"The Drive": College Edition?

Top: Rich Karlis's OT field goal in the '86 AFC championship game never would have happened without John Elway's "Drive"(Tony Tomsic/Sports Illustrated) Bottom: Vince Young authored his own drive last night (Deborah Cannon/Austin American Statesman)

Broncos fans will probably argue that the end of the Rose Bowl was more like "The Fumble": Pete Carroll Edition than "The Drive": College Edition.

Plus, no one would confuse the slightly damp field and unseasonably humid conditions of the Rose Bowl for old Municipal Stadium in the January cold with the wind coming of Lake Erie

And, yeah, Vince Young had a shorter field than John Elway.

But the singular-minded determination of the winning quarterback is the same. Like John Elway in the AFC championship game almost two decades ago, Vince Young willed the Texas Longhorns to victory last night in the Rose Bowl.

And in Young's defense, he willed them to the score that set up the game winning drive as well.

Also, just like the 1987 AFC Championship catapulted Elway to legend status, the 2006 Rose Bowl may have done the same for Young.

For those of you old enough to remember, Elway was perceived as a million-dollar brat who got to choose his team prior to "The Drive." Afterward, well, he was on his way to the Hall of Fame.

Young wasn't given his due by a lot of media people and bloggers (myself included), but it was for more on-field reasons. He was always second to someone before then. Second to Cedric Benson in importance last year, second to Oklahoma in the Big 12 prior to this year, Second-best QB in the nation behind Matt Leinart coming into this year.

This year, while he finally emerged from all the other "seconds", he still was percieved by a lot of people as the second best player in the country, as evidenced by the Heisman vote.

Reggie Bush was supposed to be the next legend in the making, not Vince Young.

Now, Vince Young is the legend in the making.

And he needs to go pro now to take advantage of it. His draft stock will never be higher than it is now and Vince's hometown Houston Texans have the first pick in the draft. Can you imagine what it would be like if he took the Texans to the Super Bowl? Or if he had an Elway-esque career in Houston where he wins a couple Super Bowls and is the face of that franchise for a decade or more?

I know, as a Cowboys fan, I can already picture him in the Ring of Honor, but I don't think he'd be around by the time the Cowboys are picking this year.

Wherever he goes, Vince Young is going to be great, and we're going to look back on this Rose Bowl as the place where it started.

Happy New Year, everyone

Happy New Year everyone,

Yeah, this whole blogging and working thing is neither blogging nor working very well, plus we hit a busy time at work because the thing we are supporting (which the non-disclosure clause I signed prevents me from saying what it actually is) was a hot christmas gift, so all of us at the center were putting in a lot of hours at work. Now it seems to have slowed down, so we should be back to regular posting shortly

After our Rose Bowl post: Big XII bowl wrap.

post delayed

... no thanks to work

Tomorrow: A recap of the Fort Worth bowl

Heartbreaking

Tony Dungy's son James was killed in his apartment outside Tampa today. Police ruled it a "suicide".

Naturally with a death this inexplicable and senseless, which happened the son of one of the few likeable figures and truly grounded individuals in sports today, there was no other sports story in America today.

One question.

Why?

Especially to a kid like James Dungy, a kid anyone would want their kids to be friends with. From all we've heard so far about James from the people who know him (via the media), he's active in his community and a generally a likeable person. You know, kind of like his dad.

How does that type of person kill himself? This has to be something other than a suicide.

Don't let this person sub at your school

Accused child cyber-predator Dwayne Allen Lawhon (Texas Attorney General)

OK, the above pictured dude is sick.

This dude, Dwayne Allen Lawhon, was caught in an internet sting because he tried to hook up with a police officer posing as a 14 year old girl. Oh by the way, he works at the Pflugerville (Texas) School District as a high school substitute teacher where he is around 14 year old girls every time he gets a sub call.

When I had my sub job at a different Austin-area school district, they had to do so many background checks that they knew how many speeding tickets I had and how much money was in my bank account. Was Pflugerville's HR department asleep at the wheel or is just the the first time he got caught?

If there are any parents out there reading this, please put parental controls on your computer, please monitor where your kids are going online, and please, please, whatever you do don't let them go anywhere with someone they met online.

Mainly because guys like this don't always talk to cops. Sometimes they actually talk to kids.

(Would have done a sports take today, but this was too disturbing not to blog on.)

Big 12 Bowl Schedule

Fort Worth Bowl
December 23rd, 7:00 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Kansas vs. Houston

Champs Sports (formerly Tangerine) Bowl
December 27th, 4:00 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Colorado vs. Clemson

Mastercard Alamo Bowl
December 28th, 7:00 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Nebraska vs. Michigan

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
December 29th, 7:00 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Oklahoma vs. Oregon

Independence Bowl
December 30th, 2:30 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Missouri vs. South Carolina

EV1.net Houston Bowl
December 31st, 1:30 PM Central
TV: ESPN
Iowa State vs. TCU

AT&T Cotton Bowl
January 2nd, 10:00 AM Central
TV: Fox (KTBC 7)
Texas Tech vs. Alabama

Rose Bowl presented by Citi
January 4, 7:00 PM Central
Texas vs. USC

Speechless.

This is what getting sacked 7 times looks like (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

I can hear Jeff Kaye's opening line to the Cowboys' video yearbook now:

"One week, the 2005 Dallas Cowboys looked like world beaters, the next they looked like they could do nothing right"

Seriously. I think the Texans and Cowboys switched uniforms because the Texans actually won yesterday to pull even with the 49ers in the Reggie Bush sweepstakes.

The story of the Cowboys' game is much like their loss to the Giants two weeks ago: Too much pressure on the quarterback (7 sacks), and too many picks that resulted from pressure (4).

The Cowboys' line was supposed to be better than this.