Coach's Corner

When the UT computer refused to allow me to enroll in class and quite abruptly -- with nary a word of farewell -- hung up, I knew I was back in college. Though the tools of the giant bureaucracy have changed -- snazzy computers replacing long lines which terminated with terse, blue-haired ladies explaining that you were not only in the wrong line but in the wrong building -- the frustrating results remain the same. My acceptance letter told me in bold letters my registration day, Nov. 5, and the precise time to call in. This high-tech registration was new to me. I was nervous. After spending a few hours getting advice from current students, I wrote down all the many numbers and pound signs the computer was going to ask me enter on the telephone. I gave up an out-of-town golf outing so I could be at my phone at 2pm, only to be rejected by the UT computer. I told my woes to a fellow student. "Welcome," she said, "to UT." Feeling a little guilty for the paucity of my Longhorns coverage this season, here are a few notes on my new school's football team. Seven hundred thirty days have gone past -- only two years -- since Texas Tech last visited The Big Yard. On that chilly November afternoon, the Red Raiders whipped an abjectly depressed, thoroughly demoralized Texas team, 21-10. An openly hostile crowd, with many fans posing as empty seats, was clearly hoping for another embarrassing Longhorn performance to hasten John Mackovic out of town. Last Saturday, with an enlarged stadium filled to capacity and with some players still here from the sad debacle of '97, the page officially turned: All the dogs had come home. The slumbering giant, staggering and lost for 15 years in the college football wastelands populated by Missouris and Vanderbilts, was now fully awake and feeling mighty grumpy.

The fanatic Orangebloods, demanding the Texas birthright of a perennial Top-10 football team, have their wish fulfilled. Only two seasons removed from 4-7 and with BCS ratings aside, Texas has a team as good as any in the country. Because the Chronicle was stripped of press credentials in Austin, its sports department has had the opportunity to watch more college football than in past falls. The head of the department -- an open-minded fellow, known to be frequently antagonistic toward UT -- reports this: Major Applewhite is the best college QB in America ... period. A coup for Mackovic there. Legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson said, in one of his best lines, he wanted his linemen "agile, mobile, and hostile." He would have loved this Texas front seven. The namby/pamby defense of the Mackovic era is ancient history. In two years Mack Brown has transformed a laughingstock into a defense the equal of any team in the nation. Were it not for a total fluke loss to NC State, UT would be No. 2 in the country (where they should be anyway), directly in line for its first national championship since Richard Nixon's first term.

Austin media ought to feel a little ashamed this week, not for what it said, but for words unspoken. A poll of local media last year named Ricky Williams' long overhaul of Tony Dorsett's 21-year-old career rushing record the top story of the year ... and rightly so. When Williams broke the record, it was the culmination of a two-year countdown to one of college sports' most special records. That other roar out there in the football jungle, made by another special back, a guy named Dayne, was only soft background noise.

Until midway through last year, I'd never heard of this Ron Dayne. The word among the media types I talked to was dismissive of this fellow known as Great Dayne. He was just a big oaf who piled up huge numbers against inferior competition, like he played in the WAC or something, not the Big Ten. This foolish notion was quashed for any even slightly impartial observer in last year's Rose Bowl, as Dayne put on a masterful, eye-popping performance, scoring four touchdowns and securing the Rose Bowl MVP. Dayne is a Hodges Mitchell in a fullback's body. His ability to change direction, causing tacklers to grasp at air where there was once a truck, is unprecedented in such a huge running back. But it was Ricky's time in Austin. Local media either put down the Wisconsin tailback or ignored him completely.

Last weekend, the Great Dayne broke Williams' record. He did it with style and the same laudable panache Ricky displayed in Austin last year. If this record was such a huge story last year, didn't its shattering deserve at least some mention other than in the page 11 game story? Does the Austin media think it somehow diminishes Ricky's accomplishments to give credit to the player who broke the local guy's record? It would seem so. No local reporter was in Madison to cover this historic game. Not even a cursory telephone interview. No comments from Ricky Williams.

Two backs coming along in consecutive years with the ungodly talent, luck, health, proper offensive systems, and an admirable, unselfish commitment to stay in school four years is a historical fluke of titanic proportions. It won't happen ever again. Expect this rushing record to stand for another 20 years. All the more reason for local media and fans to give credit where it's due.