A big game brings big games.
ESPN’s College GameDay has visited our fair city many times but this latest visit hits different because the Texas Longhorns are the best team in college football, according to the major polls.
Defending the home turf is one thing but doing it as the top dog through the midway point of the season is quite another, especially when so many eyes will be watching.
The Horns host the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs — winners of two of the last three national championships — and unlike the previous the meeting (Texas’ 28-21 win in the 2019 Sugar Bowl) the stakes are much higher in the program’s 10th time hosting GameDay.
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Future SEC supremacy could be on the line, especially if the Horns hand the Bulldogs a second conference loss. Before the 6:30 kickoff, we’ll get a few helpings of pregame hype, courtesy of GameDay mainstays Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and the irrepressible 89-year-old Lee Corso, who is 5-0 this season on his mascot headgear predictions. The Horns are a 3½-point favorite and coach Corso is 9-6 over the last 15 times he’s taken Texas.
It’s Texas’ 24th GameDay appearance.
Here are my top five:
No. 2 Texas 41, No. 1 USC 38
Date: Jan. 5, 2006
Location: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California
Easily the top sporting event I ever covered.
Texas coach Mack Brown spent most of the week answering questions from the national media about how in the world his Horns could stay in the same zip code with the two-time defending national champion Trojans. One day before the game, Mack thanked the national media — ESPN did a daily SportCenter feature comparing the 2005 Trojans to the best college teams of all time — for the motivation.
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“I won’t even have to give a pregame speech to my team.”
The Horns, a 7½-point underdog, were ready to make history, and they did. Coincidentally, I was in charge of gathering predictions from media and celebrities to publish on Game day. I picked to Horns to win 41-37, missing perfection by one point.
Corso pick: Texas
No. 18 Texas 24, No. 3 Nebraska 20
Date: Oct. 23, 1999
Location: Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin
I was hired at the Statesman two weeks earlier to cover high school sports and editor David Humphrey got me a credential to help the senior writers with a top-25 matchup. The Huskers were rolling at the time with three national titles in the decade but the Horns had their number, forcing three turnovers en route to a huge upset despite registering only 275 yards of total offense. It was Texas’ fourth straight win over the Huskers and it came in front of a then record Royal-Memorial Stadium crowd of 84,082.
Corso pick: Texas
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No. 2 Texas 25, No. 4 Ohio State 22
Date: Sept. 10, 2005
Location: Ohio Stadium in Columbus
Vince Young to Limas Sweed at money time. It was the biggest touchdown pass of Young’s career and the reason we remember Limas. The last-minute heroics confirmed what we already knew: Young was the man and the Horns were on a collision course with USC for all the marbles.
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On Game day, the Statesman travel staff of five writers decided to leave the hotel extra early to beat the stadium traffic to the Horseshoe and we still got stuck. It was the second-most raucous road environment I’ve ever encountered, trailing only the 2004 Arkansas fan who called us every name in the book as we made the long walk to the press box from the parking lot. “Why are they yelling at us?” my sports editor at the time John Bridges asked. “They know we’re not from here, bro,” I answered. “Keep walking.”
Corso pick: Ohio State
No. 5 Texas 45, No. 1 Oklahoma 35
Date: Oct. 11, 2008
Location: Cotton Bowl in Dallas
There is no atmosphere like the Texas State Fair serving as the host of the biggest rivalry in college football. The only thing bigger than the Fletcher’s Corny Dogs we enjoyed after the game was Jordan Shipley’s epic 96-yard touchdown that came with the Horns trailing 14-3. It turned the game around and helped earned them their first win over a national No. 1 since beating USC for the 2005 national title.
Corso pick: Oklahoma
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No. 6 LSU 45, No. 9 Texas 38
Date: Sept, 7, 2019
Location: DKR in Austin.
GameDay settled into the LBJ Library lawn that morning and the crew wondered if the Horns could deliver one season after a breakthrough win over Georgia at the Sugar Bowl. Texas and QB Sam Ehlinger, who threw for 401 yards and four touchdowns, were magnificent but outmatched by an ultra-talented LSU roster of five future NFL first-round picks. Eventual top overall pick Joe Burrow threw for 471 yards and four touchdown passes, including a 61-yarder to Justin Jefferson with 2 minutes, 27 seconds left to stave off Texas’ upset bid. We didn’t know it at the time but Texas had nearly knocked off the team that would win the national championship.
Corso pick: LSU
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golden: My top ESPN College GameDay moments involving Texas football
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