Never is Heard an Encouraging Word

Over the past 20 years I’ve gone through several phases of daily media consumption. Starting in the early ‘90s though about 2006 I was a daily consumer of C-SPAN, Seinfeld and a lot of news/talk radio while I was driving around in Jon Voight’s car. From 2006 to the present, my daily staples include PTI on ESPN with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon (Helen and I watch a recorded version around 7:30 pm), Colin Cowherd’s daily sports talk show on ESPN radio, The Office, and Law & Order (the original) of which Helen and I have seen every episode from 1990 to its conclusion in 2010; I have seen every episode at least twice.
Starting last fall I added Longhorn Football blogs to my daily consumption. Some of the ones I read are: Barking Carnival almost every day, Orangebloods about once a week, and – occasionally — Horns Digest and an email-forwarded copy of Inside Texas.

Among all those publications, I have not read a single article or posted comment that said Texas has any chance at all to beat Baylor tomorrow. Right off the top of my head I can’t think of a single post or comment that has predicted that the game will be competitive.

After my pre-season prediction that Texas would go 11-1 in the regular season, who am I to counter any of this abject pessimism? The last time I can remember Texas being a 16-point — or whatever the current line is – underdog was the 1996 Big 12 Championship game versus Nebraska. Could Texas pull off another shocking upset on Saturday? Tyrone Swoopes is no James Brown and Jonathan Gray is no Priest Holmes, so I don’t see a Texas win in the cards. But I predict the game will be surprisingly competitive; perhaps competitive enough to get our hearts beating a little faster during the fourth quarter.

Panning for Hope
Here are some odds and ends if you want to find any reason to be hopeful.

1. In Baylor’s last two games against highly ranked teams, they lost to Oklahoma State 49-17 and Central Florida 52-42. Okay, so the Horns aren’t a highly ranked team . . . I’m just sayin’.
2. Although there’s no absolute confirmation, it looks though Daje Johnson will play in his first game of 2014. Maybe he’ll be more assignment-responsible and a little faster without THC coursing through his veins.
3. If there’s a faster Longhorn than Daje it’s Amanti Foreman, who flashed that speed on a reverse against Kansas that went for 29 yards. Texas offensive coordinator Sean Watson praised Foreman’s practice performance and progress over the past few weeks. Perhaps Foreman, along with Daje, will transform Texas’ offense into an explosive scoring machine.
4. It’s not unreasonable to believe that Tyrone Swoopes, in his fourth game as a starter, will play his best game as a Longhorn.

Texas Football Brands
In addition to generally dismal expectations for the next two games, I’m also hearing a lot of angst from Texas fans about how Texas Football has been surpassed by in-state rivals Texas A&M and Baylor. Certainly the Aggies and Baylor have had better seasons the last three years or so, but so far as Texas being eclipsed by those programs, I don’t see it that way. When the Longhorns are really good, they win Rose Bowls and win or appear in National Championship games.
Let’s check out the bowl records of A&M and Baylor since 2010.
Baylor
2010, Texas Bowl L
2011, Alamo W
2012, Holiday W
2013, Fiesta L
Texas A&M
2010, Cotton L
2011, Meineke W
2012, Cotton, W
2013, Chick-fil-A W
Between the two of them there has been one BCS bowl appearance. Baylor lost to freaking Central Florida in last year’s Fiesta Bowl.
Sure, I’m not happy with the Longhorns’ seasons the last four years and this year may not end up all that pretty. But I’m not worried about keeping up with A&M and Baylor’s trips to the Cotton and Alamo Bowls. Complain to me at the end of 2015 when Baylor wins a second conference championship and A&M wins their first conference championship and goes to a major bowl for the first time since 1998.

Deep Horn

Deep Horn is deeply depressed and disturbed about the current state of the Longhorns. However, he believes Charlie Strong is doing what needs to be done to rebuild the program.

Deep Thought of the Day

Perhaps the most cited long lyric of the past 50 years is  Paul McCartney’s the love you take is equal to the love you make.  That’s too obvious. My favorite McCartney lyric is, For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool By making his world a little colder
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah

Be warm and by all means,

HooK ‘eM,

W.E.

Over/Under Contest

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