|
|
|
|
 Sunday, December 2, 2001
Knowledge isn't always bliss
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
IRVING, Texas -- As it is with girlfriends or boyfriends cheating, what's in your Big Mac or the total amount of the taxes you'll pay in a lifetime, sometimes it's better to just not know.
The same theory presumably applies at the Big 12 Championship game.
First, it was Kansas State knowing that a victory over Texas A&M would get the Wildcats into the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl to play for the national championship in 1998 after Miami upset UCLA that afternoon. A wild overtime finish and a pint of Michael Bishop's tears later, Bill Snyder's squad was sent packing to the Alamo Bowl instead.
|  | | Major Applewhite nearly rallied Texas against Colorado, but it wasn't enough. |
The same sort of situation played out again this year at Texas Stadium. The third-ranked Longhorns took to the turf fully aware of No. 4 Tennessee's 36-34 victory over second-ranked Florida in The Swamp that ended not long before kickoff. It opened the possibility of a national championship date against the undefeated Miami Hurricanes for Mack Brown's squad if the Longhorns could beat seven-point underdog Colorado, a squad they had beaten earlier this fall by 34 points.
As was the case on that fateful day in '98 when Sirr Parker ended K-State's dream season, the top dog fell in this year's Big 12 championship as Colorado held on for a 39-37 victory.
"Number one, we were told right before that ball game started and I told the players," said Brown, whose "can't win the Big One" moniker is still alive and well.
The players weren't shy about saying that they knew and talked about what it meant.
"Everybody was excited," said wide receiver Sloan Thomas, who admitted that he mistakenly thought the Gators had already lost when he left his hotel room several hours before. "Everyone was anxious and looking forward to it."
Whether it was anxious thoughts of excitement or over-confidence, all feeling that would cause hurt to their individual games seemed to be transformed into the 6-foot-5 frame of quarterback Chris Simms. Rather than play like the quarterback who was mentioned along with the word "Heisman" ad nauseum over the summer and the early season, the junior signal-caller played horribly. He threw three interceptions and lost a fumble in the first half, before being "pulled" for Major Applewhite with 2:03 left in the half.
Simms, who threw for 130 yards on 9-of-17 passing, dislocated a finger on his follow through of a six-yard completion to Thomas, but it's likely Applewhite, a senior, would have been summoned regardless.
"I can't believe this happened," said the son of Phil Simms through tear-stained eyes after the game with Brown monitoring every one of his comments. "I let it get away, get out of hand."
Though stoic after the game when talking to a throng of media outside the Texas locker room, Simms expressed how bad it felt to not come through for a program that finally had a chance at getting to the national championship.
"We had a chance to maybe go to the Rose Bowl today," he said, "and I let a lot of people down. I let down possibly one of the greatest senior classes here at Texas. I just did not play well."
|
“ |
I really think we had a chance to play for the national championship. I believe had we won this game, we would have made the trip to Pasadena. ” |
|
|
— Texas wide receiver B.J. Johnson |
Down by as many as 19 points (29-10 in the second quarter), the Longhorns admirably kept themselves in the game with the combination of turnovers on defense and the inspiring play of Applewhite, whose precision-like passing was good for 240 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-25 passing. As they cut it to 36-30 and then to 39-37 on a B.J. Johnson touchdown with just 31 ticks of the clock left, safety Nathan Vasher found himself dreaming about what a comeback victory would mean.
"Towards the end, when we started getting close I started thinking about it and everything that we worked for up to this point," he said. "We lost a lot."
Said B.J. Johnson, who caught four balls for 107 yards and two touchdowns, "I really think we had a chance to play for the national championship. I believe had we won this game, we would have made the trip to Pasadena."
Perhaps to guard themselves, others made a point of saying that a victory might not have necessarily meant a trip to Pasadena.
"There's no guarantee that we would have been in the national championship," said All-American cornerback Quentin Jammer. "Anything would have been possible."
True. Tennessee could have leapfrogged the Longhorns either this week or perhaps with a victory in next Saturday's SEC Championship game against LSU.
"As far as the BCS and stuff, they're kind of funny," said Vasher, who tied the Texas record for single-season interceptions with his seventh pick of the year in the second quarter. "You never know where they would have put us or if some other team would have jumped us."
At least they would have had a chance. Now, instead of playing for the national championship, the Longhorns won't even be involved in a BCS bowl. How fortunes can change in just a few hours. Perhaps next time, just based on superstition, players will be quarantined and not allowed near TVs, radios, the Internet or any of the thousands of fans packing the stadium.
Some things are better not known.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
|
|
|
|
ESPN.com:
HELP |
ADVERTISER INFO |
CONTACT US |
TOOLS |
SITE MAP
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Group. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Employment opportunities at ESPN.com.
|
 |
 Colorado's final drive continues when Texas gets penalized for roughing the punter (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 2922 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Aaron Killion's interception return brings the ball inside the fifteen and sets up a Chris Brown TD (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 1622 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Colorado's Bobby Purify scampers 51 yards setting a short TD by Chris Brown (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 1426 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Marcus Moore intercepts Chris Simms and returns it 64 yards for the score (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 1235 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Major Applewhite finds a wide-open B.J. Johnson for a 79-yard touchdown strike (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 1396 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Roderick Babers intercepts a fake punt attempt and takes it back 54 yards for the touch (Courtesy: ABC Sports).
avi: 1342 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Gary Barnett details Colorado's Big 12 Championship win with ABC's Jack Arute.
wav: 377 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
|
|
