Texas vs. Rice

My wife and I got a chance to go to the Rice/UT game Saturday at Reliant Stadium thanks to a pair of swell grandparents and a friend who bought good tickets and scheduled a vacation on the same weekend. The outcome of the game was predictable but at an event like this the game itself is only part of the experience. Since this was the opening weekend of the college football season, I wanted to check out how the Longhorns transition from the spread offense they ran with VY and Colt McCoy to a pro style offense under Garrett Gilbert was going.  Of course and possibly most importantly, people watching is always on the agenda.

The Fans
I love the University of Texas. I hope one day my kids feel the same and graduate from UT. That's assuming they are still accepting WASPS then. My wife and I are football season ticket holders. Any games I can't attend in person I watch on television. However, there is a one certain element I could live without. Yeah, I'm talking about you penny loafer, popped collar, country club guy. I know, I know, you give lots of money to the university and maybe it's because if you they continue to build beautiful facilities but you're also the reason everyone hates UT. I'm sure the Aggies feel the same about their fans who drive maroon cars and have sex with animals. Just like the Sooners don't like to talk about their fans who live in trailers and cook meth.  You just learn to deal with it.

I started to feel sorry for the women at the game who were attractive but not smoking hot. There were so many smoking hot females along with so many complete train wrecks at the game, the women who fell in between just kind of got lost. Of course the first girl I saw in Rice gear had what can only be described as "leg acne." Rice shouldn't fret though, I did see three attractive Rice fans around the stadium. Still, even when you play a school like Rice that is no excuse for you, Mrs. Fiftysomething to wear a see through burn out t-shirt, inside out. Unless, you really believe it's The University of Texas SNROHGNOL. Shameful. 

The Experience
I was a Texans season ticket holder for the first four years of their existence. As a yellow lot resident, I had the previledge of walking from Main, past the practice fields, across Kirby then finally to the stadium each home game. There was a 32% chance of dying in the parking lot after a September game and taking a piss in a Reliant stadium Port-o-Johns is the ninth biggest killer in Houston. For this game, We decided to use the South Fannin park & ride and ride the rail to the stadium. This was the best decision we could have made. There was plenty of parking at the Metro lot and a short walk to the platform. We only had to wait a few minutes for the next train to arrive then the ride itself took just a couple of minutes. The walk from the Metro platform to the stadium is much shorter than from the yellow lot. Especially, if you want to go in at the North gate. When we left, we once again only had to wait a few minutes for the next train to arrive and we were able to quickly exit the Metro parking lot without having to deal with any of the stadium traffic. I encourage you all to continue using the stadium parking lots and keep the ease of the Metro lots a secret between just us.

In the eight years it's been open, I've sat all over the stadium. We had 6th row field level seats on the 20 yard line for this game. These seats are great for getting to see all the action on the sideline and for getting a sense of how fast the game really is. They were also great if you wanted to know when Bevo took a dump. About 45 seconds after said dump the wonderful cow patty aroma would engulf you. Overall, I still prefer the club level. You can see plays develop better from the club level than the field seats but because the seating at Reliant is very vertical, you're still close to the action.

It's obvious to me and it should be to Bob McNair, the reason the Texans haven't made the playoffs yet is that they serve Breyer's instead of Blue Bell ice cream at Reliant Stadium. Come on Texans. I mean you're called The Texans for God's sake. Get with the program and serve the best ice cream in all the land. 

The Team
The defense had a rough first drive especially the secondary but they settled down in the second quarter and pretty much dominated the rest of the game. That doesn't count a 47 yard brain fart with 16 seconds left in the half. I've got a huge man crush on this year's defensive line. Kheeston Randall and Sam Acho had their names called all night and even freshman Jackson Jeffcoat got into the act.

The Offense was a different story. I still don't really understand why Mack Brown feels like they need to change the offense to a more pro style system when they've had so much success running the spread option the past 5-6 years. The running game has a long way to go to even be average. Starter Cody Johnson struggled to get anything going and was completely stoned in goal line situations. Tre Newton wasn't much better but ended up scoring three goal line touchdowns. Fozzy Whitaker showed the most explosiveness but was limited to 9 carries. Maybe we've just been spoiled by Colt McCoy's crazy accuracy but Gilbert was unimpressive at best He short armed several passes and missed on a couple deep opportunities. He definitely has the arm and I was very impressed with his ability to throw while on the run but I never got the feeling he was the leader on the field.  I'm willing to be patient and give him time to develop into that leadership role but this team needs to improve in several areas before the OU, Nebraska back to backs.