The Longhorns survived and advanced—despite the best efforts of Malik Murphy—last Saturday.  Thankfully Quinn Ewers will start this Saturday versus TCU.  Since their loss to Oklahoma, Texas has won three straight and looked unimpressive in doing so. They almost blew a 21-point lead versus Houston and a 20-point second half lead to Kansas State last Saturday.  Still, winning three straight is a good thing no matter how you look doing it. Especially if you take into context that in the past two seasons Texas has lost games in which they had substantial leads.

This leads to the existential question about the 2023 Longhorns (as if there is something as weighty as an existential question about a football team). In light of Texas’ shaky winning performances in their last three games are they destined to lose one of their last three regular season games? Or is Texas as many championship teams before them a team that got lucky a time or two on their way to a championship?

Speaking of existential questions

I haven’t decided yet whether to wear a white Texas shirt or an orange one for the game against TCU.  I also have a very nice black Texas shirt with white stripes and an orange Longhorn. Hmm.

Texas’ Resume

Texas’ Alabama win is getting better all the time while the Oklahoma loss is getting worse. The cumulative record of Texas’ first 9 opponents is 50-31. Six of those 9 opponents have winning records. That’s a pretty good resume.

Comparing Texas’ resume to defending national champion Georgia we see the cumulative record of Georgia’s opponents is 38-42. Five of those opponents have winning records. Critics of Georgia’s schedule cite this as well as their non-conference matchups with UT Martin, Ball State, and University of Alabama Birmingham. What I think is more important is that Georgia has defeated three relatively good teams: Kentucky, Florida, and Missouri and the Missouri game was the only one that was close.

And then there were Two

Kansas State, Iowa State, and Oklahoma lost last week leaving Texas and Oklahoma State tied at 5-1 for first place in the Big 12. I think it would be cool if Texas and OSU both finished 8-1 in conference making the Big 12 Championship game a matchup of teams with the same conference record who haven’t played each other. Much better than a first and second place team playing each other.

Texas and Oklahoma State will both be favored to win their last three games. Interesting to me is that OSU is only favored by 2.5 over lowly UCF this week. Other than the fact the game is at UCF what gives with that line?

Afterglow

I went to a family wedding in Ft. Worth last weekend and saw several Texas Ranger fans positively glowing attired in some form of Ranger wear in the wake of the Rangers World Series triumph. It was fun to see.

Would a Big 12 Championship for the Longhorns make you glow, or would it take something bigger to light you up?  Hey—that’s another existential question!

TCU

TCU is 2-4 in the Big 12, 4-5 overall. TCU was complicit in this whole Deion Sanders business by losing to Colorado 45-42 in the first game of the season. By the way, I like Deion always have. Remember that Deion Pizza Hut commercial with Jerry Jones? “Both.” I really liked that one. Anyway, TCU’s best win of the season was beating SMU 34-17. Their worst loss was to Kansas State 41-3.

Texas may get to play another second team quarterback this season if as Sonny Dykes said earlier this week that Josh Hoover will start replacing the injured Chandler Morris. In a backup role Hoover has 7 touchdown passes and 7 interceptions. TCU runs the ball well with Emani Bailey who has 908 yards rushing at 5.5 yards per carry. That should be negated by Texas’ running defense anchored by T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II. TCU has 11 different players who have at least 10 catches. Like Texas TCU isn’t good in the red zone. The TCU defense has been average at best.

Amon Carter Stadium is a lovely place to watch a game but isn’t a particularly hard place to play for visitors. In my expert analysis, whether TCU can make this game interesting depends on Texas’ pass defense.

My call, Texas with Quinn Ewers back in command chalks up an easy win 41-16.

W.E.

A Baby Boomer Anthem.

I always wanted to be “a happy idiot struggling for the legal tender” but I’ve always been “Caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender.”

This one always makes me smile and sing.