Keeping up With the Joneses and the Charleses

So the Texas Longhorns pulled it off in a convincing 34-13 victory. Just when fans were ready to burn their 2005 Nat'l Champ T-shirts in effigy after six quarters of lackluster play against underdog opponents, the Horns showed they're no Michigan. What they are is a group of young and old talent still stretching out their muscles and trying to mesh as a team. They came close in a dominant second half of what was looking like a scary night against TCU – that is if you were among the few who saw most of the game's first half. The TV audience was stuck with Texas A&M trying its best to kill Frankenstein State, ur Fresno State, the school that refused to die, but did its best to lose (Fumbling in the end zone on what would have been the winning score? That's an Aggie move.) Uh, FSN, how many channels did this admittedly thrilling triple-overtime game need? How about putting the Texas game on at least one of them?

But I digress. This season of Texas football clearly is illustrated by the yin and yang of two players: senior receiver Nate Jones and junior stud ball carrier Jamaal Charles. Jones has been the team Buddha, patiently waiting for his shot while the QBs aimed at everyone but him in past years. Last year he had a scant 13 catches for 153 yards, and that was his best performance to date. In just two games this season he has 17 nabs for 163 yards. "If one guy goes down, another guy will get up to take the slack," Jones said of his rise to the occasion. It's enough to make his Mama proud, after all he talks to her on the phone every day. "I don't think Nate Jones has had a negative thing to say about our staff or our team about getting to play," coach Mack Brown said at his Monday press conference. "He's been the ultimate team guy. It's fun to watch his success."

Meanwhile, speedster Charles has had to rein in his own ambitions in the name of team. "Jamaal is looking more mature," Brown said. "I thought he understood Saturday night that you have to make four-yard runs before you can make 40-yard runs." Brown believes Charles' 27 carries against Arkansas State – particularly in the Texas heat – were too many and limited him to 22 against TCU. Charles also had to learn Jones' patience as Chris Ogbonnaya and Vondrell McGee got some playing time. "I'm just trying to get better every week," Charles said. "If I can't run around you, I'll run through you."

So that's the Texas game plan in short for the season: There's no "I" in team, and perhaps not as much shotgun formation as many might have expected given previous years. The "I" may instead be more and more in the I formation as Texas uses multiple looks to keep its opponents off guard. "It opens it up for me and Colt [McCoy] and the wide receivers to get the ball," Charles said.

Brown discounts the Horns' 10-0 halftime deficit to TCU as the result of bad field position, an odd string of offensive pass interference calls and good play by the Horned Frog defense. Charles said the players were angry but not down at half. "We had a lot of confidence," he said. "No one was going to give up. We were gong to fight." And fight they did.

Meet me here later in the week to talk about what happens when a defrocked Notre Dame coach moves to Disneyland and schedules a game with the Burnt Orange gang. M-I-C … See you real soon.