Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Longhorns Insider: UT on the road again ... and loving it
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
AUSTIN – Attention Nebraska football fans.
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Texas offensive tackle Justin Blalock would like very much for you to curse him out this weekend. Tell him he stinks. Do that obnoxious double-handed "Horns down" gesture, right in his face.
Then throw stuff at him.
"Well, maybe not throw stuff," Blalock said. "That could get dangerous."
But that other stuff? When the Longhorns come to visit your lovely stadium on Saturday, do that to them.
All that cuss and circumstance is part of what Blalock loves about playing on the road. And, he says, part of what makes the Longhorns nearly unbeatable there.
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"We like to go out and enjoy ourselves in front of people who dislike us the most," Blalock said. "Sometimes, we just want to show people up. We're good enough to do that more often than not."
He's not kidding. UT has won a school-record 15 consecutive true road games – that's games played in an opponent's home stadium – and 27 of its last 28.
The only home team to trump the Longhorns during that stretch was Texas Tech in 2002.
"We almost relish playing in hostile environments," Blalock said.
Saturday's game will mark UT's first real chance to put that streak to the test.
That September trip to rout Rice at Reliant Stadium doesn't count. We've seen dog show crowds that were more hostile.
Of course, a game at Nebraska doesn't fit the according-to-Hoyle definition of the word, either.
Nebraska's Memorial Stadium is have-a-hard-time-changing-plays-at-the-line-of-scrimmage hostile. Not watch-out-for-the-flaming-couch-and-matching-love-seat hostile.
Earlier this week, Mack Brown recounted the tale of his first trip to Lincoln with the Longhorns in 1998. That day, Ricky Williams rushed for 150 yards in a 20-16 UT victory, one that lit the fuse on Williams' Heisman Trophy campaign and ruined both Nebraska's 47-game home winning streak and its national title hopes.
Jogging off the field afterward, Brown advised Williams to fasten his helmet and keep his head down, for fear of any debris a sore-loser fan might chunk his way.
The only thing the Nebraska faithful hit Williams with was a standing ovation.
"It was one of the classiest things I'd ever seen," Brown said.
So, any UT players seriously hoping to be cussed and assaulted Saturday should look elsewhere (like Lubbock next week). This week, they'd have a better chance of being kidney-punched by June Cleaver.
Still, the Longhorns make no bones about the fact that they'd love for Nebraska's Sea of Red to try and make them see red this weekend. To the Longhorns, that vitriol is the fuel that keeps them going on the road.
"We take it in stride," Blalock said. "Most of the time, by the end of the game, those people talking are having to put their foot in their mouth."
Longhorn stock watch
A weekly look at what's up (and what's going down) in Longhorn land:
Horns up: Road trip! For the first time, freshman quarterback Colt McCoy gets to play in a stadium that will be more than 50 percent against him. Ought to be sort of like those fierce Jim Ned-Bangs rivalry games McCoy experienced back in high school, but for one key difference. "There weren't that many people at those," McCoy said.
Horns down: BCS watching. It will do the Longhorns no good. Ninth in the BCS and needing to hit a 10-game parlay to move into national championship contention, the Longhorns have a better chance of landing a "Fiesta Bowl Shuffle"-type video atop the Billboard music chart.
Horns down: Sucker, punched. UT receiver Limas Sweed went all "Snoop Dogg at the Source Awards" on Baylor cornerback and Madison grad Anthony Arline last week. Sweed got flagged for 15 yards for the extracurricular punch to the head. He's lucky he didn't get ejected.
Horns up: Nobody swung a crutch. At least one UT player this week wondered aloud how the now-infamous Miami-Florida International brawl could have even happened. "Maybe guys should remember everything you do is on camera," defensive tackle Derek Lokey said. "And you've got your name on the back of your jersey."
Horns down: O-line DL. Would any healthy UT offensive linemen please stand up? On second thought, sit down before you hurt yourself. Guard Cedric Dockery is out for the year with a knee injury, now tackle Tony Hills is reportedly walking around in an ankle boot. Not great timing, with UT's most losable remaining game coming up this week.
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
AUSTIN – Attention Nebraska football fans.
advertisement
Texas offensive tackle Justin Blalock would like very much for you to curse him out this weekend. Tell him he stinks. Do that obnoxious double-handed "Horns down" gesture, right in his face.
Then throw stuff at him.
"Well, maybe not throw stuff," Blalock said. "That could get dangerous."
But that other stuff? When the Longhorns come to visit your lovely stadium on Saturday, do that to them.
All that cuss and circumstance is part of what Blalock loves about playing on the road. And, he says, part of what makes the Longhorns nearly unbeatable there.
Longhorns Insider
Got a question for the Longhorns Insider? Use the form below and fire away!
*Your name
*Your e-mail
Your hometown
*Your question
*Required
"We like to go out and enjoy ourselves in front of people who dislike us the most," Blalock said. "Sometimes, we just want to show people up. We're good enough to do that more often than not."
He's not kidding. UT has won a school-record 15 consecutive true road games – that's games played in an opponent's home stadium – and 27 of its last 28.
The only home team to trump the Longhorns during that stretch was Texas Tech in 2002.
"We almost relish playing in hostile environments," Blalock said.
Saturday's game will mark UT's first real chance to put that streak to the test.
That September trip to rout Rice at Reliant Stadium doesn't count. We've seen dog show crowds that were more hostile.
Of course, a game at Nebraska doesn't fit the according-to-Hoyle definition of the word, either.
Nebraska's Memorial Stadium is have-a-hard-time-changing-plays-at-the-line-of-scrimmage hostile. Not watch-out-for-the-flaming-couch-and-matching-love-seat hostile.
Earlier this week, Mack Brown recounted the tale of his first trip to Lincoln with the Longhorns in 1998. That day, Ricky Williams rushed for 150 yards in a 20-16 UT victory, one that lit the fuse on Williams' Heisman Trophy campaign and ruined both Nebraska's 47-game home winning streak and its national title hopes.
Jogging off the field afterward, Brown advised Williams to fasten his helmet and keep his head down, for fear of any debris a sore-loser fan might chunk his way.
The only thing the Nebraska faithful hit Williams with was a standing ovation.
"It was one of the classiest things I'd ever seen," Brown said.
So, any UT players seriously hoping to be cussed and assaulted Saturday should look elsewhere (like Lubbock next week). This week, they'd have a better chance of being kidney-punched by June Cleaver.
Still, the Longhorns make no bones about the fact that they'd love for Nebraska's Sea of Red to try and make them see red this weekend. To the Longhorns, that vitriol is the fuel that keeps them going on the road.
"We take it in stride," Blalock said. "Most of the time, by the end of the game, those people talking are having to put their foot in their mouth."
Longhorn stock watch
A weekly look at what's up (and what's going down) in Longhorn land:
Horns up: Road trip! For the first time, freshman quarterback Colt McCoy gets to play in a stadium that will be more than 50 percent against him. Ought to be sort of like those fierce Jim Ned-Bangs rivalry games McCoy experienced back in high school, but for one key difference. "There weren't that many people at those," McCoy said.
Horns down: BCS watching. It will do the Longhorns no good. Ninth in the BCS and needing to hit a 10-game parlay to move into national championship contention, the Longhorns have a better chance of landing a "Fiesta Bowl Shuffle"-type video atop the Billboard music chart.
Horns down: Sucker, punched. UT receiver Limas Sweed went all "Snoop Dogg at the Source Awards" on Baylor cornerback and Madison grad Anthony Arline last week. Sweed got flagged for 15 yards for the extracurricular punch to the head. He's lucky he didn't get ejected.
Horns up: Nobody swung a crutch. At least one UT player this week wondered aloud how the now-infamous Miami-Florida International brawl could have even happened. "Maybe guys should remember everything you do is on camera," defensive tackle Derek Lokey said. "And you've got your name on the back of your jersey."
Horns down: O-line DL. Would any healthy UT offensive linemen please stand up? On second thought, sit down before you hurt yourself. Guard Cedric Dockery is out for the year with a knee injury, now tackle Tony Hills is reportedly walking around in an ankle boot. Not great timing, with UT's most losable remaining game coming up this week.