Gut Check Saturday

Well, in the days leading up to the UT-OU showdown yesterday, there wasn't one writer, analyst or commentator that gave Texas much of a shot, even to be competitive. My prediction was a 17 point OU win and I even thought that was a bit conservative. OU has been dominant every week but last week (vs. Colorado, in Boulder I might add) and the reason they lost was they got out to a lead (like every other week) and stopped attacking...basically, OU's loss last week was a bit of a fluke. Texas, however got thumped pretty hard (in AUSTIN) by Kansas State which has a better team than I thought, but Texas played very sloppy and poor. So, Texas' loss wasn't quite the upset that OU's was, at least in my mind. Put those two elements together and I really thought OU would come out with, at least, a 17 point win if not more.

However, Texas played inspired ball most of the day. Colt McCoy was pretty sharp and the defense, even though giving up a few big plays here and there, played pretty well against an OU offense that is one of the best in the country. OU, at times, played sloppy and allowed Texas to hang around throughout much of the game. However, OU scored one more touchdown than Texas and walked out with a 28-21 win. So even though Texas lost, I was pleased they weren't embarrassed by OU like was the case 4 or 5 years ago. But one thing I got from this game was that OU is definitely beatable and not the machine I thought they were. They are still very good (and still in the hunt for the national championship) but they are beatable all the same. I'm not real sure the same can be said about LSWho? though.

LSWho? (#1) vs. Florida (#9)...in Baton Rouge...at night. Is there any better setting for a Saturday night game? Florida got stunned in The Swamp last week by a last second field goal loss to Auburn and I really expected Florida to rebound from that quite nicely...and they did. But when playing LSWho? in Baton Rouge and at night, you have to play almost a perfect game to win. And Florida hung in for a while but eventually succumbed to Death Valley and lost in the last minute. This was really the only test I saw for LSWho? the rest of the season. They are big, fast, strong, mean and nasty (pretty much like the majority of their fans). So, barring any fluky loss, LSWho should stroll through the rest of the SEC and on to the national championship game which will be, basically, a home game because the Superdome in New Orleans hosts the BCS National Championship game this year...just like when LSWho? won it in '03 pounding OU into oblivion. Forget Ohio State, forget USC, forget OU and any other team you can think of...LSWho? will be this year's national champion.

This is bittersweet for me because I dislike LSWho? with a passion but yet would love to see an SEC team win the championship like last year with Florida. Which is why I was hoping Florida would knock off LSWho and hopefully get back to the NC game. I'm not a Florida fan, per se, but always root for the SEC vs. other conferences. So, this year, I will have to swallow hard and cheer when LSWho carries the trophy off the field at the end of the NC game and just know that the SEC is the most dominate conference there is in college sports...that is really the only good thing I can carry away from Florida's loss last night. But since Stanford beat USC last night (in LA) anything is possible I guess...even an LSWho? loss.