2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Arkansas State
The game attracted the second-largest home opener crowd of 78,691. By losing the game, A&M broke a 20-game winning streak in home openers. ASU captured its first victory against a Big 12 team after 14 tries. It was also their first season-opening road victory since joining Division I-A in 1992. The game was called "one of the most embarrassing losses in [A&M] history" by several sport columnists. The team's performance also placed 5th in ESPN's Bottom 10 weekly rankings.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
Prior to this meeting, A&M had only played the Lobos once in 1926, shutting them out 63–0 at College Station. Former A&M head coach Dennis Franchione coached the Lobos from 1992–97, leading them to a Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division Championship in 1997 and their first bowl appearance since 1961. The Lobos lost the game, and Franchione later resigned to take the head coaching position at TCU. Rocky Long has since taken over and led the Lobos to their first bowl victory since 1961 at the 2007 New Mexico Bowl.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
UNM signed a home-and-home deal with the Aggies after the 2006 season. Shortly after signing the deal, UNM was approached by an unidentified third party that offered US$1.5 million to move the game to San Antonio. UNM rejected the offer, and the offer was increased to $1.8 million by June 2007. The Lobos declined the offer again, stating that they needed to build fan loyalty at home.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
In their opener, UNM lost 26–3 to conference opponent TCU. Senior running back Rodney Ferguson, who posted 1,000-yard back-to-back seasons, rushed for only 59 yards in the game. Quarterback Donovan Porterie sat out in the game after throwing 4-of-10 passes for 37 yards, one interception, and losing one fumble that caused his neck injury. UNM's backup quarterback threw 3-of-14 passes for 93 yards, including one catch for 81.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
The Aggies started the game on offense and did not see any success on their first drive. Quarterback Stephen McGee had to sit out after the first drive due to a right shoulder strain, causing Jerrod Johnson to replace him. McGee did not see any action afterwards. The Lobos began their first drive on their 5-yard line. On their second third-down possession, Porterie threw an interception to safety Jordan Peterson, who returned the ball 48 yards for a touchdown. This was the first time A&M scored a defensive touchdown since the Wyoming game in 2004.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
The touchdown was also significant in that the Lobos had lost 10 of its previous meetings in which the opponent scored first. On their next possession, the Lobos gave up the ball once Porterie threw yet another pick, which set the ball for the Aggies at the UNM 20. On third down, Jerrod Johnson threw a touchdown to receiver Jeff Fuller. The Lobos answered with a 45-yard touchdown run by Ferguson on their next possession to cut A&M's lead to 14–7. In the second quarter, both teams failed to move to score on two respective drives. On their final drive of the half, the Aggies drove the ball for 93 yards on 14 plays, ending it with another touchdown pass to Fuller. After an unsuccessful UNM drive, A&M left the field for halftime leading 21–7.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
Early in the third quarter, the Lobos scored on a 27-yard field goal, thanks in part to an A&M muffed punt which the Lobos recovered at A&M's 14. Trouble hit the Lobos again when Porterie mishandled a snap, which led to a fumble recovery by defensive end Michael Bennett. Bennett returned the ball for 37 yards and stepped out of the field at the UNM 22. Johnson ended the drive on a 9-yard pass to tight end Jamie McCoy.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
With 6 minutes left in the game, the Lobos found the end zone on a 5-yard run, though a subsequent two-point conversion failed. The Aggies used their next drive to run out the clock, but eventually had to give the ball back to the Lobos on a punt. The Lobos were able to move 92 yards on 17 plays, capping it with a rushing touchdown by Ferguson. The Lobos then looked to gain the lead with less than a minute in the game, but missed the onside kick recovery. A&M ran out the clock and preserved their 28–22 victory. This victory was a milestone in that it was the first non-conference road victory for A&M since the win over Pittsburgh in 2002.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
Jerrod Johnson finished the game with 10-of-19 pass completions (including three touchdowns) for 124 yards. Tailback Mike Goodson was held only to 6 carries for 9 yards. Goodson left the game early due to a sprained right knee, although he did return to play for some time in the second half. Fullback Jorvorskie Lane got more playing time, and compiled 19 yards on seven carries. Head coach Mike Sherman stated that Jorvorskie could block and play better than he did in the game. Ryan Tannehill made three receptions for 57 yards, while Jeff Fuller caught 3 for 36. Cyrus Gray finished with 29 rushing yards on 10 carries.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, New Mexico
As for UNM, Rodney Ferguson ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. Donovan Proterie completed 22-of-35 for 154 yards, though threw two interceptions.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Miami (FL)
This was the third meeting between the two teams. In their first meeting in 1944, the Aggies won 70–14 at the Hurricanes' home field. The 1944 game remains to be Miami's worst loss in their football history. In their second meeting in 2007, Miami upset the 16th-ranked Aggies 34–17 in their home field, which was the Orange Bowl. The Canes finished 5–7 that season, which was their worst in 30 years. A&M's speed did not match that of Miami's, which is part of the reason why the Canes blanked A&M 31–0 in the first three quarters. This was the second time that a Florida team plays at Kyle Field. Florida State first played at the stadium in 1967.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Miami (FL)
Coming off a bye week, the Aggies looked to regroup at home. After their first two games, the Aggies ranked last in the Big 12 in every major offensive category: scoring offense (21 points per game), rushing yards (112.5), passing yards (157), total offense (269.5 yards), pass efficiency (126), first downs (34) and sacks allowed (seven). Part of the off week was used to practice specific schemes, including third-down and short yardage, which hadn't been worked on in weeks.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Miami (FL)
Quarterback Stephen McGee underwent an MRI on the Monday of the bye week (i.e. directly following the New Mexico game), and the MRI revealed that he suffered a sprained and slightly separated right shoulder. He was not able to practice that week. The following week, both McGee and Jerrod Johnson took snaps during practice. Tailback Mike Goodson, after suffering a mild ankle sprain in the New Mexico game, did not miss any practice time. Third-string quarterback Ryan Tannehill may miss the game due to a sprained ankle from the previous game.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Miami (FL)
Miami, among other things, aimed to improve its passing offense, which had ranked 106th nationally (out of 119 Division I FBS teams). The Canes lost an away game to Florida 26–3, after holding the Gators to 7 points before the fourth quarter. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit stated that the Canes' play against A&M might determine whether they (Miami) turn out to be a surprise team this season.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Miami (FL)
The 113th-nationally ranked A&M rushing defense, which gave up 255 and 216 rushing yards to Arkansas State and New Mexico, respectively, could catch a break in this game as Miami lost its starting running back in Javarris James, who sprained his right ankle early in the Florida game. Miami's speed on defense outmatches that of the Aggies. The Canes' defense had ranked 8th nationally 17 tackles for a loss. However, they have yet to produce a turnover.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Army
This was the fourth game in the series between the Army Black Knights and the Aggies, and the second of the AT&T Corps Classic. Army's lone trip to College Station was in 1972, the only time they defeated A&M. The third game, which was played in the Alamodome in 2006, was the debut of the AT&T Corps Classic. The Black Knights failed to score in the final drive of the game, and A&M escaped with a 28–24 victory.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Army
Army had lost all of its previous three home games to Temple, New Hampshire, and Akron. The Black Knights had been outscored 85–20, and did not score more than 10 points in each of those games. Over the past two seasons, they posted a 1–9 record in away games. Using its triple option attack, Army had averaged 179 rushing yards per game, ranking 41st in the country. Its 118th-ranked passing offense, however, had recorded only 77 yards per game. The offense had also lost 10 fumbles, the most of any Division I team. On the other side of the ball, the Black Knights had limited their opposition to 309.7 ypg. The defense had also produced five turnovers, though the front line had only forced two sacks in the first three games.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
The Aggies had a four-game winning streak coming into their 24th meeting with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They also had held a 7–3 record for games played at Stillwater. In the 2007 home game, after trailing 17–0 at the end of the first half, the Aggies matched their largest comeback in school history to defeat the Cowboys 24–23. In the 2006 meeting at Stillwater, the Aggies defeated the Cowboys 34–33 in overtime, after defensive tackle Red Bryant blocked the overtime field goal attempt that would have tied the game at 34–34 and started a second overtime.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
OSU entered the game with a nationally ranked No. 1 rushing offense, No. 3 scoring offense, and No. 4 total offense. The Aggies, on the other hand, came in with a 115th-ranked rushing defense, and a scoring and total offense that had placed last in the Big 12. OSU, which was ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2004, was a 24-point favorite.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
In the first half, OSU outscored A&M 28–7. The Cowboys gained a 7–0 lead when defensive end Ugo Chinasa returned an interception 6 yards for a touchdown. The Cowboys scored again with Zac Robinson's 29-yard throw to Dez Bryant to make the score 14–0. Bryant later ran a 78-yard punt return for another touchdown to extend the lead to 21–0. ESPN's SportsCenter called Bryant's touchdown return the No. 1 play of the night. A&M finally answered with Mike Goodson running an 80-yard touchdown, the longest of his career. There were five A&M turnovers in the first half alone. OSU did not convert on three lost A&M fumbles.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
The Aggies came into the game with an 8–4 all-time record with the Kansas State Wildcats, and a 5-game winning streak, which started in 1998 when the Aggies defeated the Wildcats 36–33 (in two overtimes) to win the Big 12 Championship. The Wildcats are led by third-year head coach Ron Prince, who led the Wildcats to a 7–6 record and an appearance in the Texas Bowl in 2006, and a 5–7 record in 2007. In both seasons, however, he led his team to upset the Texas Longhorns, who were ranked among the top 10 in the national polls coming into the matchups. Coach Prince used his 2008 junior college transfers to strengthen the team's play.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
A few players had to sit out during the game due to injuries, including offensive linemen Travis Schneider, Michael Shumard and Robbie Frost. Lineman Lee Grimes played three different positions in order to counter the injuries. Mike Goodson had to sit out the first quarter since he missed class during the week.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
Kansas State opened the game with an 81-yard touchdown drive, which consisted of 31 rushing yards by quarterback Josh Freeman. Immediately afterwards, A&M settled for a field goal on their possession, after driving 73 yards deep into K-State territory. In the second quarter, the Wildcats' special teams unit blocked their fourth punt of the season, and returned the blocked punt for a 10-yard touchdown. Safety Courtney Herndon was able to pick up his third blocked punt of the season in the process.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
Punter Justin Brantly had his first punt block after 129 attempts (his last blocked punt occurred in the 2005 Texas game). The Wildcats failed to score the extra point to keep the score at 13–3. After another unsuccessful A&M drive, Kansas State opened up its passing game in a drive that consisted of 10, 20, 15, 7, and 5 receptions. The drive ended on a 4-yard touchdown run by Logan Dold, and the subsequent extra point extended K-State's lead to 20–3.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
On their next possession, the Aggies fumbled on KSU's 48-yard-line, and one of the Wildcat defenders returned the fumble for 10 yards. This eventually allowed the Wildcats to compile another scoring drive, moving the score up to 27–3. Prior to halftime, A&M finally got a touchdown on a 7-play, 80-yard drive, which was capped by a 38-yard catch by Howard Morrow, who had yet to make an impact this season. Jorvorskie Lane scored the touchdown on a 4th-and-1 situation at the KSU 1. With his 46th touchdown of his career, Lane became the all-time school record holder in rushing touchdowns. The previous record of 45 was held by Darren Lewis (1987–90).


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
The Aggies started the second half and were able to advance the ball 54 yards using a balanced rushing and passing attack. They missed the opportunity to move past the KSU 33 on 4th-and-8, and had to turn the ball over on downs. K-State used the drive to make a 49-yard field goal. With 7:53 remaining in the third quarter, A&M utilized its passing game to move the ball, thanks in part to two 22-yard receptions, one made by Jeff Fuller, and the other completed by Ryan Tannehill. Jerrod Johnson rushed to the endzone from the KSU 5.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
Randy Bullock, however, missed the extra point. Still trailing 30–16, the Aggies looked to pull a comeback. Hopes of a comeback diminished when Jorvorskie Lane's second attempt at scoring on a short goal-line rush failed. A&M had to turnover on downs once again, despite moving the ball for 62 yards and just a yard shy of scoring. K-State used its rushing game to drain out the clock a little, and successfully ended the drive on a 1-yard run by Josh Freeman. Less than 5 minutes remained in the game once A&M got the ball.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
Johnson made 3 consecutive completions to Tannehill worth 50 yards, and Goodson scored on the next play via a 23-yard reception. After their quick touchdown, the Aggies attempted an onside kick, which was recovered by K-State at the A&M 41. The Wildcats ran the ball once again, and were rewarded yet another touchdown to extend their lead to 44–23. About a minute was left, and on the second play of A&M's last possession, Johnson connected to Tannehill for a 55-yard touchdown. The Aggies tried another onside kick, but K-State found the ball and preserved their 44–30 win.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
With this loss, A&M dropped to 0–2 in conference play, the program's worst start since 1982. KSU left with their first win at Kyle Field since 1996. On a brighter note, Tannehill's 210 yards from 12 catches are the 3rd-best of all A&M receivers in a single game. Johnson's 487 offensive yards and 419 passing yards went down on A&M's record books as the best ever.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The Aggies had led the all-time series with the Texas Tech Red Raiders 34–31–1, though the Red Raiders had won 10 of the past 13 games. The last victory at Kyle Field was in 2004, when the game went into overtime. Ninth-year Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach had held a 6–2 record against the Aggies. The Red Raiders had led the nation in passing offense and are second in total offense, due in part to Sammy Baugh Trophy winning quarterback Graham Harrell and unanimous first-team All-American receiver Michael Crabtree. In fact, Leach's spread offense philosophy has allowed the Red Raiders to rank among the top 10 passing offense teams in the country ever since the 2001 season. Sports bettors favored Tech to win by 21 points.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
In the first half, A&M outgained Tech 274 yards to 254, and led 23–20. A&M did not produce any turnovers, while Tech gave away 2 possessions to A&M. A&M scored 10 points off Tech's turnovers, but Tech was able to score on its other possessions. In the second half, however, the Aggies could only post 32 offensive yards and 5 first downs. Harrell completed 44-of-56 throws for 450 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. He also scored touchdowns on two rushes. Crabtree scored two touchdowns off of his eight catches for 71 yards.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Iowa State
The Aggies had held an undefeated 7–0 record against the Cyclones until the 2005 meeting, when they lost 42–14 at Kyle Field. The Cyclones were led by Dan McCarney, who was 0–6 against the Aggies until that matchup. McCarney resigned from Iowa State in 2006 to accept an assistant coaching position at South Florida. Former Texas Longhorns co-defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, who coached the Longhorns to their national championship in 2005, was hired to replace him. Chizik led the Cyclones to a 3–9 record in the 2007 season.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Iowa State
Both teams went into the game with the same overall record and were still looking to get their first conference win. Both Iowa State's and A&M's defenses had ranked 98th and 101st in the nation, respectively. Iowa State's secondary had allowed Baylor and Nebraska to complete 78 percent of their passes. Sports bettors predicted Iowa State to beat A&M by three points.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Colorado
Coming into the game, the Aggies had held a 2–5 overall record against the Colorado Buffaloes. Of the three games that were played at Kyle Field, the Aggies had only won the 2004 contest. In the preseason, the Buffaloes acquired Darrell Scott, who was ranked the best running back in the 2008 recruiting class by Rivals.com. In their previous game, the Buffaloes suffered a 58–0 shutout at the hands of No. 16 Missouri.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Colorado
Both teams bought an even matchup to the field, with Colorado fielding an offense that had scored 19 points per game, whereas A&M's scoring defense had allowed 35 points per game. The Aggie defense had given up a total of 1,584 in their past three games against Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Kansas State. A&M was favored to win by 3.5 points.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops came in 3–1 against the Aggies in games played at Kyle Field. All three of their victories had been decided within one touchdown. In the offseason, a columnist for The Oklahoman stated "Sooner-Aggie games at Kyle Field have been classics this decade." In the 2000 game, the Sooners intercepted a pass by Mark Farris and returned it for a touchdown to win 35–31. They eventually ended up winning the 2000 national title. In 2002, the Aggies upset then-ranked No. 1 Oklahoma 30–26.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
The Sooners came into the 2004 game ranked No. 2, and scored a touchdown with 6:43 remaining in the game to win 42–35. In 2006, the Aggies allowed the Sooners to escape with a one-point victory. Then-head coach Dennis Franchione elected to go for a field goal rather than score a touchdown from the 2-yard line with 3:28 left in the game. Oklahoma was predicted to win by 27.5 points.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
The Aggies suffered their worst home loss in school history.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Baylor
The Aggies came into the 2008 Battle of the Brazos as 8-point underdogs but leading in the series 65–30–9. A&M had held a 13-game winning streak against Baylor until 2004, when the Bears upset a #16-ranked Aggie team in Waco. Art Briles took over as the Bears' new head coach in the offseason, replacing Guy Morriss. The Bears freshman phenom quarterback Robert Griffin carved up the Aggies for 56 yards rushing on 12 carries to go along with 13 of 23 passing for 241 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Baylor tailback Jay Finley rushed for 115 yards.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Baylor
The Aggies turned the ball over five times, four of which were interceptions of Aggie sophomore quarterback Jerrod Johnson. The Aggies scored two touchdowns late in the game to make the final score a more respectable, 41–21. First-year coach Mike Sherman summed up the game saying, "Each (loss) has been more disappointing than the next. I take nothing away from Baylor, but we fully expected to come in and play better than we did. Before the Oklahoma game, I thought we were making progress. The culmination of last week and this week are very disappointing."


2008 Texas A&M Aggies football team, Game summaries, Texas
This game marked the 115th meeting between Texas and Texas A&M and it was the fifth year as part of a multi-sport rivalry called the Lone Star Showdown. The football rivalry began in 1894 and it was the longest-running rivalry for both the Longhorns and Aggies and it is also was the third most-played rivalry in Division I-A college football. Texas entered into the 2007 contest with a 73–35–5 record. Since the series began in 1900, the game has traditionally been played on Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving weekend. The 2007 game marked the twelfth straight game to be scheduled the day after Thanksgiving. The two schools had agreed to move the game back to Thanksgiving Day for the 2008 and 2009 contests.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies women's soccer team
The 2008 Texas A&M Aggies women's soccer team represented Texas A&M University in the 2008 NCAA Division I women's college soccer season. The team belongs to the Big 12 Conference and played its home games at Aggie Soccer Stadium. The Aggies were led by G. Guerrieri, who has coached the team since the program's inception in 1993 (16 years).


2008 Texas A&M Aggies women's soccer team
The Aggies finished the season 18–5–1 and advanced to the Elite 8 of the 2008 NCAA Tournament before falling to North Carolina 2–1 in 2OT in Chapel Hill, NC.


2008 Texas A&M Aggies women's soccer team
The 2008 team had 28 roster players, with 14 scholarships to utilize between them.


2008 Texas Bowl
The 2008 Texas Bowl was the third edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game was played at 7:00 PM US CST on Tuesday, December 30, 2008. The game, telecast on NFL Network, featured the hometown Rice Owls against the Western Michigan Broncos. The Owls won the game 38-14, which was their first post-season victory since the 1954 Cotton Bowl Classic.


2008 Texas Bowl
The game was televised on the NFL Network for the third year in a row. Fran Charles, Tom Waddle, and Kara Henderson called the action.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses
The 2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses were a series of events to determine the delegates that the Texas Democratic Party sent to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Delegates were selected using results from two sources: the Texas Presidential Primary held on March 4 by the Secretary of State of Texas's office, and a series of caucus events held between March 4 and June 7 by the Texas Democratic Party. The indecisive results of Super Tuesday, and the fact that Texas had the largest number of delegates among the states remaining on the Democratic primary calendar, resulted in the Texas primary receiving significant attention from both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses
Of 12,752,417 registered voters, 22.49% turned out. The contest between the two candidates was very close: Senator Hillary Clinton won the primary, while her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, received more support in the caucuses. In the end, Obama secured 99 pledged delegates to Clinton's 94.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate breakdown
The Texas Democratic Party sent a total of 228 delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Of those delegates, 193 were pledged and 35 were unpledged. Most of the 193 pledged delegates were allocated at the National Convention according to the results of the Texas Presidential Primary on March 4. The 35 unpledged delegates were popularly called "superdelegates" because their votes represented their personal decisions, whereas the regular delegates' votes represented the collective decision of many voters. Superdelegates were free to vote for any candidate at the National Convention and were selected by the Texas Democratic Party's officials.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate breakdown
The 193 pledged delegates were further divided into 126 district delegates and 67 statewide delegates. The 126 district delegates were divided among Texas's 31 Senatorial Districts and were allocated to the presidential candidates based on the primary results in each District. The 67 statewide delegates were divided into 42 at-large delegates and 25 Party Leaders and Elected Officials (abbreviated PLEOs). They were allocated to the presidential candidates based on the preference of the delegates at the State Convention on June 6–7.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate breakdown
Of the 35 unpledged delegates, 32 were selected in advance and 3 were selected at the State Convention. The delegates selected in advance were 17 Democratic National Committee members, the 13 Democratic U.S. Representatives from Texas, and 2 Distinguished Party Leaders: former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright and former DNC chairman Robert Schwarz Strauss.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process
The Texas Democratic Party used a combination of two processes to select delegates and determine how they would be allocated to each presidential candidate. First, the Party used the results of the primary process to determine how 126 of its 193 pledged delegates would be allocated to each candidate. Second, the Party used the caucus process to select its precinct, county, state, and national delegates, and also to determine how many of the remaining 67 pledged delegates would be allocated to each candidate. Many states require that candidates receive at least 15% of the total votes to receive delegates. The Texas Democratic Party only applies this requirement to the primary process and the final step of the caucus process, since those are the only two occasions in which the Party allocates delegates to candidates.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Primary
The Texas Presidential Primary was held on March 4. It was an open primary, permitting participants to vote for candidates in any one party, regardless of voters' party affiliations. Participants were then considered as restricted to that party for the purpose of calculations regarding primaries and runoff elections for the next two years. The Primary itself was funded by the Texas State Government and administered by the Secretary of the State of Texas's office. The Texas Democratic Party used the results of the Primary to determine how its 126 district delegates would be apportioned to each presidential candidate.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Primary
Unlike other states, and even the Republican Party of Texas, the Texas Democratic Party does not allocate its delegates to Congressional Districts. Instead, it allocates its delegates to the state's 31 Senatorial Districts. The number of delegates that the Party allocates to each District depends on the votes cast in each district for the Democratic candidates during two previous general elections: Chris Bell in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election and John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. One effect of this allocation scheme is that districts with a high population of African-American residents are awarded a higher number of delegates, while districts with a high population of Hispanic residents are awarded a lower number.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Primary
Primary polling places were open from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. In accordance with the law, any voter in line by 7:00 p.m. was permitted to vote. The Texas Secretary of State had a web site that provides the location of polling places. The site also offered a list of contact numbers for local county clerks and elections administrators where voters may obtain polling place location information. The Texas Democratic Party's official web site also included information about the locations of polling places.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses
The Texas Democratic Party holds three tiers of caucus events to select its delegates: precinct conventions, County and Senatorial District conventions, and a State Convention. The precinct conventions immediately followed the primary, a process in 2008 that was advertised as the "Texas Two-Step". Senator Royce West is chair of the Advisory Committee on the Texas Democratic Party Convention/Caucus System, which is charged with investigating the caucus system, including whether to retain the Texas Two Step. Former Texas Attorney general Jim Mattox testified against the Texas Two-Step at a hearing of Senator West's committee held in Austin.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
The precinct conventions were held beginning March 4 at 7:15 p.m. (15 minutes after the Primary polls close) or after the last person in line at 7:00 p.m. had voted. At each precinct convention, participants chose Precinct Delegates to go to the County or Senate District conventions. The Texas Democratic Party allocated one Precinct Delegate to each precinct for every 15 votes cast for Chris Bell (the party's gubernatorial candidate) in the 2006 Texas general election.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
Participation was open to anyone who voted in the Primary, whether they voted early, as an absentee, or on the day of the Primary. Participants had to sign in and provide proof that they voted in the Primary. Such proof could be provided in one of several ways: showing a registration card that was stamped at the Primary, producing an early voting receipt, providing an official photo identification that can be checked against a roll of early voters, or signing an affidavit (oath). Texas Democratic precinct conventions are governed by Robert's Rules of Order and Texas Democratic Party Rules. Participants arriving late to the convention could still participate but could not affect any voting that had already taken place.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
When the time came to select the Precinct Delegates, participants declared their candidate preference, or that they were uncommitted, which is an option not available on the primary ballot. The participants in each presidential candidate preference group then chose the delegates to represent them at the County and Senate District conventions.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
A total of 8,247 precinct conventions were held throughout the 254 counties in Texas, most of which were held at each precinct's Primary polling place.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
Concerns had been raised in the media about the logistics in place for the precinct conventions in light of the unprecedented massive participation. For example, in Harris County —of which Houston is the seat, and in which 874 conventions are scheduled— the highest primary turn-out in the past two decades was 78,000 in 2004, whereas 170,032 have already voted early in this year's Primary. Typically about 5,000 people attend the precinct conventions held throughout Harris County; up to 100,000 were expected to participate this year.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, Precinct conventions
In the event, there was an estimated turnout of one million throughout the state, and as of March 11 the final result of the caucuses in Harris County was unknown., as party volunteers were still collecting packets from that county's 874 precincts. The Dallas Morning News reported a projected turnout of 1.1 million. Overall, less than half of the precincts statewide had reported to the state Democratic party by mid-March.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, County and Senatorial District conventions
County and Senatorial District Conventions were held on March 29. At each convention, Precinct Delegates chose the County Delegates (7,315 in total among all the conventions) to go to the State Convention. The Texas Democratic Party allocated one County Delegate to each convention for every 180 votes cast for Chris Bell in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Delegate selection process, Caucuses, State Convention
The State Convention was held on June 6–7. At the Convention, the 7,315 County Delegates plus 351 state superdelegates chose 67 delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention: 42 At-large Delegates and 25 Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official (PLEO) delegates. These 67 delegates, along with the 126 district delegates, brought the total for pledged delegates to 193. The delegates at the State Convention also chose 3 "add-on" unpledged delegates to attend the Democratic National Convention.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Polls
A poll of likely Democratic primary voters on March 2 showed Sen. Hillary Clinton with a statistically insignificant 50% to 49% lead, with 1% Not Sure.


2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, Results, Precinct convention results, Challenged results
On March 14, the Clinton campaign issued a letter to the Texas Democratic Party challenging the results of its precinct conventions. The letter proposed that the Party delay the County and Senatorial District conventions until it could provide the campaign with "presidential preference counts [that] can be made based on a review of each and every sign in sheet to determine eligibility of participants and delegates". Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie issued a statement on March 17 rejecting the proposal, stating that the Texas Democratic Party "will not set up an unnecessary, ad hoc 'verification' process that could effectively disqualify delegates selected at their precinct conventions after the fact."


2008 Texas Legislature election
2008 elections for the Texas Legislature were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, in the U.S. state of Texas. The Texas Legislature election was conducted concurrently with the election for the 2008 United States presidential race, the United States Senate seat of Republican John Cornyn, and the state's 32 congressional representatives.


2008 Texas Legislature election
Successful candidates served in the 81st Texas Legislature, that convened on January 13, 2009, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin through June 1, 2009.


2008 Texas Legislature election, Texas Senate, Notable races
District 10: The Democratic Party ran City Councilwoman Wendy Davis against Republican and Sunset Advisory Commission chairperson Kim Brimer. The district had been Republican-leaning, having been won by George W. Bush in 2004 and by Governor Rick Perry in 2002 and 2006. Davis won that race with 49.91% of the vote. In 2014, she was the Democratic nominee for governor to succeed Perry.


2008 Texas Legislature election, Texas Senate, Notable races
District 11: The Democrats ran former Galveston city council member Joseph Jaworski against Republican candidate Mike Jackson. The district encompasses the southeast Houston suburbs and part of Galveston County that has consistently voted for Republicans including George W. Bush in 2004, Governor Perry in 2002 and 2006, and U.S. Senator John Cornyn in 2002. Mike Jackson won that race with 56.48% of the vote.


2008 Texas Legislature election, Texas Senate, Notable races
District 17: The Incumbent Republican Kyle Janek announced he would be resigning from the State Senate effective June 2, 2008 to spend more time with his family, who had moved to Austin. A special election was called and was held concurrently with the general election. 4 Republicans and 2 Democrats ran for the unexpired term, most notably, the Republican Party's Joan Huffman, and Democratic former U.S. Representative Christopher Bell, the party's 2006 nominee for governor. Huffman and Bell advanced to a runoff, held December 16th, 2008. Huffman won that race with 56% of the vote.


2008 Texas Legislature election, Texas Senate, Notable races
District 21: Democratic candidate Judith Zaffirini prevailed in her historically Democratic state Senate seat, which includes Laredo. The seat was held from 1967-1973 by her mentor, Wayne Connally, a younger brother of John Connally. Republicans fielded former Webb County administrative judge Louis Henry Bruni (born 1949), who switched parties in December 2007 to run against Zaffirini. The district voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006 but for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell in 2006.


2008 Texas Legislature election, House of Representatives, Notable races
District 97: A special election was held on November 6th, 2007 to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Anna Mowery. Dan Barret, who had lost the seat to Mowery in 2006, ran against 6 Republicans in the jungle primary, securing a plurality of 31.53% of the vote. A runoff was held on December 18th, 2007 between Barret and second place finisher, Mark M. Shelton in which Barret won an upset victory with 52.19% of the vote. As the legislative session had already ended, Barret did not spend any time legislating during his term. He was later defeated by Shelton in the 2008 general election, only securing 42.75% of the vote.


2008 Texas Legislature election, House of Representatives, Notable races
District 106: Representative Kirk England was re-elected in 2006 as a Republican with 49.16% of the vote. On September 20th, 2007, he announced that he would switch parties and seek re-election as a Democrat. He would later go on to win re-election in 2008 with 55.49% of the vote before losing re-election by 204 votes in 2010 to Republican Rodney E. Anderson.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team
The 2008 Texas Longhorn football team (variously "Texas" or the "Horns") represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Mack Brown, who has a contract lasting through the 2016 season. The Longhorns play their home games in Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR), which during 2006–2008 was undergoing renovations to improve older sections as well as to add extra seating capacity.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team
The team entered the season ranked 10th in the USA Today Coaches' Poll. They won their first four games to rise to number 5 in the national rankings. Texas began Big 12 Conference play on October 4, 2008 with a trip to Boulder, Colorado and a win over the Colorado Buffaloes. On October 11, 2008 they defeated the number-one ranked Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl, in Dallas, Texas, in the 103rd Red River Shootout and Texas moved into the number-one spot in the polls the next day.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team
One week later, defending the number-one ranking in a home game for the first time since 1977, the Horns beat the number-eleven ranked Missouri Tigers. The following day, Texas was ranked #1 in the first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings released during the 2008 season. The next week, the Horns beat previously undefeated Oklahoma State, who were ranked #6 in the BCS at the time.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team
Texas lost a close road game against Texas Tech, who were undefeated at 8–0 and ranked #5 in the Coaches' Poll. As a result, the Horns fell to #7 in the Coach's poll while the Red Raiders rose to #3. Texas fell to #4 in the BCS Standings, keeping alive the possibility they could still play for the national championship if other top teams stumble. Next, the Longhorns won a home game against Baylor and a road-game against Kansas, who were previously ranked but had fallen out of the polls since losing to Texas Tech. Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech, which returned Texas to a #2 ranking in the BCS and created a three-way tie (Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma) in the Big 12 South.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team
The final regular-season opponent for Texas was in-state rival Texas A&M, part of the Lone Star Showdown. The Longhorns won 49–9, the largest margin of victory in the rivalry for 110 years. Despite this victory, Oklahoma moved past Texas in the BCS rankings. The three-way tie was resolved by the fifth tie-breaker so Oklahoma advanced to the Big 12 Championship instead of Texas. This was controversial since Texas had beaten both Oklahoma and Missouri (the Big 12 North champion) during the regular season. Texas finished out the season with a 24-21 win over Ohio State in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
The Longhorns have enjoyed considerable success in recent seasons. Mack Brown's Longhorns won at least 10 games in each of the previous 7 seasons (2001–2007); that is the longest active streak in the nation. The 2004 team had the first Bowl Championship Series win for any Texas team  and the 2005 team won the National Championship (the fourth for the Texas football program). The 2006 team finished with 10 wins, 3 losses, including a victory in the 2006 Alamo Bowl. They received a final-ranking of 13th in the nation by both the Associated Press AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches' Poll


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
Texas entered the 2007 season ranked third in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage. The 2007 team was ranked in the Top 10 by numerous pre-season polls. For instance, a pre-season ranking by ESPN writer Mark Schlabach had the Longhorns ranked eighth; Rivals.com had them at ninth. College Football News and Real Football 365 both had Texas ranked third in the pre-season. The Longhorns came into the season ranked fourth in both the Coaches' Poll and AP Poll. Texas started out 4–0, but with sloppy playing, edging out 4 unranked teams.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
Texas came particularly close to being upset when the beat unranked UCF, 38–35. Texas then suffered losses to Kansas State (41–21) and Oklahoma (28–21). Texas then surged back, winning five games in a row. At 9–2, they were poised to gain a BCS bowl berth. However, a 30–38 loss to Texas A&M dashed these hopes. The Longhorns finished the season 10–3 with a victory in the 2007 Holiday Bowl. The Longhorns were ranked tenth in the final AP poll and in the USA Today Coaches' Poll.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
Five Longhorns were selected in the 2008 NFL Draft: Limas Sweed (53rd pick), Jamaal Charles (73rd), Jermichael Finley (91st), Tony Hills (130th), and Frank Okam (151st). In addition, Brandon Foster, Marcus Griffin, Nate Jones and Derek Lokey agreed to sign free-agent contracts with NFL teams.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
Both Jamaal Charles and Jermichael Finley skipped their senior year in order to enter the NFL early. The loss of Charles was a particularly hard blow to the Horns. Despite skipping his senior year, Charles ranks fourth on the list of total rushing yards by a UT player, behind Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson, and Earl Campbell, with 3,328 yards. Williams and Campbell each won the Heisman Trophy in their senior seasons. With Charles' departure, quarterback Colt McCoy becomes the leading returning rusher for the Longhorns. Tight end Jermichael Finley also declared he would forgo his senior season to enter the NFL.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season
Texas entered the 2008 season ranked number 11 in the AP Poll and number 10 in the Coaches' Poll.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season, Facilities and equipment
Following the final home game of 2006, construction workers demolished the north end of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. This section was rebuilt to make the lowest seats closer to the field while adding luxury boxes and an upper-deck. The lower deck of the expansion was completed for 2007, and the upper deck and remaining renovations were ready for 2008. The modifications put the north end-zone seats thirty yards closer to the field of play. This results in several game day changes, such as Smokey the Cannon moving to the south end-zone near Bevo. Texas worked with Bluetooth SIG to deploy Bluetooth kiosks throughout the stadium. These kiosks will broadcast free game-day information to Bluetooth-enabled cell-phones in the stands.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season, Facilities and equipment
For the second straight year in 2006–2007, Texas merchandise products were the top-selling products among clients of Collegiate Licensing Company.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season, Coaches
In 2007, the University of Texas Board of Regents voted unanimously to raise head coach Mack Brown's salary by $300,000. This brings his annual compensation to $2.81 million and keeps him among the five highest paid coaches in the sport. The package also includes up to $3 million in bonuses, including "$100,000 if he wins the Big 12 Championship and $450,000 if he wins this year's national championship, as well as bonuses based on the percent of players who graduate." Brown's contract is good through the 2016 season and includes buy-out clauses should another school attempt to hire Brown.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season, Coaches
Greg Davis is the team's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; As of 2008 Davis is in his eleventh season at Texas. In 2007, Duane Akina was the defensive co-coordinator along with Larry Mac Duff. Mac Duff left Texas at the end of the 2007 season  and Akina was demoted to "Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Backs". The Longhorns hired Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator; he will also coach linebackers in 2008. Muschamp was previously defensive coordinator at Auburn and will make a $425,000 salary at Texas. Running backs coach Ken Rucker transferred to a newly created position with the athletic department where he will act as a liaison to high school athletic programs. On January 16, 2008 Texas replaced Rucker by hiring former Texas quarterback Major Applewhite.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Before the season, Coaches
On November 18, 2008, The University of Texas announced that Will Muschamp would eventually succeed Mack Brown as head football coach. They agreed in principle to increase Muschamp's salary to $900,000. There was no timetable set for Brown's departure, and both Brown and UT said they expected Brown to stay a long time. Austin American-Statesman commentator Kirk Bohls stated, "Muschamp's ascension conveys to fans and recruits that Texas values what it has now as one of the elite programs in the country and wants to maintain. This smart, bold move should bring coaching stability, sustained recruiting and possibly expanded recruiting into the Southeast and a continued framework for success."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Schedule
The primary source of schedule, attendance and box score information is the .


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Schedule
Radio broadcast of Texas Longhorns football games is available on XM Satellite Radio channel 241.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
The Longhorns are led by junior Quarterback Colt McCoy, who was the starting quarterback for the Longhorns in 2006 and 2007. Rivals.com named McCoy one of the top-10 quarterbacks going into the 2007 season and he also made the Athlon Sports first-team All Big 12 McCoy has been the subject of much discussion regarding his chances of winning the 2008 Heisman trophy. With the departure of running back Jamaal Charles for the 2008 NFL Draft, McCoy became the leading returning rusher for the Longhorns.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
McCoy has continued to be leading rusher in 2008; through the first 11 games of the season he rushed for a net 527 yards. The leading running backs were Vondrell McGee (347 yards), Chris Ogbonnaya (333) and Cody Johnson (234), all of whom have played in all 11 games. Despite injuries limiting him to only five games, freshman Foswhitt Whittaker rushed for 226 yards. McCoy had 3134 passing yards for a total of 3661 total yards of offense, which also led the team.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
The leading receivers through 11 games were Jordan Shipley (897 yards), Quan Cosby (872), Chris Ogbonnaya (458) and Lucas Hampton (428). The leading scorer was Hunter Lawrence, the place-kicker. He had made 9 of 11 field goal attempts and 52 of 52 extra points, for a total of 79 points contributed.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
On defense, Roddrick Muckelroy led the team in tackles with 63 solo tackles and 39 assists. Brian Orakpo led the team in sacks, with 9 sacks for 79 yards. Ryan Palmer led the team in interceptions with 3, one of which he returned for a touchdown.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
Besides Whittaker, several other Longhorns missed playing time due to sickness or injury. Cosby and Orakpo were both injured in the game vs. Texas Tech. Safety Blake Gideon suffered a head injury in the Kansas game but was expected to be healthy for the A&M game. Cornerbacks Aaron Williams missed the Kansas game with the flu and cornerback Chykie Brown missed three games due to injury. Tight end Luke Tiemann missed the season due to an ACL injury. Starting center Chris Hall missed time due to a knee sprain.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
One player was suspended, and another dismissed, for off-the-field infractions. Defensive tackle Lamarr Houston was suspended for one game (vs. UTEP) for driving under the influence. Back-up center Buck Burnette was dismissed from the team for posting a racially charged message on his Facebook page after the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Afterwards he issued an apology saying "That lack of judgment on my part has had devastating consequences. Those that know me understand that this is not a true reflection of my character. I sincerely apologize to everyone that I have offended. I have had the opportunity to apologize to my teammates and coaches and have received support from many of them in return." Burnette's dismissal coincided with the injury to Hall, so true freshman David Snow was called upon to start at center vs. Kansas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players
Jordan Shipley was a senior in 2008 but has requested an extra year of eligibility due to playing time missed due to injuries. On December 22, 2008, the NCAA granted Shipley's hardship request for a sixth season of eligibility.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players, Roster
An * indicates that the player is a "walk-on" (a non-scholarship player)


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players, Recruiting
Texas signed 20 overall recruits for the 2008 recruiting class.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players, Recruiting
Twelve 4-stars (DeSean Hales, Jarvis Humphrey, D.J. Monroe, Aaron Williams, Mark Buchanan, Dan Buckner, Nolan Brewster, Derrick "D.J." Grant, Jeremy Hills, Dravannti Johnson, Kheeston Randall and David Snow), seven 3-stars (Emmanuel Acho, Antoine Hicks, Tre' Newton, Luke Poehlmann, Ryan Roberson, Brock Fitzhenry and Justin Tucker)  and two 2-star (Blake Gideon and Rocky Hamden) according to Rivals' recruiting service, and two 5-stars (Aaron Williams and Dan Buckner), eleven 4-stars (David Snow, Dravannti Johnson, Nolan Brewster, Jarvis Humphrey, DeSean Hales, Ryan Roberson, Derrick "D.J." Grant, Luke Poehlmann, D.J. Monroe, Jeremy Hills and Mark Buchanan), six 3-stars (Emmanuel Acho, Brock Fitzhenry, Kheeston Randall, Blake Gideon, Antoine Hicks and Tre' Newton) and one 2-star recruit (Justin Tucker), according to Scout's recruiting service. The class was ranked #14 on Rivals and #16 on Scout.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Players, Recruiting
Texas originally also received a commitment from Southlake Carroll quarterback Riley Dodge, son of former Longhorns quarterback Todd Dodge, but Riley Dodge later chose to decommit and headed to North Texas to play under his father. Texas was also in the run for the nation's top running back prospect, five-star Darrell Scott of Ventura, California. Scott, however, picked the Colorado Buffaloes over the Longhorns on National Signing Day.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
The 2008 game marks the first meeting between the Texas Longhorns and the Florida Atlantic Owls. Florida Atlantic first played football in 2001 and began playing football in the Sun Belt Conference in 2005. The 2007 Owls won their conference and went on to play in the 2007 New Orleans Bowl. That set a record for the shortest amount of time between a school starting college football and being invited to a bowl game. The Owls won the game 44–27.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
Texas began the season with a lack of experience in some positions, such as safety. The Longhorns entered the week of the game with many questions still remaining about the starting roster. On the depth chart released to the media, eleven positions still did not have definite starters. Brown said that he might wait until 48 hours prior to kickoff to decide on key positions such as running back and fullback, and that he may decide on the punter based upon who looks best in pre-game warmups.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
Texas had one player listed on the injury list. Redshirt freshman running back Fozzy Whittaker suffered a knee injury August 16, 2008 and was listed as "questionable" to be able to play. He had been competing in the off-season for a starting spot with Vondrell McGee and Chris Ogbonnaya. Whittaker is a highly anticipated player for the Longhorns due to his holding the sixth best record for a Texas high school running back.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
The University of Texas retired former Texas quarterback Vince Young's jersey number 10 jersey during the pre-game ceremonies. The morning of the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 24 points. The weather forecast called for a high of 94 °F (34 °C) and a 20% chance of rain. The attendance of 98,053 set a new record for the most people to see a football game in the state of Texas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
Texas kicked off to start the game and the kick went out of bounds for a penalty, an inauspicious beginning to the season. Due to rule changes for 2008 that gave FAU the ball on their 40-yard line. On the opening drive of the game, the Owls drove the ball 45 yards, including two completions from Rusty Smith to fullback Willie Rose and wide receiver Chris Bonner for 22 yards and 16 yards, respectively.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
However, inside the red zone, the drive came to a halt when the snap was botched by center David Matlock, resulting in a 21-yard fumble and turnover. The proceeding drive for the Owls also reached the red zone, but resulted in another turnover when Rusty Smith threw an interception to Texas freshman defensive back, Earl Thomas. The missed opportunities to turn successful drives into touchdowns set the tone of the game for the Owls, which would go on to turn into a blowout in favor of 10-ranked Texas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
Junior quarterback and preseason Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, Rusty Smith threw for 253 yards and completed 15 of 31 pass attempts. Along with his interception, he threw a touchdown to tight end Rob Housler on a 20-yard hook up. Kicker Warley Leroy kicked a 31-yard field goal. Receiver Cortez Gent and tight end Jamari Grant combined for 7 completions and brought in 59 yards and 93 yards, respectively. Smith threw for more yards than McCoy, who ended with 222 yards, McCoy threw for three touchdowns and zero interceptions. McCoy also ran for a touchdown. The Owls running backs ran for 37 yards combined, while McCoy ran for 103 yards.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
In the post-game press conference Schnellenberger said, "I know one thing: they are a lot tougher than we are...I was hoping I could raise the level of consciousness on my football team (so the players) could be as physical as they could become. I don't know if my remarks helped (Texas). If they did, I apologize to my team." FAU's losing-streak against ranked opponents ran to five games as the Texas Longhorns beat FAU, 52–10. The Owls are now 0–5 all-time against ranked opponents. Mack Brown improved his record for season opening games to 10–1, including nine straight years.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Florida Atlantic
At approximately 3:00am the night of the game, starting defensive tackle Lamarr Houston was arrested for DWI. Brown says Houston would miss game two against UTEP, but did not say if further disciplinary action would be taken.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
This 2008 game marks the first meeting between the Longhorns and the University of Texas at El Paso Miners to occur in El Paso. Texas holds a 2–0 record against the Miners, with the most recent game occurring in 1933 when the school was known as The Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. Besides both being in The University of Texas System the two schools also share the same alma mater, The Eyes of Texas. While the Longhorns have the Hook 'em Horns symbol, Miners' fans make a symbol called the "Pickaxe", with pinkie and thumb extended from a closed fist. Coach Mike Price also followed the tradition of leading the team through the field carrying a large pickaxe.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
The Miners opened their season with a loss to the Buffalo Bulls 42–17. Afterwards, Miners coach Mike Price said of the upcoming game against the Longhorns, "Man, I hope they're not as good as Buffalo."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
The kickoff for the game was set for 8:00pm local time (Mountain Time) which is an unusually late start and which translates to 9:00pm in Austin. Sports analysts have speculated that the Miners excitement for the game, the crowd noise, the distance traveled, and time may pose a problem for Texas. They have also compared the game to Texas' 2007 road trip to Central Florida, which was a very close win for Texas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
Longhorn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said of the time slot, "Doesn’t matter where we play, who we play or what time we play, Texas defense is gonna show up and play." The game was one of the most anticipated games in UTEP history and "because season-ticket packages were available for $99, some Texas fans bought them in advance to avoid the hassle of a single-game purchase. The sales pushed UTEP to nearly 24,000 season tickets, a school record."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
The morning of the game, Las Vegas sports books favored Texas by 27 points. The weather forecast called for a game time temperature of 83 °F (28 °C) and mostly clear skies. The attendance was 53,415, the largest crowd ever for the Sun Bowl Stadium.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
UTEP got the ball to start the game and scored a field goal. Texas was not able to secure a first down and punted back to Miners, who scored another field goal to take a 6–0 lead. On their second possession, Texas drove 80 yards for a touchdown on a McCoy pass to Quan Cosby. The extra point gave Texas a 7–6 lead which they still held at the end of the first quarter.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
The Longhorns scored again ten seconds into the second quarter, as McCoy threw a 12-yard touchdown to wide receiver Dan Buckner. The Miners' Jose Martinez attempted a 65-yard field goal, but it fell short and Quan Cosby returned it 65 yards to the UTEP 35 yard-line. Texas put John Chiles in as quarterback on the next series, and fullback Cody Johnson scored his second rushing touchdown of the season to make the score 21–6. With four minutes to go in the half, McCoy threw a touchdown pass to tight end Blaine Irby to make the score 28–6 with the extra point. UTEP scored a touchdown with 18 seconds remaining in the half, making the score 28–13 at half-time.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
Texas got the ball to start the second half and drove to the UTEP 14-yard line when McCoy threw an interception in the UTEP end zone; it was his first interception of the season. Neither team scored during what the Austin American-Statesman called a "sloppy" third quarter.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, UTEP
McCoy faked a hitch pass to Brandon Collins and instead threw downfield to Jordan Shipley to extend the lead to 35–13. On the very next play from scrimmage, Emmanuel Acho forced Tarrell Jackson to fumble and Roddrick Muckelroy retrieved the ball returned it for a touchdown, making the score 42–13. UTEP missed a field goal to end their next possession. Texas punted on their next possession, and then took over on downs when UTEP was unable to score on their last possession. The Horns kept the ball on the ground and ran out the clock.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Rice
Prior to the 2008 season, Texas and Rice had competed in football on 90 prior occasions. The series, which began in 1914, is the fourth oldest (by number of games) in Texas history. Like Arkansas, Rice once played alongside Texas in the Southwest Conference and the rivalry has continued (67 Texas wins vs 21 wins for Rice, with one tie). This was alluded to by President John F. Kennedy when he admired the challenge faced by the Rice Owls when they play Texas in Austin. Rice coach David Bailiff used this speech to motivate his team.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Rice
The coach distributed wristbands bearing the letters "BIH". The letters stand for the phrase "Because it's hard". Bailiff explains that Rice plays Texas for the same reason he intends to build Rice's expectations of winning. "Because it's hard", he says, "It is hard here. But it's not impossible." Over the 47 years since Kennedy made his speech, the Owls are 2–44–1 against Texas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Rice
In addition to continuing a traditional rivalry, playing Rice in a "home and away" series allows for Texas to play games in Houston, Texas, a city that is an important recruiting base for Rice as well as Texas, along with having a significant Texas Exes alumni population. The 2006 game was won by Texas, 52–7. Texas won the 2007 game 14–58.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Rice
The morning of the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 29 points. Texas won the game 52–10, and Colt McCoy threw 4 touchdowns to achieve a total of 62 in his career at Texas. That puts him in first place in the Texas record book, ahead of Major Applewhite (60) and Chris Simms (59).


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Rice
This game was designated as the 2008 Alumni Band Day.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Arkansas
The Arkansas Razorbacks are coached by Bobby Petrino who was introduced as the new coach on December 11, 2007. Petrino follows the ten season tenure of Houston Nutt who resigned November 26, 2007 after a year marked by off-the-field turmoil. In 1964, the Razorbacks were the only team to go through the regular season and a bowl game undefeated, and they were awarded the Football Writers Association of America National Championship. The 1969 Razorbacks, led by challenged Texas for a national championship in the Game of the Century. Texas won 15–14 to claim the national championship.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Arkansas
In the most recent match-up between the two programs, the 2004 Longhorns achieved a 22–20 win against an unranked Arkansas team. Texas leads the series 55–21–0. The two schools were once conference foes in the Southwest Conference


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Arkansas
The threat of adverse weather from Hurricane Ike postponed the football game between the two programs. The game originally was scheduled to be played on September 13, 2008 and has been rescheduled for two weeks later on September 27, 2008, an open date for both teams.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Arkansas
The morning of the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 27 points. The temperature was 91 °F (33 °C) at kickoff, with mostly clear skies. The Longhorns won 52–10 in the most lopsided game in the Texas/Arkansas rivalry since the 1916 meeting. McCoy threw 3 touchdown passes and ran for 2 more to give him 75 in his career, third place in Longhorn history. In the fourth quarter, all the points were scored by the defensive units. Texas returned an interception 81 yards for a touchdown, and Arkansas returned a fumble 80 yards in reply.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Colorado
Texas' most recent game against Colorado was in 2005 and they faced each other twice: once in the regular season, and once in the Big 12 Championship Game. In the first game, the Longhorns established a lead early in the game and never lost it; they led 35–10 at halftime and defeated the 2005 Colorado team by a final score of 42–17. Texas scored touchdowns on all five of their first half possessions.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Colorado
Vince Young had the best statistical performance of his career to date, completing 25 of 29 passing attempts for 336 yards and 2 passing touchdowns in addition to 58 yards rushing and 3 rushing touchdowns. His 86.2% completion percentage set a new single-game record for Texas, breaking his previous record of 85.7% set against Oklahoma State in 2004. After the game, Colorado Head Coach Gary Barnett said of Young's passing performance, "We can't do that in practice against air", meaning that his team would not have been able to complete 86.2% of their passes even if playing unopposed.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Colorado
The championship game matched the Big 12 North Division champion against the South Division champion in a game held after the regular season has been completed. Despite losing the last two games of the regular season, Colorado retained the best record in the North Division of the Big 12 Conference. Texas won the 2005 Big12 Championship 70–3, the most lopsided score in any college football conference championship to date. Texas earned its second Big 12 football championship to make 27 conference championships total, including 25 in the Southwest Conference). The week after the game, Barnett was fired as Colorado's head coach and replaced by Dan Hawkins, the former head coach of Boise State. Entering 2008, Texas leads the series with Colorado 9–7–0.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Colorado
The morning of the game, sports books favored Texas by 13 points. The weather forecast called for a game-time temperature of 64 °F (18 °C) and a 30% chance of rain, with isolated thunderstorms.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Colorado
The Longhorns won 38–14. McCoy threw for two touchdowns and moved past Ricky Williams into second on Texas' all-time list for touchdowns responsible for (passing, rushing, receiving). McCoy has 77 while Williams had 76 with the Horns; Vince Young is in first place with 81.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
The game against the 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team marked the 103rd meeting of the Red River Shootout, which has been called one of the greatest sports rivalries. It is the second longest running rivalry for the Longhorns, behind the one with Texas A&M. Since 1929 the game has been held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas typically in mid-October with the State Fair of Texas occurring adjacent to the stadium. Prior to 2007, Texas led the series 57–39–5, including the two consecutive wins. The 2006 match-up was a 28–10 Longhorn victory.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
In the week prior to facing the Oklahoma Sooners, Longhorn fans conduct their traditional Torchlight Parade and Rally. The rally first took place in 1916 prior to a game versus Texas A&M, but since 1986 it has been an annual event held exclusively during the week prior to the Texas–OU game. Another annual tradition is the running of game balls by the schools' Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs. Each school's ROTC program uses a relay running system to run one game ball all the way from their respective campus to Dallas. Once there, they participate against each other in a football scrimmage, with the winner taking home a rivalry trophy and bragging rights.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
Texas won this 103rd meeting of the Red River Shootout, 45–35. It was the highest scoring event in the history of rivalry, and it was seen by the most fans ever to attend the Red River Shootout - a record 92,182.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
The 2008 matchup was billed as a battle between two great quarterbacks, Colt McCoy of Texas and Chase Daniel of Missouri having both been mentioned as possible Heisman trophy candidates. Texas was playing their first home game as a number-one ranked team since 1977. Missouri won their first five games of 2008 and had moved into third place in the nation before they were upset at home by the Oklahoma State Cowboys and fell to eleventh place. The Tigers came into the game with a 0-10 record against number-one ranked teams, and they had not won a football game in Austin since 1896.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
To help ensure that the Longhorns did not dwell on the emotional victory over the Sooners, the Texas coaching staff called the team together and buried the game ball in the Texas practice field on the Monday before the game. The morning of the game the betting line on the morning of the game was Texas by 4½ points; the over/under was 65. The temperature was 72 °F (22 °C) at kickoff, with clear skies. ESPN College GameDay was in Austin for the game, which set a new attendance record (University of Texas, state of Texas, Big12 Conference) of 98,383.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
Missouri won the coin toss and elected to receive the kickoff. They returned the ball to their 40 yard-line. On the first play from scrimmage, Missouri tried a reverse, but Texas dropped them for a loss and Missouri went three-and-out. Missouri had gone without a three-and-out for the whole season until having two during their loss the previous week against Oklahoma State. The Missouri punt rolled to the Texas 6-yard line. Colt McCoy led the Longhorns 95-yards for a touchdown.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
Texas had the ball 5-times in the first half and scored a touchdown each time, taking a 35-0 lead. Missouri scored a field goal at the end of the first half to make the score 35-3. Texas was forced to punt on their first possession of the second half and Missouri scored a touchdown to narrow the lead to 35-10. Texas rebounded with a touchdown and Missouri was never able to cut the lead to less than 25 points. The final score was Texas-56, Missouri-31.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
McCoy completed the game with 337 yards on 29-of-32 passing with two touchdowns, rushed for two more and at one point completed a school-record 17 passes in a row. His completion ratio of 79% coming into the game improved as he completed 91% of his passes in this game. His four touchdowns put him in first place for the most career touchdowns scored at Texas (82), passing Vince Young (81). McCoy's performance helped propel him into the midst of the Heisman Trophy speculation for 2008. For example, Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Florida Gators has a vote as the 2007 winner. Tebow said after Missouri game that McCoy would have his vote at this point in the season.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Missouri
ESPN's recap of the game said, "And when McCoy dribbled the ball on the ground only to pick it up and throw a strike that kept the last drive of the half alive, he created the 'Did you just see that?' moment of the season so far. With one half of near-perfect football, Texas buried not only the remnants of the Sooners and the Tigers, but any doubt about who deserves to be No. 1. For now." When the initial Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings were released following the game, Texas was in the #1 spot.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
Texas has played the Oklahoma State Cowboys football (OSU) program 22 times and holds a 20–2–0 record from 1916 through 2007. Texas has a ten game active winning streak against OSU, with the Cowboys most recent victory occurring in 1997. The Longhorns have needed spectacular comebacks to win some of the games. They trailed by as many as 28 points in 2004 yet rallied to win. They erased a 19 point half-time deficit in 2005, tying the school record for a second-half comeback. In the most recent meeting OSU led by 21 points entering the fourth quarter but Texas scored 24 unanswered points to secure a 38–35 victory and set a record for the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Longhorn history.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
The 2008 Cowboys have a high-scoring offense and they come into the game undefeated at 7–0, including a big win over then #3 Missouri. Oklahoma State was ranked #8 in the Coaches' Poll and #7 in the AP Poll and BCS standings. Oklahoma State is averaging 46.4 points a game and running for 283 yards a game, the fifth-best rushing attack in the nation.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
The Houston Chronicle reported, "For a program that's never finished higher than third in the Big 12 South, the Cowboys are tied with Texas and Texas Tech for the division lead and remain in the national title discussion as one of only nine remaining unbeatens in Division I-A. The Cowboys also represent the most balanced offense Texas will face this season."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
The morning of the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 12½ points. The weather forecast called for a high of 84 °F (29 °C) and partly cloudy skies. Texas won the hard fought contest 28–24.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma State
It was the third ranked opponent defeated by Texas in as many weeks. The last time a team beat three teams ranked in the AP top 11 was Auburn in 1983. ESPN's Beano Cook said, "What Texas is doing is unbelievable. If they go undefeated, they should go straight to the Super Bowl." When he was asked to recall a more difficult run, Cook replied, "the Marines in the South Pacific."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The series with the Texas Tech Red Raiders began in 1928 and the Longhorns' record through 2007 was 43–14–0. In the 2006 contest, #5 ranked Texas barely came away with a 35–31 win over an unranked Texas Tech team. In the 2007 game #14 Texas won 59–43. During his post-game press conference, Texas Tech's Mike Leach used most of his time to rail against the officiating crew for incompetence and bias.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
He speculated that the officials may have favored Texas because the head official lives in Austin, because they are incompetent, or possibly because the conference wants Texas to appear in a BCS bowl because of the increased appearance fees that such a bowl generates for the conference. Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press wrote "Leach was upset officials disallowed two Tech touchdowns in the third quarter. The first was overruled when video replay clearly showed the receiver let the ball hit the ground. On the next play, a touchdown pass was negated by a holding penalty.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Leach also wanted, but didn't get, a flag for roughing the quarterback." The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported, "Big 12 policy prohibits coaches from commenting publicly about game officials, so Leach's actions leave him open to reprimand, fine or worse." ESPN reported, "Leach's rant will likely draw a fine from the league and possibly a suspension." The Big12 fined Leach $10,000, the largest fine in conference history.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
The morning of the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 3½ points. The weather forecast called for a temperature of 72 °F (22 °C) and clear skies at kick-off. Students camped for a week to secure seating, and ESPN's College GameDay broadcast from Lubbock, Texas for the first time in the program's history.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Texas Tech won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball. The Longhorns forced a stop and the ensuing punt rolled inside the Texas 2-yard line. Offensive coordinator Greg Davis opted to line up in the I formation, an unusual formation for a team having trouble establishing a strong running game. The Texas running back was stopped in the end-zone for a two-point safety. Tech led the Horns for most of the game, by as much as nineteen points. Texas rallied to take a one-point lead with less than 1½ minutes remaining in the game.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
On the Red Raiders drive, Tech running back Baron Batch let a perfect pass slip through his hands and off his helmet, sending it spiraling into the air where a Texas defensive back missed an interception that would have sealed a Texas victory, letting the ball slide through his hands.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
In the final minute, down 33–32 with one timeout remaining, Texas Tech Heisman Trophy candidate QB Graham Harrell engineered a drive down the field by throwing for first downs which repeatedly stopped the clock in order to move the chains, and almost threw an interception that bounced off the hands of Tech running back Baron Batch and then fell through the hands of Texas defensive back Blake Gideon that would have ended the comeback attempt.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas Tech
Harrell's final play was a pass to Heisman Trophy candidate wide receiver Michael Crabtree, who caught the ball near the sideline and broke away from two Longhorn defenders to scamper in for the winning score with a second left to play. The extra point gave them a 39–33 lead with one second remaining. The Tech fans had rushed the field after the touchdown, and again after the extra point. Tech was penalized accordingly and had to kick off from the 7½-yard line. Texas took the squib kick and lateraled twice in an attempt to score on the kickoff, but Tech caught one of the laterals to end the game. Subsequent to the loss, Texas fell from #1 to #4 in the BCS Poll, and Texas Tech rose to #2, behind Alabama.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Baylor
The Longhorns first played the Baylor Bears in 1901 and faced them annually during the days of the Southwest Conference. In the 97 meetings through 2007, Texas' record with the Bears was 71 wins, 22 losses, and 4 ties. This is Texas' third-longest rivalry by number of games: only Oklahoma and Texas A&M have faced Texas more often on the football field. Texas won the 2006 game 63–31. The 2007 game was initially a close fought contest, but Texas outlasted the Bears for a 31–10 victory.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Baylor
The morning of the game, sports books favored Texas by 27 points. The temperature was 69 °F (21 °C) at kickoff and the skies were sunny for the game.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Baylor
Texas got off to a fast start with two touchdowns in the first quarter, but Baylor tied the score at 14–14. Texas then scored 31 straight points before yielding a late field goal to Baylor. The final score was 45–21. McCoy passed for 300 yards and five touchdowns. The Associated Press story commented, "And McCoy likely refueled his Heisman Trophy bid by completing 26 of 37 passes for his fourth 300-yard game this season, and eighth of his career, even without playing the final 12 minutes. The touchdowns went to four different receivers, though he did have two interceptions."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Baylor
Texas had lost a close road game the prior week to Texas Tech, who were undefeated at 8-0 and ranked #5 in the Coaches' Poll. As a result, the Horns fell to #7 in the Coach's poll and #4 in the BCS Standings, keeping alive the possibility they could still play for the national championship if other top teams stumble. The same day Texas defeated Baylor, #3 Penn State lost their game and Texas subsequently moved up to #3 in the BCS rankings. The win over Baylor was the 829th win for the UT football program, which tied Notre Dame for 2nd in the list of college football's ten most victorious programs. Notre Dame lost later the same day, so the tie will last until at least November 15.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Baylor
On November 11 (with UT holding an 8-1 record) Heisman voter Rodney Gilmore of ESPN.com had Colt McCoy listed third of five Heisman candidates. Gilmore said, "I love his numbers (78 percent completion percentage, 28 TDs, only 7 picks and 2,879 yards) and his gutsy second-half performance against Texas Tech. And I have not forgotten about his epic performance against Oklahoma just a few weeks ago. However, Harrell outplayed McCoy head-to-head in the showdown last week, so Harrell has a leg up on him for now, but McCoy is within striking distance."


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Kansas
Coming into 2008, Texas held a 6–0 record against Kansas since the formation of the Big12. In order to win the 2004 game against the Kansas Jayhawks, Texas had to convert a 4th-and-18 situation and complete a touchdown pass with only eleven seconds remaining on the clock. The 2005 game provided much less on-field drama, as Texas led 52–0 by halftime and defeated Kansas 66–14. The two teams did not face each other in 2006 or 2007.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Kansas
The morning of the 2008 game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 14 points. The weather at kickoff was 37 °F (3 °C) and partly cloudy, with winds of 23–30 miles per hour. Snow flurries began near the end of the first half.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Kansas
Texas won the 2008 game, 35–7; Notre Dame won vs. Navy the same day, leaving the Longhorns and the Fighting Irish tied for second place in all-time wins. It was Colt McCoy's 30th career win, which tied him with Vince Young for the school record. McCoy completed 24 of 35 passing attempts (71%) for 255 yards and 2 touchdown passes. He was also the leading rusher for both schools, rushing for 78 yards and a touchdown. Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing, an Austin native, completed 25 of 50 passes for 258 yards and 1 touchdown. McCoy's two touchdown passes put him at 31 for the season, breaking his own school record.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Kansas
The Longhorns also ensured their eight consecutive season with ten or more wins per season. That is the longest active streak in the nation and it ties them with Miami (1985–92) for the second-longest streak of all-time.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
This game marks the 115th meeting between Texas and the Texas A&M Aggies and it will be the fifth year as part of a multi-sport rivalry called the Lone Star Showdown. The football rivalry began in 1894 and it is the longest-running rivalry for both the Longhorns and the Aggies and it is also the third most-played rivalry in Division I-A college football. Since the series began in 1900, the game has traditionally been played on Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving weekend. The 2007 game marked the twelfth straight game to be scheduled the day after Thanksgiving. The two schools have agreed to move the game back to Thanksgiving Day for the 2008 and 2009 contests.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
Although Texas entered the 2008 contest with a record of 73–36–5, the Longhorns had lost the last two games to the Aggies. The 2006 meeting was the first time in eight years that both teams entered the game with at least eight wins coming into the match-up. That game came one week after Texas lost to Kansas State and the Longhorns suffered a 7–12 loss to the Aggies. Going back to 1999 when Texas lost the final three games of the season, the Longhorns had gone 87 games without losing back-to-back games. That was the longest active streak for any college or professional football team.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
2007 was a turbulent year for the Aggies. A&M head coach Dennis Franchione spent much of the season being criticized for his coaching performance. Criticism intensified in late September as it became known that Franchione had been selling a secret email newsletter to athletic boosters who paid US$1,200 annually for team information that Franchione has refused to release to the public. The newsletter, called "VIP Connection", had been written by Franchione's personal assistant, Mike McKenzie, and included specific injury reports and Franchione's critical assessments of players. A bright spot was their defeat of the Longhorns, 38–30. At the beginning of the post-game press conference, Franchione announced his resignation effective immediately. Mike Sherman was hired three days later, becoming the 28th head coach of the Texas A&M football program.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
As a result of a 1999 accident that killed 12 students and injured 27 others, the Aggies can no longer hold a school sponsored version of their traditional Bonfire but an unofficial "Student Bonfire" will burn on November 22, 2008. The Longhorns will hold their traditional Hex Rally November 24, 2008. The Aggies came into the 2008 game with a 4–7 record, assuring that they would have a losing season no matter the outcome of the game with UT.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
The weather forecast called for a game-time temperature of 70 °F (21 °C) and a 40% chance of rain. Odds makers in Las Vegas predicted Texas would win by 35 points. The biggest margin of victory in the history of the rivalry occurred when Texas beat A&M 48–0 in 1898. Texas nearly equaled that record this year by producing a 49–9 victory, the second-largest margin of victory for this rivalry series.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
The win was the 31st for Colt McCoy, setting a new school record. It was also the 200th career win for Mack Brown, and it set a new attendance record for UT, the State of Texas, the Big 12 Conference, and the southwest region. Texas entered the season trailing Michigan and Notre Dame in the list of all-time victories. With the win, Texas finished its regular season 11–1, bringing its all-time win total to 831. Notre Dame compiled a 6–6 regular season record, increasing its win total to 830. Thus, Texas passed Notre Dame and now holds the #2 spot as of the completion of the 2008 regular season.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
McCoy threw ran for 2 touchdowns and threw for 2 more. He completed 23 of 28 attempted passes for a total of 311 yards. That yardage put him at 3,594 yards for the season - another school record. His longest pass of the evening, 68 yarder on a post route to Jordan Shipley late in the third quarter, ended up a yard short of being McCoy's fifth touchdown of the evening.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, Texas A&M
Oklahoma and Texas Tech also won their final regular-season games, which left in place a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 south. The tie was broken in favor of the Oklahoma Sooners using a controversial ranking formula (see below). Thus, Oklahoma advanced to play in the 2008 Big 12 Championship Game and Texas waited for the results of that game to determine which bowl game would select Texas.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, 2009 Fiesta Bowl - Ohio State
After being passed over in the selection for the 2009 BCS National Championship Game (see below), Texas accepted an invitation to play the Ohio State Buckeyes (OSU). The day the bowl bids were announced the sports betting line opened with Texas as ten-point favorites, the most of any of the 2009 BCS bowls. Texas and Ohio State have two of the longest-running programs in college football, but they have played each other only twice. Texas won the 2005 game en route to winning their most recent national championship. In the 2006 game, which was won by Ohio State, OSU and Texas were ranked #1 and #2 respectively. It was only the 36th time that the top two teams in college football had ever faced each other.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Game summaries, 2009 Fiesta Bowl - Ohio State
With under a minute to play, Texas Quarterback Colt McCoy engineered a comeback, and capped off the drive with a pass to WR Quan Cosby. Cosby eluded 2 defenders and ran almost 35 yards to score a touchdown. On the ensuing Ohio State drive which started with about 40 seconds on the clock, the Texas defense stepped up, and denied Ohio State from scoring. With a couple of seconds on the clock, Ohio State tried a hail mary, in vain.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities
The BCS does not have an end-of-season ranking. It exists only to match up the top-two teams in a Bowl Game, and declares the winner of that team the BCS National Championship.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities
In order to have played in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game at the end of the 2008 season, Texas would have needed to have been ranked #1 or #2 in the final BCS rankings of the season. Texas rose to first place in the BCS rankings following their win over Missouri. They held that position for two weeks before losing to Texas Tech and dropping to fourth. The loss to Texas Tech on November 1 left the Longhorns dependent on the play of other teams to determine UT's fate for the season. Texas won the rest of their games, but so did Oklahoma. Texas Tech's only regular season loss was to Oklahoma. Because the three teams finished in a three-way tie, the final BCS poll of the season served as the tie-breaker.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities
In the November 9 BCS rankings the Longhorns rose to third place due to a loss by Penn State, who had been in third place. Alabama was in the top position, Texas Tech was second, Florida fourth, and Oklahoma fifth. The following weekend, Alabama, Texas, and Florida won while Texas Tech and Oklahoma did not play. The top five rankings remained unchanged except that Texas switched places with Oklahoma in the Coaches' Poll, moving up to fourth place.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities
When Texas only had its final game of the regular season, against Texas A&M, Texas Tech had two games remaining: against Oklahoma and Baylor. Besides Tech, Oklahoma still had a game pending against Oklahoma State. Alabama still faced Auburn and then the 2008 SEC Championship Game against Florida. Florida faced The Citadel prior to meeting Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. That left a variety of scenarios possible for Texas' championship hopes, provided they won against A&M.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities
Even if it didn't win the Big 12 South Division, Texas still had a reasonable chance at that point of playing for the national championship. In the 2001 season and the 2003 season, the national championship game included a Big 12 team that had not won the conference championship. In 2001, Nebraska did not play in the Big 12 Championship but went on to play for the national title. In 2003, the Sooners entered Big 12 Conference Championship ranked number one in the BCS rankings, but lost to Kansas State. They only fell to second place and went on to the BCS championship.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy
On November 22 Oklahoma beat Texas Tech 65–21 in Norman, Oklahoma. The win dropped Texas Tech to #7 in the BCS and moved Texas and Oklahoma to #2 and #3, respectively. It also forced a three-way tie in the Big 12 South division between Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech each had one remaining regular season game. Texas played Texas A&M on Thanksgiving (November 27) and won 49–9. Texas Tech played Baylor on November 29 and won 35–28. Oklahoma played Oklahoma State on the same day and won 61–41.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy
According to Big 12 Conference tie-breaker rules, when three teams finish tied, the highest in the BCS on December 1 goes to the Big 12 Championship Game. If Texas had finished #1 or #2 in the BCS, they would have gone to the National Championship Game even without going to the Big 12 Championship Game. BCS rules exist primarily to match up #1 vs. #2, and the rules prohibit three teams from the same conference making BCS berths.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy, Polls prior to final regular season games
According to the average rankings by Jeff Sagarin, Texas was the top team in the country followed by Oklahoma. Sagarin's ELO_CHESS ranking is a portion of the BCS computer rankings and it does not consider margin of victory. UT scored 93.56% vs 92.32% for Oklahoma. Sagarin's PREDICTOR score does include margin of victory in its calculation, but it is not part of the BCS formula. In this score, Texas still ranked higher than OU (95.28% vs 94.79%) and Texas Tech (89.35%) but the top three teams were USC (99.94%), Florida (99.58%), and Penn State (95.34%).


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy, Polls prior to final regular season games
Texas combined BCS point average was 92.09% and Oklahoma's was 91.25%, for a separation of .84%. The human voters in the Coaches' Poll and Harris Interactive Poll, which each constitute 1/3 of the BCS formula, had moved Oklahoma ahead of Texas. Before the final game, Texas had a substantial lead over OU in the computer rankings (96% to 90%). However, in the final week, OU faced OSU, which was ranked 12th in the BCS, while Texas played an unranked Texas A&M. With both teams winning, the Sooners edged past the Longhorns.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy, 45–35 campaign
Longhorn fans created a 45–35 campaign to remind voters in the AP and Coaches' polls that Texas beat OU 45-35 on a neutral field. Sophomore Austin Talbert created a Facebook group titled Texas did beat OU 45–35, lest we forget. and senior Matt Parks created a website titled Better Consider the Scoreboard. The campaign raised over $7,500 to have 20,000 45-35 signs printed for the Texas A&M at Texas game and to have a plane bearing the message Texas 45 OU 35 — settled on a neutral field fly over ESPN GameDay prior to the Oklahoma at Oklahoma State game. Excess proceeds were donated to the UT Orange Santa program and the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer research. The Daily Texan printed an additional 5,000 to 30,000 signs.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy, 45–35 campaign
John Bianco, UT's assistant athletic director for media relations, said that the campaign was done "independently" of the university.


2008 Texas Longhorns football team, Rankings and championship possibilities, 45–35 campaign and BCS controversy, 45–35 campaign
The campaign was covered by the Austin American-Statesman, CBS, the Dallas Morning News, the Denver Post, ESPN, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star, KEYE-TV, The New York Times, The Oklahoman, and the San Antonio Express-News.