I Feel It Come Alive When I See Your Ghost

Wow, November started and ended on a really sour note, if you're a Texas Longhorn fan. I found out about oklahoma's jump when Kayla and I stopped in Abilene for a meal at Chili's (Where small business gets done) with Kayla's cousin and her husband. I wasn't really surprised by the jump, since 0u did win by twenty points, and UT had a very small lead in the B(c)S polls beforehand anyway, but after getting home and reading this article, I've officially gone back to serious suicide watch territory. It seems that Texas actually increased their lead in the human polls, but got caught by the computers because of oklahmoma's big win on the road. What gets me about this is two-fold. One, had zero-u not gotten their late TD (with all the starters in, no less. Classy Stoops) and their tip-drill 'look what I found' TD by their tight end in the third quarter (I think) the margin of victory may not have been enough to pass UT in the computers. Second, the tie-breaker for the Big XII is obviously out of whack, but after reading the article it seems that the SEC has the three-way tiebreaker figured out. I won't ruin it for you, but if the Big XII had it right, on the field performance would mean something, and yes, Texas would be going to Kansas City next week. Read it and weep Longhorn fans.
Also, this marks the second time in three years that Texas beat both teams that ended up playing in the conference championship game. Awesome.

Here's To My Alma Mater True

UPDATE @ 12:53 pm Monday, November 24, 2008-This game has obviously garnerned a lot of national attention, landing ACU at #4 on Sportcenter's Top 10 plays, now the good folks at Deadspin have gotten into the act.

161 points. 1,500+ yards of total offense. 323 yards receiving BY ONE PLAYER. 14.5 yards per play. 13.8 yards per rush. 2 defensive coordinators looking for new jobs (maybe). All in a days work in the Division II playoffs. Holla.

Just Finished Reading:

Current Reading:

This Is My Final Decision, Maybe

Ever since it was discussed in Monday's comments section, I've been thinking about who to cheer for in Saturdays Tech/Oklahoma match up. While I'm not crazy about my choice, I think I've come to a conclusion.

Even though Texas' only shot at the Big XII game comes from winning the three-way tiebreaker* (unless Tech falls to 0u AND Baylor, but really) I've gotta go for Tech as the lesser of two evils and hope they rep the State well in KC and Miami. What really gets me hoping that Tech pulls it out this weekend is the fact that I really can't stand to see Oklahoma win the conference again, after losing to UT.

There is a very real possibility that Texas will finish the regular season 11-1, beat Oklahoma, be co-champs of the South, AND WATCH OKLAHOMA PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. Seriously. Let that last sentence sink in for a second. In December of 2004, if you told me that within the next four years Texas will win 11 regular season games, be ranked number one for three weeks, beat Oklahoma in a game where the Sooners had better 'on-paper' talent, but 0u would be the ones playing for the national championship, I couldn't have found a high enough cliff to jump off of.

Fortunately for me, 2005 happened and my suicide watch meter went from 'potentially realistic' to 'Whatever, man UT's the Champs!' However, the past two years frustrations, followed up with this seasons awesomeness have officially put me back on edge as far as competing for conference and national championships go.

To beat Oklahoma and still not even get a shot at the conference championship is a brutal, empty feeling for Longhorn fans. Remember, it was just 2006 that UT won the RRR and had a one game lead over 0u (two games really, considering the tie-breaker) and the Horns squandered their conference championship hopes with the Colt Got Injured Game (KSU) followed up by a no-show against aTm.

If, by some act of BCS computer grace, UT could win the tie-breaker with Oklahoma, then so be it, but since that's looking like an unlikely scenario, Wreck 'Em Tech, and we'll see where we go from there.

*This is, of course, assuming that UT beats the deuce out of the ags next week. If they crap the bed like they did the past few years, however, all bets are off and Tech or 0u would deserve it more anyway. And yes, I know what happens when I a-s-s-u-m-e.

They Can Go For 2 Now, Also

Yesterday evening, I got a call from my old roomate, Garrett. He asked, "I heard a game today ended in a tie. How does that happen?" Well, Garrett is an Oklahoma Sooner fan, so he is forgiven for not knowing basic football rules.
Donovan McNabb, however, is a 10-year NFL veteran, and not forgiven:


What is even more amazing is that at least three of his teammates didn't know a game could end in a tie, according to espn.com. Yikes

Longhorn Basketball 2009, And Other Stuffs

It's a big weekend in the LBK, as I'll be attending my first Gay wedding Saturday, and have a lot of peeps coming in for it. I do, however have a couple articles to link y'all up to. The first should get any Texas Longhorn basketball fan (I'm looking at you, Halbert) extremely fired up for the 2009-10 basketball season-major props to Rick Barnes and his recruting prowess. The second is a mailbag from one of my favorite writers, SI.com's Stewart Mandel. He's great at what he does, but his answer to the first question in the column is a bit disconcerting if you love UT football.

A preview of UT basketball next year.

Mandel breaks it down.

I Know, I Was There

This weekend, the parents came into town to hang out with me and Kayla. It was a great time seeing them, and on Saturday night, my dad and I went to Jones AT&T, the sight of two of the most dissapointing losses I have ever experienced as a fan- the 2002 UT/Tech game and the 2008 matchup. And no, I still don't want to talk about it.

Anyway, we came to the game hoping that Oklahoma State would come in and upset the Raiders, giving UT a shot if Tech also falls to Oklahoma in two weeks. Didn't happen. Not even close. For those of you who missed the game, don't worry, you didn't miss much. Tech at this point looks pretty unstoppable on offense, and the D was o force all game as well. It remains to be seen if they can keep it up on the road in Norman, but after witnessing how good Tech looked on Saturday, I wouldn't be shocked if they pull it out.

The worst part of all of this is knowing how close Texas came to winning last weekend against a team that is very, very good. Ahhh, the joys of being a sports fan.

GameDay, Part Deux

As promised yesterday, here are a few pics of my College GameDay experience:

6:45 am: some of the hundreds of students who camped out to be first in line

Not sure what these guys are, but the one in the middle was the bell-ringer that was on TV like 10 times during the game.

Bob Knight takes the set

Knight, Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit

All us volunteers

It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Worst of Times

November has already been quite the roller-coaster. As I mentioned a few days ago, I got to help with ESPN College GameDay, which was here in Lubbock yesterday morning. I must say, it was awesome! If the GameDay crew ever comes to your town, or anywhere near, I highly suggest making the trip, you will not be disappointed. I could write 2-3 pages on the things we did, but you'd be bored reading it all, so I'll just knock out a few of the highlights:

• I got to the set at about 6:45 am, 2+ hours before they went on TV, and there was a line of literally thousands of students and fans waiting in a line whose end couldn't be seen. You know you're a hardcore fan to sleep in a sleeping bag on a sidewalk in hopes of getting on TV for maybe 3 seconds. Either that, or you're homeless.


• Wearing my Graham Steers hat. It's blue, but has the UT logo on it. (they're the Steers, fyi) That, along with the word 'Graham' under it really tripped some of the fans out. Like, who are you rooting for, volunteer?


• Parlaying said hat into a 10 second conversation with Chris Fowler. He was just as confused as many sleep-deprived Tech students.


• Watching the girls that were on the volunteer team get googley-eyed when Kirk "Make-up often?" Herbstreit strolled past us on his way to the set.


• Seriously, Herby had a TON of makeup on. I know it's part of the gig, but really man, come on.


• Bobby Knight. He may be a wretched human being, but he has quite the presence and is really funny. He's also a lot taller and thinner than I pictured.


• Figuring out that the short beefy guy in a couple of my classes was actually on the cheerleading squad. I was really beginning to wonder why he came to class 95% of the time in black and red windsuits. Now it all makes sense.


• Speaking of the cheerleading team, now I know why these dudes can throw the girls around like they don't weigh a thing. They don't weigh a thing! Seriously, they make the Chinese gymnastics team look like grown-ups.


• Explaining to everyone why the set, and pretty much everything else out there, was orange. No, ESPN isn't biased toward UT, the show is just sponsored by the Home Depot (You can do it, we can help) and their logo is-you guessed it, orange.


• After the show was over and all the fans were gone, we were taking all of the aforementioned orange Home Depot signs down, when Bobby Knight, and Lee Corso walked out of the bus, directly towards me. Knight, who is about 10 inches taller than Lee, had his arm around Lee and said, "My wife wanted me to tell you just how much she thinks of you. She thinks you're a fantastic guy, Lee, and I really do too. We both think think you are a great guy." Aww, that's sweet. Well, they were passing directly by me when Knight finished that sentiment. Really, they were two feet away from me, tops. I knew I should play it cool and act like it was no big deal that two guys I've watched on TV since I was 9 were within high-fiving distance, but I couldn't resist. I said, "He's right, Lee, you really are great." What happened, you ask? They kept right on walking, as if I didn't exist. Probably for the best anyway, since I had absolutely nothing of consequence to say to either of them, but still, a "Hey kid" wouldn't have killed them. In any case, about ten seconds after that, a group of three girls came up to the pair on the sidewalk and break out the "Oh my gosh, Coach Knight, I...I...I just love you. Is it okay if, umm, we take a picture with you?" And of course, Knight and Corso were more than happy to stop their conversation with one another and pose for the pretty gals. Whatever.


• I should be getting a few pictures of yesterday emailed to me in the future, and as soon as I do, I'll post them so you can all be jealous of me.

As for the game? Well you saw it, and honestly, I'm just now starting to not want to jump off a cliff, so if you'll forgive me, I won't discuss what happened on this here blog. Just know that, yes, I felt physically ill, yes, I'm glad I made the last second decision not to go, no, the extra hour of sleep last night didn't help and no, I don't think it's cool that I'm going to the school that maybe, just maybe will go to the national championship game. If you do want great analysis of what went so wrong, yet almost so right, please check out Burnt Orange Nation. As always, PB and the boys do a great job of giving credit-as well as criticism-where it's due, and help us hurtin Horns keep things in perspective.

On the bight side, I filled my car up this morning for less than $35 dollars, which is nice.