The most memorable Texas football game that I’ve experienced as a student wasn’t at home.
It was in Birmingham, Alabama, in September 2023, the first away game of the season during my first semester at Texas.
It was also the first game that made me truly believe that maybe, just maybe, Texas fans weren’t lying this time around when they said “Texas is back” — this could be the team.
And I wasn’t even there.
I prepared for the night game by stealing pizza from the dining hall and taking it back to a dorm to sit down with a huge group of friends to watch a game that we weren’t all too optimistic about.
But when the tide rolled in Texas’ favor, the energy was electric. Right after sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers’ 39-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, we could hear shouts outside and watched from the window as students poured out into the streets of campus, all marching toward Littlefield Fountain.
Of course, we joined them.
Some jumped in the fountain despite the “no graduation” tradition, and stolen street signs appeared in the crowd as the throng of students became rowdy and chaotic. But no one dared to leave because we all wanted to welcome the team back to Austin as they caught the midnight flight back after metaphorically planting a Longhorn-embellished flag on Nick Saban’s front porch.
Now, two seasons later, Texas football is preparing for the fight of the season before the season has even begun. A matchup between the recently-slated No. 1 team in the country against the defending national champions sets the tone for the season early, and everyone wants to know how exactly Texas is prepared for such a game — especially when it’s on the road.
And during the last week of preseason, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was loud.
It wasn’t the voices of players or coaches creating the cacophony of sound evident to anyone walking within 500 feet of the stadium. It was crowd noise — artificial, noisy and blaring through the speakers and through the heads of players in the midst of their final preseason practices. It’s distracting, it’s annoying and it limits crucial communication.
But for some Texas players, it amplifies focus. It drowns out the voices in their heads and blends all the boos and jeers from the crowd into one deafening, unintelligible roar.
“Once you get over being overwhelmed by the noise, it forces the focus. And inevitably, the way we operate when you’re really focused — it better serves us,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said.
It’s a great replica of what the Longhorns will be experiencing in Ohio Stadium, known simply as “The Shoe.” For Sarkisian, that experience will be his first, and he’s looking forward to it.
“I think it serves us well in preparation for the remainder of the season. You look at some of these other road games that we have to go on,” Sarkisian said. “I really think going to Michigan early in the year helped us and gave us a lot of confidence going to Kyle Field at the end of the year because our players got exposed to so much of what it was like to be on the road in a hostile environment.”
Sarkisian and his team will have to get used to traveling because by the end of the regular season, the Longhorns will be the most traveled team in the Southeastern Conference, with nearly 10,000 miles flown from and back to Austin in total. Texas won’t have a single home game in October. But after starting the season against the Buckeyes on their home turf, the Longhorns will be used to jet lag.
“I love (road environments),” Sarkisian said. “I think it’s cool for college football. I kind of enjoy people telling me how terrible I am and stuff — (it) fuels my fire a little bit, so it should be a great environment.”
There’s nothing like a home-field advantage. But the Longhorns insist there’s nothing like playing on the road, and it’s hard not to be sold on that statement when they haven’t lost a regular-season road game since October 2022.
It’s an opportunity to prove yourself right in the face of those praying for your failure. It’s a chance to look your enemy in the eyes and dominate on their own field — make it yours.
And it’s an opportunity to make a statement.
After senior edge Ethan Burke sat down in front of the cameras during Monday’s media availability, he was asked if he liked playing on the road.
“I do,” Burke said. “I like getting booed. I think it makes it a little fun. Obviously, I love playing at home, but on the road, something lights up.”
Texas knows how to make a statement even away from DKR. Arguably, the harbinger of this era began with the victory over Alabama on that fateful night in September 2023 as I sat on the edge of my creaky, moth-eaten fold-out chair in a friend’s dorm.
Ohio State may have the home-field advantage this week. But Texas loves a road game.
