The SEC Goes for 4 in a Row

If Alabama can knock off Texas in the National Championship Game tomorrow night, it will mark the 4th consecutive BCS Championship for the Southeastern Conference. While the media likes to talk about the resurgence of the Big 10 this bowl season, the best football remains in the South. I personally think Bama is simply too complete of a team to lose this game. Much like Florida, the Texas offense relies too heavily on the quarterback to make plays. The absence of a running game and constant pressure from the Bama front will force McCoy to make a couple of bad decisions. The 'Horns will put up a good fight, but in the end, I think Bama will take home its seventh national championship.

Prediction: Alabama 24, Texas 17

Give Me That Old Time Religion

As I write this, I'm listening to ESPN's "Around the Horn" in the background arguing about just who deserves to be the "national champion." Wasn't the wonderful BCS supposed to settle this for us when it was created 10 years ago. Instead the conference commissioners and college presidents gave us some half-assed excuse between the old bowl system and a playoff, and we ended up with the worst possible system of all.

So is the winner of the Oklahoma-Florida game, Texas, USC or Utah the "national champion?" They told us 10 years ago that it was the winner of the Oklahoma-Florida game. Why? What separates Oklahoma and Florida from the rest? Oh, that's right, they occupy the #1 and #2 slots. And that's all. That's it. That's the only difference. That, and the fact that Oklahoma lost to Texas, that Utah is undefeated with a win over a quality SEC opponent in the Sugar Bowl, and that USC just might have the "best" loss out of all the 1-loss teams considering it was on the road.

So, if we're not going to get an 8-team playoff anytime soon, why not just go back to the old bowl system? Remember when more than one bowl game mattered on New Year's Day, back before we started to pretend that only one game matters now. The Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Fiesta.

So why not the Big XII Champion Oklahoma tied into the Fiesta and the SEC Champion Florida tied into the Sugar? Make those top 2 teams play the toughest team possible. In other words, send the #3 Texas Longhorns to play the Gators. Send the #4 Alabama Crimson Tide (I know, I know...the Tide lost to Utah) to play the Sooners. If the Sooners win, they win it all. If they don't, then the Gators-Longhorns winner takes it. Give me that Old Time Religion when New Year's Day meant something.

Chaos In Tejas

I said in this post last week that Texas' loss to Texas Tech does not have the same weight as Texas beating Oklahoma. If you're not going to include Texas Tech and consider ranking them above both Oklahoma and Texas (and I can't find anyone outside of Mike Leach that would do this), then their defeat of Texas is not as important as Texas beating Oklahoma. While I wrote this post beforehand, it has become a counterpoint to Earl's post here.

This is a raw deal for Texas, but the Longhorns are doing a pretty good job of dealing with this situation. While they are sinking into madness in some instances, I think it is understandable to a point. Texas fans need to remember that the only thing they can do at this point is win their bowl game and then complain and hope the AP listens. As I said with Georgia last year, there's no reason to whine now and then lose your bowl game. Doing so will make you look like you didn't belong in the conversation in the first place (such as Michigan in 2006).

While I do think Texas being left out is ridiculous, I do not blame the BCS. It is not the BCS' job nor its intention to determine the participants in conference championships. This decision was the Big 12's, so they created their own problem. Every conference uses BCS rankings at some point for a tie breaker, and I think it's understandable that conferences would use it in some form in order to not leave this thing up to a coin flip (which I believe was next), or some sort of obstacle course game show tournament.

If this situation does result in a split national title, people are going to completely blame the BCS for it. I think such blame would be misplaced. It's not that you could absolve the BCS completely, but I think there are entities you could blame for having a larger role in creating such an instance.

The first to blame should be the Big 12, for reasons I outlined earlier. The next blame should be placed on irrational voters who placed Oklahoma above Texas. How can I blame voters, but not blame the BCS? Simple, the BCS is reactive to the choices the voters make. If voters in both the Harris Poll (which did rank Texas ahead by a small margin), and the Coaches Poll (who defy logic as often as they can), had largely ranked Texas above Oklahoma, the BCS would have appropriately responded.

Again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Everyone lambasting the BCS for having failed this year reminds me that nothing's actually been decided yet

THIS IS JUST ONE REASON WHY A PLAYOFF WOULD BLOW

Texas Tech is on the verge of destiny. A school relegated to back seat of football in the State of Texas has one more large leap to make before they legitimize their run to the national title (with Baylor and the Big 12 Championship still left on their journey).

If Texas Tech wins this game, and then wins out, they've gone over the hurdles of a rigorous schedule that is probably only topped by a one or two SEC teams.

Not only would running the table this year be a landmark event for a program that managed to only win two SWC titles in 40 years, but it signifies that they are indeed one of the two teams that deserves to play for a national title.

T-Tech beating Oklahoma in Norman means they've completed a sweep of their major divisional foes, which is something that the traditional dominant teams in their conference couldn't accomplish this year.

Why would it then make sense to force this team to play even more games in a playoff, just to prove they're worthy?

Winning out with their schedule is enough of an accomplishment to have a shot at the title and a playoff only diminishes the potential achievement this team can gain tomorrow night.

This game, as well as their previous games against Texas and Oklahoma State, would have a diminished value if a playoff were in place. You could say T-Tech would benefit by still having shot if they lost this game and could still make a playoff.

While potentially true, that only gives evidence to my point that the importance of this game is diminished by a playoff. It also shows how pointless a playoff would be if T-Tech won. With a playoff, they would still have to prove themselves for several more games, despite winning against Oklahoma. With the current system, they can simply lock up their division and ensure they're shot by winning this game. The reason they can do that is because they've already proven themselves on the field in their previous games.

The game tomorrow night displays the essence of college football that so many seem to be forgetting (or just ignoring).

Good luck to the Yosemite Sams against the land thiefs.

Week 7: Impressions and Ramblings

Week 7 of the college football season has come and passed. Here are my thoughts:


Georgia 26, Tennessee 14

- Now that's more like it. I know the media has downplayed our victory over Tennessee and I agree the score was not indicative of the game. However, after the crushing loss to 'Bama and two straight crushing losses to UT in '06 and '07, we needed this one bad.

- The two interceptions in the Red Zone were discouraging, however I was proud of the way our offense played. We had players hit the "Big Game" milestones at all three positions (Stafford with 300 yards passing, MoMass with 100 yards receiving, and Knowshon over 100 rushing).

- Blair Walsh is a beast. Only a kicker who drills the ball like he does is able to get a kick that was blocked squarely to still go through the uprights. He is a future All-SEC kicker.

- I love the 1-2 punch of Massaquoi and Green. We finally have a set of receivers that make Stafford look like the good QB that he is (we'll look the other way on AJ's touchdown drop. He is still a freshman).

This is how to resond to a cheap shot - by scoring a TD just a few plays later.

- Willie dialed up a great defensive plan. We held UT to 1 yard on the ground. Considering what Fulmer has done to us in the past, this number is amazing.

- Eric Berry may be the best defensive player in the SEC. He is the reason Knowshon had trouble breaking off any big runs. If only he would have stayed in the state.

"Berry throws a left hook and down goes Moreno."

- And lastly, the 17-play, almost 11-minute drive in the 4th may have been one of the best drives I have ever seen. We basically took Tennessee entirely out of the game by not letting them have the ball. It was awesome.

The Red River Shootout

- Like expected, neither team played much defense in this game. Texas is a solid team and Colt McCoy looks like the Heisman front runner. I wonder what the final score would have been if that INT in the end zone had not been overturned.

Massacre in the Swamp

- The Gators put a whipping on the Bayou Bengals like they did to Tennessee last year. The media is gushing over Tebow again and Florida is back in the top 5. I'm not sure where Les Miles's vaunted defense was, but they sure didn't come ready to play this week.

Vanderbilt - Back to Reality

- Vandy, you got Croomed. See ya at 12:30 next Saturday.

Missouri Falls to Okie State

- Oklahoma State is much better this year than the team we saw last year in Athens. Mike Gundy has got his team firing on all cylinders and Chase Daniel looked human.

Bad SEC Teams

- Coming into this season would anyone have belived that at the midway point the three worst teams in the SEC would be Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky ?

This season is turning out almost as crazy as last year. We get Vandy for Homecoming this week and then the real season starts in Baton Rouge on the 25th.

Go Dawgs!!!

Inside the Longhorn Nation

After Bubba’s great post on the Red River Shootout, I asked my good friend Tony from Austin to provide us with some insight to this game. Tony is a Texas alum and a resident of Austin, so he should have some great thoughts on this. Plus, he shares a love for the great words of Will Muschamp, just like the rest of us (be warned: foul language will ensue at the end of the post).


The Red River Shootout/Rivalry/Walkabout (whatever) is the greatest sporting event since Maximus took on 3 gladiators, 4 tigers, and Johnny Cash. The atmosphere for the game is tremendous. Where else can you have the best rivalry in college football and the country’s largest state fair in the background? As for the food, while the fried bacon and fried coke are great, it begins and ends with the Fletcher’s Corny Dog. It’s the only thing Okies and Longhorns can agree on all weekend. One of the great traditions friends and I have is to be the first ones out of the game at halftime. We down two large beers, two Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, smoke two cigarettes and get back to our seats before the second half begins.

Before any OU fans try and tell you that the game is in Texas and they’re the “visitors,” remind them the Cotton Bowl is 3 miles CLOSER to Norman than to Austin. Longhorns and those inbred, toothless bastards to the north seemingly get along while walking around the fair before the game.

One of the funniest things about the demographics about TX/OU weekend is the women. If you see a pretty girl anywhere on the fairgrounds she will, without a doubt, be wearing burnt orange. I don’t know what they put in the water at our little neighbor to the north, but I have never seen a more abundance of ugly women in equally ugly colors.

However, as soon as you walk through the antique (apparently now face-lifted Cotton Bowl) you don’t care about the girls, the corn dogs or the beer (ok, maybe the beer a little bit). The intensity is unreal. It’s so thick and so full of hate for the opposition; this is why we have to play the game at 11 am (neither school would allow for a night game because of fear of packing the Dallas Co. jail). Our band starts playing, theirs plays louder. They start the ghey “OU” chant; we have to say “Texas Fight” louder. They take a piss in the urinal; we take a piss on their shoes…and on and on.

Texas is well known, at least in conference, to have a very apathetic fan base. If you get to the Cotton Bowl an hour before the game, 90% of the OU section is filled compared with maybe 1/3 of the UT section. We are the LA Lakers of college football. However, for this game and only this game, when we eventually get there we are loud and involved. For only this game, girls don’t care about their purse matching their boots and guys don’t care about their white little polo horsies on their burnt orange shirt…they only care about the game. Then again, it is Dallas, so the girls do check their makeup between quarters.

Slowly but surely, those Longhorns are making it in.

The last 8 years of this rivalry have not been kind to the Longhorns. OU has won 6 of the last 8 including a 5 run stretch. However, one of the things nobody realized at the time was how overrated UT was in every one of those games, except the National Championship year. This year is different than the overrated years. We are for real. We will not only win the game, but we will win the game going away. Mack will be a winner of 3 of the last 4. It starts with Colt McCoy and ends with Will Muschamp.

On offense, Colt “I’ve never had a coke in my life” McCoy is completing nearly 80% of his passes and rushing for 370 yards (Who’s this Tebow guy)? We have scored no less than 38 points in each gam, called off the dogs in the fourth quarter of every game and put in our turnover prone backup. Our RB is still by committee, but Chris Obgann, Ogbanni, er #3, will start. Bruiser Cody Johnson, Vondrell Magee, and maybe (please Lord, please), Fozzie Whittaker will be taking some snaps. We will be fine offensively. The only worry is Greg Davis’ conservative play-calling. However, Mack admitted our play-calling was conservative under his direction and he’s turned Davis loose this year.

On defense, two words: Boom Motherfucker!!! We lead the nation in sacks, negative yards, one of the top 5 rushing defenses, but to quote Muschamp: “stats are for losers, I want to win games.” I don’t want him to think I’m a loser, so I will not mention any of that. Sorry coach, please don’t hurt me…

Good guys – 48, Land Thieves – 24 (after the game, Muschamp will yell about giving up 14 points in trash time while holding a bloody visor with hair that he ripped off Stoops head).

- Tony from Austin