Kansas Jayhawks at Texas Longhorns Preview

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, November 11, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Legions of orange-clad, hook-'em-Horns-waving loyalists see the last three regular season games for their No. 2 Texas Longhorns football team as nothing more than a triumphal march toward a meeting of destiny with Southern Cal.

Longhorn coach Mack Brown looks at it differently. He sees that same stretch as a minefield.

And all it takes to wipe the grin off any Texas fan going into Saturday's game with Kansas is to whisper "4th and 18." That's what Texas faced very late in last year's KU contest, along with a three-point deficit.

Yes, Vince Young did scramble for 22 yards on the next play, then hit Tony Jeffrey with the winning touchdown pass with 11 seconds left. But allowing the Kansas Jayhawks to hang around on Saturday would be like playing with a rattlesnake.

The Jayhawks started slow in league play, then blew out Nebraska 40-18 last week. Sophomore Jason Swanson appears to have settled in at quarterback, and LB Nick Reid leads a defense that is No. 1 in the nation against the run. Earlier this season, KU held Missouri's dynamic Brad Smith to 38 yards.

Could they do the same to Young, another double threat who is similar to Smith in some ways? Maybe, but Young is bigger, faster and a much better thrower than his Mizzou counterpart. And Texas has far more weapons to help him -- RBs Jamaal Charles, Selvin Young and Ramonce Taylor, WRs Billy Pittman and Limas Sweed, TE David Thomas. The Texas Longhorns also boast perhaps the best offensive and defensive lines in the country, with OT Jonathan Scott and DT Rod Wright frontrunners for first-team All-America honors.

And yet ... a mine is a mine.
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