My Core Games in Austin

With Georgia coming to town on what should be an unforgettable Saturday in Austin, here are my core games at DKR. The games I'll never forget.

Growing up in Austin in the 1990s, I don’t have many profound football memories of Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium pre-Mack Brown. I remember sleeping across my parents’ laps on a frigid night when the Longhorns beat the tar out of the Red Raiders. There were some vague games where I was just a number in the crowd; I couldn’t tell you who was playing or who won, only that I was there and that there sure were a ton of crickets piled up under the lights on the East Side bleachers before the upper deck was built. I know we were at Mack’s first game, a beatdown of a different form of Aggie in New Mexico State. Once again, we sat on the East bleachers above some fraternity guys whose language selection was eye-opening to my eight-year-old self.

The memories from the early 2000s are much clearer. I remember being thrilled to see Roy Williams in person because he was my go-to guy on the old versions of NCAA. I know I saw a few games where Major Applewhite and Chris Simms both played and remember my parents’ groans when Applewhite didn’t take the field.

But two games stand out as core memories when it comes to that stadium, that crowd, and me. On those two nights, I saw what DKR could be from an environment standpoint and what the Longhorn fan base can be when it and a team become intertwined. These two games, one when I was 14 and the other when I was 18 and a freshman in college (not at Texas), are still vivid. Though the games themselves were very different, the crowd came unglued. Both games had huge impacts on me; I’m still thinking about them all these years later, still hoping for nights like those.

2004: Texas 56, Oklahoma State 35

In the first half, the Pokes could do absolutely nothing wrong, and the Longhorns could do nothing right. The Cowboys had one-handed catches and a game script so hot it probably caught on fire, while Vince Young threw multiple interceptions. But Texas was driving down the field before halftime and would get the ball to start the third. My dad and I said to one another, "If they score here, they have a chance." Young to Bo Scaife for a touchdown made it 35-14, and there was hope amidst what had been a complete disaster.

Then the roles switched in the second half: OSU couldn’t do anything right, and Texas could do nothing wrong. When Ramonce Taylor took an end-around 47 yards to the house to improbably tie the game, the metaphorical roof was blown off of DKR. We were on the West side that night, in seats I’d always associated with the popularly named “wine and cheese” crowd that arrived late and stayed seated while fanning themselves all game while checking their watch. But that night, I saw grown men losing control of themselves like they were children, guys standing on seats and doing Simone Biles-style jumps into the next row to hug their friends. Elderly women were screaming so loud that every blue vein in their necks and heads looked like it was about to burst. When a crowd and team unite, it feels predestined, inevitable. In my opinion, it was the night that the team Texas fans had been waiting decades for finally arrived. When Vince Young rushed 42 yards for a touchdown to make the game a certified blowout, he arrived.

October 18th, 2008: Texas 56, Missouri 31

On a personal note, I wasn’t attending Texas at the time, but this was the night I knew I had to be a part of it. Had I had a crystal ball and known that Charlie Strong was coming, maybe I would have felt differently. I kid, I kid—on that night, I was hooked all the livelong day, even if I didn’t fully realize it at the time. Number five Texas had beaten number one Oklahoma the week before, and the #11 Missouri Tigers were coming to town at night. Now Texas was the number one team, and the Longhorns’ opponent was painfully unaware of the fact that they were being served up as the feast for the heroes’ welcome home.

From the first play, the country ass-kicking, or Old Testament butt-whipping—whatever you want to call it—was on. The footballs thrown by Colt McCoy that night had nary a grass stain on them, and the Longhorn defense tackled as violently as any Texas group I’ve ever seen. It was a bloodthirsty crowd in attendance, ready to place the crown atop their team’s head. Years later, when I heard Chris Del Conte say the words “a united Texas is a reckoning,” I thought back to that night, that team, that crowd. The environment on Saturday night against Georgia will have some parallels to 2008, albeit that Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs are way better than that Chase Daniel-led Missouri squad.

DKR welcomes a number-one team home that has just conquered the Sooners, along with College Gameday. But so much has changed—Formula One coming to town on the same weekend as Georgia shows how it’s a completely new Austin. Plus, it’s a brand new opponent; there's a new conference logo on the field and on the jerseys. Yet so much has stayed the same. It’s a Longhorn team with even more to prove and a Texas crowd ready to come unglued. It will be an unforgettable Saturday night on The 40 Acres. It’s the type of night that could tie people together for years, decades even—something more than a game, something that fans years from now don’t just picture in their minds, but they feel down to their cores.

The Rest of the Best

Some notable games of the last 25ish years I wasn’t able to attend…

• Nov 27, 1998: Texas 26, No 6. A&M 24 (Run Ricky Run. Those in attendance witnessed history)

• Oct. 23, 1999: No. 18 Texas 24, No. 3 Nebraska 20 (Maybe this is when the Huskers knew they needed to get away from Texas, despite getting their lone win against the Longhorns in the Big 12 rematch.)

• Oct. 4, 2003: No. 13 Texas 24, No. 16 Kansas State 20 (Baby Vince Young leads Texas to a big victory over the Purple Wizard.)

• Oct. 22, 2005: No. 2 Texas 52, No. 8 Texas Tech 17 (Paul and I discussed this on the podcast this week.)

• Sept. 9, 2006: No. 1 Ohio State 24, No. 2 Texas 7 (A rematch of the classic game in Columbus a year prior that didn’t live up to the hype. How could it? The star was gone.)

I was there…

Wet Fart Games

• Oct. 6, 2011: No. 8 West Virginia 48, No. 2 Texas 45 (I was trying to convince myself about late-stage Mack Brown and the new Big 12 minus our old rivals. The crowd was great, but the ending was not.)

• Nov. 12, 2022: No. 2 TCU 17, No. 25 Texas 10 (I was ready to coronate Texas; so was the crowd. Steve Sarkisian, thankfully, knew this thing was a process.)

Day Games That Deserved to Be Played at Night

• Oct. 25, 2008: No. 1 Texas 28, No. 6 Oklahoma State 24 (Frankly, I don’t remember much about the crowd besides the collective sigh of relief when Zac Robinson’s Hail Mary attempt hit the ground.)

• Sept. 10, 2022: No. 1 Alabama 20, No. 25 Texas 19 (The proudest I’ve ever been of a Texas team in a losing effort and the most heat-drunk DKR crowd I’ve ever seen. It was proof of concept for Steve Sarkisian’s program.)

• Nov. 4, 2023: No. 7 Texas 33 vs. No. 23 Kansas State 30 (The Stop. T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy became Longhorn legends before Texas fans’ eyes.)

Cool Helmet Matchups, Not Great Texas Teams

• Sept. 4, 2016: Texas 50, “No. 10” Notre Dame 47 (We weren’t back.)

• Sept. 15, 2018: Texas 37, USC 14 (The righting of the ship for what would be Texas’ best team in the Dark Ages.)

• Sept. 7, 2019: No. 6 LSU 45, No. 9 Texas 38 (A hyped-up crowd never caught up from Keaontay Ingram’s dropped touchdown pass. Tom Herman said he wanted the team to “empty the clip.” Todd Orlando took that literally as his zero blitz of Joe Burrow blew the Longhorns’ own foot off.)

Hungry Crowds, Underrated Games

• Nov. 17, 2018: No. 15 Texas 24, No. 16 Iowa State 10

• Nov. 24, 2023: No. 7 Texas 50, Texas Tech 7 (Thank you for coming, Commissioner.)

A Game from Each Decade Since 1950 I Wish I Could Have Attended:

1990s

• Nov. 10, 1990: No. 14 Texas 45, No. 3 UH 24 (The folks who were there still say it was the loudest crowd in Texas football history.)

1980s

• Dec. 4, 1982: No. 12 Texas 33, No. 6 Arkansas (Shoutout to my friend Bill McMeans for this write-up: The 1982 season was unique for Texas. After a close loss to OU and another narrow defeat to SMU, the Longhorns, led by former walk-on QB Robert Brewer, caught fire. They dominated opponents, including the last two home games against A&M and Arkansas, both played in cold, rainy conditions.)

1970s

• Nov. 26, 1977: No. 1 Texas 57, No. 12 A&M 28 (I don’t know how much money I’d give to watch Earl Campbell run over Aggie defenders on his way to the Heisman Trophy.)

1960s

• Oct. 20, 1962: No. 1 Texas 7, No. 7 Arkansas 3 (The early 1960s games solidified the Arkansas rivalry, pitting Broyles against DKR. It became a marquee matchup, often taking place the week after OU. Broyles was one heck of a coach, making every game a tough contest.)

1950s

• Nov. 25, 1954: Texas 22, Texas A&M 13 (Ed Price, the coach who Darrell K Royal would replace, beats Bear Bryant.)