Lets Play Pessimist.

I realized recently how unusually excited ecstatic I am about the upcoming season, so I decided that in order to remain reasonably balanced I would force myself to write a post from a positive standpoint and a post from a very negative standpoint. This one, obviously, is from a negative standpoint and will be followed shortly by a post blowing some serious sunshine.

Less than two weeks until game day, and I refuse to believe that the coaches are truly as confident as all the coach speak indicates. If Mack wasn't a football coach he would be one heck of a politician, no doubt about that. I am definitely drinking the Orange Kool Aid at the moment, as I am sure many of you are, even those of you, who like me, tend to be pretty "realistic" about the Horns. 

Lets talk about a couple of the aspects of the 2008 team that make me feel happier than a handbag full of Pokemon but could in reality be little more than a great spin job. 

1. OMFG THE K IN "BUCK" STANDS FOR K1NDL3!11!!! 

I love the idea of the "Buck" package, I really do. That's why I now use it on every single play in NCAA 09. Problem is, the computer is programed to make hilarious unreasonably dumb decisions whenever a blitz even gets close. The unflattering truth behind the Buck package, in my humble opinion, is that in a conference full of fantastic OL and mature Heisman candidate QB's, maybe we need every defensive back we can get on the field. The most sacks and hurries we can honestly hope for in a game is maybe 4 or 5 from one player, even one as potentially great as Kindle. There are going to be a whole lot of passes thrown, and with most of them for 8+ yards, a few extra sacks isn't going to make a huge dent in the score. Put another defensive back out there and maybe the opposing QBs have to look long enough for our new quick D-line to do some real damage.

2. OUR OLINE IS THE TRUEFF!!!1!! 

I keep reading blurbs about the 2008 O-line being the deepest we've had in a very long time. I fear that we may have caught a little Texas Tech syndrome. Tech is returning like 12 million players on both sides of the ball, but what does that mean if most the players coming back on defense are only mediocre. Sure, we are returning nearly everyone on our O-line that played a role last season, but they fell in the bottom half of the Big 12 (T 11th) and the NCAA (T 57th) as a line. 

3. THE DOUBLE-BARRELED SHOTGUN IS IN YOUR FRIDGE EATIN YO FOODZ!!!!

This aspect of the 2008 Horns might be the hardest for me to criticize as I have made it very clear that I am riding shotgun on this bandwagon, but I feel there is a valid argument to be made. Everyone who is anyone in college football right now seems to be moving away from the running game. Look no further than our brothers in the Big 12 North to see where a heavy aerial assault can get you. In the south, Texas Tech has been using it well for years with inferior talent. Why then, is it such a marvelous idea to add a player in the backfield who has done little else than run the ball a whole bunch. Screw it, lets put everyone back there and return to the good ol' triple option offense. Now of course that is a bit of an over exaggeration, but it might just be in our best interest to get the ball to people who are already over the line of scrimmage, rather than scurrying around in the backfield.

In the next couple of days I'll ignore that negative little voice and write about all the positive stuff that has me cleaning out my cooler, stocking up on beer, and gathering up tailgate food more excitedly than I have in a long while.