1) Texas has now won 9+ games 10 straight seasons. We're the only D-1 school with an active streak that long. To put that streak into perspective, only 12 other schools have had 10+ straight winning seasons, much less 9+ wins, and only 5 of those have had the same coach through that streak. Texas had 9+ wins in just 10 of the 26 seasons before Mack arrived, and hadn't won 9+ 4 years in a row since 1961-65. Granted, there are more games per season now than in the 60's & 70's, but put in the perspective of how peers are doing today, I think that's still a meaningful stat.
2) Mack's worst season at Texas, in terms of total losses, was 1999, when we lost 5. The second-worst was 3, several times. We only had 4 seasons with fewer than 4 losses in the prior 15 years.
3) Coach Royal's record over his first 10 seasons at Texas was 82-23-3 (77.30%). Coach Brown's is 102-24-0 (80.95%). Over Coach Royal's first 126 games he was 94-28-4 (76.19%).
4) With the first game of 2008, Coach Brown will become the only coach other than Coach Royal to last more than 10 seasons at Texas. Only Bible & Akers previously lasted 10.
5) Texas has been ranked in the AP Poll for 119 consecutive weeks, and the USA Today poll for 147 consecutive weeks. Both streaks are the longest in the nation, and the longest in Texas history.
6) According to Texas, we're now 3 wins behind Notre Dame on the all-time chart. According to Stassen, we're tied. Stassen awards us a forfeit from 1997 (Colorado), 1993 & 1994 (Texas Tech), and 1910 (Baylor). When Mack took over in 1998, we were 9 wins behind Nebraska, and 33 wins behind Notre Dame according to Stassen. We're now 11 ahead of Nebraska.
7) Coach Brown now has 188 career wins. That ranks him 26th on the NCAA all-time list.
8 ) Texas has now won at least the 4 games post-OU every year since 1999.
9) Colt McCoy has now thrown 49 TD passes over the past two seasons. That's a UT record for TD passes in consecutive seasons.
10) "On UT's first drive of the second quarter, Charles became the sixth player in UT history to record over 3,000 career rushing yards, joining Rick Williams (6,279), Cedric Benson (5,540), Earl Campbell (4,443), Chris Gilbert (3,231) and Vince Young (3,127)." Jamaal finished the game with 3,075 career rushing yards (1,366 this season, also 6th-best).
11) UT averaged 7.6 per carry with Jamaal carrying the ball; 2.2 per carry with Vondrell, 2.0 with Chris O. Hmmm.
12) A small grump--we gave Texas Tech 1 point more than Iowa State, 5 points more than Baylor, 8 points more than A&M, 17 more than Colorado, and 33 points more than Missouri. We gave up 3 TD's in the last 4 Tech drives, and allowed them to score on 7 of their 10 full drives. There's really no excuse for that.
13) Of the 10 starters lost from the 2006 Texas team, 7 were drafted, and 9 are on NFL rosters today. The lone exception is Neal Tweedie--and he finished his UT degree.
14) Colt finished the day with 2,900 passing yards for the 2007 season. That puts him in 4th place, 457 yards behind the single-season UT record held by Major Applewhite (307 behind Chris Simms' 2nd place year, and 136 behind Vince's 3rd).
15) I'm watching the Kansas/OK State game while writing this--Kansas can play football. I watched Missouri vs A&M earlier today. The KU/Missouri game will be really interesting. Battle of the under-recruited, vertically-challenged, Texan QB's.
16) Colt McCoy is now 19-5 as the starting QB at Texas. Major finished 22-8. Chris was 26-6. By next season, Colt's got a very realistic shot at passing Vince for most wins (30). Colt will never touch Vince or Street for win %, but he's got a decent shot at 3rd (currently Chris's mark).
17) Although I'm appreciative of Quan Cosby's contributions to the Texas team/program, I'm not sure I'm proud of his becoming the first person in UT history to return 25 kickoffs in a single season (he's at 34 , a record which suggest some defensive inadequacies on this team). Even though the kickoffs have been moved back to make for longer returns, Quan's managed to get 32+ on the return only 5 times this year.
18) Perhaps no one misses Vince Young more than WR Billy Pittman. 2005 season: 34 catches, 750 yards (22.1 ypc), 5 TD's. 2006 season, post-Vince: 35 catches, 456 yards (13.0 ypc), 4 TD's. 2007 season: 10 catches, 72 yards (7.2 ypc), 0 TD's.
19) Jermichael Finley now has as many career receptions as Kerry Cash, and is behind only David Thomas on the single-season receptions by a TE. It's nice when we remember he's an eligible receiver.
20) Jamaal Charles is the only RB in UT history with a rush of at least 80 yards and a reception of at least 70 yards. That surprises me--I'd have guessed Hodges Mitchell or Eric Metcalf hit those marks.
21) Jamaal Charles has averaged 6.3 yards per carry for his career. That puts him behind only Vince Young (6.8), Graylon Wyatt (6.6), and James Saxton (6.4) among UT players with 1,000+ career rushing yards.
22) Texas hasn't shut out anyone since 11/5/05 (28 games). Before that, 19 games, 6 games, 11 games, 5, 2, 3, 19, 12, 12 (start of Mack's career at Texas). In 71 games under Coach Mackovic, we had no shutouts. From 9/17/1988-10/26/1991, under Coach McWilliams, we went 37 games without a shutout.
23) Marcus Griffin's 91-yard INT return against Baylor was the longest return by a Texas defensive player in 71 years. Wow.
24) Since Texas crushed Iowa State 56-3, they've played respectable football--losing to OU 17-7, @ Missouri 42-28 (only Illinois with 34, and OU with 41, scored more on Missouri), beat KSU 31-20, and beat CU 31-28 today (down 21-0 at half).
25) Conversely, Colorado has lost 4 of their last 5 games, and must beat Nebraska on the 23rd in the "bowl-eligibility/bye-bye-Billy" game to have any post-season hope.
26) Spurrier's about to lose his 4th game in a row. I like that.
27) Texas has had 74 rushing plays go for 0 yards or fewer this year. Yuck. Sounds terrible, but interestingly enough we apparently had 108 of those prior to the Rose Bowl in 2005.
28) Is Ralph Friedgren a good coach or not? 3 straight 10+ win seasons with another guys' players; but now it's looking like 3 out of 4 years 5 or 6-win seasons. Tonight Maryland's beating BC.
29) Tedford's great, but has at least 2 losses every year; 4+ in 4 of his first 6 years at Cal, including this one.
30) Dennis Erickson's scum, but Arizona State's 9-1. ASU has only 3 9+ win seasons in the past 20 years.
31) Did Al Borges or Brandon Cox lose his mind today? Cox had 4 INT's today against GA, after throwing only 1 in the past 150+ attempts (7 games). His season high was 9 in 2006, but he's now thrown 11 this year.
32) Tennessee is now a win over Vandy and a win over KY away from meeting LSU in the SEC Championship game. Should TN lose one, Georgia's a win at KY away from taking their place. Tough to picture either team giving LSU a run.
33) Am I the only one surprised that Matt Stafford's season-high in passing yards is 237 (today)?