Texas 49, A&M 39

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving Holiday complete with 27 hours spent on the couch watching a cornucopia of delicious football. I know I did.

Some thoughts about the last four days that I think you were thinking but unwilling to talk about because decorum prevents you from going into detail in polite company...

"Dear Aggies...Um, Mr. T-Sip, we prefer Agro-Americans" - I just about had a heart attack Thursday night and it wasn't because I had extra helpings of Aunt Trudie's Jell-O Mold and Yam Surprise. Whether we admit it or not, the Ags gave Longhorn Nation one of hell of scare on Thanksgiving.

As Mack would say, "give credit to A&M for playing hard (one night of the year) and being consumate hosts for this in-state rivalry game (read: the white noise function on our iPods worked great, we slept well, and had breakfast flown in replete with Bunson Burner omolette bar)."

That being said, Aggie Apologists, I don't want to hear about moral victories or how you're going to Gig us two demerrits next year or any mention of Aggie QB Jarrod Johnson being the second coming of Bucky Richardson or any complaints about network bias after the ESPN camera crew managed to find the one cadet who brought his sister to the game and zoomed in on them after every single A&M score...awkward!!!

Bottom line, you can't talk trash until after you've looked at your painted overalls and $6 haircuts in the mirror and asked yourself, "if we're capable of playing that well against a Top 5 Team and we're all about playing a winning brand of football (and not just trying to crash UT's party because they refuse to play tummy sticks with us), then why the hell did we go 6-6 in a season when the Big XII, top to bottom, was probably the weakest it's been since the inception of the conference?"

When you figure that out or can tell me what your defensive coordinator means by, "I tell you what, that Colt McCoy is slicker than crap through a jackrabbit that just got flattened by an 18-Wheeler," then you may get back to me.

"Oh those wonderul folks at Nike just thought of everything...they even added a special ramming speed codpiece to their Pro Combat Uniforms" - Why? Why must we trick everything up? Was the arms race with Addidas over who sponsored whose uniforms that heated that Nike just had to compromise years of tradition to turn several storied programs into a pret-a-porter fashion show at participating Dick's Sporting Goods?

Fortunately, UT knew better than to let Nike go too crazy with their unis, but I'm pretty sure Tim Tebow wasn't crying before the Florida/FSU game because it was Senior Day...it was because he realized he was suiting up for his last home game ever wearing a uniform with pentagrams stitched onto each shoulder. In other news, Tebow did pick up two Heisman votes from the Wiccans.

"Well, at least CBS didn't play the theme song from Two And A Half Men when Tebow was introduced on Senior Day" - Did anyone else notice that CBS added an emotional soundtrack to the Florida/FSU telecast after the PA Announcer introduced Timmy to the crowd and he ran out the on field? I halfway expected CBS to cut away to a scene where Tebow and Brandon Spikes reprised the roles of Balboa and Creed running along the beach in Rocky III. After all, we're not unbiased observers covering an actual event, we're CBS and we'll blur the line between reality and make believe as well as the lines between Verne Lundquist's six chins if we want to.

Some additional luke warm sports opinions...

- The Atlantic Coast Conference has contracted the Boise State PR Firm to think of something nice to say about the ACC Championship Game after both particpants dropped games to SEC also-rans the week prior...here's betting the press release says something about "tuning in to watch the tallest midget getting an automatic BCS bowl bid."

- Best fan sign/prediction from GameDay last Saturday: "Weis vs. Mangino in The Biggest Loser."

- Lots of drama in the SEC Saturday night where Tenn/Kentucky and LSU/Arkansas both went into OT...tremendous football games and further proof that SEC officials need to pull more than just their flags out of their asses...particularly on the last two drives in regulation of the LSU/Arkansas game. But take heart piggies, Ryan Mallet is the real deal and if Petrino can figure out how to play defense, look for the Hogs to challenge for the SEC West next year.

- TCU has finished the season undefeated, either Florida or Bama will too, and Boise, Cinci and Texas (all sill undefeated) will be favored in their last games...so we may have as many as five undefeated teams at the end of the regular season. But if you're hoping for a play-off system some time in the near future, don't read Dan Patrick's article in last week's SI where he recounted his interview with the new head of the BCS. He ain't budging. His excuse for not even trying a four team play-off, "the players of those four teams probably wouldn't get to have normal bowl trips and be exposed to experiences of a lifetime." Let me tell you something, if your biggest reason for wanting to play in the Rose Bowl is getting the chance to meet Mickey Mouse, you might want to ask your Fairy Godmother for a new perspective.

Speaking of going undefeated, I was really psyched about Texas finishing 12-0 in the regular season until my friend reminded me that our best win is over a team that just got skunked 27-0 by a Bradford-less OU team. And I'm already preparing myself for the onslaught of comparisons from smarmy pundits drawing unflattering similarities between this year's Big XII Championship and the 1996 and 2001 versions. Let's just hope it turns out for Texas more like the 2005 edition did. I know my heart and my liver would appreciate it.

Admittedly, I was really nervous leading up to the A&M game. Everything felt wrong to me - the short week, the emotional drain on the Seniors after the KU game, and most especially, knowing that the Aggies were capable of playing well when focused and would undoubtedly pull out all the stops. Am I clarirvoyant, no, in fact I'm sure a lot of you felt the same way. But I mention this because I'm surprised at how good I feel about UT winning the 2009 Big XII Championship and doing so convincingly.

For the first time since the final BCS rankings were announced on that infamous day last December when that smiling jack ass Barry Switzer told the college football world that Texas would be left out, everything feels right and in balance again.

In my mind, Texas has finally emerged from the shadow or dark cloud that remained after the 2008 season. I liken it to climbing a mountain such as Everest and just when you got close to the top, a huge storm moved in and you were forced to climb back down without ever getting a chance to crest the peak.

In that way, the 2009 season was all about ascending the mountain again and it wasn't nearly as fun as it was in 2008 because we'd climbed this path before and knew how painful and treacherous going undefeated could be...especially knowing even one loss meant total and complete disaster.

But now we're back right where we were forced to turn around last year. We can see the top again and though there are storm clouds off in the distance, the fates have given us the all-clear to make our assault on the peak of college football.

Oh yeah, here comes the adreniline rush that's been suppressed all season long for fear of peaking too early. The players can no more prevent their blood from boiling than we fans can contain our enthusiasm.

This is it.

There's no going back now and no excuses for not achieving the ultimate objective. The stakes have never been higher. Coach Brown knows better than anyone that there are no guarantees the Longhorns will ever be here again. Colt McCoy knows the difference between being included in the DKR ring of honor and being reduced to a mere footnote in Texas Football lore is winning a Conference and perhaps even a National Championship. And we fans know the difference between imortality and ignominy can be nothing more than a dropped interception attempt on the plains of some godforsaken hell hole in West Texas.

This is it. Finish it.

Hook'em,
54b