Epilogue Revisited, Texas Longhorns 2010

I originally blogged before the Florida Atlantic game that Mack Brown would end up with a 6 loss season for 2010, giving both the FAU game and the A&M game to Texas.  Then I watched the Nebraska game, and a nagging sense of reality kicked in.

I guess my orange blood was clouding my vision on the previous blog.  I started playing around with some numbers, and came up with the idea, which seems like wishful thinking at this point, that the particular match ups between offensive and defensive teams between the Longhorns and the Aggies, gave Texas the possibility of an advantage, and therefore, the possibility of a win.  So, I took a gamble and predicted the game would go to Texas, with the stipulation that our offense could play out the game without any of our usual mistakes, mishaps, bad play calls, blunders, fumbles, etc.

Then I watched Greg Davis call the exact same play 5 times in a row early in the Florida Atlantic game.  That's when it struck me. I realized that there's very little chance that our offense can play without the usual mishaps, mistakes, blunders, penalties, missed catches, dropped balls.  That's just not going to happen.

During the FAU game, there were some nice throws, some good runs, but beating this team 51 - 17 is not exactly a confidence builder for a team that has had 162 consecutive weeks on the AP top 25.  I mean, FAU was beat by North Texas, which was the 2nd worst team in the country last year.  The only purpose this win served is to minimize the number of losses Mack Brown will be credited with this season, and it was a good work out.  We need to stay conditioned for Thursday's game.  The win against FAU doesn't say anything at all about who the Longhorns are as a team, they haven't made a break through with their playing.  We beat a pretty low rated team, which we should have done.

The 63 yard touchdown pass to Kirkendoll in the 2nd quarter was awesome. It reminded me of McCoy and Shipley.  It was great to see Gilbert connect with such an accurate pass, and not be dropped.

The team that's coming to Austin on Thanksgiving Day is bringing a collection of evil football eating monsters in their defense, and there is very little chance that our mistake prone offense will be able to put even one point on the board against that defense.  So, it will be sorta difficult to win the game with no points on the board.  They are also bringing a pretty good running game, which our defense is capable of stopping.  Whether we will stop their runners or not is a guess.  We have played some top 10 defense this season, and we have also botched at least two games with defense, UCLA and Kansas State.  We'll need to play defense like we did with Baylor, except without the 3 missed touchdowns Baylor snuck past our defense.  I was not impressed with Tannehill's passing game against Nebraska.

The Nebraska - A&M game was mostly a stalemate, between two very tough defensive teams, where no touchdowns were made, and it was really a matter of who finished with the most field goals when the clock ran out.  It didn't help the Cornhuskers that Martinez was out most of the game with an ankle injury, and when he was playing he was not at 100%.  Should I mention that Bo Pelini does not like losing.  He walked across the field, shook Mike Sherman's hand from about 10 feet away, didn't say a word, and headed straight for the locker room.

Anyway, so now, the Nebraska - A&M game has me in a dilemma.  There's maybe a 5% or 10% chance that Texas can take that game, maybe 1% or less, negative percentage, heck, I don't know if it's even in the realm of possibility.  And there's about a 95% chance that A&M will beat up on us pretty bad.  I hope it's not more than 20 points.

The Longhorn in me wants to believe that maybe the miracle will happen, and A&M will play bad like Nebraska did when they played the Longhorns, or that we'll get lucky and make some big plays, maybe like the Hail Mary throw Gilbert did with a few seconds left in the 1st half of the FAU game.  Was that kewl or what?

But, the logical in me already knows the game is lost.

So, my dilemma is which way to go.  Do I concede the loss which my logical self knows will happen, or do I throw logic to the wind and say that out of the slight possibility we have to win, that we will indeed win?

If you're a real Longhorn, you have to go with the right thing to do, and that is to say the Longhorns are going to take the day.  No one may really believe that, but that's how I'm calling it.  Hook Em' Horns.

One thing that might help is to install special security at the stadium gates for detecting any attempt for a 12th man or 12th woman to enter the sacred DKR Memorial Stadium, and if detected, have them immediately arrested as terrorists.  Let em' try playing without that 12th man and see how they do.

However it turns out, either a 6 or 7 loss season for Mack Brown, I still strongly believe that he should step down, and give Muschamp a chance with the 2011 recruits, but he won't do that, although it was not beneath both the highly respected Darrell K Royal and Fred Akers for them to step down after their worst seasons, Mack Brown somehow believes he is better, and will not do what would be best for the team and entire Longhorn community.  Shame on you, Mack Brown.