(AP Photo/Erich Schlegel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The 3rd-ranked Longhorns (11-0/7-0) continued their seemingly unstoppable roll to the BCS Championship Game with another laugher against a Big 12 North opponent, the Fighting Manginos (i.e., Kansas (5-6/1-6)).
QB Colt McCoy had his best game of the season (32/41 for 396 yds/4 TD’s/0 INT) in his final home game as a Longhorn, and it was fun watching him bang on Big Bertha and set off the cannon after the game. The clueless ESPN announcers continue to hype McCoy for the Heisman Trophy, but that they do so undermines the integrity of the award.
Although a fine QB, McCoy has not had close to as good a season as the best college football players this season. Given the highly complementary nature of football, that’s certainly not entirely — or even primarily — McCoy’s fault. But this Texas team revolves around its ferocious defense, not its QB.
Having said that, McCoy has had a phenomenal career at UT. It’s hard to think of a harder act to follow than Vince Young and the BCS National Championship that he delivered, but McCoy has actually been a big part of elevating the UT program to a level even higher than it was in Young’s championship season. That is a remarkable achievement and one that vaults McCoy to the very top of the list of best Longhorn QB’s.
The Horns finish the regular season with their annual rivalry game at A&M (6-5/3-4) on Thanksgiving evening and then the Big 12 Championship game against Nebraska (8-3/5-2) on December 5th at Jerry’s World in Arlington.
In the meantime, Mack Brown and his staff better figure out a way to shore up the Horns’ offensive line, which had McCoy dodging bullets quite often against a mediocre Kansas defensive front. Nebraska probably doesn’t have enough offense to beat the Horns, but their front seven is pretty salty and could give McCoy fits if the Horns’ offensive line plays like it did against Kansas.
Frankly, either the Florida or Alabama defensive front will likely annihilate McCoy if the Horns’ OL doesn’t shape up before the BCS Championship Game.
The Aggies (6-5/3-4) schizophrenic season continued as they hammered Baylor (4-7/1-6) and qualified for a bowl game for the first time since the 2006 season. The Aggies have now won games by margins of 35, 37, 22, 25 and 35 while losing games by margins of 28, 48, and 55. Go figure.
The Ags finish up the regular season on Thanksgiving evening against the Longhorns, and the Ags would do well to stay within two TD’s of the Horns.
A&M still has a long ways to go before they have personnel or depth on par with the Horns, but progress is being made, particularly on the offensive side of the ball where the Aggies sport a well-balanced attack when not embroiled in one of their periodic desperation meltdowns. The extra practice time that the Aggies will receive in preparation for their bowl game should be a good springboard to the 2010 season in which A&M hopes to be competitive in every game on the schedule. As bad as A&M football has been over the past couple of seasons, this year’s bowl game will be the Aggies’ sixth in the past decade. Most programs only dream for such a success rate.
The pure excellence of Cougar (9-2/5-2) QB Case Keenum was best displayed at the end of the 2nd quarter in the 23rd-ranked Cougars romp over Memphis (2-9/1-6).
After Keenum had filleted the Tigers for 35 points and 3 TD passes in the first 22 minutes of the game, Memphis came back with a long scoring drive to close to within 35-14 with 2:38 left in the half. The Tigers have an NFL-quality RB in Curtis Steele, who the Cougars’ leaky defense was having trouble stopping. If Memphis could generate another such drive at the start of the 2nd half, then one could see how they could make a game of it by keeping the ball away from the Cougar offense, much in the same way that Central Florida did in upsetting the Coogs last week.
Keenum would have none of that. In a minute and 58 seconds, he drove the Cougars 73 yds in 8 plays to make it 42-14 at halftime. When the Cougar defense forced a three-and-out on Memphis at the start of the 2nd half, Keenum drove the Cougars to another quick TD to make it 49-14. Keenum took a seat on the bench for the remainder of the game only four minutes into the 2nd half. The Coogs scored on 7 of their first 8 possessions and rolled up 690 yards to Memphis’ 342.
Game, set, match, Keenum and Houston.
It is a testament to Keenum’s brilliance this season that he generated better statistics (29/39 for 405 yds/5 TD’s/0 INT) in a little over a half against Memphis than Texas QB Colt McCoy generated in his best effort of the season this weekend against Kansas playing the entire game.
The Cougars host cross-town rival Rice (2-9/2-5) next Saturday night and, assuming they win that game, will either host Southern Miss (6-5/5-2) or go to East Carolina (7-4/6-1) in the C-USA Championship Game the following weekend, courtesy of Marshall’s (6-5/4-3) victory over SMU (6-5/5-2) this past weekend.
The feisty Owls (2-9/2-5) upset UTEP (3-8/2-5) by forcing six turnovers. After an 0-7 start, Rice has now been competitive in all three games since their off-week during the last week in October, and have won two of those games by forcing turnovers, minimizing errors offensively and making big plays on both sides of the ball. The Owls’ strong play of late will make them sky-high for their game against Houston, which they would dearly love to knock off.
After two straight weekends off, the Texans (5-4) play the Monday Night Game tonight against the Titans (3-6) followed by a showdown next Sunday at Reliant against the undefeated Colts (10-0). Should be an interesting week of football in Houston.