(Actually, I’m going to talk about it twice…but next time I will talk about a funny thing that just happened to occur on the same day as the most devastating Texas loss in the Mack Brown Era.)
There’s a few things you need to know before reading this:
1. Until yesterday, I have never watched a highlight, read an article, nor revisited a visual or audio record of this game.
2. I have only one bit of memorabilia from this game. No pictures, no souvenir cup. Only a single ticket stub.
3. I very rarely speak of this game, to the extent that I have on several occasions literally walked away from conversations about it.
4. In the second quarter of the game, I did something bad…something that to this day, I am utterly ashamed of.
The Alignment of the Stars
2001 was a relatively normal college football season. Sure, things happened: The U went undefeated, Maryland beat out FSU for the ACC title, Steve Spurrier took his visor to the Redskins and the former Big West teams found new homes. Relatively normal….until November. The last three weeks of the season were absolute chaos. I’m going to try to break this down as simply as I can:
• Miami was the Big East Conference Champion and the only undefeated team. They were smelling the roses, waiting to see who would be their challenger in the BCS title game. All signs were pointing to Nebraska.
• Thanksgiving weekend, Nebraska lost at home to Colorado, 62-36. This left Florida the top contender if they could win out. If the Gators were to lose to Tennessee or in the SEC title game, Oklahoma would have been BCS title bound.
• The next day, Oklahoma State dashed OU’s dreams when they beat the Sooners in a heartbreaker at home. This put Texas in the BIG XII Championship game and the BCS title race.
• The next week, Tennessee beat Florida, bumping the Gators out of the SEC & BCS title race.
• Tennessee, now #2 in the BCS, lost to LSU in the SEC Championship game.
• Texas climbed the BCS ladder to #2. A Big XII Championship title with a win over Colorado would send them to the big dance.
The Game
Chances are if you’re reading this, you know how the game went. It was one of the most awful things I’ve ever seen. Yet before sitting down to tell this tale, I did a monumentally stupid thing: I watched an eight minute video recap of the game.
Remember in “Field of Dreams” when James Earl Jones tells Kevin Costner “I’m going to beat you with a crowbar until you go away”? This game will never go away, and as I watched the recap I felt much like I did on December 1, 2001…like I was being beaten with a crowbar.
In all fairness, I’ve never been beaten with a crowbar. Still, after watching that recap, I had no choice but to wash down an Ambien with a half a box of Target wine and watch “Marley & Me,” simply so I would have a legitimate reason to be crying. I think that is exactly how I would react to being beaten with a crowbar.
As expected, the game was a nightmare. I had thought that maybe after 10 years, the emotions of that game would be dulled, or the pain would be less. It wasn’t. This probably means I have some kind of mental problems, but if my passion for Longhorn football is the craziest thing about me, I guess I’ll take it.
I’m going to try to break down the action and MY THOUGHTS on the game as plainly as I can:
• While waiting in line for a beer prior to the game, I crammed into a concession booth with 68 strangers (though at that moment they were like best friends) and watched the stars align as LSU put the final touches on a win over Tennessee, securing a Texas bid to the BCS title game if they won that night against Colorado. I FEEL ELATION! I AM GIDDILY LAUGHING-LIKE-A-MAD-SCIENTIST! WE ARE GOING TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
• Kickoff! Game time! Colorado punts away the first Possession! I AM HAPPY! I AM CONFIDENT!
• Texas drive ending in a touchdown from Benson! Extra point! 0-7 Texas! WE ARE GOING TO WIN. WIN WIN WIN. ROSE BOWL! WINNING! WIN!
• Colorado: Scoreless drive. Texas: Scoreless drive. Colorado: Scoreless drive. HMMM.
• Texas interception ending in Colorado Touchdown. 7-7. DAMNIT, SIMMS! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR THIS!
• Texas punts away a possession, and then forces a Colorado field goal. 10-7 Colorado. I FEEL SOME CONFUSION. WE NEED TO SCORE! THE POINT IS TO SCORE!
• End of 1st Quarter. I FEEL LIKE IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ME TO HAVE AN ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE. RIGHT NOW.
• Aaaand Simms interception #2 resulting in a CU touchdown (but they missed the extra point...) 16-7 Colorado. WTF SIMMS? STOP DOING THAT. MAYBE TRY TO BE SNEAKY. LIKE NOT POINTING AND MAKING BEDROOM EYES AT THE GUY YOU’RE THROWING THE BALL TO.
• Texas manages a possession without a turnover. Field goal, good. 16-10 Colorado. UH, OKAY. THIS IS NOT YET OUT OF CONTROL. WE CAN DO THIS. ANY POINTS ARE GOOD POINTS.
• Vasher intercepts a pass. YAY!
• Don’t get too excited...Simms promptly fumbles the ball and the Buffs score. Just for fun, they go for two. Lucky for us, they don’t get it. 22-10 Colorado. DUDE. TIME TO GET YOUR GAME FACE ON. IF HE TURNS THE BALL OVER ONE MORE TIME, I MIGHT GO APECRAZY. BUT...AT LEAST WE GET THE BALL BACK.
• Do my eyes deceive me, or did Simms just throw a 3rd interception resulting in another Colorado 7?! 29-10 Colorado. WTF?! TAKE HIM OUT OF THE GAME IMMEDIATELY! STAT.
• Simms throws a pass that is not intercepted! Texas timeout. YES, YES. LET’S TAKE A MOMENT AND REGROUP, PEOPLE.
Okay. Now, now’s the part where I did something bad, something that I have regretted for ten years and that I am not proud of. When Simms threw that 3rd interception, I booed him. I feel bad about this, but it’s something that I did and I can’t it take back now. I also booed him when he left the field at the timeout. I’m one of 35,000 people that did this, and that doesn’t make it any better. I was caught up in the moment and I did it.
Here’s the thing. In 2001 regular season play Texas had just one loss. It was to Oklahoma, 14-3, in a spectacular meltdown in which Simms threw FOUR interceptions. Notably, the Oklahoma game was one of two games that season in which Major Applewhite didn’t play, due to injury. But this is not about my thoughts on a quarterback controversy. I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time.
What I will say is that Simms had, before the end of the 2nd quarter, in a game where a win would send us to the BCS National Championship, turned the ball over four times while our record holding ‘backup quarterback’ sat on the bench.
I was kind of booing Simms. I was mostly booing Mack Brown & Greg Davis. Those two are notorious for not pulling players who are performing badly. Davis has even said he thinks pulling players “hurts their confidence.” Well Greg, I think having a stadium full of YOUR OWN FANS BOOING YOU tends to hurt your confidence.
It is reported that Simms only left the game because he dislocated his finger. I’m not saying that’s a lie, but I watched Simms on the sidelines during and after that timeout. He wasn’t tended to by trainers or given any particularly special attention. I think Simms pulled himself out of the game because Mack didn’t have the guts to do it. For that, I commend him. Shame on Mack for making a 20 year old kid pull himself out of a game.
• Applewhite takes the field. YAY! WE'RE GOING TO WIN! IT'S MAJOR! (The crowd agreed and as he walked on the field chanted "MAAA-JOR. MAAA-JOR")
• Texas Touchdown! Applewhite leads the team to the end zone after 16 seconds on the field. 29-17 Colorado YAYAYAYAYAY. WE CAN STILL WIN. WIN WIN WIN. ROSES. WIN.
• End of Half. YEAH, I'M GOING TO NEED ANOTHER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE.
• Texas 3 and out. HMMM. I DID NOT ENJOY THAT.
• Colorado Touchdown. 36-17 Colorado. I REALLY DID NOT ENJOY THAT.
• Texas drives 74 yards resulting in a field goal. 36-20 Colorado. YES, ANY POINTS ARE GOOD POINTS. MORE POINTS! MORE POINTS!
• Colorado possession ends in punt. GOOD...
• Major is sacked and fumbles, ball recovered by Texas. 49 yard field goal attempt failed. STOP FUMBLING THE BALL! ALL OF YOU! NO MORE TURNOVERS! HAVEN’T YOU PEOPLE SEEN “THE PROGRAM”?
• End of 3rd Quarter. BREATH! WE CAN DO THIS. WE'RE SOOOO CLOSE.
• Texas Field Goal! 36-23 Colorado. POINTS! MORE POINTS!
• Baber intercepts Colorado pass! Touchdown TEXAS! 36-30 Colorado. MORE POINTS!
At this moment I did that thing I sometimes do. Where I irrationally decide/believe that we will win the game. I had this irrational hopefulness against Alabama in the BCS Championship. I can’t help myself. I wanted it badly. So. Very. Badly.
• Texas forces Colorado field goal. 39-30 Colorado. NO MORE SCORING. STOP IT.
• Major to BJ! Touchdown! 39-37 Colorado YAYAYAYAY! I CAN FEEL WITH IRRATIONAL CERTAINTY WE ARE GOING TO WIN! WE WILL WIN! WE ARE SO CLOSE TO WINNING! WIN WIN WIN!
• Texas onside kick attempt fails. Colorado wins, 39-37. I AM SAD.
The Aftermath
Not only was I sad, I was shocked, confused and angry. Mostly sad. To have something so close get piddled away by poor decision making and sloppy play was devastating. Yeah, it’s just a game. Yeah, they’re just kids. I get all that. But there was just something about that game. Any Longhorn fan will tell you the same.
Trying to get out of the parking lot at Texas Stadium took hours. Hours of letting the shock sink in. I vowed never to go back there, and by God, I never stepped foot in that stadium again. Thanks to JerryWorld, it was eventually imploded, so I will never run the risk.
To make matters worse, Nebraska who had been beaten by Colorado in the regular season and didn't even win their conference division, ended up in the BCS title game with Miami, over one loss-conference champion Oregon. The ever controversial BCS ranking system's hot topics that year were that 1) not all conferences play a title game and 2) a team's strength of schedule ranking could actually be harmed by playing a conference championship game and beating a team they've already beaten in regular season play. On the flip side, strength of schedule can be improved by losing to a team they have previously beaten.
I never took rocket surgery, so I don't really understand exactly how or why the BCS rankings work, other than on a theoretical level. In fact, I'm not sure anyone really does. But that, much like the quarterback controversy fiasco of the Appplewhite/Simms era, should be left for another day.
Miami ended up winning it all. Good for them.
As for the Horns, our season ended with a win over Washington in the Holiday Bowl. It was our 11th win of the season and a game performance that earned Major Applewhite an induction to the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame.
Certainly not a season to snort at by any means. Yet my clearest memory of any game that year is the BIG XII Championship, and how close we came to the big dance.
That is all.
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