By Travis Stewart/Texas Football -- Pick a storyline, any storyline.
Anyone know a good screen play writer?
The state of Texas would like to offer any candidate a full-time position, effective immediately, name your own pay. After all, outside of TCU's scintillating run to the BCS national title game — a plot that twisted uncomfortably this weekend — these final few weeks of the 2010 season are starting to feel mind-numblingly bland. Baylor's epic quest for a conference title? Spoiled by antagonists like Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. Tommy Tuberville's redemption story in Lubbock? Squandered as his cast struggles to remember their lines. Texas' Garrett Gilbert? A rough draft that needs some revision. SMU and Houston? A classic horror flick where monsters maul attractive lead characters.
Rice and UNT? Uhh ... straight to DVD.
At least that's all one way of looking at it. After all, Ryan Tannehill has offered Aggie fans an alternate ending for their sour 2010 film, and Mike Canales at UNT is hitting the manuscript with buckets of white-out to re-ink the way this year could finish. Maybe things aren't bland — maybe we're setting ourselves up for the rise of an epic hero.
But, as we know, this is nothing as trivial as a mere movie — this is football. And the bottom line is that, right now, the state of Texas has just four bowl-eligible teams, all of which have at least three losses. TCU obviously leads the pack at 11-0. But what will we do if the rest of the state continues to flounder? At least Texas Tech or Houston will reach six wins — both sit at five and still have to play each other in the season finale. But we could still have five teams fall flat — UNT and Rice are both out for sure, and Texas is just a loss away itself. SMU doesn't have a gimme road in front of it, and either TTU or UH could miss, too.
Five teams? Man. This season is certainly no romance.
DCTF 2010 Texas College Football Week 12 Power Poll
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous |
| 1 | TCU Horned Frogs (11-0/7-0) | Points: 50 (5) | 1 |
| Adam Hochfelder: A close win over a vastly improved San Diego State team has changed the BCS narrative ... for now! More twists and turns await TCU in the BCS soup of math/voting/politics/etc. | |||
| 2 | Texas A&M Aggies (7-3/4-2) | Points: 45 | 2 |
| Dennis Hall: Ryan Tannehill was far from perfect, but he maintained his perfect record as the Aggies’ starting QB. Now 3-0, he’ll get another stiff test this week against Nebraska. | |||
| 3 | Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-5/3-5) | Points: 36 | 3 |
| Travis Stewart: It's a little disconcerting that we're keeping Texas Tech at No. 3 after it just lost 45-7 to a team with one loss (Oklahoma). But dude, seriously ... where else could you go right now? The Raiders beat Baylor, which has to mean something in this kind of a tiebreak, and the C-USA teams are all still running in opposite directions from an unmanned conference trophy sitting center stage. | |||
| 4 | Baylor Bears (7-4/4-3) | Points: 35 | 4 |
| Brad Hilliard: Their Big 12 title hopes are shot, but the Bears still have a chance to play spoiler on Senior Day against the Sooners and ride the momentum into bowl (and recruiting) season. | |||
| 5 | Houston Cougars (5-5/4-3) | Points: 28 | 5 |
| Travis Stewart: You have to give the Coogs credit for hanging tough with high-powered Tulsa, but ultimately the weight of five interceptions proved too much to handle for the team's back. The loss really hurt Houston's chance of picking up the Western Division title, but there's at least hope for the future with this group. | |||
| 6 | SMU Mustangs (5-5/4-2) | Points: 25 | 8 |
| Dennis Hall: Though they were off this week, UH's loss means the Mustangs are now in control of their own destiny in C-USA West. Two more wins and they’ll be playing in the conference championship game. | |||
| t-7 | Texas Longhorns (4-6/2-5) | Points: 21 | t-6 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Zzz ... zzz ... I am not the only person waiting for a merciful end to this season. Sadly, some of Texas’ players are killing time too. | |||
| t-7 | UTEP Miners (6-5/3-4) | Points: 21 | t-6 |
| Travis Stewart: UTEP hung with Arkansas for a bit longer than expected this weekend, but ultimately the Hogs exposed UTEP for what it really is: a middle-of-the-pack team in a middle-of-the-pack conference. Still, UTEP looks like it's going to get a bowl berth — and that might be enough for Mike Price to keep his job. | |||
| 9 | North Texas Mean Green (3-7/3-4) | Points: 8 | 10 |
| Dennis Hall: Interim coach Mike Canales is making a strong case for removing the “interim” from his title. Two wins in three games, including this week’s win over defending Sun Belt champion Middle Tennessee. Very impressive. | |||
| 10 | Rice Owls (2-8/1-5) | Points: 7 | 9 |
| Travis Stewart: So if you're an Owls fan, what exactly are you pinning your hopes on for the future? Is it Sam McGuffie? Maybe. Is it Taylor Cook? Maybe. But Rice's biggest problem right now is that it seems to lack any real identity. The coaching staff still looks like it's trying to figure out how to use all these players together. That's rarely conducive to wins. | |||
ABOUT THE PANEL:
> Adam Hochfelder is the Executive Director of DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Dennis Hall is a managing editor with DCTF
> Travis Stewart is a managing editor with DCTF
> Brad Hilliard is the operations coordinator for DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Tom Sullivan is an account executive for DCTF
