Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

Baltimore has Jeffrey Maier.

Chicago has Steve Bartman.

Texas has "Chris." Mack Brown's step son.

In case you missed it, Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter was faced with a horde of Texas defenders on a jailbreak, with little time to react. Carpenter, down 21-0 but on the Texas 15-yard line, saw something nobody else did and attempted to throw the football towards the sideline. But as he went to release the football, he was blasted and the ball actually went backwards, making it live and free for the taking.

As the ball rolled to the sideline, Texas football assistant Chris Jessie, looking sharp in his burnt orange windbreaker and khakis so everyone in TV land could see, reacted to the mistakenly thrown flag for intentional grounding (he actually made the motion for the penalty with his hands) and stepped onto the field to retrieve the ball. But has he reached down, someone must have said something to make him jump away like the ball was a rolling hand grenade. But he couldn't get away fast enough, the ball touched his thumb.

Texas ended up with the ball in Arizona State territory, but the play was reviewed, overturned and Arizona State was awarded seven yards and the ball on the Texas 7, as the result of an unsportsmanlike penalty. The next play was a touchdown.

Let's hope, for Chris' sake, that:

A. Texas wins
B. Texas covers (although A is considerably more important).

But if neither happens, Chris will always be welcome on Campus Confidential, which picked Arizona State, fully knowing this would happen.