Eyes of Texas not on a bowl
Longhorns won’t win two of final three to become bowl-eligible.
If Texas misses out on a bowl game, the underclassmen can all look at one another and say, “No biggie. We’ll be back next year.” Not so for the seniors. “We have to get them to a bowl game,” Charlie Strong told his coaching staff Sunday. I don’t see it. The last roundup is fast approaching, and the reality is setting in that this team will have to do a 180 in its two remaining road games to make a bowl. Strong understands the gravity of the situation. He wore the same subdued expression during Monday’s presser that he wore after Saturday’s blowout of punchless Kansas — one of concern. He didn’t even show highlights of the 59-20 win to his players on Sunday. Why should he? A 59-20 win in Lawrence would have provided more hope.
The players understand that participation trophies won’t be given out to teams that finish 5-7. You might get that hearty slap on the back from
your position coach at the football banquet but little else if you don’t get to six wins. With road games against West Virginia and Baylor sandwiching a Thanksgiving home date against Texas Tech, one of the worst road teams in Longhorns history has to win at least two more games to qualify for the postseason.
When asked if the 24-0 loss at Iowa State served as a wake-up call, senior defensive tackle Desmond Jackson offered the most telling illustration as to what the Horns are facing over these next three games: “For me, being a senior, every game is a wake-up call. It’s the same for me because I don’t have too many (games) left.”
Had Texas won one of those two close ones against Cal or Oklahoma State, it might very well be sitting at 5-4 with a much more realistic chance of making it to a bowl game.
As it stands, good program representers like Jackson and Johnathan Gray will be home for the holidays.
It’s not my intention to be a dream killer, but the idea of Texas winning two of the next three games seems remote at best, given the competition and this team’s penchant for not showing up in true road games.
There was plenty of Twitter angst aimed at about 30 members of the Missouri football team for their boycott of football-related activities until school President Tim Wolfe abdicated his position.
Wolfe resigned Monday, and the interwebs were teeming with trolls ripping into a group of people who stood up for their belief amid campus unrest in Columbia.
My question for those who have a problem with the boycott: What if the players were members of the glee club? Then it wouldn’t matter. But since it’s football, everyone has a problem. What scares people the most is when members of a powerful school organization realize that they can use their influence to bring change.
This thing in Missouri is much bigger than a football game on a Saturday afternoon. And for those who say the team wouldn’t have protested had it been 9-0, don’t be so sure. Numbers aside, if protests like Missouri’s make our campuses safer for young adults of all colors and creeds, then we should see more bad seasons like the one the Tigers are having.
Couldn’t help but reflect back upon better days on the Forty while watching the NFL Sunday Ticket. Texas linebackers had a great day of it in the pros, from Tennessee’s Brian Orakpo recording a pair of sacks in an overtime upset at New Orleans to Washington’s Keenan Robinson becoming only the second player to intercept Tom Brady in 328 pass attempts this season.
The third, rookie Jordan Hicks, experienced his biggest individual moment as a Philadelphia Eagle when he returned an interception 67 yard for a touchdown against the Cowboys. Hicks was a shoo-in for the All-Rookie team before he suffered a season-ending torn pectoral muscle late in the game.
Ironically, Orakpo has had three different seasons cut short by the same injury, while Robinson had his first two seasons ended with pec tears.
One more thing on Hicks. He finishes his rookie season with 50 tackles, one sack, two picks, one fumble and the distinction of being the man who single-handedly killed Dallas’ season with the clavicle-breaking hit on Tony Romo.