AUSTIN — Current University of Texas seniors have never gotten the chance to celebrate anything worth celebrating. Sure, they’ve driven back to Austin from Dallas with the golden hat in 2015, but that game was simply an asterisk to put next to another losing season.
Texas won the Red River Showdown again in 2018, but there was still the uncertainty surrounding the Longhorns' ability to return to college football relevancy. If there's been one consistency in these seniors' four seasons, it’s been mediocrity.
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UT has had four different starting quarterbacks, two coaching staffs -- and despite a strong 8-3 2018 season -- the class is still just 25-23. Saturday’s Big 12 Championship has the opportunity to change the losing narrative forever and the students know it. They want to be a part of it, and they’re showing up in numbers.
Texas sold out of its 7,500-ticket allotment before they were even able to offer tickets to non-Longhorn Foundation members and non-seniors. The game buzz can be felt all over campus.
Hundreds of fans and students showed up to the Moncrief Complex at 10:30 a.m. Friday to show support for the team as they boarded their busses to Arlington.
Many students are treating this weekend with the same type of excitement and pageantry that they bring to the game at the Texas State Fair in October. There are buses carrying students to Dallas. Spirit groups and fraternities have planned nighttime events and tailgates for the thousands of Horns that made the trip. And if the attendance at the Erwin Center for the Texas basketball game Friday night is any indication, many of the Texas students are already bound for AT&T Stadium.
Students know that when they choose to go to The University of Texas, they are signing up for the football experience.
While ruining Oklahoma’s season twice is probably enough motivation for the students to drive the nearly 200 miles to the game, this game means more. And although it's almost certainly not for the College Football Playoff, it's the chance for Texas students to be champions -- which is something no Texas team has gotten to claim in nine years.