Get the man a championship ring.

Making coffee this morning, I couldn’t help but compare the first five games to a series of dates with a girl who has so outperformed your initial expectations that you’re almost ready to reconsider your steadfast commitment to bachelorhood, except you’re reserving final judgment for after the coming month, during which you’re going to (1) meet her mother, (2) go on a week-long vacation together in a car, (3) face a trying financial crisis, and (4) spend time with her over-sharing ex-boyfriend of five years.

If she comes out the other side of all that looking like gold, you might just put a big rock on her finger, but… probably best to hold off any down payments until then, yes?

PB – perhaps the greatest comparison ever and something everyone here can relate to.

It’s 4:30 on Sunday afternoon (and OU still sucks) and already the nervousness and excitement is settling in – after watching last nights game for the first time I feel that we can actually pull this off. I know we had been crushing opponents left and right before taking down the buffs last night – but seeing this D come together is really starting to excite me. Combine that with the way Colt has been playing out of this world (how incredible was that TD throw at the absolute last point of the LOS) and the fact that after all this is a RIVALRY game and here I am much like rest of you wishing 11am on Oct. 11 was already here. I know it’s going to take a superhuman effort from everyone next week, but something about this team makes me think that they’re building towards something special. Like you said, the journey begins next weekend so buckle up Horns and let’s enjoy the ride! HOOK ’EM

Making coffee this morning, I couldn’t help but compare the first five games to a series of dates with a girl who has so outperformed your initial expectations that you’re almost ready to reconsider your steadfast commitment to bachelorhood, except you’re reserving final judgment for after the coming month, during which you’re going to (1) meet her mother, (2) go on a week-long vacation together in a car, (3) face a trying financial crisis, and (4) spend time with her over-sharing ex-boyfriend of five years.

If she comes out the other side of all that looking like gold, you might just put a big rock on her finger, but… probably best to hold off any down payments until then, yes?

Best of luck to your Horns next week. I think everyone in black and gold will be sporting a bit of burnt orange Saturday morning.

http://www.spike.com/video/playa-haters-ball/2797768

Now that I got that out of the way, I cant tell if Im more or less worried after the CU game. On one side, our offense looked the weakest it has all year. On the other hand, our D looked down right fantastic. I think its tough as a fan not to focus in on the micro, but taking a step back, this is a game people thought could have been a trap, and could have caused us problems. But in the end we were in complete command the entire game, and finished with a blowout on the road.

Any doubt that we were going to have a problem in this game was wiped out for me in the first few minutes of the first quarter. Even when we were only up by 2, and CU had the ball inside the ten, I knew the rout was on.

So despite the great fear I will most likely always have of playing OU, I guess I have to feel better. Our D played probably its best all around game last night. I dont think OU will light us up, which then puts it on on our offense to make the plays to put us in a position to win.

I agree with the 10 of 10, hell OU is the top team in the nation, and on top of that a rivalry game. But what would your score have been before CU? I think mine dropped down from an 11.

Our offense plays our defense on a day to day basis. That has to be worth something.

First of all, the CU fans were extremely nice before, during, and after the game. Again, it might have been reality keeping them in check, but a lot of people thanked us for coming up for the game. The scenery was incredible and is definitely worth the trip at least once in your lifetime. BTW – What’s the chance that CU ever has another T-Shirt giveaway in their student section again? Probably less than the number of Earl Campbell jersies in attendance at the game last night (I was one of them!)

Second, unless we can establish a running game fast, then we are in a big trouble. CU played most of their guys up in the box last night as they didn’t think we could hurt them via the run. While we had success eventually thru sheer number of chances, CU ain’t OU, MU, TT, or OSU. If we can’t make defenses concerned about a RB breaking a long run, they are going to pressure and blitz the hell out of McCoy.

Third, Mack needs to pick a RB and stick with him. This flavor of the week is like a bad fantasy football team. One week a guy does well and next week he is the starter. Then he doesn’t do well and gets benched. I say stick to the original plan which was CO and VG. Johnson needs to be our goal-line or short yardage guy, but he is not suited for handoffs out of the shotgun. The more carries for whoever it is, the better!

Finally, great job by our defense. Late touchdown against our back-ups aside, to hold a team to 14 points (even though their kicker was bad) is still solid. ESPN picked apart our defense due to pass yardage allowed thru 5 games, but I agree with what one commentator said about Will which is “he doesn’t care about yards only points allowed”. The Texas D may be our saving grace vs. OU. If our D can keep it low scoring going into the 4th, then maybe Colt can work some magic and steal victory away from OU!

Sure, OU looks better offensively. Sure, they look big and strong and fast all over the field. The media has talked them up and us down. Sure, we still have Mack Brown as our head coach. Yea, it doesnt look like we have any offensive threats other than Colt. And nevermind the fact that the past ten years the higher ranked team has won this game all ten times.

It’s Texas-Oklahoma in Dallas. It’s Will Muschamp and Major Applewhite. It’s Colt “don’t ever quit or give up on any play” McCoy. It’s the third best rushing defense in the nation and the sixth best scoring defense, along with the best sack defense in the nation. Anything can happen and WE CAN WIN THIS GAME!

First, it was a terrific Texas win against a decent Big XII opponent.. The defense has made amazing strides in improvement, kudos to the entire defensive coaching staff for player development and slowly developing the defensive schemes over the summer and few weeks into the football season. The defensive line looked wonderfully dominant against an albeit undermanned CU offensive line. They were constantly in Hawkins face. I was particularly pleased on the screen play recognition. The secondary…nice way to start the game with a stride for stride blanket coverage and last millisecond swat away of the ball. They along with the D-line had a handfull of breakdowns, but at least it’s just down to one hand now. And to think…Muschamp hasn’t even begun to show a disguised blitz package.

On offensive, Colt made one really bad decision on the INT. Cosby(?) was covered. If he wanted to have any chance to make that pass, he needed to pass it over the top and slightly long. Either Cosby would go get it or it’d fall to the ground. After that INT, Colt generally took the sack instead of another possible pick. I’d like to see him tuck the ball and take the 1 or 2 yards and recognize the collapsing line a bit sooner. Otherwise Colt played a pretty good game and am relatively pleased with the receiving corp. What I can’t tell from watching tv is how much consistent separation the receivers are “making”. Offensive line needs a some work on holding the pass protection longer and to keep at it to force the defender to a longer route to get to Colt. Run blocking has a LOT of work to do. They’re not opening much of a hole, and there’s not much of a push into the defense. I completely agree with PB’s assessment of Og and mix of receiving and rushing. I really like Cody Johnson’s power, vision, and patience to wait for the blocking to develop. His only handicap is that he can’t hit, much less get through, a quickly closing hole fast enough. McGee might be your 3 ypg back. Adequate….but nothing for defenses to worry about.

Possible considerations…Og is definitely a terrific outlet receiver for Colt. Ullman and/or Harris haven’t shown too much fair or not. Maybe rotate Og between FB and TE for different conditions, have CJ at FB/RB, and have McGee and Fozzy rotate at RB until Fozzy wins it outright. Fozzy has “take to the house potential”. McGee might provide be a good setup man. Fozzy could move to the slot end or wing back leaving CJ has the RB. With Og at the TE, this gets the most talent from the back field while providing some safe outlets for Colt. Of course if Fozzy can play against OU as he did against UTEP, I’m definitely all for him to get the majority of the handoffs.

One last thought…OU’s typically had relatively (compared to post TX-OU) conservative offensive game plans. In Texas’s losses, OU’s had terrific execution (Griffin, Heupal (sp?)) and have schemed to take advantage of personnel…ie pick on the short DB. You can bet they’ll be looking for where Palmer. On defense they’re solid and like to blitz mainly to satisfy their egos on leveling the QB, but they’re nothing like like the beast of yesteryear when they were lead by the fanatical DC Mike Stoops which I think has been their biggest problem in the recent BCS game debacles. Also in Texas recent losses Texas has been self destructive. This all bodes well for Texas against a currently better developed OU. This Texas team isn’t going to quit, even when they make mistakes or are behind on the scoreboard. I wish Okam and Lokey were still rotating with Roy Miller, but I’d take this Texas team over last year’s. Muschamp will have the defense has ready as possible. Here’s to hoping GD does the same on offense and comes up with a great game plan. Game on!

how much of texas’ success on defense was due to Colorado’s patchwork OL?

“So if my OG appreciation was just a wee bit over the top (Priest Holmes he is not)”

If I recall correctly Priest Holmes was not even close to the NFL version of Priest Holmes when he was at UT. He had flashes early on, but after a knee injury he ended up being a role player who had the awesome ability to leap from about the 3 yard line over the defense and land 2 yards deep in the end zone.

Of course he was a roll player backing up some guy named Williams who was just a bit better than V. McGee.