Except when it comes to the Longhorns.
Part of that is because of the rivalry between Texas and OU. But a lot of it has to do with Mack Brown and Texas fan. Both of him are joined at the hip when it comes to whining.
I don't need to rehash last season when Brown went on just about every media outlet there is to go on and whined about the three way tiebreaker that the Big 12 uses. I get that as Texas coach, he has to lobby for his team. But everywhere I turned, it was 45-35. 43-35 this and 45-35 that.
But never a 39-33. Or a 63-21 for that matter. No, that game didn't count in the minds of Brown and other Texas fans because it was played in Lubbock. That win over OU was at a neutral site (but still in the state of Texas) and it counted more.
For the record, I think college football needs a playoff. Had one been in place, it would have either mitigated or eliminated the controversy from last year.
But they don't. And I don't know that they ever will.
Anyway, you may also know that Colt McCoy lasted all of 5 snaps in the BCS Title Game before he took a hit to his throwing arm that knocked him out for the remainder of the contest.
We found out yesterday that he suffered a pinched nerve that caused his arm to basically go dead. I hated it when it happened mostly because Colt seems like a good kid. If he's good enough to be one of Sam Bradford's best buddies off the field, that's good enough for me.
And he's also been damn good in his four years at Texas. Thursday night was his night and it was cut short. It sucked.
But the other reason I hated it?
I'm still disappointed because McCoy was disappointed. He stood in front of his locker and said on at least three different occasions that, yes, he would have made a difference."I'd have given anything to have been out there because I know it would have been different," McCoy said.
Texas coach Mack Brown defined how different.
"It wouldn't even have been close," he said in an unguarded moment outside the locker room.
Well, if Mack can play the 'What If' game, then so can I.
OU lost to Texas in October, 16-13. Sam Bradford was knocked out in the second series of the game after he came back a week earlier and led the OU offense to 389 yards passing and a TD pass against Baylor. On the first series, he helped OU drive 77 yards before settling for a FG on the opening drive of the game.
If he had not have been knocked out against Texas, OU would have won the game. And let's not forget about Jermaine Gresham being out for the entire year. Throw him into the mix and it would have been 63-14 all over, again.
Nevermind that I have no idea how they would have won, what Texas would have done differently, etc.
And let's also take into account that Greg McElroy only threw 11 passes Thursday night in part because he suffered two broken ribs in the SEC Title Game against Florida that have not yet healed.
So if he was healthy, he might have offset whatever a healthy Colt McCoy could have accomplished.
And we'll never know that, will we? Because the only thing we can say with any certainty when a big name play suffers an injury that early in the game is that it changes the complexion of the entire game.
We do know it took Garrett Gilbert time to get his legs under him before he led the Horns on a furious second half rally to cut an 18 point deficit down to three.
But we have no way to know if Colt McCoy would have been able to duplicate the same success against an Alabama defense that almost assuredly would have defended the Texas pass game closer with him in there.
But undercutting other teams to win points in the public arena is what Mack does best. It's what he did last year after the possibility that the three way tiebreaker would have to be used to decide who won the South became a very REAL possibility.
And what's he did Thursday night when he let his guard down and showed his true colors.
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