Holland Crew Football

Colt deserved better.

Win or lose, he deserved a chance to answer his critics after the Big 12 title game (near) disaster and show what he’s capable of doing against “the best defense in college football.” He deserved the opportunity to finish his college career on the field.

He deserved more than five plays.

There’s no way to know how things would have turned out differently, whether the Longhorns would be holding the crystal football today had Colt not turned the wrong way at the wrong time at the end of his ill-fated run. Anyone who says with any certainty otherwise is just making noise.

The one thing we can say with a fair amount of confidence is that very few college football offenses rely more upon one individual than the Horns did Colt. There was no Ricky or Cedric or Jamaal in the backfield to carry the load when Garrett Gilbert jogged on the field. The Texas offense was built around its senior quarterback. For better or worse.

I can’t imagine a more daunting scenario than the one Gilbert faced early in the first quarter. His first “live” action as a true freshman comes in the national championship game against the #1 defense in the country. I’ve heard of “trial by fire” and “jumping into the deep end of the pool,” but this was an abyss…and it was on fire.

And for two and a half quarters, he played exactly how I would have expected…scared out of his mind.

Here’s what I didn’t expect – for the rest of the first half and well into the third quarter, nobody stepped up in Colt’s absence. Dan Buckner dropped a key third down pass. Malcolm Williams did little to help his reputation for dropping passes and generally inconsistent performances. The offensive line committed needless penalties. The only running plays that worked were sweeps with D.J. Monroe lined up as a receiver. It was ugly.

And unfortunately, it looked like the defense – which had begun the game as inspired as I’ve seen them all year - started to deflate a bit in the second quarter, allowing Alabama to make plays in the running game that led to 17 straight points.

As for how the half ended, I’ll just say that the next shovel pass I see might cause Vietnam-like flashbacks.

So there we were. Halftime. 24-6. It’s over.

And then, all of a sudden, it isn’t.

I can’t tell you how proud I was to watch the way the team performed for the first 27 minutes of the second half. The defense completely shut down the Tide. Garrett Gilbert decided to focus on getting the ball to Texas’ most consistent big-game receivers, Jordan Shipley and Marquise Goodwin.

The offense took advantage of the great field position set up by the defense. Texas scored a touchdown, made a stop, scored another, got a two point conversion. 24-21.

HOLY CRAP!!

The most important drive of the game for Alabama ended up being one in which they didn’t score a point. After pulling to within three, the Texas defense allowed the Tide to change the field position. Alabama drove into Texas territory, assisted by some defensive penalties, and ended up punting to the six yard line.

Garrett hadn’t been backed up against his own end zone all half. With three minutes left, he was asked to drive the Horns 60-70 yards to set up a game-tying field goal attempt. The problem - you, me and certainly Alabama knew he was dropping back to pass on every down.  On the second play, he didn’t recognize the blitzer coming from the left side.

Game over.

But you know what was really cool? For that brief time between the two-point conversion and the fumble, my nerves returned. I thought they had vanished for the night after Colt’s injury. We were back in it. We had a shot to actually win the game. Who could have imagined?

Did it end poorly? Oh yeah. Does the final score reflect how close the game was? Not even close.

But with three minutes left in the national championship game, Garrett Gilbert ran out in front of 100,000 fans in the Rose Bowl and half the country watching on TV with a chance to win it. And I actually thought he might do it. Amazing.

We are less than 24 hours into the Tide’s reign as champs, and I’m already tired of the SEC domination talk. Anyone who watched this game knows that Alabama didn’t dominate Texas.

Texas actually outgained Alabama in total yards.

The difference? Turnovers. Bama forced five of them. Led to 20 points. Texas forced two. Led to 3 points. Wonder if those 17 points mattered?

Does Texas turn the ball over five times with Colt in the game? Probably not. But here we are again trying to say what might have happened. Kind of pointless, isn’t it?

I’ve heard that some time during the second quarter, Colt and Brad McCoy were in the Texas locker room trying to throw a football to one another. The son, a two-time Heisman finalist and 1st team All-American, couldn’t even make a seven yard pass to his dad. The result of what we now know to be a pinched nerve.

That’s not the way the winningest quarterback in college football history is supposed to end his career. To his credit, he returned, in full uniform, for the second half to try and lead the team from the sidelines. Is it surprising how much better they played with him cheering them on?

Congratulations to Colt on a legendary career. The irony of his being named the AT&T Player of the Year during the telecast last night was not lost on anyone.

Congratulations to Garrett on playing better for a 15-minute stretch against Alabama than Tim Tebow did at any point of the SEC championship game.

Congratulations to Sergio Kindle for all the money he made himself last night with the NFL draft three months away.

Congratulations to the Texas seniors for winning 45 games over their careers.

Congratulations to Alabama, a damn good team who won their first national title in 17 years. Give Garrett a full season of experience, and maybe we can do this again in 12 months. How does that sound?

Hook ‘em!

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