The Rangers are back in the World Series. Congrats to my hometown team. Hopefully they’ll win it this year.

Sr. Running Back Fozzy Whittaker

#22 Texas lost to #6 Oklahoma State 38-26 yesterday in Austin. But it was a competitive game and Texas looked significantly improved week-over-week.

Highlights:

• Fozzy Whittaker returned a kick-off for a touchdown for the 2nd week in row. He also looked good running the ball from the RB and wildcat postions.
• Texas went with one QB for the entire game – David Ash. He looked improved over last week, but still made some freshman mistakes. He doesnt’ seem real comfortable with the deep ball.
• Malcolm Brown continues to look great with 138 yards rushing and 2 TDs.
• CB Carrington Byndom looked good against a great set of OSU receivers.
• The defense was able to get lined up against the extremely fast-paced OSU offense and looked good short of 2 huge mistakes that resulted in 2 easy, long runs for touchdowns by OSU. The defense also scored a safety.

After watching the Texas A&M/Baylor game yesterday, this is looking like at most a 3 loss season for Texas. Texas should be able to take Baylor despite it being a road game. They may have a hard time with A&M on the road.

All-in-all, Texas is a significantly improved team over last year. With all the youth and talent they have, next year looks even brighter.

#1 Oklahoma beat #10 Texas 55 – 17 today. OU looked great and Texas looked very ordinary, primarily due to inexperience at the quarterback and corner back positions. The Longhorn QBs turned it over and the CBs gave up big plays. Not a good combination. Next up is OSU. Hopefully Texas can step it up.

Cowboys lose to Lions 34 -30. Twice this season the Cowboys have blown two huge, late leads aided by poor play by Tony Romo. Disgusting. At least it wasn’t a divisional game. C’mon Cowboys, get it together!

#17 Texas redeemed last year’s loss to Iowa State with a 37 – 14 victory on Saturday night in Iowa. Texas dominated getting up by 34 – 0 at halftime. They looked good on offense, defense, and special teams. They created turnovers and had plenty of big plays. Texas plays #1 OU next week in Dallas. Hook ‘em Horns!

Junior TE DJ Grant catches one of his three TDs.

Texas continues to improve each week beating UCLA 49 -20. This avenges a loss at home last year to UCLA.

Case McCoy started the game at quarterback, sharing snaps with David Ash. McCoy went 12 of 15 for 168 yards and 2 TDs. Ash went 3 for 3. Neither threw an interception.

I’m really looking forward to watching Texas become a contender in the Big 12 as their young players gain more experience.

Key Takeaways:

• McCoy looks like the real deal at QB.
• Freshmen Malcolm Brown and Jaxon Shipley continue to look good at RB and WR. These guys will be stars.
• D.J. Grant is emerging at TE with 3 TD catches.
• The defense grabbed 4 turn-overs and applied lots of pressure on opposing QBs.

Sophomore QB Case McCoy

#24 Texas squeaks by BYU 17-16. Texas looked horrible during the first half. But the defense played good enough to keep them in the game holding BYU to 13 points despite QB Garrett Gilbert’s 2 interceptions. He was booed out of the game by the hometown fans.

David Ash and Case McCoy (Colt McCoy’s younger brother) shared snaps during the second half to rally Texas to a come-from-behind victory. It sounds great to hear “McCoy to Shipley” again. Receiver Jaxon Shipley is Jordan Shipley’s younger brother. Both the older McCoy and Shipley are now playing in the NFL. McCoy has the most wins of any Texas QB and Shipley is the leading receiver. Perhaps we’re going to see a repeat.

Key takeaways:

• Garrett Gilbert has regressed. Neither the team, nor the fans are behind him. His time as starting QB should be at an end.
• Case McCoy looks like a viable replacement for Gilbert.
• The Texas running game continues to improve. The combination of Cody Johnson for short yardage and Malcolm Brown for explosiveness looks good and should only get better.
• The Texas defense is still be settling into the new system, especially in the secondary. But they showed signs of improvement in the 2nd half. They got stops when they needed them.

Sophomore Mike Davis

Texas beat Rice last night 34-9. While they probably should have won by more points, there were a few bright spots:

1. Quarterback Garrett Gilbert seems to have improved over last year throwing for 1 TD and no interceptions.
2. Texas appears to have 2 legitimate threats at wide receiver – Mike Davis and Jaxon Shipley.
3. The Texas running game finally showed signs of life with the highly anticipated debut of freshman Malcolm Brown running for 87 yards in just one half of action.

I can’t wait to actually seem them play. I had to listen to the radio broadcast for this game.

Hook ‘em Horns!

I had the pleasure of attending the Dallas Mavericks v. the Golden State Warriors game at American Airlines Center in Downtown Dallas last night. It’s always great to make it back to Texas to see friends and my favorite home-town teams. Thanks for taking me to the game John. Great seats!

The Mavericks won their 10th straight game by defeating the Warriors 105 to 100. It was an exciting game. The highlight of this game was the unexpectedly good play of the Maverick’s back-up centers – Ian Mahinmi (3rd string) and Alexis Ajinca (4th string). Starting center Tyson Chandler was out with a stomach bug and 2nd string center Brendon Haywood spent a lot of time on the bench with foul trouble. This left the door open for Mahinmi (12 points, 10 rebounds, 1 block, 2 steals, 21 minutes) and Ajinca (3 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 9 minutes) to impact the game. Before last night, they had only played a combined total of 42 minutes for the entire season.

The Mavericks look really good this year. Not sure if they’re going to be able to beat the Lakers, but they look good enough to go far in the playoffs hopefully avoiding another embarrassing first-round exit.

I wasn’t digging the weather today in San Fran so I decided to picture myself somewhere else a bit warmer and sunnier. Here’s where I ended up – the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. I’m feeling better already.