As those of you who are wise enough to read Dawg Sports regularly know, Kyle has been tirelessly making the case for the Georgia Bulldog football team to aggressively schedule some elite non-conference football games.
His latest entry is among the best, and Texas fans would do well to read it. Kyle correctly notes that the two best teams last year, Texas and SC, played in the two best non-conference games of the entire college football season, at Ohio State and at Notre Dame, respectively.
Not coincidentally, Kyle points out, both the winners (Rose Bowl) and losers (Fiesta Bowl) of those games reaped enormous benefits.
This is crucially important as Texas fans begin to ponder the chances of repeating as national champions. The loss of Vince Young is tremendous, but equally important is the -perception- among outside observers that accompanies the loss. The lead of every single story in every single preview about Texas will (rightfully) question how this team can possibly survive a dropoff from Vince Young to, well, anyone else.
We know better, of course, as Texas' depth is underappreciated. We know that Jamaal Charles is a star, that the defense is loaded, and we have a new confidence that can only come to those who have completed a season like we just did. And yet, with that said, we will have to earn our way back to the national championship game. The Longhorns will not completely be given the benefit of the doubt, and it is precisely because of this that the game with Ohio State matters so much.
Imagine, for a moment - and this is not difficult to do - that Rhett Bomar doesn't develop and Peterson gets hurt (OU is down again), the Big XII North is a wasteland again, and Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State continue to flail about in mediocrity. Without Ohio State on the schedule, Texas would be floating in dangerous territory, given the BCS computing oddities.
The lesson, today and for the forseeable future: no bitching about scheduling tough games in this forum, please. Even if we lose.
--PB--