Looks Like Longhorns Just Flat Quit

The updates kept on drawing looks of disbelief. 17-0. 27-0, 38-0. 48-0.

48-3. (What was that about?). And finally, 66-3.

One-sided scores are part of college football each week. Especially in September, when the haves face the have-nots. But this was UCLA-Texas, a couple of peers. Or so one would think.

That was followed by the updates from West Lafayette, Ind., where Notre Dame was going down against Purdue. What was that about? Then there was Arizona State going into the Orange Bowl and beating once-mighty Miami handily in a place where the Hurricanes went more than a decade without losing. Miami, which once won 58 in a row there, has lost four of its last five in the Orange Bowl.

But nothing topped UCLA 66, Texas 3.

Folks, that just does not happen, unless a team quits. Good teams can get beaten all the time. Sometimes badly. Look at what happened to Florida in the Fiesta Bowl against Nebraska two years ago.

But good teams don’t lose like that at home, which is why Texas coach John Mackovic has a serious problem, and it transcends more than one loss.

The Longhorns were a decent team. Maybe even a Top 10 team. Now? Who knows? No Texas team ever had lost like that in the modern era, and you have to go back 94 years to find a worse beating.

Mackovic’s job may well hinge on what happens in the next few weeks. To lose is human, but to lose like the Longhorns did, is anything but divine.

A beautiful aroma

Wonder how the Rose Bowl is feeling. Penn State is No. 1 this week and Washington is No. 2. If the polls hold up, the Rose Bowl, not the Orange Bowl, will host the national championship game this season.

Irish reality check

Well, the Bob Davie era has hit its first speed bump at Notre Dame. It may be a rough ride for a while.

Ahead are tough Michigan State, tougher Michigan, and dangerous Stanford. You can analyze all you want, but the fact is that Notre Dame just isn’t that good, and while the Irish have more talent than Georgia Tech and Purdue, they are probably not in the Top 20 in overall talent right now.

Nothing against Arkansas, but how does a team score a touchdown, two officials signal a touchdown, and neither the team nor the coaches can see it? That’s what happened in the second quarter of Arkansas’ 31-9 loss to Southern Methodist on Saturday night.

The Razorbacks threw a pass into the end zone they thought was incomplete, but the officials ruled it was good. The officials signaled a touchdown and positioned the ball for the conversion. Only problem was, no one on Arkansas saw it. The Razorbacks ran a play, which the officials ruled a 2-point conversion attempt that came up short of the end zone.

Big East a big mess

We take back our suggestion that Central Florida joining the Big East would be a good idea. It’s not. Central Florida, which went into overtime before losing to Mississippi and then barely lost to South Carolina, gave Nebraska fits before falling 38-24.

So all Central Florida has done is play competitive ball against the Southeastern Conference and Big 12. That means only one thing. It’s too good for the Big East. No wonder the Big East doesn’t want them.

Speaking of the Big East, with Syracuse crashing and burning (again), West Virginia going down to Boston College, Rutgers being, well, Rutgers, Temple being Temple, and Miami losing, Virginia Tech is now the standard-bearer.

Nice. It’s clearly time to talk about college basketball in the league offices in Providence. Or maybe soccer, where the Big East has the defending national champion among the men (St. John’s) and the runnerup among the women (Notre Dame). Yes, the Big East has become a soccer league.

No prayer for Prairie

It’s wait until next season for Prairie View, which lost Saturday night 19-10 to NAIA Langston, regarded as the most beatable team on Prairie View’s schedule. So great was the anticipation that ESPN and HBO had film crews on hand in case Prairie View’s losing streak, now an NCAA-record 70 games, ended.

We’ve heard of droughts, but Richmond was carrying things a little too far in its series against Virginia. When the Spiders scored their only touchdown in a 26-7 loss, it marked the first time in 51 years Richmond had scored against the Cavaliers. In 26 games, Richmond has scored only seven times against UVA. … Next week looms as the biggest of the season in terms of rankings. Nebraska travels to Washington and Tennessee visits Florida in a pair of Top 10 games, while Auburn and LSU meet in an SEC battle that will eliminate one of the unbeaten teams from contention in college football’s strongest conference.