Burnt Orange Nation

TWIQ is back after a delay relating to the Jewish holidays. Congress is also off for the holidays, but the difference is that we were actually at services. That's right: I'm looking at you, Lieberman.

"Offensively, one of the great things we're doing is that we have really good ball security." --Mack Brown in his Monday press conference. The Longhorns' coach makes an excellent observation here and it's not one we as fans talk about a lot. The only time we tend to notice ball security in a positive way is if a guy who has a history of fumbling the ball has improved (see: Charles, Jamaal. Second half of 2007 season). Otherwise, it's something we only notice if it's a problem. But the Texas "O" has been doing most everything right and deserves credit for taking care of the football as part of that success. That's how you turn yardage into points.

"They can't listen to how good people have talked about them this week anymore than they did about how poorly they talked in the preseason." --Mack Brown, same presser. Another great point. The Longhorns have certainly looked a lot better than most people expected up to this point. And history definitely indicates that, while beating cupcake opponents doesn't tell much about a team, true and consistent domination of those squads can be an indicator of good things to come. Just ask Mark Mangino.

"Offensive linemen usually like a little cooler weather because let’s just say we usually carry a little more weight than everyone else." --Longhorn C Chris Hall. In response to a question about the cooler weather in Colorado, Hall made the standard "linemen are big" joke. Doesn't that mean they need more air to fill their enormous lungs, too? And what is the elevation in Boulder? (Answers: yes, and 5400 feet.)

"What we try to do (in recruiting) is extenuate our differences and who we are and what we’re about. I tell people all the time that it’s not the house; it’s the people in the house. For a kid that wants our kind of environment, who wants that personal, academic, and athletic balance, this is a great place." --Colorado Head Coach Dan Hawkins. That's great, coach, but the question was about playing against a team with the prestige of Texas. The fact that Hawkins immediately turned this question into a comparison of the two schools from a recruiting perspective is indicative of the bad blood he apparently still senses over the Darrell Scott recruitment. Add in the sentiment coming from CU about the 2005 Big XII Championship Game and we've got ourselves a bona fide back story for this matchup.

"We all had our share in this loss. It doesn’t taste very good right now, but I want to wear all of it." --USC QB Mark Sanchez after the then-No. 1 Trojans' loss at Oregon State. We all had our share, but I'll take all the blame. We're not sure it works that way; if you want to take all the blame, can you precede it by stating that you all had your share? Nitpicking about semantics aside, the Trojans handled the upset with class, at least in the media. Which is good for their image, but bad for TWIQ.

"We never gave in and that was a good thing. It's just that we were in such a deep hole and we were not getting out of it." --Georgia head coach Mark Richt after his team's not-as-close-as-the-score loss to Alabama. This quote could just as easily describe Georgia's national championship hopes the last couple of seasons rather than the 'Bama game. We come from SEC country and we have quite a few friends who go or went to UGA. All summer we were hearing about how this is the Dawgs' year, and we did our duty as friends by trying to temper expectations. What actual information was there to suggest that this Georgia team would be any different from Richt's others? We said all along that, once again, UGA would lose a couple games early and remove themselves from national title contention and only then would they begin to play like world-beaters.

And, your quote of the week:

"After the game, I think one of our seniors asked our coaches if they could pour Gatorade on the coach. I tell you what, they haven’t had too much practice because they hit my nose. I didn’t feel anything, and the trooper said I was bleeding. They’ve got to get better at that. I hope they get a lot of practice at that." --Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt in response to a reporter's question, "What happened to your nose?" Classic.