10 Lettered Reasons Who To Bet on in the Title Game

L   9.  Last year No.  6 Utah def. No. 4 Alabama 31-17 in a game that wasn’t that close.  It was over after it was 21-0 by the end of the first quarter.  If not for a return by who-will-be this game’s overall X-Factor Javier Arenas, it would have been worse.

First Boise, then this.  But this was ‘Bama.  The defensive juggernaut that lost out to likely eventual Champion Florida and would not be upset in a BCS bowl to a “lower-level” squad.  Coached by Nick Saban.  Yeah, that school.

O   8.  Vince Young will be there.  I don’t know this for sure, but one would think he’d show up like he did four years ago.  That’d be cool to see for a current Longhorn, even the fans.

N   7.  The Shipley/McCoy connection.  Everyone knows how great they are together and how good Jordan is.  If anything, he may be underrated a little, but I just like that the besties/roomies have something special.  I am unaware of any elephants that have that.  One more time in the trenches won’t kill ‘em.

G   6.  Heisman’s don’t produce.  They have alright games, but we all know that’s not all right or near enough in title games. Evidence?  You could ask Reggie, Troy Smith, or Sam Bradford of recent times.  They all failed, and even with super or mediocre performances, winning is all that matters.

I don’t know what it is.  No one does.  Same as the Madden Curse.  Don’t tell Pittsburgh fans it isn’t real.  Ingram may get some, say about 100 yards, but that leaves…

H   5.  Greg McElroy.  The kid’s done nothing but win and score since he stepped foot on campus.  He is undefeated and perfect.  He’s due for a loss.  More likely, he’s due to finally screw up.

He may be fantastic; he may be terrible.  He won’t be phenomenal, and I can see an interception or two at least.  He may manage well enough as he has his entire life, but if one team were to get to him, other than his No. 1 teammates every day in practice, it’d be Texas.

O   4.  Texas leads the country in non-offensive touchdowns (11) and defensive interceptions (24).  It’s not like they’re bad at defense.  Alabama may be “the best” reputation-wise with more big-names, but Texas is no slouch.

They may be better and certainly perform better because of this; the same reason McElroy may continue to shine tonight.  Texas was 3rd in scoring with 117 more points than Alabama, but they were not in the most tenacious conference from a defensive point of view.

The Big 12 is not poor at defense, just not as spectacular.  But it’s not like Texas was beating the bums Boise and Houston were able to gang up on.  Florida was 4th with 502 points.  Now, Alabama did beat Florida, yes, so I must be wrong; however, Texas is more balanced overall regarding both sides of the football.

Alabama handled Florida, so they should handle Texas, OR Texas could learn from the mistakes of the team they should be playing and flip the script on this you-know-what.

R   3.  Hunter Lawrence: kid is clutch.  (Missed) field goals may decide it or turn the game’s momentum a couple times.

N   2.  Mack Brown is a great coach.  Everyone knows this, and maybe it’s said so rarely because it is known fact, but I rarely hear it.  In the annals of college coaching, everyone would rather love the Miami liar, and I know he’s the only coach to lead two different schools to the BCS Title Game, but Mack Brown does everything right and does not garner the same amount of praise as others.  They’ll be talking after a victory tonight.

S   1.  Colt McCoy is just the winningest quarterback in college football history.  No Heisman.  No Championship.  No problem.  Colt McCoy is a man.  In an era when he is surrounded by unmatched greatness, he is at the pinnacle with those few others.

Shall Texas win (led of course by Colt), I will write why it will be the most important thing in his lifetime and a lesson or notice to the world about how great this student athlete has really been over the last four years.

The last time a BCS Title Game had a feel like this one does, I was one of two kids at my school who was rooting for Texas.  A small private school, nearly all kids apply to USC, and about twenty get admitted and attend each year.

I was about the only person who wasn’t in love with USC.  That fall, 2005, ESPN held one of its poor attempts to gain viewers (followed by Who’s Now , Title Town U.S.A. , and others) by asking what college football team of the past could make a game of a matchup with that USC team and ultimately beat them.

I thought it was hilarious and succumbed to the trash (which is probably what ESPN wants) just to see how ridiculous it got.  Then USC made the title game as planned…but lost. Uh-oh.

This 2005 USC team was supposed to be the best ever, and then it wasn’t even a champion.  Three stars versus one.  Vince Young was underrated.  LenDale White was underrated and was USC’s star that night.  Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart didn’t succeed.  They failed, and horribly—according to the technical terms of their pre-destined greatness amongst mortals.

Alabama is the better team.  They won an overrated and top-heavy conference that had no depth and overall talent.  They have the best player in the country.  He’s so good that he won the most prestigious award by the smallest margin ever over a nerd from Nor-Cal.  Even the Pac-10’s second leading rusher ran for more yards than the Tide Roller; and he only played because their starter sucker-punched a Bronco on opening night like a fool.

They sack opposing quarterbacks and intercept their passes better than anyone.  They looked better against last year’s winner and didn’t nearly lose to arguably the best player of the past decade. (Nebraska will skyrocket up the rankings come Sunday, and they were less than 15 points away from a two-loss season…perhaps being in a BCS Bowl themselves).

Alabama is the favourite by four points.  They are more deserving of the No. 1 ranking now.  But tonight’s winner will take that for good.  And with it will come a title, or vice versa.

There are so many reasons to like Texas.  The spread is so thin, yet Alabama is being spoken of like it’s about to murder a much weaker Texas team.

The spread isn’t lying.  This will be a good game, and the winner will surely be considered great forever.

In maybe the best game ever, as I watched with all those USC Trojans, the game go back and forth, back and forth; USC went ahead again in the final minutes and people thought to themselves that it was finally over.

But VY, Vince Young had something left.  His night was more than amazing, and those teams made that game more than the best ever.

The lasting image I have of that game, that night, the Rose Bowl, the BCS Title Game, and most importantly of Texas, is Vince pointing in the air being showered in colored confetti.

It was so beautiful and telling how the camera angled from below him; he stood alone.  Kinda like how Texas must feel right now.  But they will show you, and you’ll remember this game for a long time.