Bill Little commentary: A mulligan

Every person who has ever played in a charity golf tournament understands it. Teams of four or more players try to achieve the lowest score possible by taking the best shot from each participant. Often, to earn more money for the charity and liven up the game, folks are given the chance to buy one extra shot. When the usual rotation is exhausted, and the result is a poorly played ball, somebody pulls out another ball and hits that silver bullet that is known as a "mulligan."

After Saturday's defeat by Oklahoma State, the Longhorns now get to play a two game mulligan in the midst of the Big 12 race. Win the next two, and Texas will -- despite the loss to Oklahoma State -- claim at least a share of the league championship.

When the Big 12 reconfigured a couple of years ago, eliminating the league championship game and setting up schedules where all teams played each other, the reality of a team going through the league unbeaten became remote. With the teams winding down the regular season schedule, only one team -- Baylor, stands without a loss. And the Bears have to play at Oklahoma State and TCU before hosting Texas on Dec. 7.

Oklahoma State has thrust itself into the mix after a league-opening loss at West Virginia, but the Cowpokes still must beat both Baylor and Oklahoma in Stillwater.

Texas, at 6-1, hosts Texas Tech on Thanksgiving Night before the trip to Baylor.

As the Longhorns went through an emotional and physical six straight victories, you had to see this one coming. Oklahoma State was favored in the game, which seemed to match teams that were a mirror-image of each other.

Throughout the season, Mack Brown has said time and again that this was a year where the league champion could easily have one loss. In assessing the Oklahoma State contest, he noted that both teams were similar -- a balanced attack offensively and aggressive defense.

Brown has never used injuries as excuses, and he made it clear to the TV announcers before the game that he wasn't going to start now despite the season-ending blows of losing two of its best players in running back Jonathan Gray and defensive tackle Chris Whaley in the West Virginia game only a week before.

"No excuses, no regrets," he said. "It's 'the next man up' for us."

Pressed to identify the keys to the game, he was sadly prophetic.

"When you have two teams this evenly matched," he said, "it usually comes down to turnovers and the kicking game."

Somewhere, Darrell Royal must have nodded his head. That's straight out of Royal's play book for big games.

And it was exactly what happened.

This Texas team has fought together, cried together, laughed together, and won together all season. Saturday, they lost together. Mixed in with some outstanding plays from all three phases of the game were critical mistakes that turned what was expected to be a down-to-the-wire game into 38-13.

Football, more than anything, is a game of field position. It is played on a field that is 100 yards long, and the object is to get from here to there faster and better than your opponent. And despite a yeoman effort from punter-place kicker Anthony Fera (who dropped two of his five punts inside the 20), field position would dictate the course of the game.

The Case McCoy-led Texas offense was forced to begin play from its own three-yard line, its own 18-yard line, its own 20 and its own four on the first four drives of the game. The second half started about the same -- with the first three drives coming from the 6, and two from the 18.

For the entire game, Texas averaged starting from its own 19 while Oklahoma State started from its own 33. Texas turned the ball over three times on interceptions (with two leading directly to touchdowns), and gained only one on an interception in the end zone that stopped an OSU drive.

As a result, the game statistics reflect Texas yardage from drives that moved the ball, but seldom far enough after starting with its back to the wall. Texas actually had 25 first downs to 21 for OSU, and converted 10 of 19 tries on third down compared to 5 of 13 for the Cowboys. But three of the five OSU conversions came on third and seven or longer.

For the Longhorns, the game was a situation where "what could go wrong" -- did.

What emerged from the dressing room after the game, however, was a reflection of the resolve this team and coaching staff has shown throughout the season. With an open date coming up Saturday, they will regroup and get ready for a final run in an effort to achieve their goal of winning at least a piece of the Big 12 championship.

And in a year when the unpredictable is the only thing that is predictable, it's your next shot, and not your most recent shot that counts. Golfers will tell you that. Many a tournament has been won because one of the players, using his "mulligan" puts the team in position to win. It is important to note that you get only one "do-over," and you better hit this one straight. It is, after all, one of those times, where all you can do is just keep swinging, and see where that takes you.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics