It’s exciting that the Longhorns are not irrelevant bystanders in college football’s championship weekend. If Texas takes care of business Saturday against Oklahoma State they have a shot at getting in the college football playoff.  How does Texas get in? Let me break it down for you.

The simplest most direct path and probably the only path for Texas is for Louisville to beat Florida State in the ACC Championship game. If that happens, Florida State is out. Louisville as the two-loss ACC Champion won’t get in. That leaves the remaining four power five conference champions.  Oregon or Washington from the Pac 12. Michigan from the Big 10 (I guarantee they’ll beat Iowa in the Big 10 Championship). Georgia or Alabama from the SEC and Texas. It will save Texas fans about 24 hours of worrying if Georgia beats Alabama and knocks them out forestalling the possibility of two SEC teams making the playoff.  ESPN college football analyst Booger McFarland thinks that if Texas and Florida State win on Saturday and Alabama beats Georgia that neither Alabama or Georgia will get in and Texas will. I don’t believe that.

Go Louisville. Florida State is favored by 1.5.

December 1977

Thinking this week about Texas playing a game in December that matters and isn’t the Alamo Bowl directed my thoughts down memory lane to the night of December 8, 1977. That was the night that—as The Daily Texan headlined it—”Earl brings home first UT Heisman. 

For the first time, the Heisman Trophy award ceremony was on national television in 1977. Before then you would find out who won by reading about it in the morning paper or maybe hearing it on the radio the day after the ceremony.

I watched the ceremony at Mike Frank’s and John Hairston’s apartment on Willow Creek Dr. just south of E. Riverside.  John Spafford and Mark Lappin were there. “Watch Parties” like this were happening all over Austin. UT fans thought that Earl would probably win but it wasn’t assumed he would. A case was being made for Terry Miller a running back from Oklahoma State. The national press was campaigning for Notre Dame tight end Ken MacAfee.  So, there was tension in anticipation of the announcement.

With the announcement that Earl had won, the five of us of course cheered, yelled, and jumped about.  Pandemonium wasn’t confined to Mike and John’s apartment. We could hear commotion coming from other apartments in the complex. After Earl made his famous remark, “mom, I’m in trouble,” we ran out of the apartment, across the street and up a hill so we could see the orange tower. Then spontaneously we ran down the hill and jumped in John Spafford’s Blazer and headed for the Drag. Approaching campus from I35 we could see that the orange tower was also emblazoned with the numeral 1. So awesome. As we turned left off of Dean Keeton on to the Drag clogged with revelers on foot and in cars some of them convertibles, it began to snow.

The End

The End

Symmetry

In 1995 Texas won the last Southwest Conference championship. In 1996 Texas won the first Big 12 Championship. Roll left. It would be fitting if Texas won the Big 12 Championship in their last year in the conference. Who needs Oklahoma’s 14 championships when you’ve won the first and the last?

Chris Gilbert, Cedric Benson, and Bijan Robinson.

What do Chris Gilbert, Cedric Benson, and possibly Bijan Robinson have in common?  Gilbert and Benson were great Texas running backs whose last season at Texas was the year before Texas won national championships. Bijan Robinson is a great running back whose last season at Texas could be the year before Texas wins a national championship. Where else can you get this kind of in-depth analysis?

Oklahoma State

This is yet another game where if Texas plays to their standard, they beat Oklahoma State easily. Maybe not 57-7 easy but how 44-14? The Mike Gundys lost to South Alabama 33-7 and Central Florida 45-3. They did put together a five-game winning streak bookended with wins against Kansas State and Oklahoma.

I watched the last 10 minutes or so of Oklahoma State’s win in OT over BYU last Saturday. I was pulling hard for OSU because I didn’t want to deal with Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. I’ll take into consideration that the weather was bad, but Oklahoma State looked anything but formidable to me. They may have the best running back in the country in Ollie Gordon II. Gordon is #1 in the country in rushing yards with 1,580. Will he fare any better against Texas’ run defense than Texas Tech’s Taj Brooks did?

Oklahoma State has beaten Texas last the two years and has won 6 of the last 8.

Come on Horns. Just win.

Hook ‘Em,

W.E.

I came to get down, I came to get down
So get out your seat and jump around

Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there’s gas in the car