My heart ached for Texas last night.
Not necessarily because I wanted them to win (I did, though. I had them and the over last night in my picks pool), or because I think Nick Saban is a bit of an insufferable human being (I do), but because of the pain that their two quarterbacks went through.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports encapsulates their nights pretty well.
My heart hurt for the true freshman Garrett Gilbert, who at one point was 1-10 passing for -4 yards and two interceptions—one returned for a touchdown at the end of the half thanks to an absolutely boneheaded play call.
There is no way that kid went to bed on Wednesday night thinking he would play beyond handing the ball off to Tre Newton in garbage time in the fourth quarter of the game. Suddenly, he gets thrust upon the biggest stage in the world. Talk about an actor's nightmare.
The kid showed moxie last night in the second half. It looked like the game finally slowed down for him a bit and he almost led the Longhorns back. If he had done that, it would have been one of the most amazing performances I'd have ever seen.
My heart hurt more for Colt McCoy. He was a four year starter and in the program for five years. He got to see what Vince Young did in the 2006 title game and had a shot to do the same thing: lead his team to the national title against a media-crowned juggernaut.
He could have been the second NCAA quarterback to go 4-0 in bowl games, joining Pat White in that exclusive club.
The reason he returned this year, from what I could gather on my own, is to have been in a position to win the title after being a stupid tiebreaker away from having the chance last year.
And on the fifth play of the game, just like that, his game and career was over.
You never want to see someone's career end that way, and while McCoy will move on to bigger and better things, it still sucks to see him go out this way.
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