It was much closer than I thought (hoped?) it would be, but in the end, the Texas Longhorns pulled out the win against the Ohio State Buckeyes in last night’s Fiesta Bowl. Here are some thoughts on the game (in no particular order). [...]

It was announced during halftime of the Chick-fil-A Bowl last night that Mack Brown has been awarded the Bobby Dodd Award.

According to the foundation:

The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award is to honor the Bowl Championship Series college football coach whose programs represent quality on and off the field.

Let me say from the start that what head coach Bo Pelini has done with Nebraska in his first year at the helm is impressive. He took a 5-7 Nebraska team and added three wins, including victories over Kansas and Kansas State.

I’ve got quite a bit of respect for the Nebraska football program. They’ve been in a down cycle for an awful long time, but the Big 12 Conference is better off having them be a national contender out of the North Division.

And their fans are truly the most knowledgeable, respectable fans I’ve seen. I really love when they come to Austin to play.

It doesn’t hurt that the Longhorns have, well, owned the Cornhuskers for the last dozen years or so. [...]

With the Oklahoma Sooners’ undeserved national championship game approaching, let’s look back at the history of rules breaking at this fine institution.

1889: The Land Run
Territories in Oklahoma were opened for settlement at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres. It was called a land run as land was claimed on a first come, first served basis.

Those who broke the rules by crossing the border into the territory before it was allowed were said to have been crossing the border sooner, leading to the term “sooners”, which eventually became the state’s official nickname.

Thus, the state institutionalized the approval of cheating. [...]

In yet another example of how screwed up the bowl system is, eighth ranked and one-loss Texas Tech faces twentieth ranked and four-loss Ole Miss in the 2009 Cotton Bowl.

And don’t get me started on how immoral, unethical, and illegal it is to have the Cotton Bowl on January 2nd. The Cotton Bowl is, and always should be, a New Years Day game. How this didn’t come up during the presidential campaign, I’ll never know. Moving it proves that the terrorists have already won.

I generally root for Texas Tech in bowl games, because while strange, they’re still Texans. I’ve actually got a couple of reasons to pull for the Rebels, however. [...]

My Christmas wish of a playoff in Division 1A football did not come true this year, and the new year approaches, so it’s time to start thinking about the BCS games starting next week. [...]

After being snubbed for the Davey O’Brien, the Maxwell, and the Heisman, Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy makes the Football Writers Association of America’s All-America Team. Longhorn defensive end Brian Orakpo also made the team, adding to his long list of awards.

Former Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator and current Iowa State Cyclones head coach, Gene Chizik, is said to be in the running for the head coaching position at Auburn. [...]

It was announced today that Texas Longhorns head coach Mack Brown has been named as a finalist for the 2008 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. Brown will be on a ballot with eight other finalists, which will be voted on by the Football Writers Association of America membership.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy was award the Walter Camp Foundation player of the year award. In doing so, he beat out his Heisman co-finalists, Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow. He also beat out a couple of guys from Texas Tech, Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree.