IRVING, Texas —- The tone coming from Texas on Wednesday was more regret than lingering bitterness.
The Longhorns lost Nov. 1 at Texas Tech, launching the chain of events that eventually left UT squeezed out of the Big 12 championship game and national championship race.
“I think everybody felt like they could have done things better,'' Texas receiver Jordan Shipley said. “We understood if we would have taken care of our end of the deal and won all the games, then we wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place.''
Fair or not, Oklahoma was selected for the Big 12 title game after finishing in a three-way tie with Texas and Texas Tech in the South Division. Texas' beef came from owning a 45-35 win over OU.
The Longhorns made themselves heard for several weeks, and coach Mack Brown went into the offseason calling for a review of the Big 12 tiebreaker.
At Big 12 media days, however, the Longhorns spoke more of what they could have done for themselves than what was done to them. They remember Nov. 1.
“If we had played better at Tech and won the game,” Brown said, “we would have been in the conference championship game.”
Senior linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy said he replays in his mind parts of the 39-33 loss to Texas Tech. In particular, he recalls the pass from Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree that put the Red Raiders back ahead.
“As a player, you reflect on games you lost,'' Muckelroy said. “You don't worry about the ones you won. You always think about what you could have done here or there that maybe could have made the difference in the game.''
Texas recovered by beating Baylor by 24 points, Kansas by 28 and Texas A&M by 40. After they were bypassed for the Big 12 final, the Longhorns finished a 12-1 season with a 24-21 win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
“One thing Coach Brown always says is just don't let a loss beat you twice,'' Shipley said. “You've got to move on totally and try to play every game after that as best you can, and I think that's what we did. I'm proud of the fact that our team pulled together and finished the year like we wanted to.''
The Longhorns finished so well, in fact, that many thought they might have fared differently in the BCS title game than Oklahoma, which lost 24-14 to Florida.
The Longhorns instead were left to digest a hard lesson.
“It was really just about approaching the game, no half-stepping,'' Muckelroy said. “You can't really have a bad quarter or a bad half.''
Shipley said you can negate the best season with one bad performance. Then things like tiebreakers and computer rankings come into play.
“We should have won (at Texas Tech),” linebacker Sergio Kindle said. “If we win, there would be no doubt.”
Contact the writer:
444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com
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