Gameplan for Texas

I know everyone is hyped about the start of conference and how we are playing Texas for first place in the Big XII South. The Bears do deserve some credit for going to a tough place and took CU's best shot. I had been waiting to see when the team would grow a backbone and they finally stood in there and fought back for the win. Granted, the two wins we have were against possibly the number 11 and 12 teams in the conference, but as far as I'm concerned, we won't care who it was against at the end of the season. This was the kind of game we needed to win other games later on. Hopefully, the guys won't start hanging their heads and making the pooch lip when a couple things go against them in the future.

This week is obviously against Texas. I was actually present the last time Baylor beat the Longhorns, making an unofficial visit to campus. The closest we've come since then was the 98 season in Austin where we lost 30-20. I was also at this game and it was much closer than that. We led for much of the game and the combination of our self-destruction and Ricky Williams was too much. That 98 team lost about 4 conference games much like that one.

I never pretend that losing is good in any form. I don't believe in moral victories. On paper, we will get stomped. Can we win? Anything is possible but some major miracles in succession will have to take place. In the grand scheme of things, no one was counting this one as a win. However, the next two against KU and aTm were considered winnable (now must-wins).

I think the Bears should throw the kitchen sink at them. This serves two purposes: 1-Maybe we catch Texas off guard and we get some cheap scores to keep it close; 2- We force Kansas and Aggie to prepare for that crap. Make them take time out of practice and meetings to show the plays and run them with the scout team taking time away from practicing running up and making the tackle on passes behind the line of scrimmage where Bell throws it. I'll be dissapointed if we don't see double reverse passes, onside kicks, fake punts, etc. What's the worst that could happen? We lose? I think we know from the past 8 seasons that the sun still manages to come up the next day after losing to Texas.

I obviously hope it doesn't, but if it gets out of hand it would be a great opportunity to play guys like Syz, Gettis, Smith, etc. Let them play on national television in front of a big crowd on the road. That will be experience that will help them in the next 2-3 years.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I hope to see the Bears come out and compete for 4 quarters. I want to see them do the little things right: take care of the ball, limited penalties, solid tackling. If we do that, I won't care how it ends up on the scoreboard, it will show that the team is improving going into games we need to win to attain our goals.