The Questions

The first game has come and gone like a drone in the night.  I’d like to say that it has helped me form some amazing opinions about my Longhorns, but I feel I am left still with many questions.   Now that I’ve finally rid myself of the glitter of the game (literal glitter…I had an unfortunate shirt selection leaving me looking like a vampire that was really into football) questions like these remain….

 

Why was there a man in a jet pack flying for a very short distance?  I kind of liked it because it was a freaking jet pack and you don’t see those a lot.  But I was expecting something different from the Mighty Fine promotion.  Shouldn’t the Mighty Fine Gorilla have been wearing the jet pack?  Shouldn’t they have explained that it was a little game, to guess which colored dot he was going to land on?  I would have liked a little jet pack tour...fly up to the upper deck, making it rain Mighty Fine burgers or cold hard cash. 

 

Why did Tyrone Swoopes come in for the last 45 seconds of the game just to take a knee?  At the time I conjectured that David Ash was hurt, and while he did end his night with concussion-like symptoms, they allegedly came much later, after in the game.  Considering Swoopes had been named QB2, maybe should he have come in the game earlier, like when we were up over 20 points?  Now we’re left with him at QB1 (for now…I heard Heard is possibly moving up the ranks) and he's played only five games in 2013 (5 of 13 for 26 total yards….and two sacks). 

 

Who were the orange people that ran on the field with the team?  As the longhorns ran out onto the field and made their way to the North end zone to say a prayer (or tie their shoes…whatever that pre-game ritual is) along with them ran a small squad of players in all orange uniforms who headed straight to the sidelines.  Was it a small Longhorn army of Stormtroopers? Were they players on the roster weren’t able to suit up?  Were they spies?  Were they the ghosts of coaches past?  Whoever they were, I liked it.

 

Why did the band pause during the spelling song?  A staple of the band is playing a song I call the spelling song.  (I assume it has another, more official name.)  This pseudo “Texas Fight” has a cadence which the fans yell along the letters that spell T-E-X-A-S then yell “Texas Fight” during each stanza…this goes on five or six times.  Most students have vulgar additions to say with each letter that eventually you have to drop when you sit with real adults.  I digress.  It’s a tradition each season, that at the game before Oklahoma, after the third stanza, the band pauses at a certain point and everyone is supposed to yell “Beat the Hell Out of OU”.   It’s something to look forward to every year, it means that corny dogs and wax cups full of beer are in your very near future.  Unless it’s 2014, when I guess the band has just decided to pause whenever they want.  It caused confusion and I did not like it.  Sometimes they paused, sometimes they didn’t. What am I supposed to yell when they pause?  “Beat the Hell Out of UNT?”  “Please, oh Please let us win this game”?  “Why are you pausing, it’s not OU?”  Meh.

 

Did the players have their ‘Horns up?  I have to admit I was a little too interested in this.  From my perch in the end zone, I didn’t notice any players throwing up their ‘Horns during the game, so I anxiously awaited the playing of “The Eyes of Texas” after the win to check it out.  And wouldn’t I be damned that the godzillatron never once showed the players, only Charlie Strong.  I didn’t notice the classic unison hand chopping during “when Gabriel blows his horn” which normally can be seen from our seats. I did notice Coach Strong had his 'Horns up.  I wonder when he earned that right?

 

Aside from all the questions left unanswered, I was happy to see a pumped up crowd for the first time in a long time.  I was also very impressed with our defense, to see actual tackles being made and followed through on.  I have high hopes and expectations for the defense, having held UNT to just 94 yards of total offense, about 15% on conversions, and snagging four takeaways.  It was disappointing that our offense fumbled in the manner they did, costing the hard working defense a shutout.

 

Offensively, I like what I was seeing from John Harris, Malcolm Brown and Jonathan Gray.  I’m disappointed to be losing both QB David Ash (for at least one game) and 5^th year Center Dom Espinosa (out for the year), but we will have to move on through the pain.  In my mind, Ash has always been questionable to remain healthy through the season, but Espinosa’s ankle injury is a blow, as he has started every game for Texas since 2011.  The upside is that hopefully redshirt freshman center Jake Raulerson has been practicing with Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard and it might help ease the transition.  Or maybe not.

 

With one winning game under our belt buckles, the season is just getting underway.  A lot of football is left to accompany our unanswered questions.  I feel like we’ve suited up and are running wind sprints into the unknown…and I’m excited.