The Legit Longhorns

Say what you will about USC who lost once but thoroughly dominated every other game. Say what you will about Oklahoma who lost once but thoroughly dominated every other game. Say what you will about Florida, Ohio State, Georgia and LSU. But barring intervention from the football gods, the college football scene has been turned upside down by three teams that entering the season had unknown potential.

Alabama and Penn State have both been pleasant surprises and will certainly be BCS contenders as long as they take care of business. But there is only one team in college football, who week in and week out, have proven themselves as the most dominant team in the land. And they are the Texas Longhorns.

Yes, the Texas Longhorns have a tough road ahead of them, facing three ranked teams in the next four weeks (two of those teams ranked in the top 10). But if the way they have been handling good competition recently is any indication, the Longhorns are the new favorite for a national championship.

The Longhorns were a team that has turned all of their question marks into exclamation points. No Jamaal Charles meant no standout back to carry the load. No Limas Sweed and Nate Jones meant no more go to tall wide receivers.

"No problem," was the response given by this years’ Longhorns.

There may not be an individual standout at the playmaker positions of receiver and running back. But in each, there are a generous handful of contributors. As we stand just beyond the halfway point of the season, Texas running backs are averaging more than 4.5 yards per carry. If I were to identify an anchor, I would nominate Cody Johnson, a truck of a man who essentially plays the role of Brandon Jacobs for the Longhorns.

The Pro impressions don’t end there however. If you’ve watched some Texas football this season, you might be wondering how Wes Welker was able to go back to college and suit up for the Longhorns. I learned recently that number 8 on the Texans is indeed not Welker, but rather Jordan Shipley, who has developed into a slot nightmare.

But Shipley is not the only wide receiver worth mentioning. In fact, he doesn’t even lead the team in receiving. That nod goes to Quan Cosby, who is on pace for a 1,000 yard receiving season. So at the end of the day, Texas may not have a Juaquin Iglesias. But they have two receivers who brilliantly compliment one another.

Brian Westbrook also apparently plays for Texas. In the form of a younger and bigger Chris Ogbonnaya who has more than 600 yards from scrimmage and has been a dangerous receiving threat out of the backfield.

The three celebrity impressionists alone have combined for 25 scores already this year. And this all goes without mentioning the name of Heisman frontbencher Colt McCoy.

I originally thought he was to evangelical for my tastes, but since he is playing like a god, I feel compelled to make an exception for the standout junior quarterback. Under the lead of McCoy, the Longhorns have yet to score less than 38 points in a game this season, but more importantly, McCoy’s offense has been mistake free.

McCoy has often stated that Vince Young was the greatest college football player he had ever seen play. Interestingly enough, McCoy is well on his way to having a better season than Young ever did in Texas.

McCoy already has almost 2,000 yards passing and 400 yards rushing, not to mention his 25 touchdowns. With numbers as inflated as this, you would think he is your run of the mill gunslinger.

And he is, with the exception of one glaring difference. Colt McCoy apparently takes personal exception to throwing incomplete passes.

On the season, McCoy is completing more than 80 percent of his passes. The original knock on McCoy was the soft early schedule. Then McCoy came up huge against two Big XII favorites in Oklahoma and Mizzou, throwing only 10 incomplete passes out of nearly 70 attempts in those two games.

Oh look what I have done. I have gone more than a page and a half without mentioning the thing that Texas takes the most pride in, their defense…The defense that most recently held Mizzou to only three points in the first half.

Texas boasts one of the stingiest rush defenses in all of college football. Their rushing statistics rank them second in all of D-1 football. Their passing defense is the weakest unit on their team.

However, it should be noted that most of their opponents have been forced to air it out early and often based on how successful the Texas offense has been playing. But don’t take my word for it; as the 31-point average margin of victory pretty much speaks for itself.

College football fans, the media, the BCS and most important, the competition… Texas has “hooked ‘em” all.