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.
