Longhorns: Sweet Validation

Sweet Validation

Not being in the BCS Championship...
Not getting credit for playing defense...
Not winning the Heisman Trophy...

Colt McCoy and the Texas Longhorns had plenty to be upset about. By completing 71 percent of his passes and throwing for three touchdowns, McCoy took his frustration out on the Ohio State defense. This game, however, was a better battle than most had expected it to be.

Unlike previous years, the Buckeyes did not crumble in the BCS spotlight. The Buckeye offense rushed for more than 200 yards against the Horns' 2nd ranked rushing defense. Daniel Herron capped the Buckeye rushing attack by scoring on a 15-yard touchdown dash late in the 4th quarter. The score gave the Buckeyes a 21-17 lead with 2:05 remaining. There was only one thing standing between Ohio State and their national redemption: Colt McCoy.

The Heisman runner-up took over at the Longhorns' 19-yard-line with 1:55 remaining. He proceeded to complete 7 of 10 passes for 79 yards including converting on a 4th-down play on the Buckeyes' 40-yard-line. Two plays later, from the 26-yard-line, McCoy completed the biggest pass of his Texas career. Quan Cosby caught a short slant across the middle, broke a tackle and streaked towards the end-zone for the winning score.

Texas 24, Ohio State 21 - Classic.

Colt not only proved that he was one of the best quarterbacks in college football, he also validated the Horns' spot in the rankings and helped disprove accusations that Big 12 offenses racked up yards/points due to laxidasical conference defenses. Even Tim Tebow suggested as much.

Bowl results don't appear to validate such claims. So far, four of the five Big-12's top-ranked offensive units have posted impressive results. Texas Tech scored 34 against an SEC opponent, Oklahoma State scored 31 on a PAC-10 team and Missouri scored 30 against Big 10 opposition.

On Monday night, Colt McCoy did what he has done all year: whatever he wanted. Ohio State's "legit" defense had no answers for the Texas star in the second half. Overall, McCoy completed 41 of 58 passes for 413 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and one interception. Wow.

The Buckeye defense had allowed 164 passing yards/game this season. McCoy exceeded that...in the first half. Overall, Texas totaled 488 yards against the Top 5 defense.

Including the Texas victory, the four top-scoring Big 12 bowl teams have averaged 30 points/game against teams from the Big-10, PAC-10 and the SEC.

I don't know if the Big 12 earned national respect.
I don't know if Texas deserves to receive any AP first-place votes.
I don't know if McCoy deserved the Heisman.

I do know one thing: Colt and the Horns have six months to enjoy sweet validation...and they deserve it.