I’d love it if my favorite team could muster one 10-win season. Meanwhile, Texas now has eight.
In a row.
It’s official: life’s not fair.
1. DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH: TEXAS 35, KANSAS 7
A few years back, I admit to wondering how Texas would replace do-everything, national championship-winning, Heisman Trophy-deserving quarterback Vince Young. Young set a school record with 30 wins for the Longhorns, and after his departure to the NFL, everyone assumed Texas would take a step backwards.
On Saturday, Young’s successor also won his 30th game...and he’s only a junior. Ever heard the saying, “They don’t rebuild, they just reload”? Colt McCoy has the Horns in position for a possible run at a national championship, and he just might lay his hands on the Heisman that Young never quite came up with.
The Longhorns visited Lawrence, Kansas to take on a team that was already bowl eligible. On the road...hostile environment...talented opponent...I thought the scene was ripe for a battle...a thriller...a nail-biter...a...what?
As you probably already figured out by now, Texas knocked off Kansas 35-7 in this week’s Diamond game (we were due for a blowout, right?) behind stellar play from Colt McCoy. McCoy only completed 70.6 percent of his passes on the game, which drops him to a paltry 77.2 percent on the season. I dare you to play a Big 12 schedule on your Xbox and complete 77 percent of your passes.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
McCoy has all the receivers he needs in Quan Cosby and boyhood friend/current roommate Jordan Shipley. The pair of wideouts has combined for 147 catches and almost 1,800 yards receiving in 11 games. Of course, in actuality, McCoy has more receivers than he needs. Six Longhorns caught at least two passes in the 28-point victory.
Kansas has a healthy aerial assault of its own, but not nearly as much balance. Of the 25 completions KU’s Reesing mustered this weekend, 17 went to Doug Briscoe or Johnathan Wilson. To be fair, star pass-catcher (and backup quarterback) Kerry Meier was battling a tweaked hamstring and didn’t play up to his Biletnikoff-finalist potential.
(Wait, is it still the Biletnikoff now? I was thinking we had already renamed it the Crabtr...oh, never mind.)
Anyway, despite the lopsided final margin, Kansas actually had chances to make this a game, but the breaks never quite went the Jayhawks’ way. For instance, KU was only down 14-0 in the third quarter and forced a key fumble, but couldn’t fall on the loose ball. Texas went on to score a touchdown and stretch the lead to 21.
With the win, the Horns can now turn its attention towards rooting for an Oklahoma win over Texas Tech to create a possible three-way 6-1 logjam in the division. If you haven’t checked out the standings in the Big 12 South, you need to—it’s flat-out ridiculous: 10-0 TTU, 10-1 Texas, 9-1 Oklahoma, 9-2 Oklahoma State.
Like I’ve said all along, if a team goes undefeated in that conference, they deserve to play for the national title.
Meanwhile, the Horns keep their fingers crossed, keep winning, and keep hoping things will go their way.
They did their part in Kansas.
Here’s my random thoughts on this week’s “Diamond in the Rough”:
- I love a football game with some good hitting, and this game had more than its share. Especially noteworthy were a few ooh-and-ah collisions between Kansas running back Jordan Quigley and Texas safety Blake Gideon. One of their meetings resulted in a forced fumble, at least one was a helmet-to-helmet smack, and one really hard knock left Gideon woozy. Let’s just put it this way: You didn’t need microphones to hear these hits.
- Jordan Shipley converted a fake field goal by leaping over the pile...way over. The man literally flew about five yards in the air. I kid you not: Watch the tape! And I thought all Shipley could do was catch footballs!
- Murphy’s Law strikes again. You may have heard about Texas reserve center Buck Burnette getting kicked off the team last week for making racially insensitive comments about President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook page.
However, you might not have heard that the Horns’ starting center suffered a knee injury in practice on Wednesday and wasn’t able to play against Kansas. Because of Burnette’s dismissal, true freshman third-stringer David Snow was pressed into duty, and his bad snap caused a first-quarter Texas fumble.
- Texas does a really nice job executing the screen passes. The patience and touch that a good screen requires from the quarterback don’t get enough attention, and McCoy executed several flawlessly for big plays.
- I know it should probably go in the Lou Holtz Specials, but sideline reporter Jim Knox tried to chest-bump the camera during the UT/KU telecast. This is not advisable.
- Did you know leasing heated sideline benches is an actual business? I didn’t...but Texas got some toasty-warm seats trucked in. I guess they’re headed to South Bend next week (the seats, not the UT football team).
- Kansas had multiple fourth-and-short conversion attempts fail due to incomplete passes. In this humble writer’s opinion, if you can’t trust your running game on 4th-and-1, you probably don’t have much of one.
- Did I mention there were some vicious hits in this game? I don’t envy those guys the headaches and bruises they’ll wake up with tomorrow.
- Texas hasn’t lost to Kansas since 1938. For those of you that struggle with math, that’s 70 years ago...or right about the time Bugs Bunny was born, if you’re keeping track on your cartoon calendars at home.
Diamond in the Rough is an in-depth profile of a game outside the national media spotlight. If you want to see your team in an upcoming edition, send an e-mail to carryingonabout@yahoo.com and tell me why!
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about 1 month ago
"Can somebody tell me what exactly happened to South Florida and Rutgers? Talk about teams heading in opposite directions! The Bulls started the year 5-0, but are now 6-4 after dropping a 49-16 decision at HOME."
I think it's pretty obvious what's happening here. South Florida hired John L. Smith without telling anybody.
"Which reminds me…is there a statute of limitations on how long we have to bring up David Tyree every time somebody catches the ball by pulling it to their helmet? I’m ready for it to expire."
I don't think it was entirely Tyree...I kept waiting for somebody to throw "Antonio Freeman" in there as well.
"U-M fell to 3-8 on the year after coming up short against Northwestern at home…and with a trip to Columbus looming, do I hear nine?"
Nine :) Great job, Tim!
from about 1 month ago
Love the John L. Smith reference!
Now my question to Spartans like yourself...even though it would be great to see Michigan lose its school-record ninth game...you have to cheer for them to beat OSU so the Spartans have a shot at the title, right?
Painful...so painful :)
from about 1 month ago
I'm not cheering for Michigan to win...I hope they don't lose, but I can't explicitly root for them to win.
from about 1 month ago
"Which reminds me…is there a statute of limitations on how long we have to bring up David Tyree every time somebody catches the ball by pulling it to their helmet? I’m ready for it to expire."
yeah it happens when someone else makes a similar catch in a situation just as big as the one tyree did. good luck!!
from about 1 month ago
Good point, Justin -- I'm not knocking the Tyree catch, because it was amazing...but I saw at least two different plays this week where the ball was pulled to the helmet and it's been patented a "Tyree play" now, I think. Same thing as if announcers used Frank Wycheck's name on every kickoff lateral b/c of the Music City Miracle ...makes sense for a while, but I'm ready for a new description.
Thanks for reading!
from about 1 month ago
Yeah I'm definitely NOT going to cheer for UM....but that doesn't mean I won't be watching them very intently.
Too bad they don't have a chance.
about 1 month ago
Great article!
Some thoughts:
That Briscoe catch was insane.
On Houston running up the score: That's exactly what I thought about seeing that score.
On confusing basketball scores with football ones: Yeah, I did some doubletakes on Saturday. I can't remember which school, but I saw a score and I was like, wow, that football team scored 70 something points!...but they gave up 60 something. Not a very good defense. And then I noticed it was basketball.
Really looking forward to the OU/Texas Tech game. For once, we'll be the underdog.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for reading, Daniel! I actually watched a good bit of Houston/Tulsa and was shocked at the lopsided score...thanks for droppinig me a line in the e-mailbox to make sure I noticed it too.
Not every day you see an 89-point swing between last year's matchup of two teams and this year's game between the same teams...
about 1 month ago
Michigan will get their ninth loss next week.. and Notre Dame fans everywhere will laugh for at least 30 straight seconds.
Great article as always Tim.
(PS- I didn't know we could do basketball for the announcers, too. Jack Nolan, the ND basketball radio guy is always good for a few money quotes)
from about 1 month ago
I don't necessarily go looking for hoops quotes...but when I heard that one, I couldn't resist adding it in...if you have one that has to be included, feel free to pass it along!
Has Notre Dame really had a good enough season that you can mock other teams? I mean, Charlie Weis had to be fearing for his job as Navy was about to erase a 20-point deficit in less than two minutes, right? I mean, I'm a Purdue fan...I have to be gentle when I pick on Michigan's 8 losses. It's one of those pot/kettle things! :)
Thanks for reading and for the compliments!
from about 1 month ago
You wouldn't understand our frustration near the end of last season. Michigan fans are getting what's coming to them.
about 1 month ago
Poor Beanie Wells.. He had a spectacular play in his own right, but that Briscoe catch tops everything.
100 points by Tulsa and Houston and Tulsa only score 30?! Seriously? Tulsa where is your defense, man.
from about 1 month ago
Even when Tulsa was down 25 or so, it felt like they could come back.
And then Houston kept scoring.
And scoring.
And scoring.
Thanks for reading, Nino!
about 1 month ago
Poor WASU. What happened to them?
from about 1 month ago
Couldn't tell you, Isaac. New coach with no real FBS experience probably has a lot to do with it...
In soccer, I know they have some sort of relegation thing where teams can be demoted from the top league. Wonder if we can relegate WSU out of the Pac-10 into the Sun Belt or something?
Thanks for reading!
from about 1 month ago
Also, with the games to watch. The Ohio State vs. Michigan isn't living up to the hype this year, and it didn't last year. You have to watch the PSU vs. MSU game. Rose Bowl hopes for 3 teams on the line here. Also, a slight NC hope on the line for one team. MSU, PSU, and OSU all depend on this week for the Rose Bowl. PSU must win to keep their NC hopes alive, and USC, Florida, TTU, Oklahoma, Bama, and Texas must all somehow lose within this week and the conference championship week.
from about 1 month ago
Also, with the games to watch. The Ohio State vs. Michigan isn't living up to the hype this year, and it didn't last year. You have to watch the PSU vs. MSU game. Rose Bowl hopes for 3 teams on the line here. Also, a slight NC hope on the line for one team. MSU, PSU, and OSU all depend on this week for the Rose Bowl. PSU must win to keep their NC hopes alive, and USC, Florida, TTU, Oklahoma, Bama, and Texas must all somehow lose within this week and the conference championship week.
from about 1 month ago
I don't really hold out any hope for you that the Lions have a shot at the NC. Even if everything plays out the way you hope, I think the voters' current lack of respect for the Big Ten make a PSU title game appearance extremely unlikely.
However, I remember cheering for the Gators and Danny Wuerffel back in the day when they were #1 and lost their regular season finale (1996, I think)? I laid out a whole scenario of what had to happen for them to get a shot at the national championship...OSU/Arizona State Rose Bowl...Texas over Nebraska in the conference championship game...rematch with Florida State for the title...etc...and it all played out perfectly. So you're allowed to dream :)
In Spurrier's words, "We got a mulligan".
about 1 month ago
From the announcers this week:
I wish someone at ESPN at the good enough sense to get rid of Mark May. The three of them (Rece Davis, Holtz, and Mark May) were talking about the possibility of Texas Tech losing and where they should be ranked with all of the other 1-loss teams. Mark May basically said that all of the 1-loss teams should get in line behind USC, and then he sat there like a child in school who knows all the answers.
And, during the South Carolina-Florida game, Gary Danielson just kept on riding Tim Tebow about his throwing ability and what he needs to work on. This kid is one of the best quarterbacks in Florida HS history, plus, he has a NC ring and a Heisman Trophy too. Where does the criticism end??
from about 1 month ago
You make good points, Michael. About Mark May, though, it's hard to rip on him too much because he sounds like a genius next to Holtz!
And you're right about Tebow...with what he's accomplished, he deserves a little bit more respect. However, history is full of quarterbacks who had great college numbers and that didn't translate well to the pro game...even Heisman guys. (Remember Jason White?) Vince Young is a recent example of somebody with as much success before the NFL as you could possibly have and still hasn't lived up to his "potential" on Sundays...could be that's what Danielson is looking at.
Thanks for reading!
about 1 month ago
My favorite is listening to Holtz try to defend Notre Dame by saying they're on the right track to their former glory. While (most likely) 7-5 is better than last year's 3 wins it is no where near Notre Dame's former glory, not to mention they haven't beaten a ranked team since game 2 of the 2006 season against Penn State. 7-5 would look a heck of a lot better if the majority of their wins didn't come from teams below .500. Good job beating Washington and San Diego state, I'll bet those were rough games. They're supposed to be beating these teams. I'll concede Notre Dame being a legitimate contender when they start scheduling and beating top 25 teams.
And watching Sports Center made me wish I had DVR for some of those plays just so I could rewind it and watch it over and over on my new HDTV. Another great article!
from about 1 month ago
Thanks Dean! Yeah, the funny thing about Holtz is I remember listening to him on The Herd before the season and he was talking about how ND should be favored in 11 of their 12 games or something ridiculous like that.
But thanks for throwing in the part about how awful ND's opponents have been...as a Purdue fan, I have absolutely no comeback for that! :)
Thanks for reading.
from about 1 month ago
Hey man, I'm a michigan fan so I have even less of a comeback than you do. I'm just hoping for a miracle win over OSU and PSU to actually show up next week and spank the spartans so we don't have to see another BCS Ohio State flop. I'm tired of the crap the rest of the Big Ten gets because OSU couldn't finish 2 years in a row against an SEC team. Hopefully the Big Ten can go +.500 in bowls this year and maybe quite some of the Haters.
about 1 month ago
Next week could, potentially, be the most interesting week in college football history. There is a better than average chance most of the undefeated team will lose. Check this out:
Texas Tech AT Oklahoma
Alabama home against their biggest rival Auburn
Boise State AT Nevada
Ball State at Central Michigan
Utah home against BYU
The only double-digit spread should be Boise St. I wouldn't be surprised if all the other teams lose their BIG games. What are your thoughts?
POTD (still don't know how to vote for that) and 5 stars.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for reading, Brent! Appreciate it!
Since we had so few upsets this week, we're probably due for a bunch next week...although in your listing of compelling matchups, some of those wouldn't really be upsets at all.
I'm interested to see which undefeated teams can survive the weekend (or in Ball State's case, the week) unscathed!
from about 1 month ago
I didn't call them upsets... I said the undefeated team would lose.
OU beating TTU wouldn't be an upset.
'Bama losing the Iron Bowl would be a small upset
Boise losing would be a BIG upset
Ball State losing would be a small upset that the media will blow out of proportion
Utah losing would be small upset as well
from about 1 month ago
Agreed...I was simply referring to my Top 17 section this week where I said we didn't have a lot of upsets. The relatively calm week makes me think we could have a bunch of chaos next week, and undefeated teams tumbling from the top (like you predicted) would do that...even if they're not really "upsets" because of the quality of opponent.
about 1 month ago
I saw the Daniel Hardy play right after it happened while I was watching Florida murder South Carolina. 95% of the time refs blow the whistle on that play because he is techinally down. He was just lucky enough to be on the top of the tackle. It is more of a safety thing than anything else.
The refs actually did a poor job of reffing allowing him to continue to run. Because next time something similiar to that happens to Boise, they are going to blow up the unsuspecting player who thinks they are down.
It's a great play by Hardy, but a poor play by the refs that may have really bad consequences in the future.
about 1 month ago
Another great article, Tim.
Always hilarious, but Holtz had another great line this week.
May says "Tebow was passing in the fourth quarter. That's running the score up late."
Holtz says "No, the fourth quarter is not late."
May and Rece start arguing with him saying there was 4 minutes left in a 56-6 game, and Tebow should not be throwing.
Holtz's reply? "That's not late! That's not running up the score!"
What is?
from about 1 month ago
That's a classic that I'm sorry I missed, Anthony! Thanks for making sure our namesake Mr. Holtz is well-represented and passing it along!
from about 1 month ago
I really have my wonders about why Holtz is still broadcasting. It'd be one thing if he had a professional sounding voice, but then he goes off and says crazy stuff - allll day long!
about 1 month ago
Good work.
Texas is stout, comin' on now.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for reading, BT!
about 1 month ago
Its amazing how this guy can cover so much.
5 stars n a pick again, man. I look fwd to your articles every week.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks Red - I appreciate it! They're fun to write!
about 1 month ago
"Here’s a SportsCenter anchor introducing the next highlight: “Boise State and Idaho now; no small potatoes for Boise State, they’re up to No. 9 in the nation.”"
You know he's been waiting to use that line for like..two or three years.
Love the article Tim - how do you keep up with SO MUCH FOOTBALL? 5 Stars and POTD as usual!
from about 1 month ago
If I didn't have two TVs in the same room and two DVRs, it would be a struggle ;) Thanks for reading!
(I was tempted to call the ESPN guy a "spud anchor...I mean stud anchor", but I decided to let it alone... :)
about 1 month ago
Personally, I didn't do a double take on the LSU game... but that was because I was out and saw it when it was 17-3... then progressed up to 31-3... the double take was more later on when LSU managed to get it all back in such a short time period. Must have been a heck of a game to be at if you're a Tigers fan... if you stayed through the whole game that is.
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