Colt McCoy was a friend of mine. Harrell, you're no Colt McCoy.

I know, I know, believe me I know all about how Graham Harrell has passed for a billion yards this season and has the head to head win, but shit like this is uncommon.

[Colt McCoy] on if he is tired at all: "I could play today. I'm telling you, losing is one of the worst feelings and if you play a sport, that's one of the toughest pills to swallow. So, when that happens, you want to get back on the field as fast as you can. I wish we practiced today, because I was ready to go to practice when I woke up this morning. [...]"

I think they'll be ready. I just started boiling water for the mouth guard I just bought.

Coaches Send in Ref Footage

Mack and co intend to send in a tape of specific plays this week in which they felt calls by the officiating crew were missed or botched. Although it does not matter at this point, it is still good to know that I'm not actually insane concerning all the missed holding calls.

Ogbonnaya Gets Some Florida Love

Nice timing, Orange Bowl. The week our National Championship dreams take a bit of a hit, Chris O. was announced as a nominee for the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award. If you haven't read or heard anything about Ogbonnaya's life, it's worth reading up on for the simple reason that it really puts some bad luck on the football field into perspective.

T5B5 Still Hungover

I wish real life was like a video game; I would love to have been able to hit the reset button at halftime this weekend. Congratulations to Tech for facilitating the ultimate worst case scenario for this season's Texas team, and capitalizing on the vast majority of mistakes made. Even though the game came down to one play, it is unreasonable to expect to win when you get dominated at the line of scrimmage and the other team takes better care of the ball. I doubt Tech would enjoy playing us best out of three for all the marbles, but we sure as hell wouldn't like to play OU or OSU best out of three either.

After playing at an extremely high level for an incredible number of weeks, the "but what ifs..." finally caught up to us. What if Roy Miller goes out for any length of time during a game? What if Brian Orakpo gets hurt? What if Quan Cosby gets hurt? What if the o-line has a 2007 flashback? What if Colt plays like a merely good quarterback, rather than the best quarterback? What if our young secondary gets picked on? We lose by six points in one of the most hostile environments in college football despite uninspired play calling against a team that just couldn't miss.

Top Five:
1. Malcolm Williams: Welcome. We are going to be scary good next year, and you are going to help us. Way to be a man when a major part of the offense in what may be the biggest game of the year was unexpectedly put on your shoulders.
2. Fozzy Whittaker: Even though this game may have temporarily derailed the 2008 season, it really applied the sort of pressure that allowed us to see a glimpse of the future. Fozzy reminds me of Jamaal Charles, but much more of a football player and much less of a pure track star.
3. Tech's Defensive Line: There is no team I hate losing to more than Texas Tech. None, not even any of our actual rivals. Fortunately for my social well being at the office, everyone else at work who doesn't share my passion for burnt orange decided today that they dislike Texas Tech enough as well to not pay me back for the weekly jibing they suffered from me. That being said, their defensive ends made our offensive tackles look like high schoolers. It was like watching the 2007 Longhorns play against anyone not named Iowa State.
4. Curtis Brown: Although he may want to forget about the last play of the game against the Raiders, his performance throughout the rest of the game was the best it possibly could have been against Michael Crabtree. Thank the football gods that we won't have to play against that freak show again.
5. Roy Miller: It's hard not to give Miller-time some love, because even though our defensive line didn't win the war, he won just about every battle. Even losing him for a bit hurt us, losing him at the end of the season is really going to be unpleasant.

Disclaimer: Ordinarily I would use the bottom five to make fun of other teams or our coaches, but once every blue moon I have to rant about the players to keep my negative side from forcefully taking over my thoughts.

Bottom Five:
1. Deon Beasley: I hate to call you out, but watching you get picked on for a full half was excruciating. You're leadership is irreplaceable in the secondary, but Leach correctly opted to even run the ball at you. Fortunately, we all know you are going to come back and finish the season out strongly.
2. The Offensive Line: I had come to expect an unrealistically high level of play out of this group, but it wasn't even that they didn't live up to that, it was that they didn't even come close. Before the season began I noted that this o-line was going to be the strong point of our offense, but at this point they (including the tight ends) just haven't shown up, and they certainly didn't on Saturday night. I can't wait to see how much better they look against Baylor.
3. Zone Coverage: I appreciate Muschamp's willingness to adventure away from previous tendencies (paging Greg Davis), but putting this young secondary in zone and hoping that Graham Harrell has a brain fart is like cheating. But for them.
4. Offensive Play Calling: About as subtle as a clown fight.
5. Colt MyBoy in the first half: I literally feel uncomfortable typing this, but I can honestly say that I believe he played poorly in the first half. True, he didn't get any help from his receivers, young and old, nor did his offensive line even pretend to push Tech around, but some of his throws and decisions just weren't on. I consider Colt off if he throws at the wrong shoulder, but missing receivers by 5 yards is tough to blow off. Thankfully his second half compared to his first half in the same way that Arnold Schwarzenegger's awesome action scenes in Conan the Barbarian compared to his awkward "dialogue" in the same movie. Look for him to set a school record of some sort against Baylor.

Tech Game Day Youtubes

Very slow start today after a punishing (for my liver at least) Halloween, but what better hangover cure than blowing off responsibilities, eating, drinking, and watching football all day long.

The two most important things I will be looking for in tonight's game are turnover margin and control at the line of scrimmage. Our d-line is far and away the best defensive line Tech has faced since last year against Virginia in the Gator Bowl. And the same o-line that the Horns face tonight dominated that defensive line. The difference between Virginia's defensive line last year and ours this year is the quickness this year's group has displayed. If we can get consistent pressure on Graham Harrell with only the front three or four, it will be tough for Tech to go punch for punch with our offense. That being said, the coaches should try to avoid playing the "track meet" style game Mike Leach will be looking to play. Sacks would be nice, but considering the strength of Tech's offense, consistently forcing Harrell to make decisions a second or two before he wants to is key. On the other side of the coin, Tech has the best set of defensive ends our (at times) spotty o-line has seen all year. Colt will get hit, but what will ultimately decide our success on offense is how he reacts to that adversity and his ability to protect the ball under pressure. I'm cautiously optimistic about our chances.

"You fuckin' with Texas, you fuckin' with the best.

I ain't hard to find; I'm in Texas, bitch, come and get me."

Indeed good sir, indeed.

Depth Chart Released

The depth chart for Saturday's game has been released, and I must say I am a little surprised. I realize the depth chart doesn't entirely sum up who gets to play and who doesn't, but is more a tool players and fans can use to gage how each player has performed (in theory). That being said, how on earth did Curtis Brown go from shutting down Dez Bryant, maybe the premier receiver in the country right now, to not even starting. This might be over-critical, but why didn't he at least get an OR like Chykie and Deon Beasley? We are going to be using Nickel and Dime almost the whole game right? At least he got the OR for back up punt returner with Jordan Shipley.

Tech Week Facts of Dubious Veracity

I'm not even a player and I feel exhausted from this ridiculous stretch of games. Which is exactly why a steaming pile of hate is in order.

1. Graham Harrell prefers white wine to any other beverage. Just plain un-American.
2. Mike Leach wishes the election was still another year away, because two years just isn't enough time to make a decision.
3. Michael Crabtree drinks Dr. Pepper, and clearly doesn't wear a WWCD bracelet like I do.
4. He also told on you for being on this site at work. I really hate that guy.
5. Graham Harrell wears skin tight Billabong shirts and calls everyone "brah" and "broseph." That might actually be true.
6. The Masked Rider once made a "your mama" joke without first knowing that the mother in question had in fact passed away.
7. Tech's Girls Horses, over the years, have injured refs, cheerleaders, and even the riders. Oops, that one is true.
8. Mike Leach is actually a closet Ninja fan. Poseur.
9. Michael Crabtree knows how to exfoliate his skin.
10. Graham Harrell doesn't give up his seat for old people on the bus, even when everyone else glares at him.