It's shaping up like a Texas-USC championship matchup

AUSTIN, Texas -- Let's cut to the police escort shall we? The one leading the Texas team busses down I-5 from the Beverly Wilshire to the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4.

Vince Young's Longhorns debuted at No. 2 last week in the BCS. (AP)

It's a bright, warm winter day in Pasadena. The San Gabriels are shimmering and ... OK, sorry to go Keith Jackson on you but why kid ourselves? It's obvious.

One half of the national championship game is filled. Second-ranked Texas can hit the snooze alarm for the rest of the season. Save an ineligibility, a broken leg or felonious bar fight, the Longhorns are in.

Your serve, USC.

Texas' last major hurdle was actually a minor puddle jump. Tenth-ranked Texas Tech lost by the five-touchdown margin it usually wins by, 52-17.

Words like "fraud" and "gimmick" will be attached to Texas Tech to diminish the Longhorns' best start in 22 years. But words like "number one" should be attached to Texas. Really, who is playing better?

"(Who is playing better) in the country, than Texas?" Texas linebacker Robert Killebrew said. "That's a trick question isn't it? You're trying to trap me."

No, just compare you to the two-time defending champions, USC, which, let's just say, has had issues. Meanwhile, Texas is leaving a vapor trail. Aside from the squeaker at Ohio State, its closest game has been 25 points.

The Dead Raiders on Saturday ran 88 plays, held the ball for 36 minutes and accomplished little more than cramping up Texas middle linebacker Aaron Harris.

"Nooo, they didn't," said incredulous Harris after being informed No. 1 USC had lost.

Just a test, Aaron, to see if the Longhorns really aren't scoreboard watching.

Better yet, let's go directly to the source, the nation's top passer Cody Hodges. If he had a vote on Saturday would the Texas Tech quarterback vote Texas No. 1?

"The way they played today, yeah, probably," Hodges said. "Texas deserves a lot of attention. They have a chance to run the table."

Run the table? How about even odds on whether Texas gets tested before the Rose Bowl? It likely won't face another ranked team before the Big 12 title game, if then.

Texas debuted at a comfortable No. 2 last week in the BCS so the remaining schedule might not even matter. It is the only team in the country that is in the top 10 of both total offense and total defense.

"We'd like this team to be playing to a standard to be best in the country, not (just) beat the team they're playing that weekend," coach Mack Brown said.

Who's No. 1 has to be one of the subtexts to Texas slaying yet another mental dragon. First it was Oklahoma two weeks ago. Then it was a top 10 rival that somehow had crept up to No. 7 in the BCS.

Losing to Texas Tech -- considered culturally and athletically inferior by most Orangebloods -- at home would have nuked the season. Although there was hype, the neutral observer almost needed a cattle prod to get fired up about the game. Sure, it was a rare top 10 matchup (and the only one of the day) but Texas went in a 16½-point favorite. Texas Tech had gone 10-1 since a 30-point loss to Texas last year in Lubbock.

Good luck on starting a new streak after losing by 35 in Austin. Shortly after Vince Young threw a couple of careless interceptions, the defense put the choke hold on Hodges and the nation's top-scoring offense.

Hodges was hit, bumped, sacked and harassed, ending up with 369 passing yards. That's a major victory for Texas' defense considering Hodges went for 643 against Kansas State last week.

That and that top-scoring offense falling 37 points short of its 54-point average.

"It's always about points allowed," defensive coordinator Gene Chizik said. "Tomorrow the first thing we're going to tell them is: They're averaging 54 and they scored 17. I'll take that every time."

Chizik is on a bit of a personal roll. The victory extended his winning streak to 22 in a row. After building the nation's best scoring defense during a bittersweet 2004 season at Auburn, he was ordained to replace Greg Robinson.

Some guys just live right. Robinson made a bad, bad decision going to Syracuse where the Orange can't buy points. Chizik left a great job at Auburn for Texas where opponents are having an equally hard time scoring.

Chizik freely substituted to keep the defense fresh. For a while there it was like swatting flies. Tech ran 54 plays in the first half, piling up 307 yards. Although it trailed 31-10 at half Tech at least had a puncher's chance because Texas tongues were dragging.

The game might have turned when Harris dropped back into coverage trying to swat one of those flies. Hodge's low pass caromed high off the left side of Harris' helmet into the arms of defensive end Tim Crowder at the Texas 11 late in the second half.

It's one thing intercepting Hodges. It was a killer for Tech to allow Texas to take the ball 89 yards in four plays to push the lead to three touchdowns.

"I would have to say this is the best Texas team that I have been involved in playing against," said Texas Tech's Mike Leach whose team has scored 42, 40 and 21 points against Texas in the last three meetings.

A certain high-powered USC graduate in attendance on Saturday agrees.

"We think a USC-Texas pairing is a good matchup," said David Davis.

Who was that distinguished gray-haired man in the press box?

Only the chairman of the Rose Bowl.