Longhorn football

Longhorns show promise in opening win

First games are educational (unless you happen to be the Alabama Crimson Tide) which is why most college football teams try to play, shall we say, lightweights before facing off against their conference foes. Listen to Head Coach Mack Brown: "Opening games are hard. They scare you to death."

The Texas Longhorns showed flashes of what they can be this season and those flashes should get fans pretty excited. The Texas Longhorn football team is just fine thank you very much. Yes, they started a little slow, and yes we hope that will be a first game jitters kind of thing and not a perpetual problem as we've seen in seasons past. But the Longhorns have a defense to be envied and feared, and they have one of the nation's best running attacks that is only getting better. Finally, they have a quarterback who at the very least knows enough to protect the football, not make stupid mistakes and let the horses behind him run out of the stable at full gallop.

The Wyoming Cowboys may not challenge the AP rankings, but nor are they lightweights. They're picked to win their Mountain West conference and they have a star sophomore quarterback in Brett Smith. So let's take a look at some of the insight learned by coaches and fans.

The Defense

Texas defense started slow, but at times they dominated. Two gorgeous interceptions, the first by Kenny Vaccarro just looked pro. Vaccarro came underneath a deep route, jumped about a mile high and pulled down the Smith pass setting up Texas second TD. The second, by Carringtom Byndom was set up by Vaccarro's biltz pressure. It was a great test of the defensive backfield which gave up 276 yards to Smith.

Wyoming relies on the pass, Texas held them to just 69 yards rushing. Still, wouldn't it be nice to just once not see Texas get burned with a 80 yard pass? It was actually 82 yards off a flare from Smith to Herron who outran everyone on the field. Still, this secondary is the strength of the defense and free safety Kenny Vaccarro should get Longhorn Nation's heart pounding as he played lights out disrupting Smith on the blitz, making an interception and five tackles.

Texas highly touted defensive ends did not dissappoint either. Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor had 11 tackles between them and Okafor registered his first sack.

It took a scare to bring out the best in the defense. That 82-yard touchdown pass? It put Wyoming in the lead at the end of the first quarter, 9-7. Wyoming tallied 178 yards of offense in the first quarter, the Texas defense held the Cowboys to 167 yards the rest of the game. That all adds up to an outstanding performance against a decent Wyoming football team.

The Offense

Again a slow start, although the offense woke up much faster than the defense. After three plays and out to start the game and a Wyoming field goal, the offense woke up and drove 68 yards down the field. Joe Bergeron ended the drive pounding the ball over the goal line from a yard out.

As expected Texas punished the Wyoming defense with 280 yards rushing. Both Bergeron and Malcolm Brown ran for over 100 yards. Texas ran the ball almost 50 times. Johnathan Gray made his freshman debut to cheers. Gray is not the man this year... yet. But he will see more action. "We feel like that we can run the ball well right now, and should be able to run it against anybody. We're really confident with our running game, but they came in trying to stop the run because they gave up so many rushing yards last year," explained Brown.

Quarterback David Ash did what was expected, in other words, he didn't mess anything up. Ash completed 75 percent of his passes, but the longest went for only 16 yards. Ash did badly under throw a couple of long passes, one in particular to Mike Davis after Davis had managed to break free. "We need to hit on some of those deep passes," said Brown. 'We had pass interference on one of them. We had a couple other deep balls that were just missed. I've seen us complete them in practice. We've got to make that transition to the game."

Jaxon Shipley was his normal spectacular self making a 19 yeard diving catch for the touchdown that put Texas in the lead for good.

Special Teams

Two missed field goals, one from 46 yards out and one from 44. Freshman Nick Jacobs caught a case of the yips, but he made all his PATs and kicked one good from 31 yards. Jacobs will be fine. He was playing because Penn State transfer Anthony Fera is hurt.

The stars of special teams might be freshman Alex King who averaged over 53 yards per punt and Nick Rose, a kickoff specialist who regularly put the ball at the Wyoming goal line. It's been a few years sine the Horns could reliably kick the ball into the end zone.

Mack Brown likes what he saw. "I feel good. I wanted to get mad some. You give up an 80-yard run after the catch, and we can fix that. Those are things that we can fix. It's good that the offense had success tonight throwing and running because that will boost their confidence a little bit going into next week."

Next week New Mexico comes into town. That game will be a chance for Texas to get their younger players some experience as it's unlikely the starters will be in long.Yeah, New Mexico is not very good.

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Hotty Toddy!

Tailgating the southern way: A taste of game day at The Grove at Ole Miss

Standard Ole Miss Grove attire
A sample spread
Meredith Rainey
Hotty Toddy!
Meredith Rainey
It’s game time!
Meredith Rainey
Welcome to The Grove!
Meredith Rainey
Fans enter Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
Meredith Rainey
The square in Oxford
Meredith Rainey

Oxford Mississippi’s official population is just over 19,000. But come Saturdays in the fall, what some might affectionately call a sleepy college town wakes up with a buzz of excitement and activity as the population explodes to more than triple, with college football fans eager to cheer on their Ole Miss Rebels. They prepare to do that in one of the most inviting and unique tailgating spots in the country.

“The Grove is unlike any other place on earth, especially [during] big games such as Texas vs. Ole Miss. The feeling and experience are indescribable,” Ole Miss senior Margaret Anderson says. The Grove is a place Longhorns fans have been excited to go since the announcement UT would face Ole Miss in a series of games starting in 2012. The first of those games happens this Saturday in Oxford.

The closer you get to Ole Miss, the greener the grass and the taller the trees. The campus of The University of Mississippi, which welcomed its first class in 1848, has been ranked by many publications as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country.

Its roads and walkways are lined with vibrant oak, elm, magnolia and pine trees. Its old stone and brick buildings are accented with classic details quintessential of a traditional southern university. And on Saturdays every fall, the largest green space on campus, known as The Grove, is dotted with hundreds of red, white and blue tents and young adults dressed to the nines, ready for a good time.

“It's the biggest and most well dressed party in the USA that happens six times a year,” Ole Miss junior and Attorney General of the Student Body Matthew Kiefer says.

Inside the 10-acre Grove, you’ll be greeted by unparalleled southern hospitality and enjoy some of the best food and fixin's you'll find at any college tailgating. And don't worry if you don't know anyone. If you're friendly, you will have dozens of people calling you by your first name in no time and you will be satisfied with a tummy full of homemade pimento cheese, fried chicken, deviled eggs and decadent finger sandwiches.

“There's a sense of hospitality that you can only experience when walking through the brick arch of the Walk of Champions. We welcome and offer shelter and refreshments to both opponent and friend and win or lose, there's always a party,” explains Ole Miss Student Body Vice President Emmalee Rainey.

Besides the great food and the lush setting, something else that makes The Grove unique is the dress code. While you can wear whatever you want, you will find students dressed in their Sunday best or something you might see at a cocktail party. You'll see girls in dressy sun dresses or knee length evening gowns and heels, boys in khakis and long-sleeved button downs, ties and perhaps seersucker blazers. The formal game day dress adds to the excitement, giving it a sense of being even more of a special occasion than it already is.

Matthew Kiefer describes the uniqueness of The Grove, “It’s the feeling of 30,000 people walking around in their Easter best, where a ‘hello’ and a ‘y'all’ can make acquaintances into friends, and friends into family.”

The tents are also more formal than what you might see in the parking lots around Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium on game day. Many have chandeliers, living room lamps, flower arrangements and sterling silver platters and cutlery, making it feel more like a backyard party than tailgating. In fact, to call it tailgating is both inadequate and inaccurate, as vehicles aren’t allowed in The Grove.

Between the delicious food and friendly faces, you can spend hours just wandering between the tents catching up with old friends, making new ones and sharing your thoughts on what you think might be in store for the Ole Miss Rebels when that first whistle blows.

University of Texas Longhorns fans were able to scoop up about four thousand tickets to this Saturday’s game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, but thousands more UT fans are expected to stampede into the Grove to get a taste of a different type of tailgating. Regardless of who wins, Longhorns fans will undoubtedly be charmed by the small Mississippi city home to one of the most beautiful college campuses and best tailgating in the country. Hotty Toddy!

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In the interest of full disclosure, Emmalee Rainey who is quoted in this article is my stepdaughter.

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