the tindog coffeehouse

You might be thinking based on my recent “Longhorns Inc.” post that I’m biased against college football because of the commercial aspects of the game. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite the commercialism, I still love college football, and this week is a perfect example of why.

Tomorrow the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns head to my hometown of Lubbock to face off against the No. 7 Texas Tech Red Raiders. Both teams are undefeated and ranked in the Top 10, and both are led by Heisman-worthy quarterbacks. As the Austin American-Statesman said, “Yep, it’s a big one.” Seems like we’ve heard that a few times before this season.

Anyway, since the “Longhorns Inc.” post focused on a lot of numbers, let’s look at a few others:

• 8-2 – Mack Brown’s record against Tech. Both losses occurred in Lubbock.
• 2002 – The last year Texas lost to Tech.
• 4 – The Longhorns ranking coming into the 2002 Tech game. They had already lost to OU, and the loss to Tech would keep them out of the Big 12 Championship. It’s fair to assume that a loss this year would keep them out of the National Championship.
• 2005 – The last time Tech was ranked 7th in the BCS. It came the same week the Red Raiders played No. 2 UT. UT won that game 52-17 and would go on to finish the season undefeated and win the National Championship.
• 2006 – The last year Texas played the Red Raiders in Lubbock. They won that game 35-31 after overcoming a 21-point deficit. It was Colt McCoy’s first visit to Raiderland.
• 493 – The average number of passing yards racked up by Tech quarterback Graham Harrell in the last two Texas games. Despite the huge number, the Horns won both games.
• 262 – The average number of passing yards racked up by Texas quarterback Colt McCoy in the last two Tech games.
• 335 – The number of yards averaged by Colt McCoy over the last three games. He’s completed 85% of his passes, scored 8 touchdowns, and had only 1 interception. He ranks 2nd nationally in pass efficiency.

So what do all these numbers mean? It means that Tech does have the potential to beat the Horns, but it’s not going to be easy. Tech’s offense has basically one play, and that’s to pass. But accumulating hundreds of passing yards doesn’t necessarily guarantee a victory.

That being said, here’s the one last number:

• 41-7 – The score of the game, as predicted by NCAA Football 09 for the Wii, with Texas claiming the win.

Personally, I think the score will be a lot higher on both sides, but the Horns should still be able to add another victory to the Win column.

Hook ‘Em, Horns!

Real Score: 39-33, Tech. WTF?! Yeah, I knew the predicted score wouldn’t be close, but I’m still stunned by how poorly Texas played through most of the game. And then after everything, it came down to a dropped interception with 8 seconds left that would’ve given the Horns a 1-point win! Crap! Well, time to regroup and just be thankful Texas didn’t fall too far in the polls. The National Championship is probably no longer an option, but there’s still a lot football left to be played, so anything is possible. Unfortunately for Texas, though, their fate will be decided by how everyone else does.