As Houston prepares for the Texas Longhorns to win their first Big 12 Football Championship tomorrow at Reliant Stadium, I have detected an unusual reserve among the Longhorn supporters. It’s a bit hard to describe, but it’s definitely noticeable — sort of like UT fans are telling each other “let’s not get too excited just yet; there may still be a train wreck looming out there” as the Longhorns march on to to their widely-anticipated Rose Bowl game against USC for the BCS National Championship.
A friend who is a grizzled veteran of the college football wars described such uncharacteristic lack of confidence in the following manner: “The Horns have not really been a truly elite team in college football for over a generation now, since the strong teams of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Thus, among current college football fans, the Longhorn program is sort of like the Roman Empire — very good a long, long time ago.”

My friend has a point. After legendary coach Darrell Royal retired in 1975 and until this magical season, Longhorn football fans have endured years of relative misery. During that span, programs such as Oklahoma, Nebraska, Miami, Florida State, Florida, USC, LSU, and Alabama have all ascended at various times to become the type of elite college football program that Longhorn faithful believe is UT’s birthright. The following are just a few of the heartbreaks that Longhorn fans have endured the past few decades:

The less-than-Royal-like coaching tenures of Fred Akers, David McWilliams, and John Mackovic;
The failure of Longhorn teams to win national championships despite the exploits of Heisman Trophy running backs Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams;
The Horns’ gut-wrenching loss to Georgia in the 1984 Cotton Bowl game that blew a chance for the national championship;
The humiliating early 1990’s Horns loss to a clearly-superior Miami team in the Cotton Bowl;
Current Longhorn coach Mack Brown’s Stoops Curse, which was finally exorcised just a couple of months ago.

However, all of the foregoing disappointments may pale in comparison to the 2001 Big 12 Championship game, in which Horns QB Chris Simms melted down before a national television audience as UT blew the Big 12 Championship and a BCS bowl berth to a Colorado team that the Horns had beaten 41-7 earlier that season. Thus, while the Longhorn faithful prepare to celebrate tomorrow’s expected victory in the Big 12 Championship game over a Colorado team that the Horns beat 42-17 earlier this season, this hilarious Burnt Orange Nation retrospective on that 2001 game should give pause to all Longhorn fans. Although my sense is that the Horns will win easily tomorrow — primarily because Vince Young is no Chris Simms — stranger things than a Colorado upset have occurred during the Longhorns’ long journey back to elite status on the national college football stage.