by Mike Lopresti , USA TODAY

The name might ring a bell.

The safety who had a splendid freshman year also owns one of the season's cruelest moments -- an unlucky brush with the spotlight that echoes to this very week.

"This shows," he said of both the Longhorns' rally past Ohio State and his own ordeal, "how we trust each other."

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Final minutes of Texas at Texas Tech. The Longhorns nursing a lead, Tech mounting a last-chance drive. Gideon was in the right place to defend Graham Harrell's pass. He had it in his hands, for the clinching interception.

Then he didn't.

A moment later, Texas Tech scored to win the game. The interception would have changed so much. Texas would have been unbeaten and playing Thursday night. The past month's BCS furor would have been so different, from Southern California to Oklahoma to Miami.

And yet, is that close to being fair? Of course not. A season is made up of more turns than a NASCAR race. One play can't decide everything.

But a dropped interception is easier for the public to remember than someone else's blown blocking assignment. So a high school honor roll student good enough to win a starting job for a national contender suddenly turned on the national highlights and saw himself.

Which is why, with the Fiesta Bowl win and 12-1 record in Texas' bag, I went looking for Blake Gideon. He had five tackles Monday night.

"We find a way," he said. "This shows the overall maturity of our team. We developed a bond. This is my first year here, and they said it is the strongest they've ever had."

How he needed that on one November weekend.

"I've seen it so many times, I'm just numb to it now," he said of the play. "I've seen it enough to know how to deal with it."

The unity that got Texas past the Buckeyes got Gideon through a dark hour.

"All my teammates made a point after the game to tell me that no game is lost by one play and they wouldn't rather have anyone else back there," he said. "That's reassuring. Of all the things in football, what you play for is your brothers. If your brothers tell you it's all right, then it is."

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The happy man on the phone, just leaving the stadium parking lot after the Fiesta Bowl, was Steve Gideon. Longtime high school football coach, father.

He still remembers his son's first reaction that night at Texas Tech when they met after the game. "I let the seniors down," Blake said.

No, football is not like that, his father reminded him. A coach's son, Blake has been around the game long enough to understand.

"I told him, 'This is a great opportunity for you to grow. It's also an opportunity for you to crater. ... Can you handle it?' "

"He said, 'Yeah I can.' "

Steve said Blake "exercised the 24-hour rule." Celebrate for 24 hours after good nights. Mourn for 24 hours after bad. Then go on.

"You appreciate these moments, even though they're not fun to go through," Steve said. "His mother and I are very proud of how he handled it."

As a coach and father, Steve understood what it meant, the way the Longhorns veterans rallied around the freshman. That same chemistry was on the field Monday night. "It'll be up to Blake in the future to do that for someone else when it happens to them," Steve said.

So much of the college football discussion is about ratings, numbers, the demands of adults. But the game is played by kids, who feel the human highs and the lows.

In the winning locker room, one last question: Could he have done anything differently that night in Lubbock?

"Absolutely," Blake Gideon said. "I could have caught it."

Mike Lopresti also writes for Gannett News Service

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