 "Photo: Eliot Meyer; The Daily Texan")
When the Longhorns finished their 28-24 win over Oklahoma State, the entire team let out a collective “whew.”
For the first time in school history, No. 1 Texas made it through three straight weeks of ranked opponents. Quarterback Colt McCoy walked into Monday’s press conference with scratches and bruises on his hands, defensive back Ryan Palmer wore a protective wrap around his hyperextended elbow and the entire team looked happy just to have escaped the three games without a loss.
“I’m very relieved to be out of that game,” said defensive tackle Roy Miller. “That might be one of the more balanced teams that we’ve played — one of the best offenses that we’ve ever played.”
And now that they’re through with that gauntlet, it doesn’t get any better with No. 6 Texas Tech on the platter.
“It has been quite a stretch,” Miller said.
Coaches and players said that even despite their tough schedule, it shouldn’t be too hard getting amped up to play Tech. The Raiders are also undefeated and vying for a national title. Add the atmosphere of ESPN GameDay and a primetime game, and it doesn’t take all that much to find motivation.
“I don’t know how you couldn’t get excited for this game,” said defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.
Still, head coach Mack Brown brought in a motivational speaker. Lance Armstrong showed up for practice Thursday to tell the team about three things: handling scrutiny, being consistently good every week and handling adversity.
“[Lance] asked, ‘Why do you want to win?’” Brown said. “Whatever you have, whether it’s a national title or the opportunity to play at the next level or if it’s just because it’s winning, you’ve got to find what it is to motivate you. And afterwards, we gave him the game ball from the Oklahoma State game.”
Whittaker was ready against OSU
Where’s Fozzy?
That’s the question fans have been asking for weeks now since Whittaker last got significant carries against UT-El Paso.
Offensive coordinator Greg Davis said that the Longhorns could have used the redshirt freshman’s services against Oklahoma State but didn’t see an opportunity. Instead, they went with Chris Ogbonnaya and Vondrell McGee to carry the running game, which still isn’t up to par.
“Fozzy was fine last week,” Davis said. “It was just a ballgame where there was a lot going on — unbelievable amount of blitzes from various structures. The other two just had more reps recently. We just felt more comfortable with that.”
Whittaker carried the ball twice against Missouri two weeks ago in the fourth quarter as a test to see how he would handle getting hit. He took one of the carries 20 yards and the other for no gain.
The Longhorns only ran the ball 32 times for 125 yards against Oklahoma State. Texas coaches talked about the value of keeping the ball out of the hands of the Tech offense.
“I’m still not pleased with where we are,” Brown said. “But if we’ve got a guy that’s completing 80 percent of his passes for 8 yards a pass, we’re going to throw the ball.”
Big 12 dominates O’Brien list
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but six of the 13 semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien Quarterback Award came from the Big 12 Conference.
Texas’ Colt McCoy was on the list, along with Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell, Oklahoma State’s Zac Robinson and Kansas’ Todd Reesing.
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