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Texas' extra second had Husker coaches seeing red

Matt Hinton

My favorite headline of the day comes from the Austin-American Statesman, which declared, "McCoy shows stability under pressure," despite Colt McCoy coming within a single clock tick of throwing away Texas' national championship hopes when he apparently lost track of time with a timeout in his pocket Saturday night:

The decision to add the second for Hunter Lawrence's game-winning field goal was satisfyingly quick and correct -- there's not much notable protest from 'Husker fans, save a complaint in my inbox concerning Big 12 replay rules -- but that couldn't sate the rage of Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini, the head coaches' brother:

Carl Pelini marched off the field, advanced a few steps into the dark tunnel. Then he turned back toward the euphoric Texas celebration at midfield. His emotions burst.

"You should be ashamed to accept that trophy!" the NU defensive coordinator yelled, pointing at the Longhorns.

"You outta be ashamed to accept that trophy!" he screamed again, then again.

Bo Pelini, conciliatory and encouraging to Texas' Mack Brown in the coaches' postgame handshake, was fuming by the time he reached his brother in the tunnel, and was soon screaming himself for Big 12 officiating head Walt Anderson and NU athletic director Tom Osborne. Both Anderson and conference commissioner Dan Beebe confirmed the decision to put the second back on the clock was correct, but Pelini fumed to his own conclusion: "BCS! That's why they make that call!" A few minutes later, the Omaha World-Herald reported the loudest word from the closed 'Husker locker room was "Cheaters!"

To his credit, a clearly angry Pelini immediately swore off all questions about the call a few minutes later rather than turn his postgame press conference into a whine-fest that cost him money. Whether or not undefeated TCU and Cincinnati will be able to hold their tongues as well tonight if (well, when) they're snubbed in favor of the Longhorns for a trip to the BCS championship game, we'll have to wait and see.