Nine hours and counting until Brent Musburger‘s familiar voice breaks into my living room with, “You are looking live at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California!”
Nine hours until Mack Brown begins and ends every televised sentence out of his mouth with the word, “Lisa.”
Nine hours until Carley asks me what in the world an elephant has to do with the Crimson Tide (I just know it).
Nine hours until Bo Pelini throws up. Again.
What are you doing to get ready for the rigged-up and overly-sponsored Citi BCS National Championship Game? I’m counting down the minutes. I’m really, really looking forward to this thing because I really, really have no idea who’s going to win. Texas and Alabama haven’t played each other in nearly 30 years. Colt McCoy seems to be in the exact same situation Vince Young was in back in ’05: undefeated season, tons of individual honors, a Heisman finalist, huge underdog in the title game, in the Rose Bowl, Heisman trophy winner on the other sideline, and basically the ‘Horns’ only chance to win. I’m not sure Colt is Vince Young, though. He can’t singlehandedly do what Vince Young did against USC four years ago. Not by himself. Colt’s skills are different from Young’s. And that’s good. Colt is multi-dimensional. But he can’t do it alone.
If the whole Texas team plays a perfect game and gets a couple of breaks…
Here’s a link to a pretty good ESPN.com piece by Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach counting down the top ten reasons Texas will win tonight and the top ten reasons Alabama will win. Click here. It’s full of lots of little interesting tidbits like the fact that the Longhorns led the nation this year with eleven non-offensive touchdowns and ‘Bama’s kickoff coverage is dead last in college football. Interesting…
There’s also the fact that Texas has hooked up with Alabama a total of eight times — four times in bowl games — and has never lost. Never. Again, they haven’t played in almost 30 years. But there’s that. In all four of those previous bowl games, the Horns were huge underdogs.
I suppose we have to root for Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley, right? Two great kids, no doubt. Two great families. Jordan 
set every Texas high school receiving record while playing for his dad at Burnet and helped lead the Bulldogs to two straight 3-A state championship games. I have a great love for the people and the schools in Burnet. Carrie-Anne worked there in the early ’90s and I handled the radio play-by-play during their magical ’91 season when they made it all the way to the Astrodome and the state championship game on the strength of back-to-back-to-back ties against Vernon, Marble Falls, and Southlake Carroll, advancing on penetrations and first downs. Ed Abernathy was the head coach. Rodney McGee, former Aggies and current Dallas Cowboys QB Stephen McGee’s father, was an offensive assistant. Mitchell Maxwell ran the option. Chris Denton caught the dramatic fourth down game-tying touchdowns in the final minutes. Todd Keele anchored the line. It was fantastic. I’ve always followed Burnet football because of that one crazy season. So, I’m partial to Shipley.
And what’s not to love about Colt? Here’s a link to his “I Am Second” video. Check it out here. Colt claims that God doesn’t care about the Longhorns’ wins and losses. He cares much more about “me getting to heaven and who I’m bringing with me.” Cool. Colt and Shipley both worshiped with us at Marble Falls a few times during McCoy’s redshirt freshman season in 2005. They both spoke to our youth group there one Sunday morning. During his freshman season in ’06 as UT’s starting quarterback, I had a chance one afternoon to visit with the college minister at the University Avenue Church of Christ there in Austin. He said Colt never missed a Wednesday night. Never. Sometimes he’d be a little late because of practice. But he was always there. What’s not to love about Colt?
(Did you skip his video? Dude, I’m serious. Click up there and watch it.)
If they can just keep it close tonight. I’m not sure of the exact numbers. You can look it up. But the Longhorns under Colt McCoy are something really insane in tight games. In games decided by three points or fewer, Texas is something like 11-1 under McCoy. During that same time period, Alabama is something like 7-18 in games decided by seven points or less. The ‘Horns do have the most accurate kicker in school history in Hunter Law. If Texas can just keep it close.
One final note you won’t find anywhere else: If Texas wins tonight, Jim wins our Legacy office college football bowl 
challenge. If the Tide rolls, Jackie takes the crown.
Hook ’em, Lisa!
Allan
ROLL TIDE!