 21st came this year against Oklahoma.
5. Recruit talented players.
Nobody questions Brown’s recruiting genius — in fact, he derisively has been called “Mr. February” because some think he should win EVEN MORE with the amazing recruiting classes he signs.
6. Energize the fan base.
When Mack Brown took over at Texas, there were 39,743 season ticket holders. That was a record. Today, there are 83,000 season ticket holders. The school has added 20,000 seats to the stadium, and they are adding more. Celebrities are showing up more and more too. Just last week, Derek Jeter was on the sidelines of the Texas-Missouri game, perhaps in the hope that some of his credit rating would rub off on Mack Brown.
I’m sure if the Longhorns keep winning we’ll be seeing a lot more of these stories as the year goes on.
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