Longhorn Safetys Drop BCS Championship

If I walked up to any safety in FBS and asked "I will toss this ball into the air very gently with little rotation, if you catch it you will have that shot at a BCS Championship" 99.99% would jump on that opportunity. All you have to do is catch the precious pig skin like you have done a million times. But this time we will just lob it to you....underhand...with no wobble or distorted spin. Unfortunately Blake Gideon was not up to that challenge. With the ever so powerful Tech offense once again on the move, Gideon had a chance of a lifetime. Harrell’s pass was deflected and its direction was changed in route to Gideon. "Game over, Cinderella done, Crabtree and Harrell’s Heisman’s are shot, storming the field out of the question." All of this fluttered through my mind as the ball proceeded to glide right into the hands...wait, I mean right through the hands of Gideon. The ball falls to the turf, and Gideons heart sinks with it. True freshmen, a stud in the secondary. How big are you if you start as a freshmen at the number one ranked school, and make the interception against a Heisman candidate to win the game? Or should I say, how quickly do you become hated after you drop the rock, and your chances at BCS glory.

I think most of America new that giving Harrell that second chance was the nail in the coffin. I expected them and Harrell to score. But before we can let Tech score, another Texas safety needs to hand over the #1 seeding to somebody else. Earl Thomas, a RS Freshan makes two critical mistakes. First off, on Techs 2nd play of the drive, Thomas misses a tackle on a bubble screen to give WR Lewis and Tech a first down. If Thomas makes this tackle, time continues to run, and there would be no time for Crabtree to make that catch. Thomas' second fault comes on the final play of the game. He has help over the top on Crabtree. He sees the ball in flight and reacts over to the sideline. Now, what he should be thinking is two things, either lay some serious hat on Crabtree to try to make him drop it, or two, hold him in bounds until it is blown dead...game over. Instead he see's that his CB has a weak attempt at holding Crabtree by the sideline, and just jogs by. If he bumps Crabtree out, or holds him in bounds, he does not score. So I would just like to thank Thomas for taking the last play of the game off so Heisman hopeful Crabtree can dance into the end zone.

It hurts to see two young players in Gideon and Thomas make such huge blunders to blow their lead. But it just speaks volumes about Harrell and Crabtree. If you give them that inch, they will take a mile. And if you give them that second chance, they will strip you of your #1 seed, and take tops of the Big 12.