This Week in the SWC: Rivalry Week

By: Dave Roberson

The ole SWC is back on a roll. Everyone except UH won their non-conference games and the Cougars were at least entertaining in a 41-59 loss to Southern Miss. Actually we went 2-1 against the State of Mississippi with Arkansas beating Mississippi State in 2OT and LSU pulling one out against Ole Miss. Earlier in the season I said that Rice really needed to get to at least three wins and what a way to get their 3^rd. In front of over 15,000 fans at Rice Stadium the Owls set some all time Top 5 School records in a 62-38 win over a formerly a first place East Carolina team. I say let’s have a tip of the hat to the Blue Birds on South Main. OU, OSU, Tech, and Texas all rolled to easy wins, with Baylor being the victim of the Sooners. SMU did what it needed to do and with their win over Marshall will be bowling two years in a row. Great job Mustangs! That leaves us with the game of the weekend in College Station. It was old time football at Kyle field, with all scoring done via putting the foot on the ball; five FGs, three for A&M and two for the Huskers. A huge win for the Aggies in front of 90,000 frenzied fans. Add in a complete meltdown by Bo Pelini on national television and you have the stuff a network dreams about. Wonder if the Big Ten is thinking twice about this Nebraska invite. There was absolutely no news on the BCS front this week. Our top six teams range from TCU at #3 to A&M at # 17. We will take the next look at the bowls after this weekend.

Week 13 sets up three huge rivalry games, OU at OSU, LSU at ARK in Little Rock, and A&M at Texas. Another conference game with bowl implications is UH at Tech. TCU goes out to Albuquerque, Rice hosts UAB, and SMU plays in Tulsa. Baylor is finished for the season and gets to eat turkey and watch football all weekend. Let’s start with UH and Tech. The Cougars are sitting at 5-6 and are one of two teams that have underperformed in 2010. Yes, they lost Case Keenum in the UCLA game, but even so, they should be sitting at seven wins right now. A win in Lubbock will make some lemonade out of this season. I am calling it for the more determined Cougars. SMU is playing a semi-final game with Tulsa. The winner is on the path to the Liberty Bowl. I see a wild one with the Pony Express coming out on top. And Rice will build on its great play last week and roll again at home. New Mexico will win the coin toss, but may not get a first down. This one could be 70-0. TCU needs to look very impressive to stay in the National Championship talk.

Now for the Big Three. LSU will have its hands full with the Hogs. These two teams are very close, both lost at Auburn, whereas LSU beat Alabama in Baton Rouge and ARK lost to the Tide in Fayetteville. It will be a great game, but I like Ryan Mallet and I like the Hogs. Catch this one Saturday on CBS at 2:30 CT. OU and OSU are playing for the Big 12 South. Winner takes all. OSU has the better record and is playing at home, but I cannot remember OSU ever beating OU when an OSU championship was on the line. It will be Bedlam Saturday night at 7 CT on ABC, but it will be the Sooners winning. That brings us to 7 CT Thanksgiving night on ESPN for the Aggies and Horns in Austin. For the past several years Texas has viewed this game as a speed bump on the way to a championship and A&M was merely playing for pride. It is amazing how many times Aggie pride has tripped up a Texas championship. But that is in the past. A&M is on a five game winning streak with back to back wins against OU and Nebraska, while Texas looks like the ancient Israelites wandering around in the wilderness. Let’s hope this is not year one of a 40 year adventure for the Horns. After last weekend, we may have an answer for the cause of this wilderness experience; Insanity. I am sure that you have heard the definition before, doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. Here is how it went down last Saturday. It was first and goal from the Florida Atlantic 4 yard line early in the first quarter. All season we have seen Greg Davis call for Cody Johnson to hit the line. He has bravely and valiantly hit that line all season. We have seen Cody Johnson average about 1 yard per carry in all of these red zone attempts. Now, other teams call for their running back to hit a hole, but not Texas; they hit the line. And they hit the line. And they hit the line again. Well Cody hit the line not one time, not two times, not even three times, but count‘em four times inside the 4. Guess what, on 4^th down Cody finally fell into the end zone. A TD, but wait the play was put under review and it was judged that his knee was down before crossing the goal line. FAU gets the ball. After a quick turnover two plays later, Texas gets it back at the 9. So this time Texas did what, call a fade to the corner, NO. Call a quick pitch to D.J. Monroe who is averaging about 9 yards a carry, NO. How about a fake to Cody, roll right, and pass back to the tight end in the back of the end zone, NO. Cody Johnson hit the line. But because FAU could not imagine that Texas would call the same play again, somehow Cody finds a hole and gets 6 yards. This must have set off a celebration in the booth so on second down, guess what, that’s right Cody Johnson hit the line again, this time for 2 yards. With a big third down play coming up, we really do not know what play was called. That was because Gilbert fumbled the snap. But the view from my seats had Cody heading for right guard and all of the receivers blocking. It could have been some kind of fake with Gilbert sprinting around the right side. Nah, it was going to be Cody right up the gut. For the second time in the first quarter, you would think that Mack had become the mad pirate from Lubbock. He is going for it on fourth down. No wimpy FG for the mighty Longhorns. All 60,000 fans were buzzing, that’s right it was only about 40,000 short of a sell out. From the heights of the upper deck end zone a warning is shouted to the FAU Owls defense. WATCH OUT for # 31 over right tackle. Notice they never even go to the left. Anyway, the ball is snapped, that’s correct; it was handed to # 31. But a funny thing happened on the way to right tackle. Cody bounced outside and scored. Pandemonium breaks loose at DKR-Memorial Stadium. A four play 9 yard drive consuming a valuable 2:02 off the clock. Eight consecutive plays inside the 10; eight plays of exactly the same call. On two possessions the mighty Horns amass 13 total yards and one TD; an awesome display of ball control for 1 ½ yards per play. And that my friend is football insanity. So this week as Coach Sherman breaks down the Texas game film, he is going to ask his defensive coordinator what to expect when Texas gets into the Red Zone. If I was A&M, I think I would key on #31. So, how do I see Thursday night, well it goes this way. Texas will have four trips into the Red Zone. That will be good for 12 points. Texas will have a long pass and catch from the 32 for a TD. That’s 19 points. A&M will have 4 TDs and 2 FGs for 34 points. Last time I checked 34 beats 19. A&M will get their 9^th win and Texas will spend the winter looking at a different blocking scheme to open that hole off right guard for #31 in the Red Zone. Congratulations to A&M for a nice season.