The Color Purple (TM)

If you know me, of if you’ve read a substantial amount of this blog you know that when it comes to Texas Football, the color purple fuels fires of hatred and fear. 

Hatred? TCU, of course. 
Fear? The Wizarding World of Bill Snyder.

Both teams, clad in purple, have substantially had our number since the early 2000’s.

First, let’s talk about frogs.

Leading into the TCU Game was, once again, hurricane force winds and can’t see in front of your face rain.  In a 2-1 vote, I was ousted and the game was viewed from a Hooters barstool.

As a co-worker reminded me prior to the game, though the overall history of the series between Texas and TCU is quite lopsided in the Horns’ favor, in recent years it’s been pretty bad.  TCU was on a four game winning streak, much to my unhappiness, and has been a much more focused – well, and I hate to say better team that Texas in the last seven years.

As we perched on barstools and listened to pre-game banter, both T2, Kacie and I let out condescending groans when Coach Patterson was asked whether he would rather beat Texas or Ohio State.  His response? Texas.  Well, of course you would, Coach.  Ohio State has already beaten you, so of course you would pick Texas.  I. Hate. Him.

To be clear, I’m not an idiot, I understand that there’s NO chance at a playoff without winning the conference.  To that end, a Texas win is critical.  When asked what he would want people to say about the Ohio State loss if TCU was to run the Big 12 and be in consideration for the playoff, he points refers to The Huskies’ season opener loss to Auburn: "They said that they shouldn't hold it against Washington because they played a really good football team."  Look, first off, I don’t know who “they” is.  The media?  The government?  The Huskies themselves? 

There’s a few disparities.  The Washington/Auburn game was a pretty close one, a 21-16 outcome.  Ohio State, on the other hand, beat TCU 40-28.  In fact TCU allowed Ohio State three touchdowns … in four minutes.  TCU also had three costly turnovers.

But this is not about the Ohio State game.  This is about the Texas game.  In true fashion of teams we really want to beat having bad losses the week before they play us, I feared that TCU was looking at this as some kind of opportunity for some kind of misplaced revenge.  I say misplaced revenge because 1) we haven’t beaten TCU in several years and 2) ask any TCU fan, and they’ll tell you how much better their team is than Texas.

But not on this day.  Texas came out strong on defense, holding TCU to 3 Field goals and only one Touchdown.  TCU once again outdid themselves on turnovers (count ‘em, 4), and had second consecutive dismal third quarter (and beyond) blowing a 16 – 10 lead and allowing the Horns 21 unanswered points – two of those touchdowns coming in a 17 second span.

Despite that fact that Texas had the ball a whopping 9 mintutes longer than TCU, when asked about some questionable play calling, including a punt on 4th & 4 on the 38, Patterson noted: “I know how to manage games. It wasn’t that play that got us beat. I can promise you that. And you had a backup quarterback in the game.”

Just had to mention the backup quarterback.  I feel ya, Gary.  I really do.  (As I play a violin on a lonely Rose Bowl Field on January 7, 2010 as my shattered dreams dance by.)

I got the same kind of response when I got to the office the Monday after.  A purple co-worker said the actual words "Well, TCU didn't play well."  Of course, how Gary Patterson of you to imply that the reason Texas won was because of a tragic TCU flaw.

So, here we are.  Going into week five 4-1, back in the rankings at #18 with two Top 25 wins under our belts.

And now we have to go to …. The Little Apple.  Manhattan Kansas. 

Ah, the memories.  It was in Manhattan in November 2006 that I met a group of tailgaters who would become my Orange Band of Brothers from September to January.  Meeting Scotty and the rest of the CATI/Schwillgate Tailgaters would impact my life forever.  (In mostly good ways.)  It was in Manhattan that Bob Shipley eerily turned to me and told me not to call his son “a ghost”.  Ok, that one’s fair.

Unfortunately, most of my memories of Manhattan include a loss.  The aforementioned 2006 game would hint at the future for Colt McCoy – a stinger that would plague his career for years to come.

Some Quick Stats About the History of the Matchup:
Last Texas Win: 2013
Last Texas Win in Manhattan: 2002
Largest Margin of Victory: Texas – 64-0
Longest Wins Streak: K-State – 2006-2012
Current All Time Record: K-State 10 / Texas 9

So, going into this game I was a little nervous.  As I’ve mentioned before, Bill Snyder is some kind of wizard or has some kind of Texas Voodoo doll.  He gets our number more often than I would like to admit.  But it was time to break the streak.

I was also not in my comfort zone for game watching.  I’ll admit I was distracted and maybe got a little overconfident when I saw the score was 19-0 at the half.

In my defense, I was in Northern Virginia to attend my 20 year high school reunion.  I may have stopped paying close attention so I could get all dolled up in order to impress people I hadn’t seen or spoken to in 20 years.  So while in the car enroute to the event when I checked the score and noted it was now 19-7 in the third, I got serious about paying attention.

As we navigated NOVA traffic I screamed both nice words and bad ones, and was able to happily turn off my drained battery phone when the game came to an end.  Because of my lackadaisical phone watching, I’m not exactly sure what happened to the offense in the second half - but again every win, even ugly ones matter on the road to the Big XII championship.

The outcome was closer than I would have liked, but when you’re fighting a wizard, you should just be happy you came out still human, and not a gnome or something.