Texas' choice: Win like 2005 or crater like '06

Nov 17, 2009 - 8:26 AM By JIM VERTUNO AP Sports Writer

AUSTIN, Texas(AP) -- Mack Brown has given the Texas Longhorns a choice.

Finish the season like 2005, when they won the national championship, or crater down the stretch like they did in 2006. That team lost its last two games and didn't even get to play for a Big 12 title.

The No. 3 Longhorns (10-0, 6-0 Big 12) can wrap up the Big 12 South with a win Saturday night at home against Kansas (5-5, 1-5). Texas hasn't won the division since 2005.

Brown has shown his team video highlights and lowlights of those seasons. In 2005, Texas walloped Kansas 66-14, beat Texas A&M 40-29 and crushed Colorado 70-3 in the Big 12 title game.

In 2006, the Longhorns needed to win only one of their final two games to win the Big 12 South. They lost 45-42 at unranked Kansas State and 12-7 at home to unranked Texas A&M.

Instead of the Big 12 and a BCS bowl, Texas tumbled into the Alamo Bowl.

"We're in the exact same position," Brown said Monday. "They can talk about being a great team, but you've got to finish. You have to earn the right to be the best team."

Quarterback Colt McCoy and a handful of other fifth-year seniors were on the scout team when Texas won the 2005 national championship. They have not won any hardware of their own, on any level.

"Coach told us that no player here has won a national championship on the field," center Chris Hall said.

The 2006 season fell apart when McCoy got hurt early against Kansas State. A pinched nerve in his neck on a hard tackle sent him to the bench and Kansas State jumped out to a big lead.

The Longhorns rallied behind backup Jevan Snead but still lost. The defeat knocked Texas out of the national championship picture but not out of the Big 12. That came two weeks later when McCoy, still sore, had one of his worst games and Texas lost to the rival Aggies.

Last season, it was the BCS computers that did Texas in. Stuck in a three-way tie for the South, the league tiebreaker depended on the highest BCS ranking. That went to Oklahoma, a team Texas beat on the field.

Texas players believe that if they remain undefeated - which would mean division and league championships - they will play for the national crown.

"I've never won a championship in my life," senior defensive tackle Lamarr Houston said. "I would like to win one."

If Texas beats Kansas, McCoy would set an NCAA record for wins by a starting quarterback. He and former Georgia quarterback David Greene are tied at 42.

Vince Young led Texas to the 2005 title. McCoy's resume, although impressive, includes the late-season collapses and near misses.

"My goal is to win a championship," McCoy said.

Brown also said that suspended kick returner D.J. Monroe will practice with the team but remains suspended indefinitely after his drunken driving arrest south of Austin early Sunday.

Brown said Monroe twice told Texas coaches and staff between 11 p.m. and midnight that he was in his room, but that he later went out.

"He was out past curfew," Brown said. "We've told them all: You stay in, you act right, you do the things you're supposed to or you're held accountable."