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Turkey, Football, and a seat hotter than the oven in your house. Thanksgiving Day 2013 will see the Texas Longhorns take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders, a match up of two teams in desperate need of a win for very different reasons.
October 26, 2013, the Texas Tech Red Raiders were 7-0 and one of the hottest things going in college football under Lubbock Legend Kliff Kingsbury. The Masked Rider rode into Gaylord Family Stadium with the reeling Oklahoma Sooners next on the menu. Bob Stoops had other plans as the Sooners beat the Red Raiders 38-30. Kingsbury’s crew hasn’t won a game since, losing four consecutive games to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Baylor by an average of 19.5 points.
On the other side of DKR, a very different scenario is playing out, as the battle to remove Mack Brown from the Texas sidelines continues. The Longhorns, left for dead after an embarrassing 1-2 start, rolled off six consecutive wins against and briefly broke into the top 25. The Brown faithful pointed to a “masterful†coaching job while the realists pointed out the Longhorns had seven wins over seven teams with seven bad quarterback situations. Proof of a true turnaround was just a home win against Oklahoma State away, perhaps the win needed to propel Mack Brown into one more season.
Much like Bob Stoops a few weeks prior, Mike Gundy had other plans, as his Cowboys, on the back of a damning interception returned for a touchdown just before halftime, rolled Texas 38-13 in a game not as close as the final score indicated….if that is even possible. Another disgusting home loss under Brown has the fires turned up bright headed into the last two games of the regular season.
Kingsbury vs Brown represents Mack’s last chance to make some kind of impression on the home crowd. The game also represents Kingsbury’s last shot this season to get a marquee win on national television headed into the final two months of the 2014 recruiting season, one in which almost every Longhorn commitment may be at least “looking aroundâ€.
The Longhorns are currently around a 4.5 point favorite in extremely early lines. Will Mack Brown cash in another one of his nine lives? Will Kliff Kingsbury bury the Mack Brown era? We’ll find out Thursday night.
