TCU now 1-0 in Thanksgiving series with Texas

Texas blog Burnt Orange Nation lamented the team’s quarterback situation after the game; Texas is a team with two quarterbacks in rotation, neither of them looking like world-beaters this season:

TCU blog Frogs O War naturally had a sunnier view of the game, pouring praise onto the defense, which has in recent weeks started to look like the old dominant defenses that led TCU to solid records year after year in the previous decade:

That end really was something -- Texas came alive with about four minutes to go, giving themselves a chance to tie, but McCoy made a desperate throw while on the run with plenty of time, and the third INT of the night for TCU’s secondary sealed it.

Texas has now lost to both of the Big 12’s 2012 newcomers, TCU and West Virginia.

Mack Brown doesn’t like it that opponents get to tweak Texas’s traditional hand salute by displaying the Hook ‘Em Horns sign upside-down. Early in the TCU-Texas broadcast Thursday night, ESPN’s Jesse Palmer showed off what the sign looks like when turned into a taunt. Two quarters later, he apologized and offered a conciliatory, “Hook ‘Em.”

Everybody was unhappy about this:

Update: David Ash returned to start the second half.

McCoy entered with 32 minutes left in the game and Texas trailing, 14-3. The Longhorns’ offense has only 125 yards, with the passing game accounting for only 82 of them.

Cobbs ranks third among Texas linebackers in tackles, with appearances in every game this year. He’s backed on the depth chart by Tevin Jackson, a sophomore who’s gotten plenty of reps this year and has posted 16 tackles of his own.

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Here’s a look at the pileup that knocked him out (via ESPN):

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Texas can still force a three-way tie for the Big 12 title if it wins out, and Oklahoma loses one of its remaining two games. In that scenario, Kansas State would still earn the league’s automatic berth to the Fiesta Bowl, but the Longhorns would be in great shape for an at-large bid. TCU is bowl eligible at 6-4, but would certainly improve its destination with a win.

Game time, TV channel: 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Texas is replacing Texas A&M, which left for the SEC, with TCU as its annual Thanksgiving Day rival. Thus:

This is all in good fun, but a few things for any Longhorns fans who might feel the urge to take a harmless little rival poke and really run with it:

That’s from last year, at what was supposed to be from the last-ever Texas hex rally.

Since the hex rally began in 1941, it’s been tied to the annual game against Texas A&M (though occasionally against others too). But now that A&M’s in the SEC, it’s up and tied to TCU, which was either in the Mountain West or Big East last.

Last season marked the end of the Texas and Texas A&M rivalry for now, as Texas took away a 27-25 win on Thanksgiving day. After that, the Aggies moved to the SEC.

Now, the Longhorns will be playing a new Thanksgiving opponent with TCU a newly crowned member of the Big 12. It was long rumored and assumed that the Horned Frogs would be Texas’ Thanksgiving foe, but it took until Friday for it to be confirmed.