Twenty-one years ago to the day, I remember walking out of DKR following Texas blitzing New Mexico State and I made a phone call to Bobby Burton while walking down San Jacinto back towards my car.
The Longhorns had just been other-worldly explosive that day. Selvin Young went 97 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring. Derrick Johnson had a pick-six. Michael Huff had a pick-six. Roy Williams had back-to-back touchdown receptions. Then Vince Young came in and ran for 60, passed for 60 (on one pass) and scored two touchdowns. To top it off, Selvin Young finished the day with a punt return for a touchdown.
I remember both of us telling each other that we had never quite seen a Texas team dripping with such playmaking talent.
Texas went on to lose the next week at home to Arkansas in embarrassing fashion, so part of the moral of this column will be to remind everyone that life can come at you fast in college football and just when you think Mount Everest has been climbed, along comes Matt Jones to remind you that an awesome performance can become completely forgotten in less than a week.
Why am I even bringing up this story?
Because outside of the entire 2005 season when the Longhorns went 13-0 and posted an average margin of victory of nearly 34 points per game, it has been a long time since I can remember thinking we have very clearly seen a next step in evolution in talent the way I felt on Saturday.
Not even the 2008 and 2009 Longhorns made me quite think some of the things that crossed my mind on Saturday during and following the destruction of a perfectly fine but overwhelmed Colorado State team. That's not to say that this 2024 edition of the Longhorns is better than those teams. Hell, the 2003 team that I just referenced ended up losing by 52 points to the Sooners.
So, please understand all of the context in some of the comments I'm about to make, but ...
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