Pre-Wyoming Thoughts

by Barking Carnival Staff on Sep 8, 2009 10:31 AM CDT in Texas Longhorns and Other Football

If you asked a random group of 100 college football fans who reached 200 wins at an earlier age among Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, Lou Holtz, and Mack Brown, how many do you think would guess correctly? There’s an obvious reason why, but I’ll just enjoy the answer for now.
After the 1997 season, we were in a tie for 4th on wins (59 from 1st), and 6th on win %. Texas is currently 2nd on the all-time wins (40 from 1st), and 3rd on the NCAA FBS all-time winning % list. I think about that stuff, and wish I believed Mack was going to stick around more than a few more seasons.
Could you name the all-time winningest coach in college football history, regardless of division? He entered the 2009 season 53 wins ahead of the next-closest competitor.
Colt’s now 19th in FBS career wins at 33 (based on the records I could find of the 250 top QB’s I could think of). His next win moves him to 16th. 2 wins put him in the top 10. 4 wins put him in the top 5. 9 more wins puts him in a tie for #1.
Still blows my mind that we led the nation in sacks last year, both in per game and in total #. The year before we were 54th. Zero against ULM wasn’t awesome.
Texas lost more games (28) in my first 5 undergraduate years (1985-1989) than they have in Mack’s first 11+ seasons (26).
101,096 fans attended the game against ULM (or bought tickets—no idea which is true). That’s 21,625 more fans than the stadium officially held in 1998. At $65 a pop, that’s $1.4 million more just on ticket sales—not factoring in all the other things people spend money on at games. Is it really that surprising that Mack is paid more than any UT prof?
UT’s longest non-conference winning streak was 15, from 1945-48. Our current streak is 14. Granted, quality of opponent has a small impact. 
Why are we playing in Wyoming?
3 BCS Bowl wins in the past five years for Texas. That’s awesome.
It’s easy to write off the value of Mack’s 10-win seasons streak as far as historical context—more games are played now than in the 60’s, so comparing Mack and DKR with that kind of stat is silly. But comparing Mack to his current peers is more reasonable. 20 teams (including Texas) hit 10 wins last season (2008). 11 did it in both 2007 & 2008. 7 did in 2006-2008. 4 did it in 2005-2008. 3 did it 2004-2008. 2 did it from 2003-2008. 2 did it from 2002-2008. Only Texas has done it from 2001-2008. If I were easy, we wouldn’t be alone.
Texas is 17-3 against AP top 25 teams since 10/16/04. That’s just amazing.
143 straight weeks in the AP poll. I remember being psyched when Texas got into the AP poll and made ESPN sportscenter during my undergrad years. "It’s good for recruiting!"
8 Straight top 15 finishes. Six of those in the top 10. From 1984-1997 we had two top 15 finishes, 12th in 1990 and 14th in 1995. 114 weeks in the top 10 of the AP poll since Mack arrived, after only 16 weeks in the top 10 during the previous 12 seasons. These are the glory days.
84,100 season tickets sold this year. The most-attended game before Mack arrived was 83,312 vs Notre Dame in 1996, and the most season-tickets sold were 39,743 in 1997. Crazy. The avg home attendance record was 79,715 set in 1984. If we average 101k this season, as seems likely, you’re looking at about 20k*$460 in tickets—so at minimum $9.2 million more in ticket sales than the record pre-Mack.

Tweet Comment 12 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

On #5: Sure, it sucks that we didn’t have any sacks last Saturday. But, as I recall, we didn’t have any last year until game three, where we sacked Arkansas 5 times. Hopefully we’ll follow a similar pattern this year.

by emmettfitzhume on Sep 8, 2009 10:34 AM CDT reply actions

Factor in some tickets go for $90.00 a ticket, endzone club and also the east side club level. even more $$$.

by bbdodge on Sep 8, 2009 10:50 AM CDT reply actions

“If I were easy, we wouldn’t be alone.”

Best Freudian slip ever.

by Woody Bombay on Sep 8, 2009 11:15 AM CDT reply actions

Texas is playing at Wyoming in 2009 because the Cowboys will play UT again in Austin in 2010 and 2012. So, with the math you did on ticket sales, etc., Texas gets a payday for two homes vs. one away game. We made a similar deal with UCF. Let’s face it, this is a business and UT is a semi-pro team. However, playing in Florida, at least there’s some recruiting exposure to the considerable football talent in that state. Wyoming is not known as a hot bed for recruiting. Plus, Laramie, Wyoning has the highest elevation football stadium in the FBS. The Longhorns may want some oxygen tanks on the sideline for this one coming up Saturday!

by calhorn on Sep 8, 2009 11:26 AM CDT reply actions

I was pretty surprised to learn this season that Nick Saban has never, ever, had back to back 10 win seasons.

by Steve Nebraska on Sep 8, 2009 11:33 AM CDT reply actions

A nice preview to prep yourselves for the shithole that is Laramie:

http://dantesmullet.blogspot.com/2009/07/road-trip.html

by coloradoag on Sep 8, 2009 11:38 AM CDT reply actions

Woody (what a name), I blame Henry James. Editing bastard.

by CallKevin on Sep 8, 2009 11:55 AM CDT reply actions

Texas has won 5 straight bowl games. Has Texas ever done that before?

by horncasting on Sep 8, 2009 1:37 PM CDT reply actions

In 12 years at Texas, Mack is 116 – 26, a 81.7% winning percentage. In 11 years at OU, Stoops is 109 – 25, a 81.3%.

by TaylorTRoom on Sep 8, 2009 4:57 PM CDT reply actions

We were WAY better than 12th in 1990. Lots of NFL talent on that team – and that team effectively ended the run-n-shoot era in college football for a while. Hell, we were one horrible PI call from being undefeated going into the Cotton Bowl.

Getting trounced in the Cotton Bowl did not help our ranking, but if we could have kept that game respectable we would have stayed in the Top 5 where we belonged.

That 1990 team was one of my favorites. I sat in the cold Cotton Bowl air for hours to watch that game, and only left in the late 4th quarter – hoping for at least one TD. But the game against UH was one of the all time great Texas games in my opinion. It was really fun to watch.

by panchoclaus on Sep 8, 2009 5:48 PM CDT reply actions