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My top ESPN College GameDay moments featuring Texas football

My top ESPN College GameDay moments featuring Texas football

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  • Lee Corso will make his 419th headgear prediction when Texas plays Georgia on Saturday.
  • Texas has appeared on GameDay 24 times. This will be Austin’s tenth time hosting.

A big game brings big games.

ESPN’s College GameDay has visited our fair city many times, but this latest visit is different because the Texas Longhorns are the best team in college football according to the major polls.

Defending your home turf is one thing, but being the front runner by mid-season is quite another, especially with so many eyes watching.

The Horns host the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs — winners of two of the last three national championships — and unlike the previous meeting (Texas’ 28-21 win in the 2019 Sugar Bowl), there’s a lot more on the line in the program’s 10th appearance the game game day.

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Future SEC supremacy could be at stake, especially if the Horns hand the Bulldogs a second conference loss. Before kickoff at 6:30 a.m., we get a few doses of pregame hype thanks to GameDay stars Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and the irrepressible 89-year-old Lee Corso, who is 5-0 on the season Mascot Headwear Predictions. The Horns are the 3½-point favorite and Coach Corso has a 9-6 record in his last 15 games against Texas.

It will be Texas’ 24th GameDay appearance.

Here are my top 5:

No. 2 Texas 41, No. 1 USC 38

Date: January 5, 2006

Location: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California

Certainly the best sporting event I have ever covered.

Texas coach Mack Brown spent most of the week answering questions from the national media about how on earth his Horns could stay in the same zip code as the Trojans, two-time defending champions. A day before the game, Mack thanked the national media — ESPN ran a daily SportsCenter feature comparing the 2005 Trojans to the best college teams of all time — for motivation.

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“I don’t even have to give a speech to my team before the game.”

The Horns, a 7½-point underdog, were ready to make history, and they did. Coincidentally, I was responsible for collecting predictions from media and celebrities to post on game day. I picked Horns to win 41-37, missing perfection by a point.

Corso selection: Texas

No. 18 Texas 24, No. 3 Nebraska 20

Date: October 23, 1999

Location: Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin

I was hired at the Statesman two weeks earlier to cover high school sports, and editor David Humphrey got me permission to help the veteran writers on a Top 25 matchup. The Huskers were on the rise at that point with three national titles this decade, but the Horns had their number, forcing three turnovers en route to a major upset despite recording just 275 yards of total offense. It was Texas’ fourth consecutive win over the Huskers and came in front of a then-record Royal Memorial Stadium crowd of 84,082.

Corso selection: Texas

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No. 2 Texas 25, No. 4 Ohio State 22

Date: September 10, 2005

Location: Ohio Stadium in Columbus

Vince Young to Lima’s Sweed at money time. It was the biggest touchdown pass of Young’s career and the reason we remember Limas. The last-minute heroics confirmed what we already knew: Young was the man and the Horns were on a collision course with USC for all the marbles.

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On game day, the Statesman travel team of five writers decided to leave the hotel early to avoid stadium traffic to the Horseshoe, and we still got stuck. It was the second roughest street environment I’ve ever experienced, second only to the 2004 Arkansas fan who called us all sorts of names as we made the long walk to the press box from the parking lot. “Why are they yelling at us?” asked my then sports editor, John Bridges. “You know we’re not from here, brother,” I replied. “Go on.”

Corso selection: Ohio State

No. 5 Texas 45, No. 1 Oklahoma 35

Date: October 11, 2008

Location: Cotton Bowl in Dallas

There’s no atmosphere like the Texas State Fair, which serves as the home of college football’s greatest rivalry. The only thing we enjoyed more than Fletcher’s Corny Dogs after the game was Jordan Shipley’s epic 96-yard touchdown that left the Horns trailing 14-3. It turned the game around and gave them their first win over a national No. 1 team since beating USC for the national title in 2005.

Corso selection: Oklahoma

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No. 6 LSU 45, No. 9 Texas 38

Date: September 7, 2019

Location: DKR in Austin.

GameDay took place that morning on the LBJ Library lawn and the team wondered if the Horns could deliver a season after a breakthrough win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Texas and QB Sam Ehlinger, who threw for 401 yards and four touchdowns, were great but were outclassed by an ultra-talented LSU squad that featured five future NFL first-round picks. Eventual top pick Joe Burrow threw for 471 yards and four touchdown passes, including a 61-yarder to Justin Jefferson with 2 minutes, 27 seconds left, to fend off Texas’ surprise attack. We didn’t know it at the time, but Texas had nearly eliminated the team that would win the national championship.

Corso selection: LSU