Inexplicable

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
                                                        -Robert Lamm, Chicago Transit Authority

The way I see it, we can go one of two ways on this thing. The first option is what I’m in this blog business for:  to analyze and comment on Longhorn football. In other words, to still give a s….The second option—which I’m seriously inclined to opt for is—I just don’t care anymore.  After all, that’s evidently how a great many of the Longhorn Football players feel.   Ok, I’ll go through with this column as if I still care.

The expectations for this season weren’t all that high taking into consideration that the schedule was one of the most difficult of any team’s in the country.  Nobody was demanding or expecting the Longhorns to compete for a conference championship, or win nine or ten games this season.   But I think it was completely reasonable to expect Charlie Strong’s team to be competitive in all 12 games, to win games against Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Rice, and pick up a couple of more wins in games versus West Virginia, California, or Oklahoma State.  A win against Notre Dame, TCU, Oklahoma, or Baylor would be a huge bonus. 

The fact that the Longhorns were not the least bit competitive in three games to date, including the latest debacle against lowly Iowa State, is a disturbing indicator for the probability that Charlie Strong will ever have a championship caliber program at Texas.  If Strong’s teams can’t even be competitive in five out of their last 10 games, and 20 games into his tenure at Texas leads me to believe—even with three or four solid recruiting classes under his belt—that his team’s seasons will always be marred by three or four really disappointing outings.  In short, it’s hard to convince me today that Charlie Strong will ever win more than eight games at Texas.

More to come on this subject Friday.

Over/Under Results

About a week before the 2012 season I had lunch with my friend Art Zeitz. We were talking about the upcoming season for the Longhorns and Art told me flat out that he was drinking the burnt orange Kool-Aid. Those were his words.  He thought 2012 was going to be a return to the glory days for UT.  I felt compelled to try and disabuse him of that notion. We all remember how 2012 turned out.

Well, Art’s not drinking the Kool-Aid any more if his winning entry in the Iowa State Over/Under contest is any indicator. In a week with the highest contestant turnout of the season, when the average score was 4.5, Art scored a 9 to edge out Reed Ramlow for the victory. Art saw right through all the hype over the Longhorns recent success and came very close to a perfect score. It was Art’s second win of the season.

Reed Ramlow is also to be applauded for a great outing with eight correct answers. Incidentally, Art took Reed’s place–when Reed joined the Peace Core and moved to Korea–as my roommate at the fabled Bluffs of Barton apartment complex in 1980. I’ll never forget the day that Reed came in our apartment and announced his plans. Of course I thought it was joke. It wasn’t and the rest is history.

HooK ‘eM,

W.E.