Texas Longhorns live the struggle

At 4-4, the Texas Longhorns football team is struggling, to put it mildly, as it travels to Kansas State today. Here's my take over at The Austin Chronicle.

Garrett Gilbert, Colt McCoy both lose while learning

What does the rest of the season hold for the Texas Longhorns after three football losses that didn't have to happen? Read my latest Austin Chronicle blog post.

Texas Longhorns slide toward home

Texas learns to coach and beats up on the unsuspecting Nebraska Cornhuskers to begin their season's second stanza. Can they pull it off again or is a stumble awaiting? I sort it out in my UT blog for The Austin Chronicle.

Common sense sez Nebraska whoops Texas; history whispers different tune

My latest sports blog at The Austin Chronicle as the Texas Longhorns prepare to travel into hostile Nebraska Cornhuskers' territory.

NEWS FLASH: Texas Longhorns won't lose a football game this weekend

Of course, that's because they're not playing. Read more in my UT football blog for The Austin Chronicle.

Bob Stoops is on line one!

The following message was left on my 1980's-era answering machine:

Joe! How they hanging, my scribbling bubba? Coach Bob Stoops here, if you want to be all formal. Just wanted to touch base before the big hoedown, my friend. You know I love the Texas State Fair and all that fried crap. Have you seen my gut lately? The wife is starting to complain.

I bet they’re complaining in Austin, too. Those surfers from UCLA pulled a number on the fellas in Burnt Orange again. I haven’t seen anybody do that since, well, me!

(read the rest on my Texas Longhorns football blog for The Austin Chronicle.

Texas Longhorns face GIANT EXPECTATIONS!

My latest Texas Longhorns football blog for The Austin Chronicle as the season enters week two with Garrett Gilbert at the helm and Tre Newton as the ball carrier of the week. Mack Brown's search for a running game continues.

Are Texas Longhorns ready to try again?

OK, Time for my seasonal gig where I blog about the Texas Longhorns football team for The Austin Chronicle. I'm in my fourth year doing this. Here's where I try to answer the question is Garrett Gilbert another Chris Simms or more like his idol Major Applewhite? The answer isn't that simple.

Why Texas will beat Alabama for the BCS title

My argument for why Texas will beat Alabama at the Rose Bowl for the college football title starts with the D. See my Texas Longhorns blog at The Austin Chronicle.

Luck and the literature of football

My take on the Texas Longhorns football team's win over Nebraska in the Big 12 title game (it was ugly) can be seen at the Austin Chronicle's sports blog.

Colt McCoy's Heisman hopes await in Nebraska

A preview of the Big 12 title game this Saturday in my Austin Chronicle blog. Could Colt McCoy win the game and lose the Heisman race?

Colt McCoy battles the ghost of VY

As Colt McCoy is on the eve of becoming the winningest college quarterback ever, the ghost of Vince Young looms. Read more in my Austin Chronicle blog.

Jordan Shipley is Texas Longhorn fans' man crush

Will Jordan Shipley "man crush" love keep Colt McCoy from Heisman? My Austin Chronicle sports blog examines this important issue...

Texas Longhorns, It's Time for Your closeup

I was on the set of the ABC series The Deep End this week in Dallas (look for the story in Monday's Dallas Morning News). It got me making connections to the Texas Longhorn football team's march toward another national title. Read my Austin Chronicle blog about it here.

Zen and the art of Texas Longhorn football

My latest University of Texas football blog for The Austin Chronicle knows for sure that it's replaceable. So does fourth-string quarterback Trevor Walker.

Texas Longhorns' next 2 opponents: UTEP and inertia

Check out my latest in The Austin Chronicle on the University of Texas Longhorns football team. Did Sergio Kindle's swamping of Texas Tech QB Taylor Potts change everything?

For those too busy to read the blog (or with extreme ADD), here it is a Wordle.

Sam Bradford and Fred Akers?

The unlikely duo are on my mind as the University of Texas Longhorns enter the second week of a dream football season. See my Austin Chronicle blog here.

Burning down the Ags: it's never enough

This is the first few paragraphs of my Austin Chronicle blog about going to the Texas Longhorns football game last night. You can read the full post here. I should make it clear that I am a major UT football fan, and this shouldn't be taken as a slam of them. I've been thinking a lot of what New Yorker writer Susan Orlean does in writing about cultures, and this is what came out...

Reveille dangles limply from a string attached to a long stick as a Longhorn fan tries repeatedly to ignite the sad dog. Finally the spark takes, and the Texas A&M mascot turns into pure flame lifted aloft as an offering to the gods of football.

This is tailgating taken to the monied extremes. Like fajitas once were the meat that only poor people ate (and fajitas were never chicken), like punk rock was once rebellious, the University of Texas tailgate—some outdoor grilling you did to while the time with family and friends after assuring yourself of an early and reliable parking spot—has gone corporate. State employee lots that once were seen as prime game-day parking are now Austin’s Disneyland complete with corporate sponsors. It works like this: put up the banner of Bland Light and get 25 cases of tasteless corporate beer to hand out to your friends and coworkers. Entire areas are roped off for a jumbo party that spills, beer can in hand, to near the refurbished, expanded, corporate-box-added stadium where Sports Illustrated has its tent offering free copies of the latest special issue.

Power, fun, safety and belonging. Those are the four basic human emotional needs, and all are for sale here today, Longhorn Inc. says. Wear our team colors, drink some more Boring Light. Come to the stadium food court (now open during the school week!) for a $6.50 chopped barbecue sandwich or two chicken tenders for $10. Yell from your seats at the idiots from College Station. Revel in how much better your team is. They are fools and losers. Today is Thanksgiving. We give thanks that we are not you.