Texas Longhorns (and Bryan Dunn) Win Red River Rivalry!

I feel partially responsible for this. Until 2001, my good friend Bryan Dunn could be classified as a casual fan of Texas Longhorn football.  But I rode him for years, attending most of the games myself and egging him on to be more supportive of our mutual alma mater.

2011: Texas 17, Oklahoma 55 yields “Holy Tulsa Thunder”

So by 2001, he seemed to have come around. He eagerly attended my Big XII Championship game watching party, a game in which the favored Texas Longhorns should have dispatched the overmatched Colorado Buffaloes en route to a likely national title appearance.

What transpired instead was one of the more gut-wrenching losses in modern Longhorn history. Chris Simms fumbled and threw completions to the other team until an injury sidelined him. Then Major Applewhite brought us to the precipice of victory, only to have our hopes brutally shattered and our hearts mercilessly broken. Colorado prevailed 39-37 and Texas travelled to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl.

As Bryan left my home that day, he uttered something along the lines of:

Wiley, I hate you because you made me care.

A decade later, Bryan still proudly carried the Longhorn torch. Fueled no doubt by Vince Young’s ’05 championship campaign and Texas’ ’09 appearance in the BCS title game versus Alabama, Bryan made a bold wager with a fellow singer/songwriter, the Oklahoma-bred Beau Jennings.

The wager went thusly: the performer whose alma mater lost the Texas-Oklahoma “Red River Rivalry” would have to perform a song by the other and post a video of said cover on YouTube.

2012: Texas 21, Oklahoma 63 yields “Girl From Oklahoma”

Well, if you follow college football at all you already know that Bryan has been forced to brush up on his Beau Jennings lyrics each of the past two years. Texas was obliterated in 2011 by a score of 55-17. And in 2012 it somehow got worse, with the Sooners cruising to a 63-21 victory.

But this year is different. Texas’ 36-20 victory will yield a video of the talented Beau Jennings performing one of Bryan’s songs, which I will most definitely be publicizing across my social media realm. So congratulations, Texas. And bravo, Bryan. It’s not always fun, happy, or exciting rooting on the Longhorns.  But you’ve carried on–riding the highs of ’05 and ’09, and wallowing in the mire of ’10, ’11, and ’12. Here’s to a better 2013.

Hook ‘Em Horns!