Of all the weapons Chris Simms has at his disposal in his quest to be a national-championship winning quarterback -- and they are myriad, including size, arm and pedigree -- the one that will carry him furthest may well be one that doesn't show up on the checklists of talent evaluators.

Sense of humor.

A year ago, as he going through a controversial season that saw him supplant local hero Major Applewhite as the Longhorns starter, the blond-haired, 6-foot-4, 220-pound son of a Super Bowl MVP joked that he was keeping a list of all his doubters so he could deliver each a proper "I told you so" when he succeeded.

	Chris Simms is 0-1 as a starter against Oklahoma.

He succeeded. He led the Big 12 in pass efficiency rating, threw for a school-record 22 touchdowns and led Texas in an 11-2 season.

He just didn't succeed enough to please his critics.

"Last year I joked about personal vendettas,'' Simms said. "I'm not going to do that this year, because the bad guys won last year."

"For some reason,'' Texas coach Mack Brown said, "he's held to a different standard."

"I don't know. Either way it doesn't matter,'' Simms said. "I know the situation I'm in. I know my last name. I know what people expect of me. That's part of the way I grew up. That's part of being a quarterback."

Now, Simms has a final season to leave a legacy even his harshest critics would have trouble faulting. Fair or not, however, that legacy may depend on Simms' ability to deliver the Longhorns fourth national title and first since they were named the UPI national champion in 1970. He'll have perhaps the most talented receiving corps in the nation led by Roy Williams, a preseason All-America running back in Cedric Benson and a big offensive line that promises to be more physical this season. He'll also get to do it without Applewhite standing on the sideline, ready to go in should Simms falter.

"People try to say it's a big weight off my chest,'' Simms said. "It is in some ways. Some ways it isn't. Having Major there was like having another set of eyes. He really helped me out.

"We feel we have a great team. We won't have everybody talking about just two guys. We're ready to move on on that subject."

Even though Applewhite has moved on, he really hasn't. Beginning in early August -- on the day the freshmen report -- he begins co-hosting an afternoon radio talk show on KVET-AM in Austin.

By then the latest topic of discussion involving Simms may have blown over. Early in the summer he posed with Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman for the August cover of Texas Monthly magazine, standing between and in front of the former Dallas Cowboy greats. Before the magazine even hit the newsstands the local radio shows and Internet discussion groups were alive with those attacking Simms for self-promotion, the arrogance of assuming he belonged in the same class as Aikman and Staubach and most everything else this side of the fall of Enron.

Few, if any, mentioned that Texas A&M's Mark Farris and Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury were shown inside posing with former college greats James Street and Sammy Baugh.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about posing, Simms shrugged.

"I was more excited about hanging out with Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach," he said. "They're two of my role models. That was probably one of the coolest things I've done. I couldn't say no to that."

"I thought it was a cool cover,'' Kingsbury said. "I was in the middle somewhere and my grandmother was happy about that. (Simms) is a great player. More power to him.

"It's just a magazine cover."

To most perhaps, but at Texas nothing is every truly just what it is, something Chris Simms has gotten to know well.

Mark Wangrin covers college football for the San Antonio Express-News.