Burnt Orange Nation

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving Holiday complete with 27 hours spent stuffing yourselves watching a cornucopia of delicious football. Some random thoughts from the week that was...

"Dear Aggies...Um, T-Sip, we prefer Agro-Americans" - I just about had a heart attack Thursday night and it wasn't because I had extra helpings of Aunt Trudie's Jell-O mold and Yam Surprise. Unlike Sergio who "never had a doubt," I'm perfectly willing to admit the Ags gave me one of hell of scare on Thanksgiving. If the A&M kicker doesn't miss that chip shot, I probably would have flat lined.

As Mack would say, "give credit to A&M for playing hard (one night of the year anyway) and being consummate hosts for this in-state rivalry game (read: the white noise function on our iPods worked great, we slept well, and the fake name I gave the hotel, Ron Mexico, worked like a charm)."

That said, Aggie Apologists, I don't want to hear about moral victories or how you're going to Gig us two demerits next year or any mention of Aggie QB Jarrod Johnson being the second coming of Bucky Richardson or any complaints about network bias after the ESPN camera crew managed to find the one cadet who brought his sister to the game and zoomed in on them after every single A&M score...awkward!!!

Bottom line, you can't talk trash until after you've looked at your painted overalls and $6 haircuts in the mirror and asked yourself, "if we're capable of playing that well against a Top 5 Team and we're all about playing a winning brand of football (and not just trying to crash UT's party because they refuse to play tummy sticks with us), then why the hell did we go 6-6 in a season when the Big XII, top to bottom, was probably the weakest it's been since the inception of the conference?"

When you figure that out or can tell me what your defensive coordinator means by, "I tell you what, that Colt McCoy is slicker than crap through a jackrabbit that just got flattened by an 18-Wheeler," then you may get back to me.

More after the jump...

"Oh those wonderful folks at Nike just thought of everything...they even added a special ramming speed codpiece to their Pro Combat Uniforms" - Why? Why must we trick everything up? Was the arms race with Addidas over who sponsored whose uniforms that heated that Nike just had to compromise years of tradition to turn several storied programs into a pret-a-porter fashion show at a Dick's Sporting Goods? Fortunately, UT knew better than to let Nike get too crazy with our unis, but I'm pretty sure Tim Tebow wasn't crying before the Florida/FSU game because it was Senior Day...it was because he realized he was suiting up for his last home game at "the Swamp" wearing a uniform with pentagrams stitched onto each shoulder. In other news, Tebow did pick up the Wiccan endorsement for the Heisman.

"Well, at least CBS didn't play the theme song from Two And A Half Men when Tebow was introduced on Senior Day" - Did anyone else notice that CBS added an emotional soundtrack to the Florida/FSU telecast after the PA Announcer introduced Timmy to the crowd and he ran out on the field? I halfway expected CBS to cut away to a scene of Tebow and Brandon Spikes reprising the roles of Balboa and Creed running along the beach in Rocky III. After all, we're not unbiased observers covering an actual event, we're CBS and we'll blur the line between reality and make-believe just like we did the lines between Verne Lundquist's six chins...HD Verne, little scary.

Some additional luke warm sports opinions...

• The Atlantic Coast Conference has contracted the Boise State PR Firm to think of something nice to say about the ACC Championship Game after both participants dropped games to SEC also-rans the week prior...here's betting the press release says something about "tuning in to watch the tallest midget getting an automatic BCS bowl bid."
• Best fan sign from GameDay Saturday: "Weis vs. Mangino star in The Biggest Loser." And as farfetched as that may sound, wouldn't you just know both Notre Dame and Kansas lost again probably sealing the fates of both coaches who may just have some extra time on their hands for Spring Sweeps.
•  Lots of drama in the SEC Saturday night where Tenn/Kentucky and LSU/Arkansas both went into OT - tremendous football games and further proof that SEC officials need to pull more than just their flags out of their asses...particularly on the last two drives in regulation of the LSU/Arkansas game. Take heart Piggies, Ryan Mallet is the real deal and if Petrino ever locates a defense, look for the Hogs to challenge for the SEC West next year.
• I hope there's a special teams support group out there for the Arkansas and A&M field goal kickers as well as the Arizona State punt returner. I don't think they're sleeping too well of late. Might want to let Georgia Tech's receivers audit the session too.
• TCU has finished the season undefeated, either Florida or Bama will too, and Boise, Cinci and Texas (all still undefeated) will be favored in their final pre-bowl contests...so we may have as many as five undefeated teams at the end of the regular season. But if you're hoping for a play-off system some time in the near future, don't read Dan Patrick's article in last week's SI where he recounted his interview with the new BCS Czar. He ain't budging. His talking points excuse for not even trying a four team play-off, "the players of those four teams probably wouldn't get to have normal bowl trips and be exposed to experiences of a lifetime." Seriously, if your biggest reason for wanting to play in the Rose Bowl is getting the chance to meet Mickey Mouse, you might want to ask your Fairy Godmother for a new perspective.
•  Up front I want to say that I hope Tiger Woods is okay and I wish him a speedy recovery, but every time I saw an update about his car accident flash up on the screen I kept hearing Roger Maltbie whispering, "okay, Jim, Tiger's got 175 to the hole, normally a cut down 6-iron except he's stuck in Bogie Land behind a tree...of all the days to forget to put his recovery club in the bag. Oh wait, here comes his wife with a safety iron..."

Speaking of going undefeated, I was really psyched about Texas finishing 12-0 in the regular season until PB reminded me that our best win is over a team that just got skunked 27-0 by a Bradford-less OU team. And I'm already preparing myself for the onslaught of comparisons from smarmy pundits drawing unflattering similarities between this year's Big XII Championship and the 1996 and 2001 versions. Let's just hope it turns out for Texas more like the 2005 edition did. I know my heart and my liver would appreciate it.

 Admittedly, and as the other BON authors will attest, I was really nervous leading up to the A&M game. Everything felt wrong to me - the short week, the emotional drain on Colt and the Seniors after the KU game, and most especially, knowing that the Aggies were capable of playing well when focused and would undoubtedly pull out all the stops. Am I clairvoyant? No, in fact I'm sure a lot of you felt the same way. But I mention this because I'm surprised at how good I feel about UT's chances of now only winning the 2009 Big XII Championship, but also doing so convincingly.

 For the first time since the final BCS rankings were announced on that infamous day last December (when that smiling jack ass Barry Switzer told the college football world that Texas would be left out), everything feels right with the college football world again. In my mind, Texas has finally emerged from the shadow or dark cloud that remained after the 2008 season. I liken it to climbing a mountain such as Everest and just when you get close to the top, a huge storm moves in forcing you to climb back down without ever getting a chance to crest the peak.

 In that way, the 2009 season has been all about ascending the mountain again and it hasn't been nearly as fun as 2008 because we'd climbed this path before and knew full well how painful and treacherous going undefeated would be...especially knowing even one loss meant total and complete disaster. But now we're back right where we were forced to turn around last year. We can see the top again and though there are storm clouds off in the distance, the fates have given us the all-clear to make our assault on the peak of college football.

 Oh yeah, here comes the adreailine rush that's been suppressed all season long for fear of peaking too early. The players can't prevent their blood from boiling any more than we fans can contain our enthusiasm.

 This is it.

 There's no going back now and no excuses for not achieving the ultimate objective. The stakes have never been higher. Coach Brown knows better than anyone that there are no guarantees the Longhorns will ever be here again. Colt McCoy knows the difference between being included on the DKR ring of honor and being reduced to a mere footnote in Texas Football lore is winning a Championship. And we fans know the difference between immortality and ignominy can be as seemingly unimportant (at the time) as a dropped interception on the plains of some godforsaken hell hole in West Texas.

This is it. Finish it.

 Hook'em,

54b