Muck cleaning up. Pop quiz: When was the last year a linebacker led the Texas defense in tackles? If you're scanning your memory banks for Derrick Johnson's last year, you're right--2004. But as Cedric Golden points out in the Statesman this morning, Roddrick Muckelroy leads the team with 40 tackles this season, two years after having to avoid football for 16 weeks due to a ruptured tendon in his ring finger.
Long a BON favorite, Muckelroy laid the foundation for his breakout year in 2007, despite sharing time with a penalty-inclined Sous Chef and veteran Carnie. He's thriving in 2008 under Will Muschamp, cleaning up making tackles behind a vastly improved defensive line that, when not in the backfield itself, is occupying blockers which might otherwise be taking on linebackers. Also improved is his pass coverage--a weakness in 2007--which allows Muschamp to keep Muck on the field no matter the situation.
Muschamp for UT head coach! Fans are already rallying behind the idea of Will Muschamp as the next head coach at UT. As in, replacing Phil Fulmer at the University of Tennessee. Boooooooo!
I've got a better idea: Let's beat OU on Saturday, ride the momentum to a national title in 2008, repeat in '09, and send Mack Brown off with a parade, three rings, and a permanent corner office in the AD Office where he can remain a face of the program, while Will Muschamp takes over as head coach, promoting Major Applewhite to be his co-head coach and Offensive Coordinator. Garrett Gilbert will become the first four-time national title winner, Deloss Dodds will hire me to be the team's traveling blogger, chain restaurants will be banned from advertising, someone will invent a mute button for real life, and teachers nationwide will be paid like astronauts.
Okay. I really should stop sucking on nitrus balloons when I write these. Still... don't leave, Will. Ever.
Texas-OU. The game. Adam Jones, author of Rose Bowl Dreams (weekly prize for our pick em contest), has an outstanding complementary piece to 54b's Texas-OU post below. Pretty much everything Adam writes is worth reading, and this is no exception.
Was Jarboe not available?. Ah, what would a big time college event be without a rap battle between warring fan bases? We may never know.