. . .and they like us!  They really like us!

I had us losing two of our last four games, but we are blessed, and I will be wrong. Big time, because we will own A&M by at least three TDs.  I will be wrong, but it took divine intervention to do it because with the combined Nebraska and Okla. State games, I came within about 2:32 of being right on!  Now TT upends OU, Okla. State is a legitimate threat to do likewise (suddenly UT is on deck for all the Big XII South marbles), at least two current one-loss top-ten teams will lose a second game (which could put UT in one of the top four bowls), everyone's excited. . .(whew)!

We should have nothing but atmospheric pride for the way the Good Guys have fought back or hung on to win lately.  Look at what some of those teams have done post-UT: Nebraska piles up 73 points and TT knocks off #3.  O-State is due for a taste of nervana and the recipient of their deux ex machina may be OU. Which puts you-know-who, you-know-where.  And here I am thinking that might not be the best sequence of events for the Orangebloods.

Let's be reasonable.  Our last four opponents are unranked, break-even teams. We've squeaked by several--and were ravaged by another--that others have feasted upon.  We cannot point a haughty finger at a solid performance over a solid program and proclaim, "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and dispair!"

Yet!

But things they are a-changing!  

--The offensive line is holding and the backfield is exciting.  

--Colt is grabbing the leadership reins with both hands and demanding respect.  

--Jamaal is getting better (but of course he's coming back: he's still got much to learn and more to prove!), and I relish his attitude: "I want to be the go-to man on this team!"

--The defense is better up front and getting great between the line and the defensive backs.

The Tech game was our benchmark.  It was the best-coached and best-played game of the year for us, and the most important.  It wasn't apparent at first glance, but UT truly controlled the game.

With our questionable defensive backfield, Tech could have done to us what it did to OU.  Unlike Nebraska (did someone forget to remind our guys that to take down the ballcarrier, one had to bring one's arms together?), the tackling was solid and sure.  A pair, or three, of deep breakdowns gave Tech some cheap scores that made it closer than it should have been, but we absorbed them and kept on ticking. The defense is due some big kudos.

The OL held, enough; Colt was eye-candy for what can be; and JaMaal increased his worth as a juggernaut.  (Has anyone considered giving him token duty until the fourth quarter and then just cutting him loose on alternating plays?)

Perhaps the most important element was the advent of youth in the Tech game, something more than a few of you--of us-- have been pleading for!  I believe at one point, two-thirds of the players on the field were true or red-shirt freshmen.  And therein lies my conservative year-end hope that few 'Horns will embrace: That we end the year with a top, second-tier bowl game.  And that we get it without losing to Kansas first.

Kansas is not a fluke; I think they are the best team in the country. They've been building for this the past four years, when their top-flight defenses covered for their nonexistent offenses.  Now they've got it all: speed, power, discipline, poise, heart, confidence, (and, I must add, Reesing, Talib, Fields, Herford, and several other ex-Texans)--and virtually everyone will be back next year and all are frothing at the mouth at the chance to play UT at home!

Today we cannot play with them or three-fourths of the top ten, and we are not the best team in the conference (we might be able to take Missouri).  I'm guessing not many will agree with me, but our young team would best be served by finishing the year with a respectable string of victories, letting KU whip OU in KC and face LSU for #1, doing a number on a second-ten program in a glitzy bowl, and finishing with a top-ten ranking and not a pair of losses.  (Consider: what would we have settled for, five games into the season?)  If this be treason, well, let's make the most of it and come out ready to kick ass next year.

. . .but that's just one man's opinion.