Texas Longhorns +4 vs Alabama Crimson Tide

Let me tell you right now that the excess amount of time between games has a greater impact on the outcome of a game than any other single factor. Period. With the amount of time that both coaches and teams had to prepare for tonight’s game I don’t really care how many times Colt McCoy was sacked by Nebraska and I don’t care how great Greg McElroy was against Florida, and I don’t care who had the better schedule. What matters the most is what coach, and his staff, is best able to teach his team the adjustments they need to make for tonight’s game.

With that in mind, Nick Saban is 4-6 in bowl games and let’s not forget how incompetent his staff and his team looked last year against Utah. You can make the claim that Utah wanted to be there and Alabama not caring because they lost the SEC Championship game, but if you believe that then you can not declare Saban a great coach. Mack Brown meanwhile is 11-5 in bowl games and has won 5 straight. Based on those stats it appears to me that Mack Brown does a better job of getting his teams ready for bowl games than Nick Saban does.

Now, don’t get me wrong, players have to get out there and get after it and Alabama sure has a stable of studs that can beat anyone in the country. They have advantages at wide receiver that could cause the Longhorn secondary fits. They also have the Heisman Trophy winner in Mark Ingram. Sidebar: Heisman Trophy winners are 1-7 in Championship games. Alabama is no slouch, not in any capacity. But let’s see how the Crimson Tide players respond when the game is close. Will they act like their head coach, lose all dignity and have temper tantrums?

Colt McCoy, the Texas QB, has a football IQ above 190. Refer back to the opening paragraph about preparation and this becomes a huge benefit to Texas. Greg McElroy of Alabama had a great game against Florida, his best game of the year. If there is any one player that the long layoff is going to negatively impact, its McElroy.

I also saw what Alabama did to Florida in the SEC Championship game, but that wasn’t the Florida offense of old. And the familiarity of those two foes creates a much different situation than we will see tonight. And I did watch Nebraska almost ruin the Longhorns year and cause the Longhorns all sorts of trouble. Like I said before, it is not relevant to tonight’s game.

Lastly, the way Alabama has already been crowned by most everyone is cause for concern. It reminds me of the 1986 Fiesta Bowl when the Miami Hurricanes faced off with Penn St. in what was supposed to be an easy Miami win. In case you don’t recall what happened in that game, Penn St. won 14-10. The other parallel I will draw is that Joe Paterno is like Mack Brown in that they get their teams ready for bowl games better than any other coach out there.

When it was first determined that Alabama and Texas would be playing each other my gut reaction was that ‘Bama would cruise. Over all the time that has elapsed since those conference championship games, I no longer see it like that. I will take the Longhorns +4 as well as take the Moneyline of +160.