“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”

―William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet 

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Do We Believe?

I’m amazed. I really am. I’m hearing and reading commentary about the huge talent gap between Texas and Iowa State. Therefore, Texas should hold out David Ash and Mike Davis to save them for the Oklahoma game, because Iowa State is a gimmee. I see.

Let me tell you my pre-game assessment of Texas-Iowa State. First of all, I’m not a believer in the idea that Texas has a huge talent advantage over Iowa State or any remaining opponent on their schedule. OK, maybe Kansas is the exception (and even so, Texas didn’t exactly demolish the 1-11 Jayhawks last year). Remember Texas’ last game against Kansas State? The pundits and commentators were saying that Kansas State was terrible and the Longhorns should have no problem beating them. Yet, if not for Kansas State’s butt fumble on Texas’ four yard line, we were looking at a three-point game with about two-and-a-half minutes left.  Given that Texas is facing Iowa State in Ames, I rate the Cyclones just as formidable as Kansas State. And the game is on Thursday Night on national television. Party on Cyclones!

By the way, has it really come to this? Playing on Thursday night?  I thought Thursday night was for East Carolina, Rutgers, Louisiana Tech and the like.

I Know What I Don’t Know

I’m sure by now most of you have heard what former Longhorns Earl Campbell and Chris Simms have said in the past week about Mack Brown. To summarize, they both said it was time for Mack to go. Specifically, Simms criticized Texas’ practice of signing recruits during their junior year in high school and pointed out that very few Texas players were graduating to the NFL during the past four years.

 Quoting Earl, “Nobody likes to get fired or leave a job, but things happen. I’d go on record and say ‘yes I think it’s time.’”  Earl continued, “I’d just say this, I take my hat off for USC for what they’ve done. They didn’t mess around with it. They just said ‘let’s do it now.’ I think at some point our university’s people are going to have to make a decision.” Quite harsh for the famously soft-spoken Earl.

I have a feeling that Campbell and Simms, as former players, know more about what’s going on inside the program than you and I do, and that’s the reason they’ve gone on the record with such strong statements about Mack Brown.  Among lots of other things, maybe they know that Rod Babers, the sideline reporter for the Longhorns’ radio broadcasts, didn’t resign but was fired by Mack Brown because he was too negative about the team. Who knows? But I’ll bet Campbell and Simms know more about the current state of Texas football than just their won-lost record.

Good News, Bad News

After West Virginia upset Oklahoma State last week, the good news for Texas is that Oklahoma State is probably not as good as advertised. The bad news is West Virginia isn’t as bad and is improving as the season goes on. Imagine that.  A team that improves as the season goes on. Speaking of improving, that would be Oklahoma, who looked awfully good in beating Notre Dame in South Bend. It’s hard to believe that just three weeks ago the guys at Orangebloods and other bloggers were counting the OU game as a probable win for Texas.

Oh by the way. I know where you can get OU tickets. Lots of them. Cheap.

HooK eM,

W.E.

Over/Under

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