Thinking About the Longhorns

Wow. It's been almost 2 years since I've had to deal with Texas losing a football game, and I'd forgotten how hard it is. To "borrow" a gimmick from Peter King, the Monday Morning Quarterback, these are Ten Things I Think I Think. Some of them are from my good-sport side, some of them are from my sore-loser side. They're conflicted right now.

1. I think a loss early in the season is better than a loss later in the season, and I think a loss to a higher ranked team is better than a loss to a lower or unranked team. So, if you have to lose a game, I think losing in week 2 to the #1 team in the country is about as good a loss as you can take.

2. I think we still won the National Championship only 2 games ago. 2 games ago. And I think I'm still pretty damn excited about that.

3. I think Jamaal Charles is a stud. The kid can run through brick walls like the Kool-Aid Man.

4. I think that Terrel Brown should be suspended from the team for the rest of the season. He was one of the kids caught last Saturday night in a car that was pulled over with drugs and a gun in it. The drugs were in the car, and the gun (loaded) was on his lap. The drugs were not on his person, and he passed a drug test, so the drug charge was dropped, but here's my question: If you're not stoned, how are you too stupid to know that you shouldn't have a loaded gun on your lap IF IT'S NOT YOUR GUN??? Anyway, he was supposed to start for us at cornerback and match up with Ted Ginn, Jr. (94 yds. receiving, 1 TD). Listen, when you screw up, you screw it up for the rest of the team. We had HUGE coverage issues last night, and I'm not saying it would have been different if he was in the game, but it probably would have. He needs to learn his lesson from this.

5. I think that Greg Davis should be a little worried about his job. People (and not just me, a lot of people) were saying that we needed to get rid of him (and to a lesser extent, Mack Brown, who was stubbornly loyal to his offensive coordinator and wouldn't fire him) for years, and then the second half of the 2004 season happened, and the 2005 season happened, and everybody forgot about it and thought, "Maybe he's figured it out, maybe he's not that bad." I've got news for you: He is that bad. You know what the difference was in the 2004 and 2005 seasons? It sure wasn't the Offensive Coordinator's play calling. It was a guy by the name of Vince Young, a guy who is only vulnerable to kryptonite and written tests. Without Vince, Greg Davis must rely on mere mortals to run his plays, and HE NEEDS TO CALL THE RIGHT PLAYS FOR THEM TO RUN. We have two running backs (Jamaal Charles and Selvin Young) who are pretty unbelievable, and had 27 carries for 164 yards rushing between them (not to mention the 10 receptions for 84 yards they shared - as our top two receivers in the game last night) against an Ohio State defense that was having a legitimately hard time stopping our running game and gave up 171 rushing yards to ONE GUY in their last game. Yet on five separate third down opportunities, Greg Davis called passing plays that were incomplete. I don't really even know anything about football, but I could have done a better job, even with the amount of beer I had to drink yesterday. We lose another game this year, and I mean ONE more game, Davis needs to go. Brown can stay.

6. I think Colt McCoy has some work to do with his receivers. I know he's green, but your top two receivers shouldn't be your running backs, not when you've got Limas Sweed on your team. I think he's remarkably mature, though, when it comes to poise. Kid took a couple of pretty big hits last night and was able to remain calm, even while Greg Davis was busy knocking the wheels off of the whole operation.

7. I think Billy Pittman's teammates need to give him a Code Red while he sleeps one night this week, covering his head with a pillowcase and punching him in the arms, then pouring glue over his hands. He won't fumble on the two yard line again, I can guarantee you that. Just ask Lowden Downey.

8. I think we can still go 11-1, but we've got some tough games ahead. Luckily, we only have one really tough road game, at Nebraska on October 21, though Texas Tech will probably also be a challenge. I don't count Rice (in Houston) and Oklahoma (in Dallas) as road games, and we're home for the rest of the season, except for a late visit to Kansas State, who seem to have forgotten that they were a legitimate powerhouse about 4 years ago.

9. I think I'd love to know what that thing on Mack Brown's upper lip was during the game last night. Did anybody else catch that? It looked like his herpes was flaring up. Actually, if it was herpes, I'd rather not know about it.

10. I think that when we came home last night and watched Remember the Titans on tv, I teared up like I normally do when I watch most sports movies. However, I think that maybe some of those tears didn't have anything to do with the movie.

All in all, I'm handling this loss much better than I expected to, based on how I've handled them in the past. Maybe it's because I'm older and wiser. All I know is this: if we don't go 11-1, Greg Davis needs to update his resume.