Show Me The Quan

It all started with Jerry Maguire and Rod Tidwell ... or should I say, Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr ... in "Jerry Maguire".

To Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Tidwell, "quan" meant "love, respect, community, and money".

To the Texas Longhorns last night, "Quan" meant "one hell of a senior wide receiver".

In last night's Fiesta Bowl, Quan Cosby was the go-to guy. He had a career night ... 14 receptions ... 171 yards. Add to that Colt McCoy's 41 of 59 for 414 yards, and you would think it was a blow-out.

Well, it wasn't ... 24 - 21 Longhhorns over Buckeyes, for those of you who missed it.

The first 30 minutes gave us a good hockey score - 6 to 3 - and not much more than that. This was the #3 team in the country? Somewhere on the way to the game, the coaching staff simply forgot what got the 'Horns there in the first place. Then at the start of the second half, the real Horns arrived. They logged in a solid 15 minutes - and pounded the Buckeyes with their two minute offense. Fortunately, a total of 20 minutes of great football (and coaching) was all it took to win the game last night. The rest was a bit of a living nightmare for a team that called itself a true number one candidate - before last night. Sorry folks, that will have to wait until next year.

So what happened?

Let's start with the defense. The #2 ranked run defense? Ohio State hung 203 yards on 'em. Brian Orakpo? No sacks until ... the last play. Of course, that's not all his doing, and OSU certainly put half their line on him! The pass defense? Hold on a second - Terrelle Pryor waving frantically for a pass in the end zone ...and where was the coverage? Or the hit on him as he catches the ball? The ghost of Lubbock Past ...

How about that Texas running game? Did Colt run at all in the first half? Fozzy Whitaker didn't see the light of day until ... the second half. Nor did Vondrell McGee. Could we have used a slashing running back against a solid defensive line and linebacker corps? And 414 yards of passing offense amounted to a grand total of 24 points - against an OSU team that was obviously playing way above themselves, given that they were the #2 Big 10 team in bowl play.

Now, many of you are just plain happy that the Longhorns won 24 - 21. And yes, I love a Longhorn win as much as anyone. But it seems like this happens all too often. Where was the game plan? Look back at what made the Horns successful all year. It took them until the third quarter to make the necessary adjustments - they played a fabulous 15 minutes ... then the game plan took a nose dive back to "shades of the first half" until the last few minutes of McCoy and Cosby.And James Kirkendoll's just-barely-but-enough-to-get-the-job-done first down.

But on a much brighter note, Cosby's career at UT ended on a spectacular and fitting note. There was no better way to end the game and the season. Quan, we'll all be sad to see you go. The same goes to all of the seniors. And for the rest of the returning Horns, it should be a top 3 rating in the fall pre-season. This year was admittedly a treat, but in all reality, next year should really be "the year" that they make a push for that #1 ranking. And thankfully, we play Tech in Austin in 2009.

Now, we wait for the "big game" on Thursday - that pseudo-national-championship-thing they call the BCS. Argh.

Keep your eyes right here - I will be posting my solution to the BCS fiasco over the next few days - details and all ...

Image attributed to speedye .