Column: Just Keep Living & push worries away

It’s the eve of The Game we’ve all been waiting for since the Longhorns’ Sugar Bowl win over Georgia on Jan. 1, and possibly since the game’s announcement a few years back.

While Texas has hosted a few games that felt similar to this in hype and stature over the past few years, this one feels very different from those Notre Dame or USC affairs.

The glitz and the glamour will sit at the forefront for this week, as ESPN’s College GameDay goes live at UT from the LBJ Lawn Saturday morning and touts the SEC vs. Big 12 clash of the resurgent titans for all the nation to hear.

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There’s also little doubt the magical environment of Bevo Blvd, Longhorn City Limits, and good ole fashion beer and Titos’ fueled tailgates will last throughout the day. By kickoff, the atmosphere should feel electric. We got a tiny taste of it all last weekend against Louisiana Tech, but LSU will prove a real test and at the end of the day there’s some stuff about my mindset as a fan that I hope will help all of Longhorn Nation, spread across the land, come to the game (in person or while watching a screen) prepared to cheer our hearts out, encourage the squad on the field to their best performance and then leave content at the end of the night — win, or lose.

First… Have Fun.

How many people went to the Sugar Bowl because they were convinced they would see the Longhorns upset a team that missed going to the College Football Playoff by a nose? If you said you were one of them, go you. The vast majority of us went because it represented the first time Texas had played in a better-than-the-Alamo-Bowl bowl game since 2009, and it meant we would get to spend New Year’s Day (and even New Year’s Eve) in New Orleans, enjoying all the food and fun that comes with it.

If Texas won, great. If Texas lost most of us probably would have been somewhat OK with it as long as we put up a decent fight. That’s the mindset I took into the stadium as I entered the the gates close to an hour before kickoff. And I’m glad I got there early because I got to see Bevo’s stampede on Uga (Georgia’s mascot) and the assembled media. I’m just glad no one got hurt. That moment set the tone for the whole rest of the game.

No one on the Texas side had come for some silly photo-op and a New Year’s Day exhibition. We came to see to teams battle and that Uga got the memo too late just made us all the more happier to waylay them.

Afterward we got to march around the streets of NOLA singing “Sweet Caroline” and chanting Texas Fight. All of it was fantastic and fun, and I’ll maintain that we would have likely had a great time regardless of outcome. The point I’m trying to make is that if the fans go into the game loose and just ready to cheer their team through what looks on-paper like very challenging match-up, that jovial spirit will spread like a contagion throughout the stands and into the hearts of the players.

So don’t take yourself too seriously on Saturday and come ready to have a blast. We all remember the DKR atmosphere of last year, and while Chris Del Conte, aka CDC, has already said he has a few more Wizard of Oz tricks up his sleeve, we’re the ones that have to work to make that atmosphere even more spectacular this year.

Secondly — quit worrying about running backs. At an afternoon barbecue last weekend it made me cringe when the first I heard, “well we’ve got to figure out if we’ve got a running back” as the first words out of an Orangeblood’s mouth when asked about their thoughts on the team.

Sure, no one liked that last year’s second-leading rusher Keontay Ingram got injured early in fall camp, but did anyone read the rest of the paragraph that he was “expected to return for the Longhorns’ season opener?” The way pundits talked leading up to the LaTech game you would have thought Ingram would sit the season out and no one else in the backfield had taken a handoff in their life (Ed. note: we’re a little guilty of that as well…). I understand why the fear seems logical, but let’s not let fear cripple us before the first snap of the season. Ingram averaged 7.1 yards on 11 carries. Having now seen Ingram’s performance in the first game of the season, with that average of 7.1 yards per carry, we can all take a sigh of relief. The ankle-breaker still knows how to break ankles with his direction changes, speed and patience. Freshman position-switcher Roschon Johnson is no slouch and he’ll likely rush for some big gains, too. Let’s just cool it on the running back-less talk.

Finally — whatever happens, let’s all stay til the end, sing “The Eyes of Texas” with the team and keep our heads held high.

We’re playing the No. 6 team in the country this week and even if we lose, the Burnt Orange sky’s not going to fall into the ocean. There’s a minimum of 10 more games to play and each of them will come with their own distinct challenges and excitement. Coach Tom Herman has talked early and often about the cultural shift on this team. Let’s have a cultural shift as a fan base and agree that the days of doom-and-gloom have come to pass.

It’s past 2 a.m. on Thursday morning when I’m pinning this note and I can’t begin to tell you how pumped I am for this game on Saturday. The Burnt-Orange tide appears to be shifting, let’s all enjoy the rise.

In the words of our Master of Culture — Matthew McConaughey — J.K.L. Just. Keep. Living.

Beat LSU!

Hook’em!

James Schleicher
Publisher

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