Ahh, how sweet the victory when it means you get bragging rights over those that support and are alums of the hated rival (uncle is an OU graduate which really isnt saying a whole lot). So my sister text messaged me to say they were here, and I walked out and flashed my Hook'Em and my uncle knew what was about to hit him. His head hung in shame. Any Texas victory is sweet as is any OU loss, combine the two and the only thing that can make the combo any sweeter is being able to rub it in to a sooner. If that sooner happens to be a relative, it serves to thicken the icing on the cake.

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I wasn't quite sure what to expect heading over there today, as its Texas/OU week. I woke up to go to my vesting appointment, for those of you who dont know, its basically a series of examinations done to test the body and document any illnesses or problems that prior-service members have. I woke up around seven, hit the snooze three times then finally crawled out of bed and took a shower then quickly put on the clothes I had chosen the night before. Most importantly being the longsleeved Texas Longhorns Shirt and my UT hat. As I drove east on I-20 I began to feel a little queezy probably in anticipation of the colission with the other vet's who support the oppostion in this weekends affair. Sure enough though there were a mojority of burnt orange and crimson clad individuals who combined in the building to make up probably 60-70% of the entire patient population in the facility. As I made my way through the parking lot, a trek of about 500 yards (as i had to park in the furthest away possible area) one of the older veterans I passed  shouted "What about them Sooners?" In light of all of our shared struggles and problems as vet's I just flashed the Hook'Em sign and shouted "Hook'Em Horns!" I felt that was appropraite as persuing any kind of fight, such as those that are custom in the west-end this weekend, wasnt very appropriate. However in my mind the only thing I could think was, "what ABOUT them sooners?" I would say they are merely an afterthought to the Horns, however I cant say that as there are daily fights with family about the battles between the two institutions. So I conducted myself as best I could to represent a part of the fanbase that I currently reside. That being the part of the fanbase that is enamored by the school/team, but hasnt/has not yet attended the university. all day it was the same ole' song and dance with fans from each side wondering why a 24 year old was in the VA hospital. I felt as though I was among the Halls of Valhalla (I have no Nordic ancestry to my knowlege) as these are the warriors of our time. all having some sort of story to share about what they have done, where they have been, things they have seen. this week though the stories all seemed to reverberate around the Rivalry that resides more or less in Dallas. All day every veteran seemed to be focused on their analysis of the game and why the team they supported would win. I, among them, did the exact same. As I worked my way around the particular places in the hospital that the Dr had predetermined for me to go, everyone's eyes seemed to size up one another of the other color clothing as if to say, we are gonna be out on that field tomorrow with our boys and fightin' right along side of them. Maybe this isnt the case in a literal sense, however it sure is on an emotional level. I feel proud to be among the other vet's, problems and all, even though some of them root for oklahoma, its still good to know that everything is relative and we are all connected on some level.

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"...starting QB Colt McCoy has emerged into perhaps the nation's most underrated dual-threat quarterback.

I knew from the first year that he had it in him to do what he is doing through the air, and last year he kind of pointed in the direction that he could do it on the ground too. However, this is definately something that could very well make a defensive coordinator think back to what the last dual-threat QB for Texas did to them and then create a game plan around that allowing other things to open up, such as the "apparently non-existant ground game for Texas."

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I have been thinking about something for a while pertaining to the issues one generally sees as suggested in the title of this FanPost.

we all know that in the SEC its all about the defense; which certainly does NOT by any means suggest that offenses cant thrive in the SEC, but more that the emphasis of the general majority of the teams is defensive success. the reverse seems to be the truer statement of the Big XII with just about every team finding success somewhere with their spread offensive attacks. My question about this is that is there so much emphasis put on the specific parts of the teams, as mentioned above like Mizzou's offense or Auburn's defense, that even though their counterparts on the same team may be average/par/good/great/bad/poor/what-have you that it seems they are unable to thrive/drown as the other conferences suggest/ obviously we all see a showcase in the SEC of defense, and once in a while they will have a spectacular offense, like Florida last year when Tebow won the Heisman, or in 2004 when Auburn when undefeated yet missed the MNC game. And of course no one on this board has forgotten the 2005 Longhorns season, offense seemingly unstoppable and a defense that didnt break down very much, if at all. so the parity in this seems to be sitting somewhere with Will Muschamp. He is a great coach, im sure, yet im also sure that while he was in the SEC he never really saw offenses like the ones Texas has played this year and will play throughout Big XII play. If there were a team in the SEC that grabbed a successful offensive mind and implemented their offense there would there be success or failure? not based solely on the notion that the oposing defense would totally destroy them or get rolled by the offense. specialized teams can only be as good as they are coached to be, with the exception of a few "touched by God" players, for UT i would say the most recent players would be Micheal Huff and VY. Im just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this (and i have about 45 minutes until my next class)

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let me preface this by saying I believe Coach Brown is probably one of the greatest coaches of all time and we are witnessing history unfolding as he leads the Longhorns throughout his tenure at UT. i had to do a double and triple take of the spot on the clip on "mondays with Mack" at the 4:53ish mark, regarding the hit on Baline Irby about david baliff "is not a good person, he's one of the best people i know..."

WTH? maybe it was just a Freudian slip...at any rate, still kind of caught me off guard.

Sept 21 edition of said video cast

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its may. its about to get hot. and its boring as hell without the ball being snapped and games being played, so hows about we all give predictions for next years Longhorns schedule then see where it takes us?

Fl Atlantic: UT wins big 56-3 (1-0, 0-0) c'mon, a bunch of drunk monkies could beat them.

UTEP: UT wins 45-16 (2-0, 0-0) they usually end up with about a .500 record, not much needed to beat them from a team that has been ranked in the top 25 pretty much since the current polling system began...

Arkansas: UT wins 38-17 (3-0,0-0) this Arkansas team will be decent i think, but without their powerback on the field for them anymore, they will haveto find another source of production to put up a scoring fight. i know their used to be a huge rivalry with arkansas, but today that is pretty much all but gone. atleast for texas.

Rice: UT wins big 52-7 (4-0,0-0) another day another dollar for UT. rice will probably stumble into a bowl game this season, if they are lucky.

Colorado: UT wins 41-10(5-0,1-0) the running back that chose them instead of UT might be a little sorry for that choice after this game. he may turn into a future leader for the buffs, but wont ever be able to turn their fortune around like our VY did for us. but that apples to oranges. UT will probably use this game to rest and or fine tune anything it needs to in a game situation before the red river rivalry.

Oklahoma: toss up. (5-0-1,1-0-1)I hate to say this, but the more i think about the offense OU is returning and how they generally fair during the season before choking in whatever bowl they go to, its tough to see them being stopped. not saying it cant be done, but it will definately be tough. so with that im putting it down as a tie for now (even though a tie cant really happen).

Mizzou: close win for UT 35-31 (6-0-1,2-0-1) UT will start the second half of its season with this game, as it always does under Mack Brown. WIth that, UT will look at key things that have hindered them in the first half of the season and address them and figure out a way to fix them. All of those issues will or should be addressed in this game, if not at the very least, brought u.

Okie St: easy win for UT 42-6 (7-0-1, 3-0-1) Texas will continue the dominance over this team that they had last year. no comebacks needed this year.

TX Tech: Toss up. (7-0-2,3-0-2) tech returns the nations most prolific pass-catch tandem and might be a problem for a pass defense that, over the last two years has gone awry at times. of the chain-of-cycles, UT broke its chain of 4:1 with tech last year and has won the last 5 meetings. i think tech might be looking to change that. this game will be high scoring. tech could play spoiler for whatever other team from the south that tries to make a run at the Big XII championship

Baylor: Win. 62-0 (8-0-2,4-0-2) this game will easily be Texas largest margin of victory game. UT might aswell play the drunk monkies from FL Atl in this game. it will be a long night in Austin for the bears.

Kansas: Win 48-14 (9-0-2,5-0-2) one season removed from the best season a jayhawks jersey has ever seen coupled with an offense that cant produce against itself spells disaster and possible cardiac arrest on the kansas sidelines. the only thing i can see getting in the way of a UT victory is if they look ahead to A&M in two weeks.

Texas A&M: Win; close (but only on the score board) 27-24 (10-0-2,6-0-2) Texas gets revenge for the last two upsets. two of the A&M scores will come on turnovers or special teams. I dont see the new coach winning his first rodeo in the Lonestar showdown game.

Bonus: If the Longhorns win 10 games they go to the Holiday bowl; AGAIN. if they win 11 games they get a BCS game. As much as i hate to, im rulling out an undefeated season and a run at the NC game.

thoughts?

It wasnt until about four years ago that I really became a solid Longhorns fan. To get where I am at today might have been seen as a bit of a turmoiled past and even somewhat of a rebellious way of going against a family deep in the territory of the terrible enemy to the north. I never gave much of a thought to one team or school or another growing up in north Texas as most did either being an Aggie or a Longhorn by birthright and whatever you were in elementary school would have either fit you into the in crowd or made you the outcast if you were part of the wrong family. I just went with whatever those around me claimed to be. My senior year of high school I really tried to choose a school I thought I would like and fit in at and found UT to be somewhere I liked alot, but not really a place where I felt any sort of kinmanship towards. Thus, I never went to school there. Being raised in the Fort Worth area, most around me at that point had ties to about anywhere in the land that you could think of. One player on my senior football team was even being recruited by OU. (not that it had anything to do with how I personally felt about any university one way or the other) Once in the Army, I really began to delve away form what those around me were doing and began to make my own opinions on what l liked and what I didnt like. I ended up being stationed in Hawaii and there was a mail clerk in my barracks who happened to be an OU fan, this was in 2003, during the not-so-recent-drought where UT lost to OU in five straight seasons before the Great VY ended the run in the 2005 season. His constant banter about OU kept fueling my fire brighter and brighter towards Longhorns affirmation. It didnt hurt that along the way the Longhorns have been a very loveable team in terms of personality, coaching, seeing players give back to the comunity and doing their very best to give 'Horns fans a reason to trust their abilities. Once the ball was rolling it just kept gaining speed and momentum. Jumping a few more years ahead to Iraq, I then realized that just being a fan wasnt enough. Loving a University or a team is one thing, however its also something to actually be knowlegable that one can attend and offer to try and help in anyway possible. Thats precisely what I decided to do. I may not ever be the biggest, fastest, strongest, or most athletic person to ever have a dream, but dreaming takes courage, and acting on that dream takes heart.  So I may not have been born a Longhorns fan, or even in Texas. You cant choose where you are born; but you can choose where you go, what you do, where you are from. I am from Texas. Texas is my home. So in a nutshell I have a pretty unique time finding out who I am. Since I am new here, and just found this site not but about an hour ago, I thought Id share my commonality with those of you on the board and how it came to be. There is definately one thing Texas fans know; patience. I hope to get to know this site well and those of you who care enough to read this and or respond, maybe share a little bit about how you became a Longhorns fan too.