On This Very Day

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this day finds you with plenty in your life for which to give thanks, as well as the capacity and willingness to do so. Among countless blessings in my own life, I include this medium for expression and those of you who choose to share in it. It is a most glorious ride.

On this very day, one decade ago, I was in Austin, TX, unexpectedly, to welcome my first niece, who turned 10 yesterday, into the world. As if that weren’t reason enough for the visit to my old college town to be gloriously memorable, once there, I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to a much anticipated Texas football game against Texas A&M. The intrastate showdown is a big deal every year, but that particular game saw Ricky Williams trying to break the NCAA all-time rushing record, which he did in memorable fashion on a 60 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. I just saw the replay on ESPN Classic and it’s still awesome. He really was a fantastic player and was incredibly deserving of the Heisman Trophy he won a few weeks later.

Ten years have passed and, on this very day, another Lone Star Showdown will unfold tonight in Austin and it’s a big one, folks. (I’m listening to Brent Musberger call the ’98 game and I think his talking style is rubbing off on my typing!) Texas has the chance to cement its case for spot in the Big XII Championship game and a shot at a second national championship in four years. That race has been analyzed to death as the football-enthusiast world has sought to understand the BCS system and how this season might shake out. Needless to say, I’m very excited about tonight’s game and the opportunity to beat down a despised opponent.

I’m almost equally excited about the chance for another Texas hero to earn Heisman votes. Colt McCoy is very much in the mix for the coveted award and, if it’s going to go to one of the players currently being prominently mentioned, it should be McCoy. He has done so many different things so well in leading this team, unexpectedly, to the top of the mountain this year. It was, however, this very game that cemented Vince Young’s fate as runner-up for the award four years ago, as he had a mediocre outing against the Aggies and was seen sulking on the bench while Reggie Bush ran wild over some terrible West Coast team.* That game wasn’t held on Thanksgiving, though, and I didn’t have the chance to eat sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and other burnt orange holiday delicacies. I believe this very day will be different.

* Vince promptly led the Horns to a 70-3 victory in the Big XII Championship and gave perhaps the greatest single game performance in college football history in a head-to-head showdown with his Heisman nemeses in the national championship. Hopefully, voters learned their lesson.