The Most Wonderful Week of the Year

It's Texas week, ya'll.

And yes, I know. The Longhorns are due to beat K-State. 

It's a matter of odds, after all.

Sure, UT has only beaten KSU twice since the inception of the Big XII, by a combined total of 7 points (with 7 losses by 129 combined points, but who's counting), but come on.  This is UT we are talking about.

This it the mighty longhorns.  With an athletic budget that is #1 in the country ...

The Longhorns took in a little more than $150 million in 2010-11, the most recent year for which public schools' filings with the NCAA are available. That outdistanced second-place Ohio State by $18.5 million. The 'Horns' outlay for football and 19 other varsity sports was $133.7 million, almost $11.5 million more than Ohio State put into its 36 teams.

(That's close to 3x that of Kansas State, coming in with a paltry $58 million for 2013)

... and recruiting classes that KSU can only dream of.

And yet, somehow UT is one of only three schools the Cats hold an all-time winning conference record against (joining Baylor and West Virginia):

So yes, we have looked forward to this week, every time, since the "rivalry" began.  

Sure, it's not really a rivalry.  After all, OU holds the distinguished rival tag with UT, and certainly the Aggies did until they moved away. But while Texas would never admit it, it's there. Knowing that the Longhorns can't seem to solve the Snyder puzzle has made this game an intriguing one for over a decade.  

Will the trend continue this year for Snyder and his Wildcats? Very tough to say. 

Both defenses are struggling. Both offenses are looking for identity. Both schools feature embarrassing losses on the resume. Both still have plenty to prove. Both need this win for some validity. Both will be on the outside looking in of the BigXII race with a loss.  

One needs this game FAR more than the other.  And with the pressure mounting in Austin, Brown must find a defense in the next week or he may be facing a very serious alumni base looking to make some very dramatic changes.

The Bleacher Report addressed their 2012 defense this summer, chalking up most of the drop off from their #11 ranked 2011 squad to injuries:

Defensively, Texas would finish 2012 ranked 90th against the rush and 68th in total defense, far cries from what it was merely a season before. Littered with underclassmen, the Longhorns suffered throughout the season with the hopes that the experience gained will pay huge dividends in 2013.

 So far it hasn't.

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Hey, remember the stats comparisons from last year you love so much?  

Well, I've brought it back since now we've started conference play, and man, does it ever tell us everything we need to know about these two teams:

In reality, this tells us nothing.

Yes, KSU is dominate in special teams, that much is obvious.  We lead the Big XII in Punt Returns and Kickoff Returns. Why?  Doesn't UT have fast, athletic guys, too?  Yes they do.  They just don't practice it into a lethal killing machine like KSU does.  Snyder has always prided himself on exceptional Special Teams and this year will prove to be no different. We should finish the year atop this category as well.

Two big weapons we have UT doesn't:  Thompson is your current Punt Return National Leader at 19.75 yards per return (ridiculous) and Lockett is currently #3 in Kickoff Returns at 32.76 (equally ridiculous).

Hey look at that, a Tramaine video from KSTATEHD talking about his role in the special teams (with highlights):

The rest of it? Not much disparity.

Yes they have us in TFL and a couple other worthless stats like Net Punting.  And their Passing Offense is slightly better.  But most these stats won't mean much until we get about 4 conference games under our belt.  And even then I'm not sure how valuable it is to look at them but its fun anyway.

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Last year's BigXII Championship highlights over Texas never get old. 

(By the way, if you are viewing this via email or your phone, there's about a 100% chance these YouTube videos will not show up. You'll need to come straight to the site to view these in the best possible format.)

Enjoy.

This is a great video by ProtectEMAW that's equally as good to get you ready:

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Here are some awesome BSFS pics:

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This guy has always been hilarious after a KSU/UT win.  He's hilarious ANYTIME UT loses.  CowboyTD is a very knowledgeable, passionate fan who, by the way, I can commiserate with. When the Koolaid runs deep, losing is not fun.

Anyway, check out this string of videos from:

1) Predicting the Horns to win the BigXII to 

2) Reacting to the BYU loss to 

3) Reacting to the Ole Miss loss 

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Bottom line: this game will be tough for the Cats to pull out.

We will of course unleash Sams.

We will open up another 10% of the playbook.

We will make the UT QB's look bad:

But will it be enough? If Snyder has anything to say about it, it will be plenty.

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Care to see what my tax dollars are going to?  

Putting my daughter in Aggie gear, that's what.  

I demanded a refund for the 2013-2014 school year from Sydney's 3rd grade class due to propaganda being pushed onto my unsuspecting, sweet, innocent, little girl in the Texas public "school" system.

More like a place of Texas brainwashing, I say.

The school district will pay as soon as I can prove she's damaged psychologically.  I mean, look how devastated she is in that picture.

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"Dad, you're just worried I'll like the Aggies so much I won't like K-State anymore, aren't you?"

"Whaaat? No, no, no.  That's not it all.  It's actu--, actually, yes. That's exactly it."

"I know, I know. But don't worry. I won't stop cheering for K-State because I looooove K-State.  I just like their little dog.  He's so cute!"

"Yes, I get that.  But we have Willie!  He's fun and cute, too."

"No, he's not.  He's just a guy with a big weird head."

And so it begins.

(Waters + #Life) x Snyder = Wins

When Snyder says he likes QB competition, this isn't what he has in mind.

Every spring and summer during a QB transition year, we hear it loud and clear:  the QB position is "... competitive and both youngsters are making strides in the right direction.  And both are making enough mistakes there's not clear cut #1, so no, I don't know who it will be yet."

So it was no surprise we heard it again this year.

And when Waters was named the starting QB, beyond a mild raise of the eyebrows, no one was really that surprised. Yes, a QB who had only been in the system eight months won out over a QB with serious athletic skills who has been mentored by Collin Klein for two year, but he was the NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year. It would stand to reason if he could learn the playbook, run the offense, limit mistakes, and move the chains, he would get the starting nod.

This year, however, is different.

This year, it's clear that both Waters and Sams should, and will, see playing time depending on the game situation, and this is new territory for Snyder, who in over 20 years of head coaching, has probably never been in a personnel situation quite this daunting, this precarious, or likely this intriguing.

Bring On The Cats does a great job breaking down the game and offers the best summary of the QB situation and how to approach it:

But this "controversy" is really nothing at all.  This isn't Highlander.  There can be more than one. 

Through two games, both quarterbacks have proved to be valuable and they compliment each other well. Based on what the we've seen so far, playing just one of them would be doing a disservice to the team as a whole.

There's a great post game wrap up here as well.

"We've got two really good quarterbacks who are good at two completely different things and who both, if we're being completely honest, deserve significant playing time ... the coaching staff is going to have to devise a system in which both quarterbacks are capable of entering the game in any situation and do whatever the situation calls for, rather than thinking "Waters pass, Sams run".

Highlander VI -- We Were Wrong: There CAN Actually Be More Than One

We also all know Snyder is notorious for keeping things so vanilla in our the OOC games there's a very high likelihood he didn't want to showcase Sams at all.  The less tape the BigXII has on our secret weapon, the better off we'll be unveiling basically a 2nd offense that D coordinators will have to prepare for.  

And since Sams has basically only thrown one pass during a game to date, and considering the balls he put in the air in the Spring Game, it's fair to say that last 10 pages of our playbook Snyder is keeping tightly guarded until it's absolutely needed.

Case in point, we had a 4th and 1 in the 2nd half of the game this past weekend, Waters was in, and we called a timeout. I would venture to say EVERY COACH IN AMERICA would have brought Sams in to run for 1-yard and keep the drive going.

Not Snyder.  

He asked Jake to run an option left that was blown up for no gain. If I had been wearing my headset on my head I would have chucked it at the TV at that moment. Hard.  Now, maybe Waters should have pitched it. Maybe Waters audibled to that play.  Maybe an o-lineman missed a key.  No matter -- it was an odd call.

So, why didn't Snyder bring Sams in to get that first down?  Why didn't he put his team in the best position to make one lousy yard in September against Louisiana? Why didn't he just do the obvious thing and bring in a guy who average 9.2 yards a play this season?

It's because Snyder doesn't care about that play, that series, that game, or that moment in general ... at all. He is 2,3, maybe 4 games ahead of you and I.  It was evident as Thompson raced down the sideline on a 60-yard punt return for a near TD.  Snyder stands completely still, hands on his hips, as the wind from Thompson blows his hair back as he glided by .. no emotion, no movement, no smile, nothing.

Why?  Because Snyder was thinking about 4 and 1 against OSU in three weeks.  And he wants absolutely no film on that play for the OSU D-coordinators.  He wants to win with the most basic, vanilla, boring, offense he can possibly get away with so that when 4 and 1 comes at OSU, if Daniels Sams does happen to be in there, he wants to have the defense completely at his mercy.  

And that's why we will continue to see this offense evolve.  By the time the Wizard is done, it's more than likely he will have created an offense that's almost impossible to stop. Waters running one offense, Sams running another.  

Two offenses, both able to move the ball, both using the same personnel, both striking at key weaknesses in the other team, could mean big things for this team in 2013.  

And our special teams are going to be pretty amazing too. (If they would just kick it to us.)