Texas, Washington Have Their Own Agendas

Texas Coach Mack Brown acknowledged Thursday that his players were hardly ecstatic upon learning that they would play for the second straight season in tonight’s Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium.

That is understandable, considering that the Longhorns had the inside track to a berth in the Jan. 3 BCS championship game at the Rose Bowl before a 39-37 loss to Colorado for the Big 12 championship.

But whatever disappointment lingered three weeks later vanished aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz here Wednesday, Brown said, when his players met men and women about their age who are tentatively scheduled to ship out soon for the Middle East.

“That put some things in perspective,” Brown said. “Believe me, we’re very happy to be here playing a football game.”

No. 9 Texas (10-2) will meet No. 21 Washington (8-3) in a game that isn’t particularly important even from a college football perspective. Both programs are established enough that a win or a loss isn’t going to affect their status among the nation’s elite.

Of course, that doesn’t make for stirring pregame motivational speeches. Brown has been selling his players on the importance of becoming only the fourth Texas team in 109 seasons to win 11 games and the first to finish in the top 10 since 1983; Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel wants the Huskies to believe a victory will serve as redemption for a 65-7 loss to Miami in the regular-season finale.

“Given the debacle in Miami, we need a chance to get back on a grand stage against a marquee opponent and prove that’s not indicative of what we’re about,” he said.

Brown said he is already convinced of that. He didn’t show his players films of the Huskies’ loss to Miami, concentrating instead on their victories over ranked Michigan, Stanford and Washington State.

For Brown, the game could be considered a no-win situation. Even a Texas victory will reinforce his critics’ argument that senior Major Applewhite should have been starting all season instead of merely this one game.

During the regular season, Brown went with junior Chris Simms, the son of former NFL quarterback Phil Simms who’d started the final three games of last season after Applewhite was injured.

Applewhite, who set or tied 40 school passing records during his three seasons as a starter, wasn’t always beloved then. But he has emerged as the fan favorite, never more so than after he almost brought the Longhorns back from a 19-point deficit against Colorado after Simms had thrown three interceptions and lost a fumble in the first half. Simms also threw three interceptions in the Longhorns’ other loss, 14-3 to Oklahoma.

Brown defends his decision to start Simms this season, but recognized after the Big 12 championship game that Applewhite had earned the bowl start.

Applewhite, a team leader who has seldom complained publicly about his reserve role, suggested to coaches that it might be best for the development of both Simms and next season’s Longhorn team if Simms continued as the starter against Washington. (It could be that Applewhite didn’t want to play without the run support of injured Cedric Benson, the first freshman to run for more than 1,000 yards in Texas history. He won’t start and probably won’t play much.)

“We told him we were more concerned about what’s best for this week,” Brown said.

Applewhite told Simms, “Two interceptions, and the fans will be cussing me again.”

Neuheisel would like to have a backup quarterback the caliber of either Simms or Applewhite. Washington’s starter, sophomore Cody Pickett, has played the last six games with a separated shoulder.