It's Not Over Yet

OK, OK, first and foremost, my sincerest apologies to the great people of Lubbock and Texas Tech University. The Red Raiders played one hell of a game, the Longhorns made way too many mistakes, especially in the secondary, and made us pay accordingly. I will pay my penance and gladly spend some money at the Artist Formerly Known As Hub City Brewery the next time I'm in town. Seriously.

And yes, by the way, your nose-picking insurance salesman of a coach with that wacky sense of humor can gameplan a little bit too. Props to him. Even larger props to him if Tech can beat Oklahoma State and Oklahoma as well. That'd pretty much put you in the national championship game as well because there's no way in hell that Tech would lose to Baylor and the Big XII North Champ. At least I don't think so.

But that's the interesting thing here. Tech still has to finish, and just like the Horns, they've got one hell of a task to stay there. If recent years are any indication, getting to the top is much easier than staying there. I believe at one point last year we saw South Florida, California, Mizzou, West Virginia and, of course, the Ohio State WegetourasseskickedroutinelybytheSEC all occupy the #2 spot in the BCS rankings. Texas Tech is #2 right now. Whether they can stay there or not remains debatable.

Now what we have are the Longhorns occupying the #4 spot, and facing a rather winnable stretch of games: Baylor, at Kansas, A&M. In a weird, twisted kind of way, I'm actually kinda looking forward to the stretch run. You see, the pressure's off now. Colt McCoy has been pretty spotty following the Missouri game, and I wonder if maybe all the attention he's been receiving lately has affected him more than he's let on. It's an incredible dynamic having to go from Tuscola to Austin. It's an even greater dynamic having to go from Vince's shadow to your own. I don't even think that the attention has necessarily gone to his head. From what I gather, and this is merely speculative, but it seems like all the attention might be a little embarrassing for a Born Again small town kid like Colt.

Well, the rest of the college football world has moved on, and is looking at Texas Tech. The national spotlight will cast an occasional glare on Texas, but not certainly the way it has over the course of the last month. Baylor and a little home cooking will be good for Colt McCoy and the Longhorns to regain some confidence, and not have to worry about the constant specter of #1 constantly glowering over every move they make.

Let's let some other teams carry the #1 burden for a little while. I think after November, the Longhorns will be strong enough to carry that burden again. And after November that #1 ranking will no longer be a burden anyway, but rather, a ticket to Miami.