Texas Can't Escape Last Year's Loss

AUSTIN, Texas -- Considering what was at stake and what was likely lost that, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy has tried to erase the ending of last year's Texas Tech from his memory.

On the game's final play last November, Tech quarterback Graham Harrell fired the football to star receiver Michael Crabtree in double coverage near the right sideline. It appeared Crabtree's momentum or a push from one of the Texas defenders would take him out of bounds, and game over, Texas prevails. But instead Crabtree spun away and high-stepped the remaining yards into the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown reception to give the Red Raiders a 39-33 upset win over No.1 Texas in Lubbock.

A defining moment in the 2008 college football season had been made. And then shown over and over.

"It's pretty much on every commercial, but give them credit. That was an amazing play," McCoy said this week as his No.2-ranked Longhorns get set to host Texas Tech on Saturday in the Big 12 opener that has revenge game written all over it. "That play will be replayed forever. That's one of the best plays ever I think."

Perhaps there is some solace to be found in that when you consider what the final two plays of that game _ true freshman safety Blake Gideon allowed an interception to escape his grasp a play before Crabtree's catch _ ultimately cost the Longhorns. Those two plays were all that stood between them an undefeated season and a shot at the BCS national title game.

Instead, the Longhorns had to swallow the bitterest of pills when a three-way tie in the Big 12 South left them out of the conference championship game mix in favor of an Oklahoma Sooners team they had beaten by 10 points on a neutral field earlier in the season.

The Longhorns claim they've moved on as they eye another shot at the national championship this season.

"We quit talking about last year. We quit talking about the end," said UT coach Mack Brown. "We said, `We are Texas, quit talking about BCS, quit talking about the standings, quit talking about style points. Be the best football team you can be.' That's what we've been working on every day with our team."

But there is no way to make a clean break from last season. Not with what was stake then. Not with what Texas and Texas Tech have now become to each other, the biggest rivalry in the state of Texas.

Last season, the Red Raiders seemed just a bit sharper in that game than Texas as they took an early lead in a quest to stop a five-game to the Longhorns. But McCoy & Co. came charging back to set the stage for the late-game festivities that left the record-crowd of 56,333 at Jones AT&T Stadium on the edge of their seats.

<"To be able to come back like we did was great," McCoy said. "We felt like we had won that game in the end, but we could have definitely done a lot of things a lot better."

There were certainly several plays the Longhorns would have loved to have had back throughout that night. Gideon's missed interception is the one that still sticks in the throat of the UT fans, much more than the Crabtree catch and spin move for the win.

But this year's players insist they are trying to move on.

"The thing about the way coach Brown has us handle these situations, is that he's so good about helping people realize that every week is a new week," said UT receiver Jordan Shipley. "As soon as the game was over last year, we were focused on the next game and we went out and played well. Coach always says don't let a loss beat you twice, so we're really excited about this year. "

Brown knows his players haven't forgotten last season or what the Tech game likely cost them. But he successfully sidestepped any suggestion that last year's game will provide any motivation for Saturday night's early season matchup with the Raiders.

"When you've got a 120 players, you never know what motivates them," Brown said. "But I really think they remember last year's game but they have moved forward. That was last year's team and this year's team is 2-0."

This is a new year for the Raiders, as well. Junior Taylor Potts has taken over for Harrell and is carrying on the high-producing tradition of Raiders quarterbacks in the Mike Leach era. Texas Tech is 2-0 but a lot less hyped and again face the Longhorns as the underdog.

That seems perfectly fine by Leach.



"I guess I don't care one way or the other, they looked at us as the underdog last year, too," he said. "We just want to go out and play the best game we can play and do the best we can."