Less than 24 hours after a tough loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes and I can only imagine that the Mack Brown and his talented team have done what needs to be done; take in the loss, breath a sigh of relief as this historic showdown is over, and move mentally forward to prepare for Rice next week. As well, kudos should be given to Troy Smith for a brilliant performance that helped to place him into the forefront of the Heisman Trophy race.

Looking ahead now, the Rice Owls are the next opponent for the reigning National Champions and given their first two performances this season they should not be taken lightly. Rice lost a hard fought battle with the University of Houston during week one and remained competitive with the UCLA Bruins, who continue to reside just outside of the top 25 polls, during week two. Following the Ohio State game Rice should be a welcomed challenge but they should not be overlooked as they’ll be a much better opponent than North Texas.

As always, the overall goal here is another Big 12 Conference Title and the Longhorns are still on track to reach that goal; while the loss does drop them from #2 to #8 in the polls, they still have a solid chance at a BCS Game and a very outside chance at playing for the National Title again. Only time will tell, but we’ll all continue to watch it turn.