Three Thoughts - Horns Survive Arizona St
By the slimmest of margins and a little bit of good luck, Texas advances to Final Four.
Three Thoughts is our signature way to summarize a noteworthy game we want to cover during the 2024 college football season at #Sturmstack. We grab one game most weekends – featuring Texas or Texas A&M – and bringing our notebook to see what jumps out at us in a brief recap that we do in memory of the man who did this first before his untimely demise, the late Grant Wahl…
Presented without an editor, so please forgive the grammar.
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The great thing about sports is that our expectations are never correct. We think this game will be a close game and it ends up 34-0 at the half. We think this other game is a clear mismatch and we see a game that is so back-and-forth and filled with so much drama – thrill of victory and agony of defeat – that we want to declare it one of the best games we have ever seen.
Clearly, this was the case in Atlanta on New Year’s Day as the Peach Bowl provided something we will not soon forget. Texas had won the game, lost the game, then won it, only to lose it, and finally to win it. Arizona State was sure they were dead, then pretty sure they just pulled the biggest upset of the playoffs, and then staggered off the field in such dismay that they will never get over this one. They were this close.
Football provides moments that we talk about for decades and I dare say that we will be talking about this amazing national quarterfinal for a long time. There is no question that what makes a battle worth remembering are two teams that refuse to give in to the other. And we definitely happened upon that today – even though many of us (me!) thought there was no chance that this game would hold much drama.
It was delightful to be so wrong.
Texas survives and advances, 39-31, and will live to fight another day a week from Friday in Arlington against Ohio State and may be just two wins from the national title they so desire.
And These are My Three Thoughts: