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Texas 45, Oklahoma State 17

Well, it's nice to be back in the saddle. Even if the outcome was fairly predictable, the means by which it was achieved showed promise.

Sorta like last year, when you think about it, only with a better outcome. A year ago, after leaving a stench in the Cotton Bowl that took months to fumigate, Texas traveled to Colorado and laid a statistical ass-kicking on the Buffs that in no way was reflected by the 28-14 final score. This time, the stats and the score aligned, even if the start and finish weren't what many people expected. The middle was quite nice, indeed, and the group that watched the game at the Brew Moon in San Antonio made it that much sweeter.

OK, enough of that. Here's why I hate Colorado.

I really can't explain why, but seeing a thread this week on Colorado's 1990 "national championship" season triggered anti-Buffs feelings I really wasn't all that aware of. At the risk of self-plagiarism, and knowing that the thread in question probably is better-read than this weekly rambling and therefore this probably already has been seen, here is that screed:

"This 'RTD' crap is amazing. Yes, CU allegedly shared a national championship since the last time we did anything. Fair enough. But there are few programs for which I have less respect -- OU included -- than CU's since the late '80s. McCartney is the biggest hypocrite ever to wear a whistle; this 'dominance' that didn't even last a decade only began after he screwed over SMU, looked at his record and talent level and decided The Big Guy must be instructing him to bring in the South Central LA All-Stars, using his daughter as a handy recruiting tool (or recruits who used their tools handily; whatever). Apparently any lessons learned in That Good Book were forgotten on Fifth Down at Missouri.

"I never have been a big Neuheisel fan, but at least he was up front about what he did for the most part. He didn't cloak himself in holy righteousness; if anything, he was just the opposite. Barnett? Good guy, did wonders at Northwestern, glad he's there and not here.

"Saturday's game ought to be a good one. And I think the preceding paragraphs make clear how good I will feel when the Buffs drag their whipped asses back to Boulder."

For me, that's smack. I tend to be pretty cautious when assessing Texas' chances against a given opponent; I've been going to Longhorns games long enough and seen enough implausible outcomes to be too cocky during a given week. But something about this one has me feeling unusually confident, which is scary in itself. Usually, I think of every reason why Texas won't win, the reasoning being that a) I do still get genuinely nervous even when I shouldn't, and b) it makes me feel that much better when the Longhorns win.

I also know that virtually none of the above has anything to do with Saturday's game, which matches two well-regarded teams and, as mentioned, ought to be a good one. I do think Texas' strengths exploit Colorado's weaknesses better than the flipside of that, and I picked the Longhorns 34-10.

But my excitement about Saturday's game is not just about that. Like Democrats for years ran -- and won -- against the ghost of Herbert Hoover, so too do I view any game vs. Colorado as a matchup against the specter of Bill McCartney, whom I consider, as mentioned earlier, one of the biggest hypocrites ever to don a whistle.

However any of you might feel about McCartney and the Promise Keepers and all the rest is your business, as are my feelings about each of them. Suffice to say, I ain't buying anything that guy is selling. I'll let the brief allusions above serve as the synopsis of my feelings, even though I know they only scratch the surface.

I used to dislike Neuheisel, but it's harder to do now that he's way the hell up in Washington (and besides, a good friend who knows him far better than I do -- which is to say, not at all -- says he's a helluva guy and a good coach, which is enough for me. Of course, the same friend also has taken a liking to Switzer, so form your own conclusions). He was cocky as hell, but at least had fun doing things. And under a maverick like Neuheisel, at least the hellions inhabiting Boulder could be justified, as opposed to their presence under the Right Rev. McCartney.

Now we come to Gary Barnett, who, as we all know, was a shoo-in to become the coach of the Texas Longhorns as soon as we rid ourselves of the Mackovic Virus. But a funny thing happened along the way: Once people actually met Barnett in person, they started displaying symptoms of that virus all over again. Sent some cold shivers along the corridors of power. Meanwhile, this guy named Brown down in North Carolina was saying all the right things to all the right people, and displaying a rŽsumŽ that in general outstripped even Barnett's.

The rest, as we know, is history, except that it continues to play itself out. In their one matchup, described earlier, Brown's Longhorns hammered Barnett's Buffs, and hopefully will again Saturday. I have no way of knowing which of the two is the better coach, and Barnett's revival-from-the-dead job at Northwestern no doubt even made the pious McCartney take notice. He's even WON A CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP, which, as even children in Afghanistan no doubt know by now, Brown never has done.

But there is absolutely no questioning the fact that Brown was and is a better fit. I didn't know what to think back in '97 when the decision was first made, but Brown didn't take long to make me -- and tens of thousands like me -- into an instant convert. Like so many, I figured Barnett's hiring was a done deal; I even had one fairly prominent insider call me, unsolicited, to tell me that Barnett was the guy. With the benefit of hindsight, I am eternally grateful that he was, and all the rest of us were, wrong.

None of this, of course, will serve to motivate the actual Texas team one little bit come Saturday. I'd bet the overwhelming majority of them don't even know how close Barnett was to being their head coach (assuming, of course, that they'd even be in Austin if he and not Brown ran the show. Also, there are those who say that none other than Bob Stoops was more a fallback candidate than Barnett had negotiations with Brown somehow soured).

But I hope the fans remember some of these things, and a few more. How Colorado talks of a "Return To Dominance," even though the Buffs were a perennial doormat before the late '80s and haven't exactly been Sears Trophy material in the past five years or so, either. How the Buffs have won in their past three trips to Austin, including a victory in that '90 season that remains hard to explain (the two wins over Mackovic defenses -- a contradiction in terms if ever there was one -- are a little easier to justify). How the loyal sons and daughters of CU rained debris on the Longhorn Band and Accursed Texans in general last season. And mostly, how this is the last high-profile home game this season, and accordingly one of the last chances the Longhorns have to remain in the national picture.

In short, have fun. Raise hell. Oops ... sorry, Right Rev. McCartney.

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