Five Favorite Texas Games

Photo Attribution: US Presswire

These are from the Miles/Gundy era (the non-dark ages). Speaking of, we need a good name for the last 10 years…maybe it’s just the Gundy era since he was the OC under Miles for a while. Maybe it’s the “we score more every week than we did every season in the 90s” era. I don’t know but I’m willing to take suggestions.

I know this is going to be difficult for some of you to swallow but sometimes I like (and appreciate) great OSU games that result in losses more than I do the wins.

That’s crazy, I know, but if you’re Andy Roddick that ’09 Wimbledon final has to be more special than, say, a random Cincinnati Open you won in the mid-2000s, doesn’t it?

There’s this dark beauty to the great ones, the devastating losses, that just isn’t there in the Savannah State games, the Kansas games. Does the 3OT Durant game in GIA mean less if Boggan doesn’t hit the final three. I argue no but I know some of you would disagree.

Anyway, on to my top five[1. Strangely I attended all five of these games. That’s college I guess…].

5. The 2005 game in Stillwater – When D’Juan caught the play-action pass on 4th and 1 and then the one-handed tipped ball later on for a score you thought magic might happen in Stillwater with #2 in town. But Vince Young happened and they put up 38 straight in a game that wasn’t as close as the 19-point final margin.

4. The 2008 game in Austin – This is one of the underrated games of the Zac era. Kendall Hunter had 19 touches for 191 all-purpose yards and we came within a 50-yard bomb of upending #1 in their house.

3. The 2011 game in Austin – Save the heart-stopping Justin Gilbert kick return this was one of the more dull games of the Weeden/Blackmon era. If you call being the first team to go back-to-back in Austin in consecutive years since the early 1900s “dull.”

2. The 2007 game in Stillwater – This game destroyed me. Zac broke the passing yardage mark with 430 but Texas put up 24 points in the last 12 minutes to sneak out with a 38-35 win. Other than the 2004 Bedlam affair this was the one football loss that really affected me. Mack on Colt afterwards: “the last nine minutes of the game, he never blinked.” Strangely I don’t think I did either.

1. The 2010 game in Austin – The shedding of a 70-year-old gorilla off our collective backs. Blackmon’s personal introduction to the national stage. Mack on Weeds: “[he] was unbelievable. He made some throws tonight very few college quarterbacks can make.”

Here’s to this year’s version topping off this list and giving us our first W against them in Stillwater since 1997 (and second ever!)