Curse of Promise, Part Deux

I talked about the curse of promise in my personal life last time. For something a bit less personal, but equally gut wrenching...football season is starting up again. When I realized that the brilliant journalists of the Associated Press have the mighty Longhorns of Texas ranked #2 in the preseason poll, I confess that I thought that was a bit high. The pressure is on the Horns to set the earth back on its proper axis by beating Oklahoma.

Fans' expectations have never been higher, at least since I can remember. The media is feeding it with lofty rankings. All this means that people's jobs will be on the line this Fall, depending on the Oklahoma game. Fair or not, much has been made of Texas losing 5 in a row to OU. You know, Baylor's also lost 5 in a row to OU, but you don't hear anybody getting too worked up about that. The difference, of course, is that Baylor is terrible (possibly the worst Division 1 program over the last 5 years, although that is really difficult to measure...they're in the neighborhood, regardless). Texas is supposed to be good. Texas is supposed to beat Oklahoma this year. Texas has the curse of potential hanging over its program. In fact, there's not a program in American more cursed by it's talent and potential than the University of Texas. A curse can be broken, though. I think it gets broken this October and the Eyes of Texas will again be sung by the Longhorn faithful in the Rose Bowl next January. Hook 'em.