Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Goodbye Texas. Hello Alabama. It is now the Crimson Tide
that have become the No. 1 coveted target in the nation for
big-time college football programs in America.

The Texas Longhorns, who were No. 1, took on their 4th
top-ranked team in consecutive weeks and came up short on
the road Saturday (11-1-08) in Lubbock to No. 6 Texas Tech
39-33 on a scoring play that never should have happened
with 1 second left.

In a Texas-style shootout, the Longhorns trailed 19-0 and
rallied to take a 33-32 lead on Vondrell McGee's 4-yard
touchdown run with only 1:29 to play. That gave just a
little too much time left for the Red Raiders' Graham
Harrell and Michael Crabtree, two gifted athletes on a
mission few others would dare to take.

With virtually no time left and 28 yards from pay dirt,
Harrell found himself surrounded by nasty Longhorns and out
of time with Crabtree in double coverage and no room to
even turn around. So what does a great quarterback do? He
throws high into double coverage, hoping his All-American
wide receiver is as great as Harrell thinks he is.

Michael Crabtree does not disappoint either his teammates
or himself. He rises to the challenge, grabs the rock with
sure hands, breaks the wannabe arm tackle of a sophomore
cover back trying to strip the ball, and takes a couple of
steps into the end zone and the game clock shows 1 second
left.

Amazingly, Crabtree stays in bounds as thousands and
thousands of screaming, delirious fans pour onto the field
of play. It is sheer bedlam as fans begin to rip down the
goal post at one end of the field, and the officials on the
field try to restore order for the extra-point attempt and
final kickoff to Texas to eliminate the one second left on
the clock.

This is college football in America on a Saturday
afternoon. A major university with thousands of fans who
have suffered through the dominance of Texas and Oklahoma
teams for too many years. This is their moment of glory and
they will not be denied. It is the competitive spirit of
America in its finest hour, their years of hardship and
agony are over and their 15 minutes of fame and glory have
arrived.

All of the Texas Tech fans, players and coaches need to
party down big-time because Texas Tech's season is not
over. The Red Raiders will now run a gauntlet somewhat
similar to the one that the Longhorns faced as 8-1 Oklahoma
State and 8-1 Oklahoma lie ahead and a lesser-light Baylor
team lurks in the background.

The drama of this game could not have been higher. Texas
Tech only needed a field goal to win the game, but could
not rely on its kicker to convert from some 40 yards out.
Not only was Harrell's pass into double coverage over the
top, and even though Crabtree made a great catch, had he
been tackled short of the end zone or gone out of bounds,
it is unlikely in the moment that the Red Raiders could
have called a time out and still had enough time to set up
for a game-winning field goal try.

"All we needed was a field goal, but a touchdown's even
sweeter," said Raider quarterback Graham Harrell after the
game. "If you're a quarterback and don't want to be in that
situation, you should change positions." Harrell finished
with 474 yards passing and 2 touchdowns while completing 36
of 53 attempts.

Was this really THAT big of a win for Texas Tech? Yes it
was. The Red Raider win over Texas was the biggest win in
Texas Tech history and its first win against a No. 1-ranked
team. The victory gave them command of the Big 12 South and
put them smack in the middle of the race for a spot in the
national championship game.

And just how close was Texas to winning? How about 1 second
among 60 minutes of play? Or the fact that on the play
prior to Crabtree's winning 28-yard TD catch, freshman
safety Blake Gideon dropped what would have been a
game-ending interception on a tipped pass. That single drop
meant Harrell could make the dangerous decision to throw
into double coverage to Crabtree. The rest is now history.

The win vaulted No. 6 Texas Tech past Penn State, Florida
and Oklahoma into the No. 2 spot in this week's AP Top 25
Poll. For Texas Tech fans around the world, this rise to
prominence came none too soon.

The reason Alabama vaulted from No. 2 in the AP rankings to
the top spot is because the Crimson Tide shut out Arkansas
State Saturday 35-0, scoring in every quarter and looking
every bit as if they should be No. 1.

Coach Nick Saban has quickly become better than the gold
standard in Alabama. Saban has taken the Crimson Tide to
the No. 1 ranking in the nation in only his second year at
Tuscaloosa.

Saban is the highest paid coach in college football ($32
million for 8 years). Many fans and boosters at Alabama
believe Saban is worth every penny of it and now you know
why.

Saban turned around Michigan State's program in one year
and went to 3 bowl games in his first 3 years. He turned
around Louisiana State's program in one year, won or shared
3 SEC titles, went to bowl games all 5 years and won the
National Championship in 2003. He turned around Alabama in
his first season last year and went to a bowl game. Now his
Crimson Tide players are 9-0 and in the hunt for a spot in
this year's national championship game.

No. 5 Florida recorded a huge win on the road at No. 8
Georgia, putting some major hurt on the Bulldogs, 49-10.
Since their unexpected lack of focus and 31-30 loss to
Mississippi, Coach Urban Meyer's Gators have gone ballistic
croc hunting, ripping apart Arkansas 38-7, LSU 51-21 and
Kentucky 63-5 before hosting Georgia.

Apparently the Gators have become so savage that they will
rip apart their victims but also drink their blood in their
quest to get into the national championship game.

Both Texas and Georgia lost to top-ranked teams. Texas
Tech, Alabama and Florida were among 13 of the 20 AP Poll
teams to win this week, 7 others—including Texas and
Georgia which played top-ranked teams--lost and 5 teams
were idle. No. 3 Penn State, No. 13 Ohio State, No. 18 Ball
State, No. 21 North Carolina and No. 25 Maryland were all
idle.

The other ranked teams which won big and made a statement
included:

No. 4 Oklahoma at home in a waltz over Nebraska 62-28 (the
Sooners led 62-21 after 3 quarters), No. 7 Southern Cal on
the road shut out Washington 56-0 (the Huskies are dead and
waiting for fired head coach Tyrone Willingham to get on
down the road), No. 9 Oklahoma State at home over Iowa
State 59-17 (the Cowboys scored in every quarter), No. 11
Boise State at home shut out New Mexico State 49-0 (the
Broncos scored in every quarter against what we think is a
team in the southwest), No. 12 TCU on the road over UNLV
44-14, and No. 15 LSU at home over Tulane 35-10.

Four other ranked teams won but were hardly impressive.
They included:

No. 10 Utah on the road over weak, unranked New Mexico
13-10 (the 9-0 unbeaten Utah Utes are overrated big-time
and may find that out this week when they clash with 9-1
TCU), No. 14 Missouri on the road over unranked Baylor
31-28 (the now toothless Tigers take down a 3-win Baylor
team), No. 17 BYU on the road over weak, unranked Colorado
State 45-42 (the Cougars are hardly ferocious, they gave up
32 points to TCU, 35 to UNLV and now 42 to Colorado State
after beating a winless 0-8 Washington team 28-27 earlier
in the season), and No. 22 Michigan State at home over
Wisconsin 25-24 (it's true that Wisconsin may well be the
best 4-5 team in the country, but the Spartans should have
won by two touchdowns).

Five other ranked teams committed the unpardonable sin of
losing to an unranked team. They included:

No. 16 Florida State lost on the road to Georgia Tech
31-28, No. 19 and unbeaten Tulsa lost on the road to
Arkansas 30-23, No. 20 Minnesota lost at home to
Northwestern 24-17, No. 23 Oregon lost on the road to
California 26-16, and No. 24 South Florida lost on the road
to Cincinnati 24-10.

----------------------------------------------------
Read my other detailed, knowledgeable, interesting articles
on college football, including:
"Texas Handles Unbeaten Oklahoma State, and Penn State
Whips Ohio State"
"Top 6 Teams Remain on Top, Led by Unbeaten Texas, Alabama
& Penn State"
"Only 10 Undefeated Teams Remain - Oklahoma, Missouri and
LSU All Lose"
Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html

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