Texas will take on Texas A&M in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon.
Texas’ College World Series opening woes continue as Notre Dame took game one over the Longhorns 7-3.
The Fighting Irish outplayed Texas in every aspect of the game from the jump. A solo home run in the first inning set the tone for the rest of the ballgame.
The Irish scratched a couple of runs followed by a three-run fifth inning which broke the game open for Notre Dame. They took a commanding 6-1 lead and never looked back.
Pete Hansen was not sharp, allowing six runs on nine hits in just 4.1 innings of work. Tristan Stevens did a good job in relief to keep Texas in the game, but the offense could not muster another comeback victory.
Texas never seemed to threaten the Notre Dame bullpen late. Lefty Jack Finley shut the door retiring the last four Longhorn hitters in order.
The loss sends Texas to the losers bracket for an elimination game against Texas A&M on Sunday afternoon. Lucas Gordon will take the mound as the Horns hope to get back on track in Omaha.
What to expect in Texas’ College World Series opener vs. Notre Dame.
The No. 9 Texas Longhorns will square off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College World Series on Friday night. Both teams took down a higher-ranked team on the road in the super regionals to punch their tickets to Omaha.
Texas’ season looked all but dead in the seventh inning of game two vs. East Carolina. The Longhorns trailed 7-2 before mounting a historic comeback victory prior to dismantling the Pirates in game three.
Notre Dame was snubbed of a top 16 national seeded and proved the tournament committee wrong in a big way. The Irish swept through the regional round before pulling the upset of the year over No. 1 Tennessee in Knoxville.
Both teams enter with tons of experience and postseason familiarity. Texas appeared in the College World Series last season while Notre Dame was one game away.
Here is a look at the probable pitching matchups along with a few players to watch on both sides.
In the latest bowl projections, UT is predicted to play Notre Dame in the Cheez-It Bowl. Not many matchups would draw a bigger crowd in CFB.
Texas’ matchup against Notre Dame in 2016 will always hold a special place in many people’s hearts. Tyrone Swoopes crossing the goalline in double overtime seemed to be the re-birth of the program.
Although quite the opposite happened, seeing two major football powerhouses like Texas and Notre Dame clash was a fun sight to see. No. 4 and No. 5 on all-time wins respectively, not many matchups would draw a bigger crowd.
In Athlon Sports’ latest bowl projections, the Longhorns are predicted to play the Irish in the Cheez-It Bowl. The ACC and Big 12 have tie-ins to the Orlando-based postseason matchup. Oklahoma State and Miami featured in 2020.
Playing on Dec. 29, both teams would consider this a step down from their previous seasons.
Texas has made the Alamo Bowl the past two years, the best non NY6/playoff game a Big 12 team can play in. Getting back to San Antonio is the goal at the minimum.
For Notre Dame, a trip to Orlando after another College Football Playoff appearance would be a step back. The talent is to compete with most programs in the country. Brian Kelly will want to take a step forward, not backward.
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 9-3, dating back to a 1913 matchup in Austin. Texas has one win both at home and in South Bend, plus the 1970 Cotton Bowl that won a national championship under Darrel Royal.
If the matchup becomes true, and Texas pulls out a victory, Joe Tessitore’s famous use of ‘Texas is back folks!” will start to have some meaning again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4fXeywF0d0
Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.
Texas had beaten Arkansas on Dec. 6, 1969, in the “Game of the Century” and had the national championship presented to it by President Richard Nixon. Yet, the Longhorns still faced an encore: They had to defeat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. …
Texas had beaten Arkansas on Dec. 6, 1969, in the “Game of the Century” and had the national championship presented to it by President Richard Nixon. Yet, the Longhorns still faced an encore: They had to defeat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1970, to complete the perfect season.
The stakes were raised in Dallas that New Year’s Day because it was the first time Notre Dame was to play in a bowl game since 1925. The school would not consider postseason play for decades until changing its course with the 1969 season.
Interestingly, the 8-1-1 Irish only were the opponent because Penn State had turned down a bid to play the Longhorns before their win over Arkansas. By a vote of its players in mid-November, second-ranked Penn State (10–0) opted to return to the Orange Bowl, and faced sixth-ranked Missouri (9–1).
Penn State had several black players and wished to avoid Dallas due to segregation issues. At the time, the top-ranked team was defending champion Ohio State, who lost the next week at Michigan. team.
The Irish were ready to pull an upset, scoring the game’s first 10 points. Scott Hempel kicked a field goal in the first quarter and Joe Theismann found Tom Gatewood for a 54-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
Down double digits, Texas rallied. It took the ND kickoff and drove 74 yards with Jim Bertelsen capping the march with a 1-yard run.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, setting the stage for another rally by the Longhorns in the fourth quarter. First, Ted Koy culminated a 77-yard drive with a touchdown run with 10 minutes remaining to give Texas a 14–10 advantage.
Theismann then led the Irish on an 80-yard drive and threw a 24-yard pass to Jim Yoder for a 17–14 lead with 6:52 left.
The great Dan Jenkins wrote for Sports Illustrated about what went into some gutsy calls by Darrell Royal.
There was a great big time out at the Notre Dame 20-yard line when Texas faced fourth down and two to go with only 4:26 remaining. Street went to the sideline to see Royal, and Bob Olson went to his sideline to confer with Parseghian. Meanwhile 73,000 hearts asked for a transplant. Texas was in field-goal range, but what would a tie do? Make Penn State, which would beat Missouri, or USC, which would beat Michigan, the No. 1 team?
Royal stayed with his triple-option offense, an attack that had made Texas the second alltime rushing team in college football during the regular season. Street faked Worster into the midsection, wiggled down the line and pitched to Ted Koy, who got the two yards by an eyelash just as Bob Olson arrived.
The Longhorns found themselves back in a fourth-and-two situation with 2:26 to play. Jenkins eloquently wrote:
The whole stadium was on its feet, and the bands were blaring out a couple of fairly familiar fight songs, while Street and Olson talked to their brains.
Street said, “How ’bout the counter option fake to the short side?”
Royal mulled it over.
Across the way, Parseghian was certain Texas would either run wide or pass. Olson was told to play the run first. It was percentages.
Out on the field now Cotton Speyrer, his back turned to the Notre Dame defense, was signaling the bench. He was dragging his thumb across his chest in the manner of a hitchhiker. The signal to Royal meant that Speyrer’s defender, Clarence Ellis, was playing him tight and to the inside. It meant that Speyrer thought he could get outside on him for a quick pass.
“Left 89 Out,” said Royal.
Street blinked. It was the Arkansas thing all over again, Royal calling a pass in a moment of supreme stress and James wondering, “Coach, are you sure?”
“Watch for the keep first,” said Darrell. “You might be able to fall for two yards. But if you can’t, drill it to Cotton. He says he’s open on the out.”
Street went to the Texas huddle and said, “Awright, suck it up. This might be our last play of the season, so let’s make it a good one…. Everybody get tough….” Then he looked right at Cotton Speyrer and called the play.
Street took the snap, looked at the end coming up fast, stopped and threw. It was low, but Speyrer did his thing and made the catch. And three plays later, with exactly 1:08 on the clock, another urchin, Billy Dale, a 5’10”, 190-pound junior who had replaced Ted Koy, hugged a hand-off from Street and followed a couple of blocks by Worster and Tight End Randy Peschel into the end zone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n99HKbAtNpk
The final was 21-17 and Texas had its 20th win in a row and 500th overall. T
Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Steve Worster (pictured above against Arkanas) led the rushing attack with 155 of the Longhorns’ 331 yards. Speyrer had 70 receiving yards on 4 catches.
“If you really want to start defining my career, one of the things that really sticks out in my mind is when I was the Offensive MVP of the Cotton Bowl in my junior year,” Worster told Texassports.com long ago. “It was a real punishing football game where we just grinded it out. My performance was because of the linemen and the rest of my teammates.
“When I watch film of the game, I just am tickled to death because that was my type of football. It was north and south, not east and west, and three or four yards play after play. It was like Coach Royal said and that’s you line up your best 11 and we’ll line up our best 11. That game really exemplified Texas football at that time.”
Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
A year later, the Irish got even. Legendary coach Ara Parseghian had been priming Notre Dame for a rematch and he got his shot in the 1971 Cotton Bowl.
Led by Heisman Trophy runner-up Theismann at quarterback and a defense spearheaded by end Walt Patulski, who would be the first player selected in the NFL Draft two years later, the Irish began the season 9-0 and accepted a bid to play No. 1 Texas again in the Cotton Bowl. However, it would not be an unbeaten Notre Dame team the Longhorns would face because the Irish lost to USC, 38-28, in a rain-soaked season finale.
That did not dampen the rematch. Texas took a 3-0 lead but Notre Dame erupted for three scores to make it 21-3. The rest of the scoring came before halftime and Notre Dame wound up winning, 24-11. The Longhorns fumbled nine times, five being were recovered by the Irish.
Currently at 9-3, Texas could end up anywhere this bowl season. ESPN projects the Camping World Bowl and the Alamo Bowl for the Longhorns.
Currently sitting at 9-3, which bowl game the Longhorns will make is still up in the air. They could go as high as the Allstate Sugar Bowl or they could end up as low as the Texas Bowl. According to ESPN’s bowl projections, Texas is somewhere in between there.
Here is a look at where ESPN thinks the Longhorns will be bowling:
First, Kyle Bonagura projects Texas to participate in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, FL. Since 2015, it has been a bowl game between Big 12 and ACC teams. If the Longhorns were to play in the Camping World Bowl, it would be the first time they would participate in it. What sticks out is their opponent, Notre Dame. Two of the most historic programs of all time, both schools are in the top 10 in all-time wins in NCAA history.
Playing as recent as 2015 and 2016, the Fighting Irish and the Longhorns have played a total of 12 times, with Notre Dame leading the series 9-3. The latest game in 2016 is the infamous “Texas is back folks!” game when Tyrone Swoopes scored a touchdown to beat the No. 10 ranked Irish in Austin, 50-47.
With Mark Schlabach projecting both Oklahoma and Baylor to get spots in a New Year’s Six Bowl game, that would leave the second-best Big 12 bowl game, the Valero Alamo Bowl, open for the Longhorns. Texas has not played in the Alamo Bowl since doing it in back to back seasons in 2012 and 2013 when they played Oregon State and Oregon respectively. Playing Pac 12 opponents, Schlabach says Texas will face the Trojans of USC.
These two teams have a lot of recent history and if they met, would be playing each other for the third year in a row. The Longhorns lost a heartbreaker on the road in 2017, while they beat the Trojans by 23 at home last season.
As usual when talking about Texas and USC, you have to mention the 2006 Rose Bowl game for the National Championship. Widely considered the greatest college football game of all time, Texas fans will be remembering this game for the rest of their lives.
Even if the Longhorns are not able to make the most prestigious bowl game this season, these matchups could still be some fun ones. Especially when you are playing against historical blue blood programs like Notre Dame and USC.
