Battle of the Alamo

The Alamo was the site of a desperate siege, where a ragtag group of men led by a colonel with more confidence than his fighters eventually paid the ultimate price. While a football game isn’t a military battle, plenty of parallels can be drawn from the Battle of the Alamo and the 2013 Valero Alamo Bowl. The game will take place Dec. 30 between unranked Texas and No. 10 Oregon at the Alamodome in San Antonio.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 

On paper, the game looks like one of the biggest mismatches of the 2013 bowl season. The Longhorns are perhaps the biggest underdogs in the Alamo City since the Texicans fought the Mexican army some 178 years ago.

Texas — a team that struggles to stop the option run — will be pitted against an Oregon team that thrives on the option run and that has one of the nation’s best dual-threat quarterbacks. Fans should consider the Ducks an even better offensive team than Baylor or Oklahoma State, two opponents that beat the Longhorns by a combined margin of 68-23 in the last month of the season.

Fortunately, games aren’t played on paper. The Longhorns (who finished the season 8-4) had 15 days of practice to figure out ways to stop Oregon’s Quack Attack while shrugging off the disappointment of losing the Big 12 championship to Baylor.

“We didn’t finish the way we wanted to but we’re going back to work and get after these guys because Oregon is like Baylor — they can score fast and they do a tremendous job,” coach Mack Brown said. “They’ve been one of the best football teams in the country for the past four years.”

This year marks the Longhorns’ third appearance in the Alamo Bowl’s 21-year history. Texas beat Iowa 26-24 in 2006 and knocked off

Oregon State 31-27 just last December. This bowl game is the fourth time in Brown’s 16-year tenure that the Longhorns have gone to the same bowl in consecutive years (Cotton Bowl 1998-99; Holiday Bowl 2000-01; Rose Bowl 2004-05 and Alamo Bowl 2012-13). Texas will face a Pac-12 (formerly Pac-10) team for the eighth time in its last 13 bowl trips.

“It’s great to be going to San Antonio, where all our fans can come see us for our final game,” senior guard Trey Hopkins said. “It’s going to be my last game as a Longhorn. It’s definitely going to be exciting to play a top-10 team like Oregon that’s been in the national spotlight all year and had been talking about playing for the national championship.”

Texas will make its 52nd all-time bowl appearance (second in NCAA history), including the 15th in Brown’s tenure. The Longhorns have won nine of their past 11 bowls and have a 10-4 bowl record under Brown. The head coach has directed his teams (at Texas and, before that, at North Carolina) to 21 bowls in the past 22 seasons —a run that’s tied for the most in the nation with Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer.

“Our guys enjoy playing in bowl games and it gives us a chance to get out of the box for next season,” Brown said. “It gives you a month to prepare. You’re working on your team for the future, and at the same time you have one last game for your seniors. We talked about Senior Night being at home, but really and truly your Senior Night is the bowl game.”

Despite losing five starters to season-ending injuries, the Longhorns still managed to turn around a rough start with a 7-2 record in the Big 12 that included six straight wins. Five of Texas’ eight victories came against teams with losing records (those teams were a combined 16-34 for the season), and the Longhorns played seven teams that will play in bowls, going 3-4 against those squads.

Oregon ranks third in the nation in scoring offense (46.8 points per game) and second in total yards (573 yards per game). Sophomore quarterback Marcus Mariota ranks sixth in the nation in passing efficiency (167.9 rating) and ninth in total offense (332.8 per game). The Ducks’ defense is allowing just 21.6 points per game, which ranks No. 25 nationally.

Conversely, the Longhorns rank 36th nationally in rushing offense, with running back Malcolm Brown averaging 101.6 yards per game over the last seven contests. Jaxon Shipley leads the team with 55 receptions, while Mike Davis has a team-high 715 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.

Defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat leads a Texas defense tied for fifth nationally in sacks (3.08 per game). Jeffcoat is tied for third in the FBS with 1.0 sacks per game, while Cedric Reed is tied for 23rd (0.8 per game). Jeffcoat also leads the team in tackles (80) and tackles for loss (21).

Texas’ excitement about the postseason must be tempered by the fact that the Ducks roll into San Antonio with a huge chip on their collective shoulder and possess as much talent as any team in the country. Oregon was passed over for an at-large bid to the Orange Bowl (Clemson vs. Ohio State) and the Sugar Bowl (Alabama vs. Oklahoma) during the selection process on Dec. 8. No. 8 South Carolina and No. 9 Missouri were the only other teams ranked in the Associated Press top 10 not selected for a BCS bowl.

The Ducks (10-2) will be the highest-ranked team to play in the Alamo Bowl since No. 8 Nebraska in 2000. The 2013 season marks the first time in five seasons that Oregon will not play in a BCS game.

Texas hasn’t played in a BCS bowl since losing the 2010 National Championship game. One year later, Oregon was runner-up.

This will be the first meeting between Oregon and Texas since the Ducks’ 35-30 victory in the 2000 Holiday Bowl. The victory gave Oregon its first 10-win season. Texas and Oregon have met five previous times, with the Longhorns holding a 4-1 edge. Oregon is 11-15 all-time in the postseason and winners of its past two. Since 1996, the Ducks are 4-3 against Big 12 opponents in bowl games.

After starting the season 8-0, a 26-20 loss at Stanford on Nov. 7 knocked the Ducks out of the BCS title hunt. A surprising 42-16 drubbing at Arizona prevented Oregon from hosting a snowy Pac-12 championship game. It was Oregon’s first loss to an unranked team since 2009. The 26-point margin of defeat was the Ducks’ biggest since losing 44-10 to USC in 2008.

“We had a tough four-game stretch at the end of the season — stubbed our toe a bit,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said. “But we’re hungry to get back out there and we’re excited to take on an iconic program and an iconic coach.”

Oregon righted the ship, somewhat, with a 36-35 win over Oregon State to end the regular season. However, seeing how the Ducks respond to what has been considered a substandard season when they square off against Texas will be interesting.

“I don’t think anyone’s disappointed [to be going to the Alamo Bowl],” Oregon center Hroniss Grasu said. “It’s an honor to play against Texas. Winning this game would be a big momentum booster for the offseason.”

A left knee injury to Mariota in October was a key component in the Ducks’ late-season swan dive, but there’s a chance he’ll be completely healthy for the Alamo Bowl. If Mariota is able to run the read-option, the Longhorns might have some Texas-sized trouble.

Brigham Young, Ole Miss and Oklahoma State had huge success running that offense against Texas. Mariota, if healthy, will be the best quarterback the Longhorns face this season. “I’m not sure how my body will be a few weeks from now, but I’m going to continue get better,” Mariota said. “It says a lot when our team goes 10-2 and is disappointed, and says a lot about where we’ve come as a program.”

For all the progress defensive coordinator Greg Robinson (who joined the Longhorns after the loss at BYU) and the defensive staff made in the past 10 games, defending the option remains the team’s Achilles’ heel. The Longhorns gave up the ninth most rushing yards to quarterbacks in the FBS. Jeffcoat finished with a Big 12-leading 12 sacks in his senior season and anchors a unit that has loads of experience defending high-tempo spread offenses.

While much of the game’s focus is on the Longhorns’ ability to stop Oregon’s blur of an offense, the game could swing on the Ducks’ inability to stop the run. Oregon allowed Stanford to run for 274 yards and Arizona to rush for 304 yards in its two defeats. Texas averaged 197.6 yards rushing per game.

“We’ve been a little banged up on the defensive side of the ball,” Helfrich said. “Hopefully we’ll get all those guys healed up and ready for a huge challenge in Texas.”

Early picks made the Ducks a two-touchdown favorite to beat Texas. This is familiar territory for the Longhorns, a team who has relished its underdog role in 2013. Perhaps there’s no better way to end the year than with Texas’ most difficult matchup yet.

“I’m excited to play Oregon, Marcus Mariota at quarterback and their running back De’Anthony Thomas,” Jeffcoat said. “It’s going to be a fun challenge. We didn’t win the Big 12 championship like we wanted, but we still have a bowl game. The season is still going. There are a lot of teams in the country that want to be in our shoes. We need to take advantage of being in a bowl game.”

[/s2If]
[s2If current_user_is_not(s2member_level2) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level3) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level5) OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level6)OR current_user_is_not(s2member_level7)]

The rest of this article is available to Digital Subscribers only. Login or Subscribe to continue reading.
[/s2If]