The Fall of Troy

The Trojans winning streak is over and the Big 12 has yet another national championship. No longer will the Texas Longhorns have to hear, “yeah they are good but they play in the Big 12.” No longer will the Big 12 have to hear that it is a wattered down weak conference. The Big 12 finished the bowl tied with the ACC for the best record at 5-3.

The conference has also been represented in 5 of the last 6 BCS championship games winning two of them. And now the conference is responsible for ending possibly the greatest dynisty in modern college football.

The Longhorns matched the Trojans play for play and talent for telent Wednesday night, the difference was coaching and a stupid play. Trojans head coach Pete Carroll, previously thought to be a genious, made several bad coaching decisions and Reggie Bush made one of the dumbest plays I have ever seen in a championship game.

Here are the three plays that brought the Trojan dynasty to an end.

6:30 left in the 1st quarter. Leading 7-0 the Trojans had a 4th and 1 from the Texas 17. Instead of kicking a field goal and going up 10-0 Pete Carroll chose to go for it and Matt Leinart was stuffed for no gain.

14:53 left in the 2nd quarter. Leading 7-0 facing 2nd and 10 from their own 45, Matt Leinart connects to Reggie Bush on a short pass that the Heisman winner turns into a 36 yard gain before doing the unthinkable. Before going down on the Texas 19 Bush attempted a lateral that was recoverd by Texas safety Michael Huff. Texas scored a field goal on the ensuing possesion.

2:13 left in the 4th quarter . Leading 38-33 the Trojans were again looking at 4th down. This time it was 4th and 2 from the Texas 45. Instead of punting Carroll again decides to go for it and this time White is stopped for only a one yard gain. The turnover gave Texas the ball with 2:09 seconds left and only 55 yards to go for the winning touchdown.

When you can’t stop Vince Young maybe you should make him try to go 80 plus yards instead of 55 yards to beat you.

As a diehard Sooner fan who bleeds Crimson and Crème let me swallow my pride here and say congratulations to my friends at Burnt Orange Nation and Longhorn fans everywhere. Thanks for…gulp… doing something for the Big 12 that my Sooners weren’t able to do the last two seasons.