I remember thinking when I learned back in January that we had hired Will that I better not get too excited because he wouldn’t be around for long. I thought 1 year, maybe 2, depending on which jobs opened up at other schools. And about a month ago when Tommy Bowden was fired at Clemson, I thought “here we go … let the rumors begin.”

So when I learned on Tuesday evening that Muschamp would not only be staying at Texas as defensive coordinator but also that he would someday replace Mack Brown as head coach, I was utterly floored. This is something that fans waxed philosophical on shortly after Muschamp was hired and then again at the beginning of the season. I always thought there was very little chance it would happen because when Texas is looking for a head coach, Texas hires head coaches, not coordinators. I figured we’d probably let Muschamp go wherever he was going to go and whenever Mack Brown retired, we’d go get him and bring him back.

But I underestimated the impact Muschamp has made on DeLoss Dodds, Mack Brown, university president Bill Powers, and the UT Board of Regents. I also underestimated Muschamp’s willingness to wait as many as 8 years before becoming a head coach. But nevertheless, here we are.

There are those who criticize this move, saying UT is risking too much on a guy with zero head coaching experience, and who knows how well he’ll adapt to the job when it become his? It’s a valid point. But I have two thoughts on this issue:

1) We aren’t some poor Division II school. We can easily afford $900,000 a year to keep Muschamp on staff until Mack hangs it up. If Muschamp turns out not to be so great at being the head man in charge, we’ll just buy out his contract and go find someone who is. If we’re right about him, then we just saved ourselves the bother of having to hire someone else.

2) I don’t think people understand just how hard Mack Brown worked to make this happen. Let me say that again … Mack Brown, the man Muschamp will replace, went way, WAY out of his way to get this arrangement in order. In addition to his regular duties of, you know, running one of the premier football programs in America, he lobbied DeLoss Dodds, Bill Powers, and the Board of Regents to get them to agree to this. And it’s an unprecedented thing in the history of Texas football. Not even Darrell Royal got to pick his own successor, though he tried desperately.

I feel perfectly confident in saying that if anybody knows what it takes to be consistently successful at running a major college football program, it’s Mack Brown. And if he thinks Will Muschamp, after 1 year of working with him, has that ability, then I trust him 1000%. Plus, Mack isn’t going anywhere, now or in the future. Will gets on the job training from one of the best in the business for however long it takes. After Mack’s coaching days are done, he’ll take on a position of importance in the athletic department, where he will continue to assist Muschamp with the day-to-day paper shuffling, PR stuff, which Mack is a seasoned pro at.

Then consider how thrilled the rest of the UT coaching staff was about this news. We’re talking about men much older than Will who have been working here for 10 years or more. And they’ve only worked with Will for 1 season. Yet they couldn’t be happier that he’s about to be handed the keys to the magic kingdom. This is really a can’t-lose situation for us.

I am ecstatic about the news. My lone concern is how it affects Major Applewhite’s future with our program, but whatever will be will be. Major knows this is a business decision and that he will have a job here for as long as he wants one. Someday, he could very well be offered the same deal Muschamp was offered. He will do what’s best for himself and his family, and so will the University of Texas.

Hook ‘em.

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything. Honestly, I wrote a very lengthy post on Monday, but in the process of actually putting it on the website, it somehow got deleted, and there was no way I was retyping it. It was essentially about the same things I’m going to discuss now, minus one or two details.

First, football. I think my hiatus from football was a good thing. I was way, way too obsessed with it for a while, and it took losing for me to see that. Now, I realize that it can be part of my life without dominating my life. So we beat Baylor and then went to Lawrence and beat Kansas. Neither game was particularly noteworthy. While I surprised that we beat the Jayhawks by 4 TDs, I wasn’t surprised that we won. Now it’s on to get ready for Texas A&M, whom we are playing one week from tonight. For the first time in years, we are playing on Thanksgiving Day instead of the day after, which I think is great for the visibility of the game, especially this year. We need voters to watch and take notice, and we’ll have that opportunity since we’re the only college game on the menu that day. In fact, the only NFL competition we have is Arizona @ Philly, which is on the NFL network, so a lot of people won’t get to see that and may choose to watch us instead. This is the stage we want, so we better come prepared to take advantage of it. And it would be nice to get some payback for what those assclowns did to our QB the last time they played in Austin (2006). If that crap happens again, Brian Orakpo and Sergio Kindle better be out for blood.

In the post that didn’t happen, I went through a number of bowl game scenarios for us, which I’m not going to do again. It won’t even matter until Tech and OU handle their business this weekend, so we’ll re-approach that subject at a later date.

In other football news, in case you’ve been living under a rock, or just avoiding anything having to do with UT football for the past few weeks, like I have, then I should tell you that Will Muschamp has been named the official heir apparent to Mack Brown and will stay on as defensive coordinator until Mack decides to retire. I will post more of my thoughts on that tomorrow, and trust, I have a lot of them.

Moving on to 7th-ranked men’s basketball … we are two games into the season, and the Horns look pretty good so far. We’ve thoroughly beaten Stetson and Tulane so far, with a VERY tough stretch of non-conference games coming up. The gauntlet includes a likely 2nd round matchup with Notre Dame, followed by a potential championship meeting with North Carolina at the EA Sports Maui Invitational (we kick off against St. Joe’s on Monday), then regularly scheduled OOC games with UCLA, Michigan State (in Houston), Wisconsin, and Villanova. Brutal. But I think I’m going to really enjoy watching this team, and I have waited most impatiently for this season to get going since March 30 of this year, when we lost to Memphis in the Elite 8.

Women’s hoops has gotten off to a great start as well. The ladies are ranked #13 and already have a win over a ranked team (Old Dominion). It should be a fun year to be a chick ball fan, especially since the Big 12 is stacked.

Also, last night, the 4th-ranked volleyball team defeated 3rd-ranked Nebraska at Gregory Gym in a very intense and well-played match. The win basically clinches at least a share of the conference title and a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and Austin is hosting a regional this year, so that is great news for them.

I’ll have more tomorrow on the Muschamp issue and any other topics that may come up.

Hook ‘em.

I know this is late, but I imposed a football ban on myself after last Saturday's monstrosity in Lubbock. I took the loss very, very hard - much harder than I expected to. I just kept going over and over certain plays in my head that would have sealed the victory for us, and none of them panned out. Wwhen I woke up on Sunday, I decided that I needed to get a grip on reality and stop letting something like losing a football game permeate my life to that extent. Something can be important to you without taking over your identity, and I think, in many ways, that's what this football team as done. When they win, I'm happy. When they lose, it is a crushing blow. And that isn't normal. So I forbade myself from visiting any of my usual football websites, watching ESPN, reading magazine or newspaper articles, even posting on this blog until today. I've had to focus on other things that are important to me, such as my job, school, family, and, yes, myself. It would seem like living alone and not really being much of a socialite would put me in a position to focus on myself a lot, but I've come to realize that I really don't. I am constantly thinking about other people and other things outside myself, which is not bad, in and of itself. I am a perfectionist to an almost pathological degree, and I have rediscovered this fact about myself since I started school again. I put a ton of pressure on myself to be great at everything I do, and this week, I found that it really is therapeutic to put away the books and computers and cell phones and PDAs and just relax on my big, comfy couch, watching mindless TV shows and forgetting about my ambitions, if only for an hour or two. In a way, it has helped me come back to the realization that regardless of what I may think is Earth-shattering, the sun will come up again tomorrow.

Being away from football for so long makes last Saturday's loss feel like it happened a lifetime ago, which I suppose has been good for me, and in all honesty, it would probably be better if I didn't even go to the Baylor game tomorrow. If it weren't for the fact that I've already paid for the ticket and it's too late to sell it to someone else, I probably wouldn't go. Nothing good can come from that game. Even though we will probably win, and by a significant margin, it won't help our nation perception. We're supposed to win by a significant margin. If we struggle, or even fail to completely dominate, it will just drudge up all the week-old frustrations I've tried so hard to rid myself of. Even so, I will make a few brief comments about the Texas Tech game, followed by a few more brief comments about tomorrow's game against Baylor.

I was really disappointed by what I thought was a lack of effort on both sides of the football in the first half last weekend. I just didn't see a football team that came prepared to play hard and win. I saw a team that seemed to feel it was okay if they lost or played poorly because they had won three huge games in a row when everyone picked against them. I hate that kind of attitude. The second half went a little better and was a dropped interception away from being good enough for the win, but it still wasn't the effort I had seen from this team all season leading up to that game. I can only hope this week has been as long for the players as it has been for me and has taught them as much as it has taught me.

Moving on to Baylor ... I will say Baylor's defense is better than it has ever been, probably. For some reason, I envision them stopping our running game early, but I still think Colt McCoy will pick them apart in the passing game. Baylor also has a very dynamic quarterback named Robert Griffin, who Baylor thinks is the next Vince Young. While he will never touch the player Vince Young was in college, he is a dangerous player and difficult to defend. I think this is where we will gauge the mental fortitude of this team. After a devastating loss that probably ruined this team's chances of playing for a national title and maybe even a Big 12 title, they now have to get back on the field on beat the crap out of Baylor at 11:00 AM in front of what will be a less than enthusiastic crowd. If they can make that happen, then I'll feel good about what's to come for the rest of the year. If not, then I may choose to spend all of Thanksgiving weekend with my family instead of going to the A&M game. Ah, who am I kidding? I have to be there to witness that beat-down in person. After two years of losing to those backwoods imbeciles, I cannot possibly sit and watch this game from home, no matter how pissed I may be at the effort of this team.

I believe the game is on FSN tomorrow, for those with viewing capabilities.

Hook 'em.

Countdown to Texas vs. Baylor:

1 day, 2 hours, 13

minutes

How fitting is it that we play Tech on Halloween Weekend? It’s perfect really. Halloween is a strictly observed holiday in Lubbock, more important than any other day on the calendar. I don’t know why, but it is. I bet there is not a pirate costume to be bought within 50 miles of that place.

But to complicate things this year, Texas is in town. That’s right. The #1-ranked Longhorns have arrived to bring the pain. Let’s talk some football.

Why Texas Tech could win

1. Home field advantage – This is important in Lubbock. Their fans are difficult to describe. There is a reason that not many visiting fans will go there. Their stadium truly is like a pit of rabid dogs, and their behavior is actually encouraged by Tech administration, but that’s a post for another day. Bottom line, playing Tech in Lubbock is always difficult.

2. Playstation offense – I think Tech does have one true playmaker on offense, and his name is Michael Crabtree. Beyond him, plug anybody into that offense, and they’ll put up huge numbers. The downside to playing an offense like this is that they are going to get their yards and their points. What you have to do is make sure that you get yours as well, and don’t give up anything cheap. If you can’t manage that, well, good luck.

3. Defense – I don’t completely buy it because I have yet to see Tech stop a truly good offense like the one they’re going to face tomorrow night. But rumor has it that their defense has improved, and one interesting stat that I saw is that they lead the Big 12 in interceptions. That’s a big accomplishment for a team that has never played defense before, especially considering how many pass-oriented offenses there are in the Big 12. If they can cause the same kind of disruption to Colt McCoy and Texas, it could be a long night.

4. Offensive line – This is another unit I’m not completely sold on. They have protected Graham Harrell well so far, giving up only 3 sacks. But again, I think their competition has been lacking. They run the same wide splits that Missouri ran. The object is to move the defensive ends farther away from the QB, giving him more time to make his throws. Missouri guessed that Texas was not quick enough to get through those splits, and Missouri guessed wrong. We’ll see if Tech holds onto that strategy longer than the Tigers, who abandoned it in the second half.

5. Trickeration – Kinda goes along with the Halloween theme, I suppose. Mike Leach is a crazy man – a “mad scientist,” as he’s being called by the media. He will pull any and everything out of his bag of tricks for this game because I think he knows he cannot beat Texas straight up. The Horns have to be prepared for whatever may come their way, especially early in the game, when Leach will be looking to get the crowd pumped.

Why Texas could win

1. Familiarity with big games – I’m not going to lie. This is a big game for Texas. I won’t go as far as Terry Bowden did in claiming that this kind of game is the reason players come to Texas. But it’s a big game because the stakes are high – win and you’ve got the inside track to Miami and the Heisman Trophy for your QB; lose and you have to depend on someone else to screw up. Texas has been there many times; Tech has not. It is not unreasonable to think that the Red Raiders won’t be as well-equipped to handle the pressure as the Longhorns will be.

2. The media factor – There is also the GameDay issue and the national television issue. This bodes well for Texas because Texas has played in many of these games in recent years and has played in 2 such games in the past 3 weeks (OU and Missouri were both GameDay games and both nationally televised). Okie State was also a big game in terms of stakes. Tech has never played in a game of this magnitude. Their players have never had national reporters watching them practice all week and requesting interviews every day leading up to the big event. They’ve never had this kind of exposure on this kind of stage. They can claim they aren’t intimidated by it, but it’s not about intimidation. It’s about overconfidence. It’s about being told one too many times how good you are and how the OTHER team is the one that better not make any mistakes. Texas has learned how to take all of this and put it aside. We’ll find out tomorrow whether or not Tech can do the same.

3. Offense – Texas is not a one-trick pony. They don’t rely almost exclusively on the pass to win games. I think the Horns will use the running backs to try to run a ball-control offense because the best way to beat Texas Tech is to keep them off the field. They can’t score enough points to win if their offense is on the sideline for 40 minutes like it was last year.

4. Defense – It is generally accepted that our defense is better than Tech’s overall, but there are two points of contention in particular that need to be addressed. One is that the Texas secondary is too young and inexperienced to be able to handle Tech’s high-octane offense. This might have been true in the first or second game of the season. But these guys have 8 games under their belts now, including games against other quick-strike, fast-moving, pass-first teams who were ranked #1, #11, and #6 at the time, and they have yet to lose. They are not rookies anymore. The other matchup that gets a lot of attention is the Texas defensive line against the Tech offensive line. The argument is that Tech’s OL has only given up 3 sacks. Great. Oklahoma State’s had only given up 5 sacks heading into last week’s game. That number had doubled to 10 by the time Brian Orakpo and Henry Melton were done with Zac Robinson. The point is that Tech has not seen a pass rush that is anywhere near as good as what they’re going to see tomorrow night, and Graham Harrell is very much like Chase Daniel in that he whines incessantly about being hit and gets rattled easily when he’s constantly got a d-lineman in his face. Texas took advantage of this against Missouri. I expect to see more of the same against Tech.

5. Kicking game – The biggest concern for me going into this game is whether or not Texas has improved on kick coverage. We have been terrible for the past 3 weeks, but really, it has not been a highlight for us all season. However, if I were a Tech fan, I’d be gravely concerned about the fact that my team has a frat boy walk-on handling place-kicking duties. We get that he can hit PATs. But can he hit a field goal from 35 or 40 yards out? Not quite as likely, which means Tech will miss some FGs, go for it on 4th down a lot, or attempt a lot of fakes. Either way, it pretty much forces them to score touchdowns, and that benefits Texas.

There is a lot more I could say about this matchup, but I’m going to leave it at that. Should be a fun night on the South Plains.

Kick-off is at 7:00 PM CDT on ABC. Also, everyone remember to set your clocks back 1 hour on Saturday night.

Hook ‘em.

Countdown to Texas vs. Texas Tech:

1 day, 8 hours, 5

minutes

I don’t usually write about non game-related things during a gameweek, but a topic of interest to me has resurfaced this week, so I felt like I needed to opine.

CBS decided to eliminate the use of sideline reporters during NFL games not long ago, probably much to the relief of their viewers. But what I want to know is, why is no one else following suit? The only legit purpose I can think of for sideline reporters is to find out about injuries, but I think networks could use runners for that. A player gets hurt, send some intern to find out what went wrong and relay that message back to the broadcast booth. No need for some overpaid moron to stand on the sidelines with a cameraman.

My first issue with sideline reporters, though, is that none of them are qualified for the job. Take Erin Andrews. She’s a journalist, so that’s a start. But what does she know about sports? Very little, if you’ve ever listened to her prattle on. And she most definitely does not have the right voice for any kind of broadcast journalism. I cannot stop myself from muting my TV or changing the channel anytime she starts talking because of that nasally, high-pitched yelling she does.

Then look at Stacey Dales. I get that she was once some great chick basketball player. Does that qualify her to be a sideline reporter for a college football game? I think not.

Then there’s Danyelle Sargent. She used to be an anchor on ESPNNEWS. That is, until she dropped the F-Bomb with an open mic during a show. So they canned her, and she was picked up by Fox. On Sunday, she was covering the 49ers game against Seattle and interviewed new San Francisco coach Mike Singletary prior to the game. She told him she heard that one of the first calls he received when he got the job was from his “long-time mentor Bill Walsh” and asked him how it felt to follow in Walsh’s footsteps as the coach of the 49ers. The problem here is two-fold: first and foremost, Bill Walsh died over a year ago; secondly, Bill Walsh was never Mike Singletary’s “mentor.”

Sargent has gone on record as saying that she knew she made a mistake and that if she weren’t a woman, this would not be a big deal. Let’s get something straight, Ms. Sargent. This is not about you being a woman. This is about you being an idiot. Anybody working in professional football in any capacity should know that A) Bill Walsh died last summer and B) Mike Singletary became an NFL Hall of Fame linebacker under Mike Ditka with the Chicago Bears, NOT under Bill Walsh, the father of the WEST COAST OFFENSE, with the San Francisco 49ers. Furthermore, as a professional journalist, there is no excuse for not doing your research before an event like that (i.e. Singletary’s first game as an NFL head coach). If you don’t know what the hell you’re getting into, you get on the internet or make some phone calls before shoving a mic in a man’s face and asking him ridiculous questions about getting phone calls from dead people.

So, in short, bravo to CBS for getting rid of this nonsense. I can only hope other networks begin to do the same.