How exactly does a human body make the kind of cut that USC running back Reggie Bush is making in the picture on the left?
Although the Texas Longhorns must find a way to stop Bush in the Rose Bowl, the Houston Texans and their supporters are just hoping that Bush comes out of the game in one piece so that he will be available for the Texans to select with their first round draft choice in the 2006 NFL Draft (at least Texans GM Charlie Casserly didn’t give that draft choice up in the Philip Buchanon deal). Inasmuch as the current Texans team is nearly unwatchable, take a moment to review this slick USC promotional video for Bush’s Heisman Trophy candidacy and the video that is included with this New York Times article of Bush’s exploits while playing high school ball in San Diego. This young man is really something special.

This US Today article reports on the ticket market for this season’s Rose Bowl game between USC and Texas for the BCS National Championship:

[T]ickets in the Texas end zone were selling for $1,050 apiece. Tickets near the 40-yard line were priced at $4,458.

H’mm. Watching the game on HDTV is sounding pretty good, eh?
Speaking of Rose Bowl tickets, you can always count on Craigslist to generate creative new ways to facilitate the exchange of such hot items with, might we say, more traditional services.

Texas Longhorns 70 Colorado 3.

Just as this special Texas Longhorn football team exorcised the Stoops Curse earlier this season, the Horns annihilated Colorado and freed Longhorn fans everywhere from the nightmare of the 2001 Big 12 Championship game in delivering UT’s first Big 12 Football Championship to their long-suffering coach, Mack Brown.
This one was not as close as the score indicates as the Horns scored their 70th point midway through the third quarter and essentially went to the belly series on offense after that. Most of the accolades go to the spectacular Vince Young and the Horns’ offense, but the development of the Longhorn defense over the past two seasons is really what has set these past two Longhorn teams apart from Brown’s previous UT squads. Last season, long-time college defensive whiz Dick Tomey joined the Longhorns staff and the Horns’ defense displayed a toughness and tenacity that Brown’s previous defensive squads had lacked. Then, after Tomey and UT defensive coordinator Greg Robinson departed for other programs after the 2004 season, Brown hired former Auburn defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, and the result has been an even more aggressive and cohesive Horns defensive unit. Most of the focus on the upcoming Rose Bowl/National Championship Game will revolve around the spectacular Young and the equally phenomenal USC running back Reggie Bush, but my sense is that, if the Longhorns are to win their first national football championship in 36 years, then it will be the performance of the Horns’ defense that will be the difference.

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Texas Tech’s football team (9-2) has had a fine season and will probably represent the Big 12 in the Cotton Bowl, although that final victory over Oklahoma was a bit tainted. Nevertheless, a mere tainted victory couldn’t stop a Tech fan in this hilarious video from proclaiming (loudly) his allegiance to the Red Raider nation during post-game media interviews. Hat tip to the Georgia Sports Blog for the link.

As Houston prepares for the Texas Longhorns to win their first Big 12 Football Championship tomorrow at Reliant Stadium, I have detected an unusual reserve among the Longhorn supporters. It’s a bit hard to describe, but it’s definitely noticeable — sort of like UT fans are telling each other “let’s not get too excited just yet; there may still be a train wreck looming out there” as the Longhorns march on to to their widely-anticipated Rose Bowl game against USC for the BCS National Championship.
A friend who is a grizzled veteran of the college football wars described such uncharacteristic lack of confidence in the following manner: “The Horns have not really been a truly elite team in college football for over a generation now, since the strong teams of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Thus, among current college football fans, the Longhorn program is sort of like the Roman Empire — very good a long, long time ago.”

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Does anyone else get the impression that negotiations regarding Rice University head football coach Ken Hatfield‘s future with the program don’t seem to be going all that well?
First, this ESPN.com article reports on the rather defiant press conference that Coach Hatfield called yesterday in which he denied that he is going to resign and talked about the upcoming 2006 season.
This morning, the Chronicle is reporting that Coach Hatfield and Rice are finalizing arrangements for the coach’s resignation.
In comparison, Texas A&M’s head coach Dennis Franchione handled the shakeup of his staff via an email press release.
You know things are changing in the world of college football when Texas A&M handles the firing of a football coach better than Rice.

Texas Longhorns 40 Texas A&M Aggies 29

The 5-6 Ags came up with an unexpectedly spirited performance for me behind redshirt freshman QB Stephen McGee (pictured) and true freshman RB Jovorskie Lane before the 11-0 Horns put the clamps on late to stay on course for their long-awaited BCS National Championship showdown with Southern Cal.
McGee and Lane were incredible, literally throwing the dispirited Aggie team on their shoulders and having the Ags in position to tie the score with just over 8 minutes left in the game. But Texas promptly tacked on another field goal, the Horns’ defense didn’t allow A&M another first down for the remainder of the game, and UT heaved a huge sign of relief as they pulled out the victory. The Horns finish their regular season on Saturday in the Big 12 Championship game at Reliant Stadium against overmatched Colorado and then it’s on to the Rose Bowl in early January against USC.
Much has been made about the Aggies’ disappointing season, but my sense is that it’s too early for the Ags to banish Coach Fran from Aggieland. Coach Fran and his staff have been responsible for the past two recruiting classes (2004 and 2005), partially responsible for the 2003 class (with former coach R.C. Slocum’s staff) and not responsible at all for the 2002 class. The Aggies basic problem is that they do not have enough good players in the junior and senior classes because, by my count, at least 17 of the 47 recruits in the 2003 and 2002 classes are no longer in the program. Losing a third of those older and more mature players left this particular Aggie team with little quality depth, and a bad spate of injuries — particularly at the wide receiver and defensive back positions — undermined that poor depth further. With a much more favorable schedule next season, along with another solid recruiting class and maturation of the previous two recruiting classes, Texas A&M’s program should turnaround solidly next season and trend upward over the next several seasons. What is unclear, however, is whether Coach Fran has what it takes to compete against Mack Brown of Texas and Bob Stoops of Oklahoma at the top echelon of the rugged Big 12 South Division. That issue will ultimately be the pressure point for Franchione’s success or failure at Texas A&M.

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As regular readers of my blog know, Dan Jenkins of Ft. Worth is my favorite sportswriter, bar none (previous posts on Jenkins are here, here, here, here and here). In this interesting David Barron article that explores where the 2005 edition of the Texas Longhorn team fits among the great teams of the past in the Horns’ legendary football program, Jenkins makes the following hilarious observation about the 2005 Texas team and its star quarterback, Vince Young:

“Even if this team wins it all, the whole deal, in my mind it won’t be the best Longhorn team of all time. That’s because this team is led by an alien, not a human, and its biggest threat is a busted play where the alien goes back to pass, can’t find a receiver, then runs over everybody for a touchdown.”
“If Vince Young carried the ball on every play, Texas would win games 85-0. But that’s not a team, it’s a group of undistinguished guys led by a monster from outer space. Nobody outside of Austin can name another player on the 2005 team, other than, maybe, Jammal Charles. Nobody.”

My vote for the best Horns team was the 1968 team, which lost and tied a game before Coach Darrell Royal said “what the hell” and switched to the Wishbone offense. After that key move, the ’68 Longhorns dominated the remainder of their opponents in a manner unequaled by any of the Horns’ national championship teams.

Chiefs 45 Texans 17

After beating the spread in the past three games, the 1-9 Texans took a dive in front of a national television audience in the ESPN Sunday night game as their nightmare season continued. This one was over in the second quarter as the Chiefs sliced and diced the Texans defense to take a 24-7 lead before Texans QB David Carr iced it for the Chiefs by throwing an interception TD in the waning moments of the first half to give the Chiefs an insurmountable 31-7 lead. Although the Texans’ defense was non-existent, Carr was particularly bad, as was star WR Andre Johnson, who looked like a petulant jerk for most the game. The Rams come in next week for their confidence-building session against the Texans, and then its off to Baltimore and Tennessee for back-to-back road games. My oh my, this is a really bad football team, every bit as awful as the horrifying Oilers teams of the Bill Peterson era. The Texans sure could use Sid Gillman and Mike Holovak.

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Recent posts here, here and here have noted the lack of research and insight in recent articles by Chronicle NFL beat writer John McClain and columnist Richard Justice on the subject of the woeful Houston Texans. Into that vacuum of analysis, Chronicle sportswriter John Lopez stepped up with this excellent column on the questionable personnel moves of Texans’ General Manager Charlie Casserly, and he follows up on that effort with this interesting column today in which he questions Texans head coach Dom Capers’ management of the team’s coaching staff.
Regardless of whether you agree with Lopez’s views, his last two columns on the Texans contain the type of research and analysis that provides the reader with a grounded position to think about in evaluating the Texans’ surprising downturn this season. That’s far more satisfying than off-the-cuff observations that have little or no factual basis and sound more like water cooler banter than the insightful analysis that readers really want with regard to the Texans’ baffling situation that few people predicted (Clear Thinkers reader Don Mynack excepted) before the season.