From Statesman a few minutes ago:

According to the official injury report issued by Texas on Friday, all players are available for Saturday’s game against Missouri.

That means cornerback Ryan Palmer is healthy. Palmer, the fifth-year senior starter, pulled a hamstring late in the second quarter of the 45-35 win over Oklahoma and did not return for the second half.

His presence will be needed against Missouri’s passing attack.

The injury report also indicated that running back Fozzy Whittaker will be completely healthy for the first time since the second game of the season. Whittaker was listed as probable a week ago, but did not play against OU. He has not played since UTEP.

Since the subject of the 2005 Big 12 championship game has come up this week, let's take a look back. The template then was two-fold: Last hurdle cleared, on to the Rose Bowl and USC; the debacle of the Big 12 title game in 2001 was put to rest.

As a result, some of what happened in Houston that day was quickly swept aside. To refresh your memory (and mine):

**In winning 70-3, Texas scored 4 TDs each in the second and third quarters. The game went from 14-3 a minute into the second quarter to 70-3 less than halfway through the third quarter. Anybody team ever do that in a title game?

**Horns scored 4 TDs in 12 minutes of the second quarter and beat that with 4 TDs in 8 minutes of the third. That's 56 points in 20 minutes!!!!!! Surely, nobody ever beat that!

**Texas had TD drives of 65 yards in less than two minutes, 71 yards in less than three minutes, 68 yards in less than four minutes. They had TD drives of 16 and 26 yards after recovering fumbles and 46 yards after a 54-yard KO return, plus scoring on a blocked punt.

**They had 11 explosive plays in a little over two quarters. With the game far out of reach, they ran out the clock with 20-plus runs (mostly straight handoffs) and two passes over the game's final 22 minutes, thus keeping the score at 70 when mid-80s was easily attainable.

And we think this year's team was explosive.

Since he's becoming somebody whose name is generating some buzz, here's info on TE Ian Harris. Much of this comes from UT archives dating to signing day 2007.

Harris redshirted in '07. He was an early Missouri commit who switched to UT not long after TE Zach Pianalto jumped from UT to N. Carolina. Harris weighed 225-230 when he signed, now listed at 250. Mizzou source says they were sick to lose him; felt he would have been one of their top signings in 2007.

Harris was a  two-sport letterman who was an all-district basketball player … was named a captain by the coaching staff at the 2007 U.S. Army All-American Bowl … a three-year letterman at tight end who tallied 67 receptions for 793 yards and 16 TDs during his career at SA Churchill … averaged one TD catch in every 4.2 receptions during his career … brother Gilbert played FB at Arizona from 2003-05. . . . HS coach was Carl Gustafson; believe Carl is Cliff's nephew.

But since I had no TV access to the game, and since the Internet went out at halftime, I (to quote Sgt. Schultze) saw nothing, and what I heard was on a several-plays-later basis. Given those limitations:

On the plus side

Colt McCoy was sensational;

The defensive front totally stuffed Rice's OL and got great pressure. The LBers (hope I'm not too over the top) were outstanding;

Other than one kinda goofy fumble and one foolish one, the offense was totally overwhelming.

Among the minuses :

The young DBs did a lot of running but not enough up-close-and-personal covering;

The running game isn't going to scare any of the top Big 12 teams, and they're going to be eager to let McCoy run and take their shots;

The young wide receivers have not reached the point where they can be depended on;

We really don't know what this team is because FAU, UTEP and Rice (how'd we schedule somebody that doesn't go by initials?) don't provide enough skill to be good measuring sticks. FAU was offensively limited and so-so-defensively; UTEP did a lot of goofy stuff top teams won't do and was overmatched defensively; Rice is far, far below Texas in line play and pure muscle and bulk.

According to this morning's Chronicle, Saturday's game with Rice is to be shown on Comcast Cable Ch. 76. That's normally an extra channel. FSN Houston has the Astros at 6 and is scheduled to show Texas-Rice about 7:30. Info from the sports TV column.

According to this morning's Chronicle, Saturday's game with Rice is to be shown on Comcast Cable Ch. 76. That's normally an extra channel. FSN Houston has the Astros at 6 and is scheduled to show Texas-Rice about 7:30. Info from the sports TV column.

What follows is a good example of what much of the sporting public gets as "news." It's why sites like this are invaluable to the true fan.

This appears today in one of the state's major dailies:

"The Longhorns remain unsettled at tailback and will likely use sophomore Vondrell McGee and senior Chris Ogbannaya in the opener. . . . Redshirt freshman Fozzy Whittaker is unlikely to play while nursing a minor knee injury."

And: "Brown said the Longhorns are unlikely to play in any three-wide receiver sets with the lack of a proven third wideout behind Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley."

Now, I know this reporter. He's a good guy, works hard, has covered the Longhorns for 5-6 years. He had access to the same (brief) MB news conference yesterday morning that all of us had. He wrote the above under his "depth chart notes." Note: the quoted items above are the writer's words, not the coach's.

Like way too much of the printed info the public gets, these statements are inaccurate.

Mack did say Whittaker had fallen behind because of a minor injury; Mack did not say Whittaker was unlikely to play. MB also did not say anything about not using three-receiver sets; he said the team might open with two tight ends and was not prepared to list a third starting receiver.

Such misinformation makes outlets like this one (THANK YOU, PB) all the more important.

Thought I’d share something that’s been rattling around upstairs for several weeks.

Nearly every post, and much of what has come out of Longhorns practices and interviews, points to a brand new game defensively. We’re hearing — and salivating over — blitz packages, a five-man secondary and a faster, more athletic unit. But since there is little visual evidence . . . and nothing has been done against a real opponent, much of what’s being generated is simply fantasy. Sounds good, but where’s the beef?

As to reality . . .

Last year’s defense was one of the worst of the Mack Brown era. Pass defense, which we felt could not get worse after 2006, got worse. That defense included seven senior starters. I’ll say that again: seven senior starters.

By season’s end, the Longhorns ranked 10th nationally in two major polls, two years after winning a national championship. You’d have thought the NFL would be salivating over seven seniors from the defense of a Top 10 team. You know the grim details: One of the seven was drafted (DT Frank Okam, fifth round). Three of the other six did not manage even free-agent deals. Seven senior starters, one low-round pick, four signings total.

This is not intended to pile on what, by all accounts, was a super group of young men. All contributed to the No. 1 team in 2005. They were good enough to start on a Top 10 team as seniors. I believe all have graduated; that’s the No. 1 reason to go to college. They gave all they had on the field and off.

When the 2008 season kicks off, seven new starters will be in place. This is regarded as a good thing.

But none of these new starters just joined the program. None missed the ’07 season with injuries. That means seven players who weren’t good enough to start in 2007, and were in position to at least make contributions, will be starting.

Think about that.

This hit the UT site a bit ago:

 http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/081508aab.html

Some items of interest from Mack Brown after Friday morning's workout:

"It's a new defense, it's multiple, and you've got some inexperienced players playing, so we're constantly looking at how much they can handle, and then you go back and see who you feature."

This sounds hopeful, and exciting, and seems certain to put some top talents into positions where they can make an impact. I've had the feeling for several seasons that the defense was a tightly-structured 4-3 (except against Tech and sure passing situations) and some players were being forced to try to do things their skills would not permit.

"Curtis and Chykie (Brown) have come a long way and they're doing really well, and Aaron Williams is doing a good job. So that's really helping our competition with Deon (Beasley) and Ryan (Palmer). Right now, those five guys, all of them have a chance to play."

This is a cold drink on a hot day. CB was a serious problems last year, both depth and skill. With more experience at corner, you'd hope the five-man secondary package would feature three corners to less expose the young safeties.

As to the running back situation, I'll let you look at the story. Does not make me feel overly confident.