October 31, 2007
Time for the Longhorn Nation to rally
Geoff Ketchum
Orangebloods.com Publisher
The football season is a funny and shapeless thing.
Fans across the country spend nearly nine months out of the year counting down the days until the very first kickoff and then many spend the next three months in agony as their team fails to meet expectations – both realistic and not.
It's the passion for the product that makes college football the most emotional of the major sports in this country, but it's also that very same passion that can turn joy into pain in a matter of seconds.
Mack Brown's team still controls its own fate.
Every time you think you're able to get your hands on this thing that is both a friend and a foe, it changes shape and becomes something entirely different.
One person's elation is likely another person's suffering.
As fans from Texas and Nebraska congregated before the start of Saturday's showdown between the two Big 12 schools, a Husker fan named Hank in red face paint and red clothing from head-to-toe explained why he had made the trip to Austin, despite the fact that the Huskers are the midst of one of the worst seasons in school history and entered the game as three-touchdown underdogs to the Longhorns.
"I'm 52 years old and I don't know how many of these seasons I have left," Hank said. "I live pretty hard, so I might not live to see 80. Who knows how many of these games I have left? There's only one season each year. That's it. If this ends up being my last season, I don't want to have any regrets. I want to know that I enjoyed every moment of this one because you only get so many."
While the stench from his 10th Crown and Coke lingered in the air as he walked away, his words stuck with me for the rest of the day and into the beginning of this week.
He's right. Every single one of us only has a certain amount of games and seasons left in us. If you're a player for the Longhorns, time is running out on your eligibility from the moment you step on campus. As a coach you can never tell when the last paycheck will arrive.
If you're a fan, it could be any combination of things – a heart attack or old age (although what rabid college football fan lives to 100?) or anything in-between. Heck, if you're an Ohio State fan traveling to Happy Valley, apparently you have to worry about drowning in a river of beer on frat row.
Regardless, we're all on borrowed time.
That includes the Texas football team.
Through the first nine weeks of the season, this team's season has resembled the roller coaster ride from the original Vacation movie. As the team goes up and down each week, everyone keeps crossing their fingers that John Candy won't throw up on them before the ride is over.
The crazy thing about this season is that the Longhorns are suddenly at an unexpected crossroads in their season. With every exhilarating run by Jamaal Charles in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 28-25 win, the light at the end of the tunnel became that much clearer to see.
With Texas heading into Stillwater this weekend for what could be the most challenging game of the season, the Longhorns can do one of two things. They can either let the Nebraska game serve as the high point in this season or it can be used as a launching pad for the final three games.
Either Charles' quiet moment with running backs coach Ken Rucker will serve as the centerpiece of the team's season-ending highlight video or it can serve as something even more inspirational.
Even after three quarters of uninspired play, three big runs by Charles turned Saturday into the moment of the year for this team … thus far.
In a season when national powers like USC and Florida have joined the Longhorns in the multiple-loss club, there's still a lot for which to play. The truth of the matter is that the worst team in Mack Brown's tenure at Texas can still accomplish things that some of the more talented, more consistent and flat-out better teams couldn't produce – a BCS game appearance.
At this point, the inconsistency of the first nine weeks of the season can be thrown in the trash. With three weeks to go, this Texas team can still control how it is defined as a club.
The Horns might not control their own destiny in the Big 12 championship race, but they do control one thing and that's their lasting legacy.
Before the season ever started, I went on record as saying that if the Longhorns were able to win 10 games this season, it will have been the best job of coaching that Mack Brown and Co. have ever produced in Austin. Nine games into the season, it seems crazy to suggest that the staff has done a sensational job with this team, but if this is a bottom line business, then let's get to the bottom line.
If the Longhorns can find a way to get past Oklahoma State on Saturday, there are two very winnable games left against Texas Tech and Texas A&M remaining. If the Longhorns can pull that off, they'll have 10 wins, a top-10 ranking and a likely BCS Bowl game waiting for them.
Think about that for a moment.
For a season that thus far been defined by what the Longhorns haven't been able to do, there's still a chance to re-write the final pages of this chapter in UT history and produce something that's memorable for all-time
Nothing that has happened to this point matters any longer. For Mack Brown, the Longhorn players and the UT fan base, the now and present demand your undivided attention.
It's time to stop wallowing in self-pity and it's time to start listening to Hank, the drunken Husker fan.
Each college football season is too precious to waste and with so much left to play for, it's time that the entire Longhorn Nation rally around each other.
One thing is certain though, you better enjoy this roller coaster of a season now because you'll be longing for these very days in a couple of months.
