The Eyes of Texas are Upon You….

The University of Texas was our kickoff to the College Football Tour of 2009, and what better way to get the season started than to watch the Longhorns stomp one of their perennial early season patsies.

In fact, it had been over two years since my inaugural trip to Texas Memorial Stadium and I was curious to see how some of the newly completed renovations looked. The answer was simple: enormous. This place has become absolutely enormous, and with capacity now over 101,000 you can pack a lot of burnt orange into the place. The beefed up capacity (101,096 on this night) coupled with the “Godzillatron” (the 134ft behemoth HD scoreboard-formerly the largest HD screen in the world) make this place a truly imposing facility. The words “everything’s bigger in Texas” never rang more true.

The game itself was, shockingly, never really competitive from the start. Louisiana Monroe was expectedly physically outmatched at nearly every position, readily evident as the Longhorns imposed their will on both sides of the ball. Despite the disparity, Heisman hopeful Colt McCoy managed only two touchdowns against a foolish interception. While LAM had a few periodic outbursts to keep the 2^nd string Texas defense honest, it was never really a game unless you count keeping it within the 34 point spread “competitive”.

The lopsided matchup turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because after a few quick beers in the UT Alumni center during halftime, we returned to the stadium midway through the 3^rd quarter to discover a glut of empty seats. Evidently some of the diehard Texas fans were more interested in getting a jumpstart on traffic than staying until the last whistle. As is usually the case, the most “ardent” fans always occupy the first and second rows, and we were able to slide ourselves into a vast desert of empty seats that put us close enough to make out the waist size on Mack Brown’s khakis. We enjoyed the rest of the game in front row seats right behind the Longhorn bench!

Final score: Texas 59 Louisiana Monroe 20

Hook em!

Special thanks to our friends Jared and Kimberly for showing us what Longhorn Football is all about!