Game 13: Texas 13, Nebraska 12.

The Longhorn Experience hit the road for the Big 12 championship game! Wouldn't you know it, it was a COLD day at Jerry World.
The cold was one thing, but the WIND! Good grief! We had several guys hold on to the canopy until we could get ropes and stakes to tether the thing down.

Fortunately, we had a patio heater to keep us from turning into burnt orange icicles.
It was strange to have a new location for our familiar tailgate. Since this was a smaller, more portable tailgate, we didn't have all of our usual supplies.

That's why, when we needed a way to keep our wind block from gaping, we used my jumper cables to secure it!
It looked a little funny, but it worked! That's what an engineering degree from The University will get you!
While waiting for our game, we watched Cincy-Pitt and Bama-Florida.
We had plenty of chairs, but because of the cold, the heater and the TV, everybody just huddled under the canopy.
We tended to gravitate toward the sunlight, too!
For the meal, Ron smoked 38 pounds of brisket. It was spicy and so, so good! The guys didn't want to have to grill anything there at the tailgate, so their wives brought the food later in the afternoon ready to go.

Yep! Still cold!

Finally, it was time to head to the stadium for our big game. I was feeling pretty awful by this point because I had a bad, bad feeling about this one.
It was exciting to be there! The buzz was unreal.
Our seats were in the club section, so we enjoyed this great view plus a fancy bathroom and really nice concessions.
Right across from us was the broadcasting booth.

And right above us was Don Meredith's name on the Ring of Honor.

We hadn't been there too long when Colt and Co. came out to warm up right below us.


Our friend T is over there on the 20. We did all of our good luck rituals, but he sat over there away from us. Bad luck? Hmmm...

Here come the Horns!

How's that for a bird's eye view of the coin toss?
It was weird to have such a good view of our guys! Unfortunately, we saw a lot of them early on since they had a hard time getting across the 50!

And then there's our D. I can't say enough about these guys who held Nebraska to field goals.

As for the rest of the game? I'm still queasy just thinking about that nastiness. But we won! I'm still waiting for the post-win euphoria to set in, but we won! Really! And here are the pix to prove it:

Enough with the confetti!

Mack Brown gave a classy acceptance speech, but then he ended with "See you in Pasadena!" At that point, I wasn't so sure that would happen!
After the trophy presentation, the Big 12 highlights video and all the other hoopla, FINALLY we got to sing "The Eyes."

WHEW! We've had some ugly wins this season, but "ugly" seems too gentle a word for this game. But now that it's over and the BCS rankings are out, we're #2, undefeated and the underdogs nobody expects to win in Pasadena. Now where have I heard THAT before?