FanHouse Sergio Kindle

STILLWATER, Okla. -- It almost seems uncanny, the parallels between tonight's Texas-Oklahoma State Halloween showdown and last season's matchup between the Longhorns and Texas Tech.

A hostile road environment that will be filled with rowdy fans. Night game. National TV audience. The fourth game of an unforgiving four-game stretch that includes Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri before this one.

A bid for the Big 12 South title and a shot at the BCS national championship game also hang in the balance.

It's not like Texas and Oklahoma ever needed a reason to make their annual Red River Rivalry game in Dallas any more intense.

The tradition of the two programs, the bordering states and the fight for superiority in fertile recruiting ground of Texas use to be enough. Who knew this early season game would take on so much more meaning when both teams joined the Big 12 in 1996?

This game has become about so much more than school pride and bragging rights, as one of these two teams has won the South each of the last 10 years, and it has sometimes set the stage for the national championship picture.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

If He Can Get On The Field, Play Ball -- It's come to this: the 13-year-old brother of Tennessee safety Eric Berry has pledged to play football for the Vols. Nevermind that he's not even in high school, but the kid's set on Orange and who is Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to say no? The saving grace in all of this is that verbals are non-binding and four years is a lot of time to fill where both parties could easily part ways.

The 2010 NFL draft is still 51 weeks away, and yes, a whole lot will change during the 2009 college football season. But millions of us are obsessed with the NFL draft, so with the 2009 draft now behind us, let's take a very early look ahead at potential No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, as well as the other top players in the Class of 2010.

Last Year: 10-3 (6-2), # 13 AP, # 13 Coaches

Fans Are: Delusional, as always. God didn't create Texas, Texas created him don't you know?

There would be more noise made about last year's somewhat disappointing effort but the national championship afterglow is still in effect. People tend to savor something that takes 35 years to happen, especially people who talk like it happens every year.

Expectations: Another typical Mack Brown season: 12-2 or so, beat Oklahoma, play in the Big 12 Championship game, contend for a BCS bowl and maybe even a national championship.

Questions:

1. Jamaal Charles' sophomore slump was cute. Not. That's over with and he will go back to being Mr. 7 yards-a-carry again, right?

One would hope. He's apparently worked with the weights in the offseason and is finally running over teammates at practice. Thing is, he also ditched track and has two full seasons of football on his body, chances are he's lost a fraction of a step (or two) in exchange. So maybe he doesn't break away as many big runs but he'll become a more consistent inside runner.

2. The secondary was not very Texas-like last year. Any chance for improvement this time around?

Hard to tell. It's very rare to have that kind of talent assembled as happened last year with All American Aaron Ross, veteran Tarell Brown and the Griffin brothers at safety. They should have been outstanding. Oops. I guess they miss Michael Huff more than they thought they would.

The experience and overall talent will definitely be down this year in the Texas secondary, but sometimes overshadowed guys end up doing alright. Look at Ohio State last year, they lost nearly their entire secondary yet a cast of nobodies went out and throttled an increasingly pass-happy Big Ten. Mind you Chris Leak picked them apart underneath in the national championship game but they were good enough to stabilize that defense to get to that game in the first place in spite of all the personnel changes. Maybe that happens with this year's Longhorn secondary. Linebacker Drew Kelson's making a run at one of the safety jobs, if that means anything.

Chykie Brown and Deon Beasley are the names to know at cornerback this spring.

3. Will Sergio Kindle earn himself a starting job?

There's a shot. Coaches hate to bump established starters and Texas' three linebackers from last year all return. However, there's nobody special like Kindle in that group and it'll just plain look bad if he's still logging backup minutes two years into his Longhorn career.