Not so sure you want to go down the “they didn’t blow ‘em out, so they’re out!” path…

out of the Big 12 South doesn’t look as impressive after watching what happened to Okie State, T Tech, and Missouri in their bowl games.

Having one loss out of the Pac Ten seems better than it did four weeks ago after watching what Oregon, OSU, Cal, and Arizona did.

And that doesn’t get to the eye-ball test. USC looked much better than Penn State and Ohio State. Texas looked even with Ohio State and Texas Tech.

I agree that OSU played well but not great, but I disagree with some of your supporting facts (those that I don’t disagree with I’ll make excuses…err explanations as to why I think this is the case):

1) Agreed. But he’s a true freshman, and unfortunately he’s going to make mistakes.

2) Realistically the confused and slow “look” occurred during Texas’ no-huddle spurts. When the game was played at a lower tempo, the rest of the D looked fine. To me this speaks more to OSU’s short-comings in defending an up-tempo game plan (which has given them fits all year when teams actually employed it) as opposed to being slow and lost. Still a problem, but I don’t think it’s the problem you’ve outlined.

3) Let’s be honest, Beanie had a concussion and was kept out of much of the 2nd half (there are some reports saying that he couldn’t see properly after sustaining said concussion). The 3rd quarter was god awful for the OSU offense (and to a lesser extent the D, but some of that is also put back on the O who promptly went 3 and out after the D finally managed to get Texas off the field without scoring). And while we’re being honest, OSU’s 2nd string running back didn’t seem to have a lot of difficulty moving the ball (6.0 ypc) late in the game. So I’m guessing that the point of your statement is Texas was able to stop the rushing attack in the 2nd half, which is not true. In the 3rd quarter? Yes. Hell, OSU couldn’t do ANYTHING in the 3rd quarter. But Boom Herron and Pryor were able to move the ball effectively in the 4th quarter on the ground.

4) While Texas did look bad in the 1st half, couldn’t at least part of this be due to OSU’s performance? It’s also quite possible that it could have been 10 – 3 at the half if not for a false start by Browning on the Texas 5 yard line. Hell, while we’re speaking in hypotheticals, why not 13 – 3 (i.e. no false start and a sound hold on the shanked 51-yard FG)? Or better yet 21 – 3, assuming OSU is able to finish drives like they were in the 4th quarter? Obviously this is all incredibly subjective, but you at least have to consider that OSU deserves some credit for said terrible showing.

In the end it was a hard fought game that was damn close and went down to the wire. While not exactly what either team was hoping for (an OSU victory or a convincing curb-checking for UT), it was still an entertaining game. As for the mythical “best team in the country” discussion, I’ll stay out of that because it’s just politicking, hypothetical scenarios, and invalid transitive properties (e.g. if A beats B, and B beats C, then clearly A could beat C; this is fine in mathematics but not in competitive sports). Though the real reason is I’m lazy and apathetic with respect to that discussion, but the former sounds better.

…now the obvious question, why did you save that formation for the end of the year?

I wish I knew. Perhaps it’s because they had a little more confidence that the O-line wouldn’t do their patented ole’ blocking scheme, thus allowing statue Boeckman time to throw? Or maybe this was a formation cooked up for Michigan that was unnecessary (as Tress usually throws a new wrinkle or two specifically for the team up north)?

“Pumping up USC because you Pac 10/Big 10 snobs think nothing else exists between Lansing and Hollywood is just a bit tired don’t you think?”

I would make the argument between State College and Seattle, East Lansing and Hollywood are not far enough east or west to encompass all the Big Ten and Pac 10 schools.