COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Sorry to ruin the ending, but Texas isn't going to lose. Not in the regular reason. Not after watching Saturday's 41-7 demolition of Missouri.
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| Texas is ready to make its stretch run, and a healthy Colt McCoy can only help. (AP) |
Looking ahead? You bet. The hardest part of the Horns' season is over. Their biggest hurdles are cleared. Like Alabama and Florida, they control their own destiny toward landing in the Rose Bowl for the BCS title game.
Oklahoma is toast. Missouri curled up into the fetal position, a shadow of the team that won a combined 22 games in 2007-08. It's not so much that No. 3 Texas is the best team at the moment. It's more prepared to be the best team. That's the word defensive end Sergio Kindle used after his Longhorns held Missouri to 173 yards.
"Confidence is always good," Kindle said. "I would just say we're prepared."
Prepared for No. 14 Oklahoma State next week. The Cowboys might be looming, but, really, Texas has been through this type of thing -- 51 weeks ago in Lubbock.
It won't get upset again. That one-point loss that kept the Horns out of, well, everything has been buried in mental zip file for almost a year, ready to be opened at the proper time for reference.
"We're ready to make this stretch run," Mack Brown said. "Next week's game with Oklahoma State is in the same spot as the Texas Tech game last year, so the kids understand what's at stake now."
Not that they didn't last year but there were three freshmen in the secondary last Nov. 1 and Texas Tech had Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree. Even as it bolted to 6-0 this season, Texas hasn't functioned 100 percent in any one game. Until Saturday in Game 7.
If the Horns weren't playing some slug -- UNLV, Wyoming and Texas-El Paso went down by a combined 164-37 -- making them hard to evaluate, they weren't healthy.
A bright-eyed Colt McCoy completed his first 11 passes during his best game of the season on Saturday (finishing 26 of 31, 269 yards with three touchdowns). McCoy seemingly has been bogged down some cruddy sickness each week. Then he bruised last week against Oklahoma.
It was a changed McCoy who took the field against Missouri. He had run for 91 yards all season. The offense just didn't feature him. Maybe defenses were more aware. McCoy still rushed for only 13 yards (on 11 carries) against Missouri but he was happy and healthy. Texas' offense was devastating by scoring the first three times it had the ball, racing to a 35-7 halftime lead.
"It's amazing how much difference it makes when you're not sick," McCoy said. "Free spirits, go out there and play and have fun. Tonight was awesome."
Receiver Jordan Shipley caught seven of McCoy's passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns. On the first play from scrimmage, the offense's biggest receiving threat caught a pass for 31 yards, which was nine more yards than he gained last week against Oklahoma.
After the game, some fan behind a fence yelled, "Go Shipley, you're a badass!"
What the fan didn't know was that Shipley was hampered last week by a sore groin. OU corner Brian Jackson had something to do with shutting him down but, like McCoy, it was nice to be a free spirit again.
"I don't feel like [a badass]," said Shipley, in his sixth year of eligibility because of injuries. "I feel like I've been beat up. That's a good thing. For two years, I was in that trainer's room every Sunday."
Win them all. That was the goal, wasn't it? Brown set it because he could. Do anything less, he told his guys, and the computers take over. Win them all and there can't be a protest from any corner. That includes still-undefeated Cincinnati, Boise and TCU.
You want heartbreak? Texas has been living with it since Crabtree tip-toed the sideline and scored with a second left. As a redshirt freshman safety Earl Thomas thought he heard a whistle on that play and let up. It was enough to allow Crabtree to score. He, and the Horns, were shattered. A year later, Thomas is having an All-American season.
"We're a faster defense, but we're so much further mentally," said defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp. "We started three true freshmen in the secondary last year. We went through our lumps but I'll take those guys over anybody in the country because of their athleticism and playmaking ability. We knew it was just going to be time before they were good players."
That secondary with Thomas (a team-leading six tackles) and fellow sophomores Blake Gideon and Aaron Williams combined to hold Missouri's passing offense to 99 yards. Missouri's passing game averages 282 yards and is really all it has because of quarterback Blaine Gabbert's bum ankle (which appeared to be tweaked again). When Gabbert left the game, it made it three consecutive Big 12 starting quarterbacks who have not been able to finish against the Texas D.
Muschamp smiled when he was reminded of the nickname for his latest defense. "The Legion of Boom" refers to the exhortation he gave to his Auburn defense two years ago in a nationally televised game against Arkansas.
"Boom, mother[trucker]," the sideline mikes caught Muschamp yelling after a big hit.
"When I said it, I got more e-mails that you would believe," Muschamp said Saturday night.
Now, it's Texas' inside joke for what could be the nation's lament. In the last five games, Muschamp's unit has given up a total of 128 rushing yards. The Horns have produced 21 turnovers which is five more than all of last season.
They're going to win them all because the biggest game of the season is next week in Stillwater. It sounds dangerous but it isn't. Texas already has mind control on the Cowboys. The Horns are better and they know it.
The last time the Cowboys won a big game, Boone Pickens was merely a millionaire. Georgia in September doesn't count because, as we've seen, the Dawgs are dogs this year. Texas will win because in its last three visits to Oklahoma State it has trailed by nine, 19 and 21 points and still come out on top.
Texas is going to win them all because the Big 12 title game should be a formality. The North Division is such a jumble that first-place Kansas State is the only team above .500 in conference play. Two weeks ago, it gave up 66 points to Texas Tech. The North has won only two of eight interdivisional games this season.
The same rules still apply as before the BCS era. You start the season ranked high, you win them all and you deserve to be ahead of any team behind you.
"What's happening in college football right now, it's like an in-season playoff," Brown said. "You better win and move forward. Style points are gone. They are unimportant anymore. Look around. People are shocked every week. It's fun, it's good but it's also difficult."
There was some drama. With six minutes left in the third quarter, McCoy coasted out of bounds on a scramble and was hit late by Missouri's Aldon Smith. For a second, Brown was torn between going bonkers on the zebras and checking on The Franchise who lay in a heap near the bench.
Brown chose wisely, tending to McCoy's body over scorching the officials' ears. The Franchise got up. Texas (mother)trucked on.
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