Perspective Piece: Missouri-Texas

Wild West shootouts don't get any better than Texas-Oklahoma did last week. Then again, Missouri-Texas just might exceed the excellence displayed in the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 11. This Saturday night in Austin, get ready for more rootin', tootin', high-caliber shootin'.

The motif of the Western movie might seem far too obvious as a metaphor for this titanic tilt, but when you have players with names right out of central casting, how can an observer look at this contest in any other way?

The Tigers versus Texas, for a big bunch of Big 12 bragging rights and BCS bowl positioning, isn't the kind of collision that should be likened to subtler, more nuanced, or distinctly feminine concepts. Sure, this game will involve some balletic and artistic elements. Yeah, some under-the-radar players will need to emerge on both sides, creating the kind of feel-good story consistent with a chick flick. And of course, both coaching staffs will need to do the little things that will turn a field-goal drive into a touchdown, or--if on the defensive end--just the opposite. Subtlety, nuance and tenderness will find their way into Saturday night's showdown, to a certain limited extent. But with all that having been said, the best way to frame this firefight is to liken it to a manly matchup of gridiron gunslingers. It ain't original, but as George Orwell--a man given to subtlety and nuance--once said, "To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle." If the obvious theme is the theme that works, might as well use it.

Welcome, then, to Missouri-Texas, the duel in Darrell Royal's house. Whether you prefer John Ford or Sam Peckinpah or Sergio Leone, cue up the music and imagine a scene straight out of Hollywood.

Riding in on the wagon from the Show Me State, with his black hat (with an "M" on it, of course) and piercing stare, comes Chase Daniel, as the whistling music begins in the background. He's the bad guy rolling into Austin to rustle up some cattle and beat down Bevo by hook or crook. Daniel is the marksman who likes to shoot from a distance, given the lengthy shotgun snaps used within the Tigers' offensive framework. His peripheral vision is outstanding, which makes him a natural as a gridiron gunman. He's also quick on his feet, which enables him to dodge bullets in the heat of battle. Give him just a tiny bit of pocket protection, and he'll shoot down tin cans from 50 yards away. After being wounded by the Big 12 outlaws from Oklahoma State the week before--how dare Mike Gundy's team crash the conference party?--"Deadeye Daniel" will look to aim with even better accuracy in an enemy town. He has a Heisman Trophy to hogtie, after all, in addition to his traveling team's goal of a league title.

The locals in Austin realize a formidable threat when they see one, and so hearts do not rest easy in the Texas town where the soil acquires a more (Burnt) Orange hue than in other Western movies. But while dreading the prospect of being popped by Gary Pinkel's prize pellet-propelling pupil, the home folks also know that they hold in their hearts a heaping helping of heaven-sent hope, the kind of emotional nourishment which springs from the knowledge that a hero walks tall in their midst.

Yes, there's a man who can stare down Deadeye Daniel in this Western epic. He's the same man who outclassed Shootin' Sam Bradford of the Oklahoma outfit the previous weekend in Dallas. In his spare time, the fine fellow performs charity work at hospitals and countless other places. Saturday night, though, this Longhorn legend will accompany a white horse as he hears the call to duty and, with the sagebrush blowing across the dry and dusty desert landscape, enters the town from its opposite end to smilingly size up his black-hatted foe, while the music shifts and acquires a much more uplifting tone.

Yes, Deadeye Daniel, there's a beloved hero intent on beating your very best in a gargantuan game of gunslinging Saturday night at the Memorial Stadium Corral. It's Kid Colt, the Real McCoy who's revered throughout the land they call Lone Star. Young cowpokes from Plano to Paris and Odessa to Olcott want to project the pigskin the way No. 12 does. The dream of adolescent males not attached to the Aggies is, in the state of Texas, to fire the football with the acumen, accuracy and all-around awesomeness displayed by Kid Colt, the tanned yet toughened Top Gun who stands atop the college football world.

First, there was the "Battle With Bradford" at the venerable and renovated Big D Ranch next to the state fairgrounds. Now comes an equally mighty matchup for Kid Colt: "The Duel With Daniel" at Darrell's Place, a distinctly Royal venue for two king-sized figures who will sling and fling in pursuit of a ring.

The stage is set, as the panoramic camera shot from the director looks at the quiet town's main 120-yard-long strip of real estate. Deadeye Daniel stands at the far end, his eyes possessed with the venom that comes from the sting of the unexpected loss the week before. In the near ground, the camera shows the back of Kid Colt, the McCoy boy with the easy manner that will inevitably emerge when one surpasses a supreme shooter such as Samuel Bradford in a ballyhooed battle.

The right hands of the two touted titans are poised at the waist, ready to draw and fire. Who will win the duel? That's the part of the movie that can't be revealed until Saturday night. Buckaroo Brent Musburger and Cowboy Kirk Herbstreit will tell you how this epic Western ultimately ends.