Football is a beautiful sport. But at its core, football is a tough, nasty game played by tough, nasty people. Longhorn football can be tantalizingly beautiful. But Longhorn football is not played by tough, nasty people, and hasn’t been for quite a while.
Sark is discovering what his recent UT coaching predecessors learned, and in some cases helped to create. There is a pervasive and deep-rooted softness and mental fragility baked into that program. Sark will either find a way to remove that doughy yeastiness from the recipe, or in three years he’ll be the next pastry chef out of Austin.
These late-game collapses don’t just “happen.”
Contrast that to what is going on at UTSA. I cannot say enough good things about the Roadrunners and their coach, Jeff Traylor. Tough, yes. “Nasty,” yes. But they play with a joyful exuberance and unity that represent college football at its best. Coaches talk about “culture.” UTSA has more “positive culture” than a foaming petri dish.
File under “obscure fact.” Purdue as an unranked team has upset the second ranked team in the country more often than any other program in college football history. Bottoms up, Boilermakers!
If somebody was gonna beat Au Jus, they should have done it in September. That Sooner Schooner is rolling now.
LSU did Florida? In the MORNING? In DAYLIGHT? At Death Valley? They may need to start scheduling more Bloody Marys in Baton Rouge and fewer nocturnal Bourbon Old Fashions. (Good luck with that.)
Teams exhaling in relief today would include Michigan State, Ole Miss, Baylor, North Carolina, N.C. State, Minnesota, Pitt, Iowa State, Washington State, Wisconsin and UCLA. They all survived games that appeared “threatening” heading into them.
Not so fast, Arizona State. You caught the bullet the above listed teams dodged.
Me? I’m not gonna let ‘em catch me, no. I’m not gonna let ‘em catch The Midnight Rider.
See ya manana. Happy NFL Sunday.
