Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
There are two distinct perspectives from which to view the Longhorns victory over Kansas State Saturday night. The first is, the victory breaks a five-game losing streak to Kansas State, a two-game losing streak this season and UT is now 1-0 in conference play. The second is, based on pre-season expectations the victory was much too difficult at home over a bad team. For simplicity I’ll call these two perspectives the “Glass is Half Full” and the “Glass is Half Empty.”
Ten observations from the Glass is Half Full perspective.
1. Breaks the Kansas St. hex
2. Tied for first in the Big 12
3. Defense held KSU to 115 yards rushing and under 400 total yards
4. Solid performances on defense from: Jackson Jeffcoat, Peter Jinkens, Malcolm Brown, Cedric Reed and Hassan Ridgeway.
5. The offensive line played their best game of the season. Kennedy Estelle replaced the injured Josh Cochran at right tackle and played very well. He should be the starter now.
6. Jonathan Gray had 141 yards on 28 carries. He’s starting to show the talent we’ve been hearing about for the past 2 years.
7. Kendall Sanders caught a 73 yard touchdown pass. He has star potential
8. Marcus Johnson had 5 receptions for 70 yards with a very nice catch on a 21 yard out pattern. He adds talented depth to the receiver corps.
9. Case McCoy did a good job of playing within himself making no big mistakes. As Harry Callahan said, “a man’s got to know his limitations.”
10. Makes Mack Brown’s job more secure.
Ten Observations from the Glass is Half Empty perspective.
1. Kansas State is lousy. They lost to North Dakota State at home. They stink!
2. The aforementioned stinky team gave UT a game right up until the end.
3. Jordan Hicks ruptured his Achilles tendon and is out for the season.
4. David Ash may have suffered another concussion and could be out for a long time.
5. If Ash is out UT has only one quarterback that has played in a game.
6. Anthony Fera averaged 42 yards a punt but that’s deceiving because he got lucky bounces. His punting was actually pretty poor.
7. The run defense was good but the secondary was burned several times giving up 237 yards receiving to Tyler Lockett. KSU averaged 14.5 yards per reception. Scary stats going into pass happy Big 12 play. File this away for later reference.
8. The offense was ineffectual late in the fourth quarter with two consecutive 3 and outs while defending a 10 point lead. Did I mention KSU stinks?
9. UT was lucky to recover two unforced KSU fumbles including one on the UT three yard line.
10. Mack Brown’s job is more secure.
****************
Now we all get a much needed break from the early season drama of Texas Football and we can get back to the important things in life such as, family, community, and career. Those things are more important than Texas football. Right?
Shuffle
Highlights from one of the greatest random shuffles of all time that played on my iPod during my run last evening.
“God Only Knows” The Beach Boys
“Galveston” Glenn Campbell. Written by Jimmy Webb
“Daydream Believer” The Monkees #1 on the pop charts for four weeks in December, 1967. September, 1967 through June, 1968, my favorite year.
“For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” The Beatles
“Can’t Take My Eyes off You” Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Reminds me of a scene from “The Deer Hunter.”
” H Gang” Donald Fagen
“Send in the Clowns” Frank Sinatra. Written by Stephen Sondheim. Always reminds me of a conversation I had with my father.
“Easy” Commodores
“Don’t Let Me be Lonely Tonight” James Taylor. Always reminds me of moving in 1973 from Vestal N.Y. to Fairfax Va. and my friend Ed Welch.
“I Got a Name” Jim Croce. My high school graduation class song.
“Spill the Wine” War.
HooK eM,
W.E
Over/Under Results
I’m happy to report that we had a record number of entries this week attesting to the ever growing, ever popular WillieEarl.com. Now without further ado, the results. Mark Adams, David Frink, and Helen Frink tied for first place this week with seven correct answers. Helen beat out the dudes by correctly picking the winner of both tie breakers. I taught Helen everything she knows about football. I’m sure she would agree.
