Hook 'Em Horns! (Post-OSU Loss Edition)

It was a great, great, great weekend. Yeah, UT's loss was a pisser -- they simply did not have it, and even then were really just 1-2 plays away from it being a very different game. They had a red zone fumble in the first half was just a killer. They went from nearly scoring a touchdown to giving up the ball and having Ohio State score instead. OSU got themselves in a position to be able to run the ball down Texas' throats at the end, and their success at that was demoralizing. Got to give it to them -- came into a huge game and faced a hostile away crowd and they came through. They deserve that #1 slot (don't get me started about Notre Dame being ranked 2nd ahead of Auburn, Southern Cal, and other teams that won this weekend and were ranked ahead of the Golden Domers. One win is all it requires for Notre Dame to be in the thick of things, which is ridiculous.) and may well hold on to it until the BCS championship.

Austin is a fantastic city from what I saw (this was my first trip), UT has a great campus, and the people we were with (my friend, colleague, and reader Brian's parents) have had season tickets for something like two decades, and they said they have never seen it quite like that on campus before. Tailgating was mad, there was a sea of burnt orange, and although OSU fans may be assholes (they have always been in my bottom five, not as bad as Yankee fans, but maybe the worst outside of the Bronx), but they were out in force. They travel very, very well. The rumors are that there were anywhere between 40,000 and 60,000 who showed up in Austin, and I'd guess that at least 5,000 got into the game at rates that were as high as $1600 apiece if rumors and reports are to be believed.

When we first arrived we had an hour or more to kill, so we just wandered, found some AT&T tent and watched the afternoon games (The Oklahoma and Notre Dame games were both on) and then headed to this new performance facility where the UT president had a reception and Brian's parents had managed to get four spaces. When we walked in the door, there was Texas coaching legend Darrell Royal. Put it this way -- the Stadium at UT is named after him. I cannot even convey to you how good the food was -- Tex Mex, with three kinds of enchiladas (my favorites, in a close race, were the tamales, taco salad, refried beans, rice, and desserts. Booze was free too, but since I was dying -- I did not get in until 4 saturday morning from a poker game the night before -- I scarcely partook. Anyway, after an hour or so about 30 members of the UT marching band came in to the foyer on the ground floor -- we were on the fifth floor, but it was open and overlooked the foyer -- and played all of their traditional songs: the Yellow Rose of Texas, the Eyes of Texas, Deep in the Heart of Texas, and so forth. I eat that folderol up, and it was pretty awesome.

We got into the stadium about 45 minutes before kickoff and there was just a slow build. UT traditionally has pretty sedate, genteel fans -- that is the reputation, anyway. UT fans are upscale where Texas A&M fans are supposedly the sane ones. Until ten years ago or so, everyone did not even always wear orange to the games. But Mack Brown came in and introduced a "be loud, be proud" ad campaign and now the fans are just nuts. The only analogy I could make, and it was a poor one since I've never been, but was to the half hour before a heavyweight championship fight is supposed to feel like. The band was there and out in full effect, and I got to dig in to some of the big time traditions that they have with the band and the times when you are supposed to Hook 'Em horns and the lyrics to the songs. I have to say, I think I'm hooked. I'll always be a BC fan, but I've been looking to adopt a big time team for quite a while, and I work in the UT system, and obviously live in Texas, so I'm thinking that jumping on the UT bandwagon is a huge possibility. (Keep in mind that I grew up in New hampshire which has no major DI sports, except for UNH hockey, which has just become big in the last decade -- though I was thrilled to see them beat Northwestern in football on Saturday; I went to a DIII school, which I love, but it leaves room for bigger college football loyalties; I went to a then-Conference USA basketball school with no football program for my MA and to a MAC school for my PhD. BC is still my favorite DI team, but I'd like to develop a regional loyalty. The one problem with my UT plans is that my fiancee went to A&M for her undergrad and to Tech for her PhD. But she hates sports, which I figure gives me some leeway.)

The game was what it was. UT had their chances. They oftentimes stopped themselves. OSU showed no ability to stop the Texas running game, but UT insisted on trying to pass, which OSU could stop. I thought the Longhorns just should have gone with the 2-headed running monster until OSU stopped it, wore them down, and when they were dragging, then started opening up the passing game. Instead with no rhyme nor reason, Texas had this bizarre offensive flow to the game. They wanted to get Colt McCoy into the game, so they pursued these ineffectual dinks and dunks that supplemented the running game but that developed too slowly against a team with Ohio State's quickness. The first half was still great fun, and while OSU was leading the whole way, they never really looked dominant until that last drive.

Halftime was great--I have to admit, I usually could care less one way or the other about bands, but you knew it was a national game -- OSU brought their band and did a full show, finishing off with Script Ohio, which I had never seen. The Texas band did a traditional halftime show with all of their standards, but then had worked up a giant "Script Texas" while the OSU band watched and cheered. The OSU band's presence reaffirmed the big-game nature of the weekend and halftime was a spectacle worth seeing.

All in all it was a great weekend. Seeing a #1 versus #2 matchup is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The only drawback was the result, but Austin seemed pretty committed to winning the party Saturday night even if they lost the game. And to think, this coming weekend I'll be in Dallas, where on saturday I'll catch the Rangers-Angels game and on Sunday night the nationally televised Cowboys-Redskins clash at Texas Stadium. I love sports.