Two Categories

The Ole Miss game will be Texas’ first midterm exam of the season. Though it’s just the third game, I think it will to a large extent determine what kind of season it will be.

During Mack Brown’s tenure at Texas each season eventually falls into one of two broad categories. The first category is characterized by a top 10 ranking and being a favorite to win the Big 12 Championship, potentially becoming a contender for the National Championship and finishing no worse than 11-2 with a BCS Bowl Bid. Recent seasons that fall in this category are 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. I’ll call this the “BCS Category.”

The second category is characterized by maintaining a ranking between 15 and 25, being competitive in the Oklahoma game and with a few breaks here and upsets there a chance to at least tie for the Big 12 Championship.  At the very least finish no worse than 8-4 with a bid to the Holiday, Alamo Bowl or maybe the Cotton Bowl. Recent seasons that looked like this were 2006, 2007 and 2011. Let’s call this category “December Bowl.” The 2010 season was an outlier.

A Texas stumble Saturday night in Oxford it will pretty much ordain that the 2012 season will fall into the December Bowl category.  Only with two wins out of the games versus Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Oklahoma plus a must win at Kansas State could Texas redeem itself from a loss this Saturday.  Otherwise we’ll have to be content with a December Bowl and lots more talk about the next great recruiting class.  So from my perspective the Ole-Miss game is a pretty big deal.

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We all know the stories on how Texas recruited RG III as a defensive back and didn’t offer a scholarship to Andrew Luck.  Now we know, courtesy of Will Muschamp, that Texas also recruited A&M’s new quarterback, Johnny Manziel as a defensive back. Manziel has only played one game but he looked a whole lot better against Florida than David Ash or Case McCoy ever have.  Hopefully Texas’ evaluation of Quarterback talent is better now than it’s been during the last six or seven years.

While we’re on the subject an interesting story line will play out Saturday in Oxford as Texas faces Ole-Miss quarterback Beau Wallace.  Wallace was a teammate of Texas defensive tackle Brandon Moore at East Mississippi Community College.  Wallace a Junior College All American led East Mississippi to a national championship in 2011 and put out feelers to U.T. about joining Moore in transferring to Texas. Evidently Texas was satisfied to stand pat with David Ash and Case McCoy and declined to offer Wallace a scholarship.  Wallace set junior college records in 2011 for passing yards, total yards and touchdown passes (53).  In his first two games this year he has 5 touchdown passes with 1 interception.

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The weather has cooled so it seems appropriate that I go to the archives and reprise a short piece from Willie Earl 2011.

September Morn

There isn’t much in life that I love more than the first cool mornings of the season that we have in Austin every September. Yes it’ll reach 96 sometime this afternoon but that doesn’t take the edge off of the the primal pleasure I’ve experienced each morning this week. As strong a memory trigger for me as the sense of smell, the cool crisp mornings remind me think of my childhood in Vestal. They remind me that it’s football season. But most of all, driving to work mornings this week with the sun roof open, I’m reminded most strongly of when I drove a bran new burnt orange Thunderbird, with the windows open, down Lamar Boulevard past Pease Park and downtown Austin on certain September mornings in 1979.

All was right with the world for me in September of 1979 and it wasn’t because of the burnt orange T-Bird (though that wasn’t too shabby). September of 1979 was when Helen Yoxall became my girlfriend. That would be the current Helen Yoxall Frink. Helen was a senior at U.T. that fall and I was a salesman for MCI with an office at Dobie Mall. Pretty sweet. Helen and I often had breakfast together at Hamburgers by Gourmet on the Drag on those incredible September mornings before one of her classes and for inspiration for me to go call strangers on the telephone and ask them to make long distance phone calls with this new unknown telecommunications company called MCI.

In September of 1979 Helen Yoxall made life a dream come true for me and I’m still living the dream.

September morn
We danced until the night
Became a brand new day
Two lovers playing scenes
From some romantic play
September morning
Still can make me feel that way           
                                                             –Becaud & Diamond

I want to share one more item with you this week

HooK eM,

W.E.

Over / Under Contest

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