Which is the greatest Texas Longhorns quarterback of all time? Young led the Texas Longhorns to a season of perfection and the BCS national title in 2005 as a junior. McCoy, a four-year starter at Texas, has a chance tonight to become college football's all-time winningest quarterback with 43 wins should the second-ranked Longhorns make it past Kansas here at Texas Memorial Stadium.
AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.
He showed the Longhorns how teams from 2006 and 2007 finished in comparison to 2005, when Texas won the BCS national title, and last season when many agree the 12-1 Longhorns should have been given the opportunity to compete for the national championship.
Brown's point to his second-ranked,10-0 squad is simple: stay focused these last two regular-season games, the Big 12 championship game in two weeks, and then biggest of prizes await the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena. A slip up anywhere between now and the Jan. 7 BCS national championship game will lead to great disappointment for Texas.
ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) -- Central Florida not only found a way to slow down Case Keenum and No. 13 Houston, the Knights didn't give the nation's most prolific passer a chance to pull off another improbable comeback.
Brett Hodges outplayed the Cougars quarterback and Brynn Harvey rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, leading UCF to a 37-32 upset that stopped a five-game winning streak Keenum had kept alive with a pair of last-minute rallies.
Harvey scored on runs of 1, 41 and 7 yards, the last set up by an interception that stopped Keenum's streak of consecutive passing attempts without a pick at 123. Hodges completed 21 of 25 passes for 241 yards and one TD.
Keenum threw for two TDs in the closing minutes, cutting into a 17-point deficit. He finished 33 of 56 for 377 yards and three scores. He had more than 500 yards in each of the previous two games.
The comparisons between the Texas Longhorns 2005 team and this season's team are inevitable.
At this point in the 2005 season, the Vince Young-led Longhorns looked pretty invincible. After a tough early season game against Ohio State , they romped over opponents with relative ease on the way to the BCS national title. These Colt McCoy-led Longhorns are doing the same with only their annual rivalry game against Oklahoma serving as the lone close challenge in putting together a perfect 9-0 record and a No. 2 national ranking.
It's just the second time since 1983 that the Longhorns have been 9-0. The other time, of course, was in 2005 when they put together an undefeated campaign that ended with a dramatic national championship victory over USC.
STILLWATER, Okla. --- Texas coach Mack Brown normally demands his teams stay in the moment.
But in the week leading up to Saturday night's game against 13th-ranked Oklahoma State, Brown wanted to make certain the third-ranked Longhorns remembered where they were at this point last season and what they lost against Texas Tech.
They were different opponents, but presented a strikingly similar scenario a year apart.
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.
Southern California, with one loss already this season, has allowed a combined 63 points the past two weeks in single-digit margin victories against unranked opponents. The Trojans are ranked No. 4 in this week's AP poll and are No. 5 in the BCS rankings. In the ranking that matters (the BCS poll) USC, whose loss came to a team with a sub-.500 record (Washington), is rated ahead of three undefeated teams and nine one-loss schools. Three of those one-loss programs (No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oregon and No. 12 Penn State) fell to teams that are currently undefeated (respectively, Florida, Boise State and Iowa).
It's just three weeks into the full-swing of Big 12 play but the North Division is looking like any of the six teams could win the race.
That doesn't necessarily bode well at all for the weaker half of the two-division league.
Nebraska and Kansas came into the season as the presumed favorites to represent the North, but after two weeks of inconsistent play neither seems as powerful. The same can be said for two-time North champion Missouri, which started the season a surprising 4-0, but has dropped its first two games of the Big 12 season.
DALLAS -- Colt McCoy did it all with a sore thumb. Colt McCoy also had lost his voice during the week because of a cold. Colt McCoy saved the game with a tackle. A tackle from a quarterback!
This is why headlines and highlights aren't enough. Texas beat Oklahoma 16-13 Saturday to go 6-0 and keep up its run toward the national championship in its System Stinks Redemption Tour.
But when you watch the recap on ESPN and hear the fairy tale of McCoy, keep this in mind:
DALLAS -- University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy says revenge will be the furthest thing from his mind Saturday when third-ranked Longhorns take on No.20 Oklahoma in the anticipated Red River Rivalry here at the Cotton Bowl.
But you'd better believe the Longhorns are still upset from last season when they beat Oklahoma by 10 points on a neutral field and finished the season in a 7-1 three-way tie with the Sooners and Texas Tech. Yet it was Oklahoma that represented the Big 12 South in the conference title game and subsequently advanced to the BCS national title.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Okay, so let the debate began.
AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.
ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) -- Central Florida not only found a way to slow down Case Keenum and No. 13 Houston, the Knights didn't give the nation's most prolific passer a chance to pull off another improbable comeback.
STILLWATER, Okla. --- Texas coach Mack Brown normally demands his teams stay in the moment.
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.
Southern California, with one loss already this season, has allowed a combined 63 points the past two weeks in single-digit margin victories against unranked opponents. The Trojans are ranked No. 4 in this week's AP poll and are No. 5 in the BCS rankings. In the ranking that matters (the BCS poll) USC, whose loss came to a team with a sub-.500 record (Washington), is rated ahead of three undefeated teams and nine one-loss schools. Three of those one-loss programs (No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oregon and No. 12 Penn State) fell to teams that are currently undefeated (respectively, Florida, Boise State and Iowa).
It's just three weeks into the full-swing of Big 12 play but the North Division is looking like any of the six teams could win the race.
DALLAS -- Colt McCoy did it all with a sore thumb. Colt McCoy also had lost his voice during the week because of a cold. Colt McCoy saved the game with a tackle. A tackle from a quarterback!
DALLAS -- University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy says revenge will be the furthest thing from his mind Saturday when third-ranked Longhorns take on No.20 Oklahoma in the anticipated Red River Rivalry here at the Cotton Bowl.
