The Real Season Begins

Nice tune-up game for the Longhorns - they did exactly what they should have done and they looked sharp. I will say that there are at least 3 or 4 5A high school football teams in this state who could probably beat Rice - they are TERRIBLE.

But that's OK as Texas did what they should have done. It was nice to see a variety of players in there - especially in the second half. McCoy was damn-neared perfect and he and Limas Sweed looked as if they have been playing together for about 10 years.

I'm particularly excited about 2 young players - RB Vondrell McGee and QB John Chiles. Both are uber talented, but you can tell Chiles is very raw (he is a freshman after all). Looking forward to watching both of these guys develop over the next couple of years - hopefully we'll have a couple of more wins similar to this one to get this guys some experience.

Looking ahead, Texas has a payback game coming up next week to kick off conference play - and we all remember what happened last year in Manhattan. As positive as I think this game was for our offensive "cohesion", I'm still a tad worried about our defense. Although they haven't been playing power houses, Kstate's offense is putting up some wicked numbers (34 and 61 points in consecutive games and averaging 430 yards/game). This Texas defense really needs to get into sync over these next two weeks as they'll have a very powerful and very confident Oklahoma offense coming at them - and you know Stoops will have them ready to play.

Offensively, I think the overall "mojo" will continue to improve and Colt and the receivers will be tough to stop....and you know how I feel about the running game. Jamaal Charles can run fast, but he fumbles the ball way too much. This is always a concern of mine going into any game (Rice proved no different - what was it, the first play of the game??).

Other Notes from Around the Country:

• You really gotta feel for that Texas Tech team - what a game. If I'm the defensive coordinator for the Red Raiders I'm having practice at noon on Sunday for about 5 hours doing nothing but tackling drills. Say what you will about Crabtree's drop on the last play of the game (but don't forget that he had about 237 yards too), but you simply cannot allow a 55 yard play for a go-ahead touchdown - that is completely unacceptable and in my opinion, that was the difference.
  
• I cannot for the life of me imagine why Colt Brennan is any more of an intriguing story than Graham Harrell. Let's look at Harrell's numbers on Saturday: 46 of 67 (68% completions) for 646 yards, 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. I know they lost, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Harrell.
  
• Tech's loss to Okie State recap: http://fannation.com/blogs/post/61626
  
• Talk about over-rated - those pesky sports writers and talking heads really want Nebraska to be better than they are - in case you missed it, Nebraska beat Ball State (yea, Ball State) at home by 1 point after Ball State missed an extra point in the final minute. They were losing a lot of this game. I like what Callahan has done with this program, but it's going to take some more time. Keller just isn't as good as we'd like him to be - it's as plain as that. I really want Nebraska to be "back", but they're not....at least not yet. These guys may lose 4 more games this year.
  
• Memo to Louisville - do you know how bad you have to be to lose to Syracuse? That's terrible - this team is clearly having some issues and I'm not sure how they're going to bounce back - they still have Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia on their schedule.
  
• The Big 10 is atrocious - I mean really bad. I think, much to my surprise, that Ohio State looks like the class of this league - by a mile. I thought Penn State was in a nice position to make that leap, but their offense is lame at best. I think the Anthony Morelli experiment should be looking for an exit strategy. How can you not score a touchdown on this Michigan defense? And Wisconsin is just waiting to implode - these guys are just barely getting by against some pretty poor competition. Iowa lost to Iowa State at home....who just lost to Toledo. Technically speaking, Michigan can win this conference as well - now wouldn't that be something.
• I got to see some of the Bama/Georgia game, but the crowd noise from Iowa fans packing the bar, coupled with the 5th pint of the afternoon/evening, hindered me from seeing the end - sounds like an instant classic. I think that within a year Nick Saban will have this team competing for a conference title.
  
• I'll continue to say this until I see something that tells me otherwise - there's not a more complete team in the country than LSU. Flynn didn't look 100% healthy from his ankle injury a couple of weeks ago and it was a rainy afternoon...so LSU ran the ball for 300 yards. Perriloux seems to be turning into a solid player (damnit) too so there's not a tremendous amount of pressure on Flynn to return ASAP.
  
• Anyone else excited/happy to see what Kentucky is doing this year? Pretty cool watching these guys each week.
  
• Arkansas and A&M are identical - both have a tremendous running game, but zero passing game. I just don't think you can consistently be successful, especially against the competition these guys play each year, without having some semblance of a balanced attack. With that said, I do believe Darren McFadden is the best back in the country. It's too bad his team is struggling so much as it will keep him from getting a ton of heisman consideration.
  
• I'm sorry, but I've seen nothing that would indicate that Jimmy Clausen is ever going to be anything other than a mediocre quarterback. I'm not saying he can't do it and I know his offensive line (and rest of the offense for that matter) is very weak, but when you watch him, there's nothing that says, "oh, he's got great X skills". He looks just like the 50-80 average QBs in the country.
  

Finally, a big thank you to Rustie and Allison for their hospitality this weekend (had a "free night" in San Fran between work functions) and really fun day/night. If you ever are in the city and need something fun to do - they always deliver. Thanks again guys.

We'll do it again next week.