Is Chris Jessie the luckiest man in the world?

Alrighty boys and girls, let's run through a quick recap of last night's Holiday Bowl between the Texas Longhorns and Arizona State Sun Devils.

Offensive MVP: Jamaal Charles-One could make an argument for Colt, but Jamaal showed why he was the best running back in the Big XII this year, continuously making big runs and keeping the Devils on their heels. I especially liked his Ladanian Tomlinson ball-flip celebration after his two TD's. Very cool.

Defensive MVP: All of 'em-Really, how can you pick just one? The front four was as dominant as they could be, and the secondary played their best game of the season by a mile. The hitting was exceptional too. I don't think I've seen the Horns that mean and aggressive on defense since their championsip run a couple years ago. Needless to say, it was a welcome development after ther no-show against atm last month. Apparently the ASU quarterback, Rudy Carpenter, was running his mouth all week about how he was gonna light UT up, and this may have sparked a little fire under the butts of the Longhorn defense. I don't know what it was, but it great to see the defense get after someone for once this year.

Biggest Dissapointment: Not really anything to be real critical of about the game, except the fact that this is how we (Horns fans) expected them to play all year. I'm not sure why it took 12 sub-par games, a second consecutive loss to the aggs, and a lackluster offensive season for them to decide, "hey, we're better than this," and play the kind of game they did last night. If they played like that all year, they're BCS bound for sure, and probably playing Ohio State for the championship. Arizona State was easily the second-best team UT played all year (after Oklahoma) and the Horns handled them. There's no way UT loses to atm or K-state, and maybe oklahoma, if they played the way they did against ASU all season. I'll try to look at the bright side and see this game for what will hopefully be a sign of how they'll play next year, and not a sign of what could have been this season.

Now, my thoughts on the play that is on everyone's mind after watching the game last night: The Chris Jessie play. (PS-could we start calling this the red-headed stepchild play? No? Alright, fine) First off, HE DIDN'T TOUCH THE BALL!! I thought I was going to have a heart attack after the refs gave it to ASU on the seven. I know the replay wasn't clear either way, but the trajectory of the ball didn't change, and there is no clear-cut evidence that he did touch it, meaning they shouldn't have overturned the call, which was that Texas recoverd it and returned it out past the 50. My theory is that the refs were making a bit of an examle out of him, since they had already given the UT sideline a warning. They may have thought, "Ehh, he may or may not have touched it, but we've already issued a warning, and there's still like 15 UT players and coaches on the field that don't need to be...screw it, he touched it. ASU ball on the seven yeard line!" Secondly, how relieved is this dude that Texas ended up winning? I know it's not a major bowl or whatever, but if ASU held on to that momentum and won by 7 or less, this Jessie fellow would have to leave the country-or at least Texas-to escape everyone hating him. As it turns out, he's now famous, everyone can laugh at it after the fact, and he'll be a cult hero in Texas football history. For some reason, I feel like he won't have to buy dinner or drinks in Austin for a long time. I have this image of him walking into a restaurant in Austin and acting like Rick James in those Chappelle skits. "I'm Chris Jessie!! You don't know who I am? I'm Chris Jessie!!" And everyone is like "Chris, come sit with us, we already ordered your diner! Chris over here, we saved you a seat!" And yes, maybe I'm rambling.

Well, I reckon that'll be all i have to say about the Horns for another 8 months or so...hahaha you don't know me very well then do you? I'll see ya when I see ya. Hook 'em.
-Twig