Texas Longhorns fans love a good road trip. Over the years, Longhorn Nation has packed its burnt orange best and sky-high ambition and headed to the airport.
If social media posts are any indication, multiple airplanes are packed to the gills Thursday with Texas fans headed to Detroit for Saturday’s game at No. 10 Michigan. The school received 4,000 tickets as part of its visitors allotment, athletic director Chris Del Conte said. Good luck getting one now.
Road tripping with your favorite football team can be awesome.
Texas fans had a tremendous turnout for the 2015 season opener at Notre Dame. Longhorns fans packed “L” in Chicago and rode out to Wrigley Field for a Cubs day game on Friday. You’ve never heard “The Eyes of Texas” belted out quite like that until you hear it from the left field bleachers. Weather was perfect. The game, not so much.
Texas fans headed west in 2016 for a trip to the Bay Area as UT faced Cal. Final score? Gulp. The 2017 trip to Los Angeles was better — at least the Horns played better, anyway — against USC. The 2021 trip to Arkansas, yeah, let’s skip that one. Ooof.
Nothing like waiting in the drive-thru line at McDonald’s just after midnight in Fayetteville, Ark., when it’s the only place still open.
But Texas fans weren’t going to miss last year’s trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for an epic showdown against No. 3 Alabama and legendary coach Nick Saban. The Horns came alive that night in a 34-24 win, and fans crowded around the field to sing “The Eyes” something fierce.
It was easily the Longhorns’ most successful non-conference road trip of the last decade-plus.
Saturday has the potential to come in second. A full house of 107,000 or more is expected in the Big House, also known as Michigan Stadium. It’s expected to be the biggest live crowd Texas has ever played in front of in school history.
Related: Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt impressed with the Texas Longhorns heading into matchup against Michigan Wolverines
No sense in waiting until the last minute, then. Flights to Detroit have been sold out for weeks. Hotels around the Ann Arbor area, about 45 minutes from Detroit, are out of sight while hotel prices in Detroit are reasonable.
Those who make it to the Big House may be in for a treat, if Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s confidence is any guide. Texas is a 6.5-point favorite against the defending national champions on their own field.
“People can generate hate in a lot of different ways,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday. “And so for me, now I’ve learned to relish those opportunities. There's something that I kind of relish being the villain. I kind of like going in there thinking, man, there’s 100 versus 120,000 and we’re the villain, and it’s okay being the villain.
“And how do we create that, you know, that deafening silence, and how do we go about that,” Sarkisian added. “And that comes about by our style of play, that comes about by our execution, that comes about by sticking together, playing as one.”
Just be safe coming back to Austin.
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