A Crucial Game as Big as Texas

Texas knows the score and it isn’t only 63-14, the short end it came out on in last year’s lopsided loss to Oklahoma. Texas hears the whispers: that it is a country club, a sanctuary of athletic largess, a place that comes at you with a 500-page media guide and a weight room large enough to house the Spruce Goose.

Also: a program that jumps when things go bump-and-run in the night.

Coach Mack Brown knows the word on him: that he is one of the nation’s best recruiters and maybe the best pitchman to work the south since Col. Tom Parker.

Also: A coach who has never quite closed the big deal--all hat, no cattle? Brown’s 1997 squad at North Carolina would stock several NFL rosters. He had it all set up that year, the combination of his best team and playing Florida State at Chapel Hill.

North Carolina finished 11-1, but the one that counted was a 20-3 home loss to the Seminoles.

So it comes to this: No. 5 Texas vs. No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl, a game Oklahoma wants to win but Texas has to win to prove it really is back in the saddle.

Texas has the talent to do it, considerable momentum and, given last year’s outcome, all the motivation.

“It was unbelievable we got our butts kicked that badly,” junior quarterback Chris Simms said of last year’s fiasco. “It’s something you couldn’t forget if you tried. And when you felt you finally did forget about it, people brought it up again.”

Strangely, though, a humiliating defeat forged a bond.

The day after 63-14, Simms was summoned to Brown’s office and demoted in favor of Major Applewhite. Instead of whining, or filing transfer papers, Simms did what few highly touted sophomores have ever done: He kept his trap shut and told Brown he’d do anything he could to help the team win. Simms eventually won his job back and led Texas to a 9-3 record and No. 12 national ranking.

Spin? You bet. Texas is on full rinse cycle.

“I think that loss last year was best thing to happen to us,” sophomore receiver Roy Williams said. “It kind of turned this whole program around and made us work harder.”

The Longhorns have gone 10-1 since 63-14, their only loss coming to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl, a game Texas could have won had its receivers held onto potential game-winning passes in the end zone.

Since 63-14, Texas has grown more sturdy and resolute. The quarterback debate Brown allowed to fester last year has been resolved. Simms was named the starter in spring over the senior Applewhite, who owns 40 school passing records but has been plagued by injuries and the lack of a father who played for the New York Giants. Tough call?

“Really painful,” Brown said of his quarterback decision. “But it’s more painful for a coach not to have a quarterback. I’ve also been in that position. I was hired at the University of Texas to win football games.” To date, Brown has dressed to the nines in three years at Austin (9-3, 9-5, 9-3).

Brown contends Applewhite is going to “win a game for us before the year’s over,” but the starting job is not open for debate. Simms, the likeable left-handed son of Phil Simms, has grown steadily after a shaky start. He had his best game last weekend against Texas Tech, completing 21 of 26 passes.

Still, Simms knows he represents what some have come to think about the typical UT player: talented, comes from good stock, had everything handed to him, plays great against Missouri.

“I guess we haven’t won all the big games people believe we should have won the last few years,” Simms said. “I guess we’ve got to win a few big games so people start to believe in us a little bit.”

In their 10 wins since 63-14, the Longhorns have outscored opponents by the average score of 43-15.

Yet, only last year’s victory over No. 22 Texas A&M; came against a ranked opponent. Texas had a chance to earn credibility against Oregon in the Holiday Bowl, but was betrayed by its receivers’ buttery fingertips.

“Maybe the true test of every team is getting in that knock-down, drag-out fight,” Simms said. “We feel like we’re a good team, talented, but we haven’t played in that game yet, where it’s been just a dogfight. We need that as a team, to see what we’ve got, see where we stand.”

This is where Texas stands. The school may not have a better chance to win the national championship. The Longhorns miss Kansas State and Nebraska on the regular-season schedule.

Texas likely needs to beat Oklahoma, Texas A&M; and probably Nebraska in the Big 12 title game to finish 12-0 and play for the national title in the Rose Bowl. If that’s not enough to get juices flowing, Simms can always reflect on last year’s memory-Oklahoma scoring the first five times it had the ball, Sooner players mugging for a team photo on the field afterward, Sooners later celebrating a national title victory in the Orange Bowl.

“It’s something you never want to be a part of as long as you’re an athlete,” Simms said of 63-14. “When you are a part of it, you can’t believe it’s happening. It’s just a horrible, horrible way to sit there and watch a game.”

More Mack

Brown has sat on both sides of the Texas-Oklahoma fence. He discovered first-hand what the rivalry meant in 1984 when he spent a season in Norman as Barry Switzer’s offensive coordinator. Brown asked Switzer what game he had to win to keep his job.

Switzer replied: “Texas.”

Brown said: “What about Nebraska? What about winning the Big 8 title?”

Switzer said: “You’ve got to beat Texas to keep your job at Oklahoma.”

Brown was mortified when, the Thursday before the game, a redshirt freshman named Brian Bosworth started badmouthing Texas in the papers.

“I don’t like burnt Orange, I don’t like the University of Texas, I don’t like [then coach] Fred Akers and I don’t like Austin,” Bosworth said.

Brown went to Switzer and said, “We can’t let him talk like that, they’re going to kill him.” Switzer told Brown to take a chill pill.

“He said, ‘No, the thing I learned about this game it’s like two Mack trucks running together for three hours and 15 minutes,”’ Brown recounted this week. “‘None of that matters.”’

The game ended in a 15-15 tie.

“Brian made 17 tackles and was the defensive player of the game,” said Brown, who left Oklahoma to become coach at Tulane.

Hurry-Up Offense

The first official bowl championship series rankings won’t be released until Oct. 15, but Chicago-based math buff Jerry Palm is already posting the standings on his Internet site. Palm lacks two of the eight computer ratings, but is fairly able to approximate the actual standings: Based on this week’s rankings, Oklahoma and Florida would play for the national title in the Jan. 3 Rose Bowl. The BCS top six: Oklahoma, Florida, Nebraska, Texas, Tennessee and UCLA. Miami is No. 1 in both polls but only No. 7 in the BCS thanks to relatively weak strength-of-schedule numbers and an almost inexplicable 13.66 ranking in the computers.

Miami’s stock will rise significantly if it remains unbeaten because the Hurricanes have upcoming games against Florida State, Washington and Virginia Tech. Palm assures that an 11-0 Miami, ranked No. 1 in both polls, will secure a spot in the Rose Bowl.

Just-for-fun-peeks at where some other schools rank in the BCS: Oregon (9), Washington (10), Fresno State (11), USC (51), Notre Dame (67), Penn State (71), Nevada Las Vegas (89). The worst team is Dave Letterman’s alma mater, Ball State, checking in at 117.

More on Fresno State: The Bulldogs need a top-six BCS finish to cinch a major bowl finish, but early numbers reveal it’s going to be tough. Fresno State, at 21.10, is well off the pace of No. 6 UCLA, at 15.85, and things figure to get worse as the Bulldogs dig deeper into Western Athletic Conference play. Fresno State’s strength-of-schedule number is an impressive .60 (Miami’s is 4.48), but that’s a short-term windfall from nonconference victories against Wisconsin, Oregon State and Colorado.

Bigger question: If Fresno State finishes 13-0 and does not cinch a bowl berth, will one of the major bowls take the Bulldogs with one of two at-large picks?

For what it’s worth, winless Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie says he’s going to play a more active role in the offense, which has produced two touchdowns in three games entering Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh in South Bend, Ind. Davie’s solution to winning: “Just play better.” Davie is bracing his players for jeers, not cheers. “If there’s a lot of booing this weekend, it’s at me, it’s not at you,” Davie said he told his team. Fast fact: The Irish already have committed one more turnover, nine, than they did all of last year.

Sign of the times: Penn State’s offense has scored four touchdowns this year, as many as the Oklahoma defense.

Jinxes: Our story on Division III Linfield (Ore. ) College last week inspired a 31-20 loss to Pacific Lutheran, the game-clinching score coming on a 96-yard interception return with 1:30 left. Linfield fell to 1-2, putting its NCAA-record streak of 45 consecutive winning seasons in peril.