Brown happy despite Longhorns' performances

By John Helsley

Published: September 18, 2007

Truly. Seriously. Absolutely happy.

And happy, perhaps even relieved, Brown should be.

If the Longhorns had faced some Big 12-caliber competition during the season's opening stretch, they'd be strapped with a loss right now. As it is, they're 3-0, not with a bullet, but an anchor — with three unimpressive performances dragging them down the rankings.

Texas opened at No. 4 in the preseason AP poll, but has steadily slipped to No. 7, despite its perfect start.

"I'm sincerely happy to be 3-0,” Brown said after his squad's uneasy 35-32 win at Central Florida. "But we've got a thousand things to work on.”

And 11 days to get it done.

Texas required a rally to beat TCU and needed onside kick recoveries to preserve tight wins over Arkansas State and Central Florida.

While UT's ultimate litmus test figures to come against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 6, the Horns face a Sept. 29 visit from Kansas State.

Lest you've forgotten, the Wildcats started Texas' late-season fade a year ago, sticking the 'Horns with a 45-42 loss.

The 'Cats are currently 2-1 — their loss coming in a tough game at Auburn — and get the benefit of two weeks to prepare for their trip into Austin, with an open date coming up Saturday.

Texas has the bye-week equivalent, a home date with Rice, to iron out its issues, primarily a spotty passing attack and a run defense that looked leaky against Central Florida.

Colt McCoy tossed his fifth interception Saturday — and could easily have had two others picked off — erring quickly toward his total of seven for all of last season. The consistency which marked his play in '06 has so far been missing.

UCF running back Kevin Smith ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns against Texas, the first time an enemy back has gone for more than 100 against the Longhorns since OU's Adrian Peterson did so last fall.

And with the Sooners surging so impressively from the start, there's a mounting concern among the Longhorn faithful, if not the team.

"Even though we've been behind some in the last two weeks, I don't think there was ever a coach or player on our sideline that didn't think we were going to go ahead and win the game,” Brown said Monday. "That's a very difficult thing to get. That's a confidence a lot of teams wish they had.”

Yeah, well, OU's got it.

And Kansas State might carry some of that to Texas, too, after what it did a year ago. Teams like Texas A&M and Texas Tech and Nebraska won't bow down, either.

For a Texas team with a thousand things to work on, the Longhorns better find some more aptitude to go with that attitude.

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