Texas Longhorns

Big 12
Commentary

Details do matter

Horns won't be down for long, as long as they remember to hone focus

Updated: October 8, 2012, 12:38 AM ET
By Sean Adams | HornsNation
As I sat Saturday night in the press box at DKR Texas Memorial Stadium watching the hopes of players, coaches, staff members and 101,851 [mostly Texas] fans diminish, I kept thinking to myself that Texas had the skill and the will to win that game. They hit the broad stroke but could not manage the finer details -- the details too often described as nuances of the game. Tackling, composure, assignments, fundamentals and focus were all lacking at one point or another.

Football is all about the details. In the postgame news conference, David Ash took me back to a movie when he said, "It's a game of inches and we came up a little short. We had our opportunities, but I was proud of the way this team battled. We didn't make some of the plays that we needed to."

In the movie "Any Given Sunday," Al Pacino gave his famous speech, "Life's this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. One half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half-second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute and every second. On this team, we fight for that inch ... because we know when we add up all of those inches, that's going to make the difference between winning and losing."

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

Sean Adams | email

Contributor, HornsNation
  • Contributor to HornsNation
  • Covered college football for over 11 years
  • Hosts "The Adams Theory" on 104.9 ESPN Austin
  • Joined ESPN in 2012

SPONSORED HEADLINES

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL HEADLINES

MOST SENT STORIES ON ESPN.COM