Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Remember, Texas… Pride goeth before destruction

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

It was Texas’ arrogance and unwillingness to play well with others that sent Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M to other conferences. It was their stubborn greed with the Longhorn Network that even had Oklahoma considering a conference change.

Texas’ arrogance eventually led to the ouster of Dan Beebe, who was widely regarded as the most competent and accommodating conference commissioner that the Big 12 had seen in decades.

Head Coach Mack Brown—solidly stuck in the twilight of his career—is slowly strangling the life out of the football program with pitiful on-the-field performance and even worse recruiting. He refuses to step aside, foolishly believing that all is well and prosperity is but a few footsteps away.

If only Colt McCoy hadn’t been hurt, right Longhorns?

One would think that after having done almost everything wrong and finding yourself standing on the edge of the abyss of irrelevance, you would see the error of your ways, repent, and turn to the light.

Not Texas.

That interview is so full of delusional statements, it’s hard to pick just one that stands out.

“They left,” Dodds said about renewing the Texas – Texas A&M rivalry. “They're the ones that decided not to play us. We get to decide when we play again. I think that's fair.”

Really? Texas A&M hasn’t changed addresses. They haven’t gone anywhere—they just upgraded their conference affiliation and put themselves in a better position to compete for national championships. And this “my way or the highway” attitude is just what drove A&M away.

“If you walk through it, the Pac-12 truthfully has no place to go to pick up teams, except the Big 12,” Dodds said. “The SEC and the Big 10 can pick up teams but it's only probably the ACC teams, maybe the Big East.”

Mark these words. When Oklahoma and Oklahoma State see what success A&M and Mizzou enjoy and start entertaining an offer from Mike Slive to expand the SEC footprint north and west, what becomes of the Big 12?

“The Big 12 is a tougher road to get [to the BCS title] than the SEC because of their scheduling abilities.”

This is laughable. The Big 12 is now Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and a bunch of patsies that SEC teams would probably host for homecoming. That’s why a one-loss Big 12 team is out of the running for the BCS Championship. The SEC is a meat grinder, which is why a one-loss and even a two-loss SEC team can get in.

Traditionally, Texas has thrived on an annual harvest of top in-state prospects, with occasional raids from Oklahoma and LSU. Now though, LSU, Texas A&M, Alabama and others are making inroads and landing top recruits. It used to be that Texas got whoever they wanted and anyone else had to take the leftovers. That’s not true anymore.

For 2013, Texas pulled in the 17th ranked class in the country. Texas A&M had a consensus Top 10 signing class. Seven of the SEC’s 14 members signed better classes. There were no Big 12 schools ranked in the Top 10. Oklahoma had the 16th best class, according to the 247Sports’ consensus rankings.

But this begs another question—after many years of cleaning up Texas high school prospects and locking down the state, why has Texas only been to the national championship game twice?

Texas was once relevant, which explains some of the haughtiness carried by Dodds, Brown and the horde of Longhorn fans. They no longer have reason to be so arrogant. They are sliding into the abyss, and dragging the rest of the Big 12 with them.

Pride goeth before destruction. And a haughty spirit before a fall.

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