It's been some time since Texas football fans have been able to watch the Longhorns practice. Not since August of 2010, in fact, after head coach Mack Brown closed all practices to the public both in the spring and in the fall. However, that will finally change as the football team enters spring ball with no changes to the coaching staff, the university announced on Thursday.
Fans will be able to watch their 'Horns practice on March 2nd and March 3rd at DKR, with both sessions beginning at 4 pm CST.
Now for the bad news -- the annual Orange-White game will only be televised on the Longhorn Network, but so a trip to Austin might be worthwhile for those interested in catching the 'Horns go at each other on April 1st. The game is set to kick at 2 pm CST.
Spring practice starts in exactly one week.
0 recs | 45 comments
Slightly amused
The @TexasSports account got the dates wrong on those open practices.
TXinDC - February 16, 2012
Practices on LHN?
One of the few. Love you Fios
scott_tiger - February 16, 2012 via iPhone app
The press release
didn’t say anything about the open practices being televised. I would guess not. Even though the ‘Horns don’t usually show too much, no reason to put that on film for other teams to watch, even if wouldn’t be particularly easy given the distribution right now.
Wescott Eberts (GoBR) - February 16, 2012
2,400 Tweeps?
That’s a nice round number.
TXStampede - February 16, 2012
Lost a couple bots, so I'm down again.
Wescott Eberts (GoBR) - February 16, 2012
Are you going?
If so, live-tweet plz?
pleaseplaykindle - February 16, 2012
I'll be there
and I’ll try to tweet until my thumbs fall off.
Wescott Eberts (GoBR) - February 16, 2012
will you be signing autographs? how early should we get there?
MJY6087 - February 16, 2012
Yup.
Only $50 apiece. Fantastic deal, imo.
Wescott Eberts (GoBR) - February 17, 2012
I'd bet a portion of every practice is televised
Even closed practices, as they did throughout the fall.
CMDR - February 17, 2012
Good point
just probably not in their entirety or live.
Wescott Eberts (GoBR) - February 17, 2012
right
In the fall it was individual drills, conditioning, with limited team stuff and no plays/walkthroughs
CMDR - February 17, 2012
I'd put money on other teams being able to
acquire the film if needed. :P
It sucks that it’ll be on LHN, but I think the guys here will help keep us unlucky ones in the know.
BurntOrangeTexans - February 16, 2012
I would really like to see Dodds canned over the handling of LHN
but I graduated from the Abe Lemons School of Public Affairs.
SpiritOfTheFedora - February 16, 2012
the deal brought in 300 million
he has no control over sales negotiations, that is between ESPN and TWC. You do not get fired for building 300mil in revenue….
owenh - February 16, 2012
I agree
But I think we are going to need to start decucting the lost revenue from our “brand” being invisible for a year and counting….I would like to watch every game and i’m not happy. My patience is done with online streaming of games that should be on my tv.
Wrangler86 - February 16, 2012
Extreme
So games switched from pay per view to LHN have made longhorn sports invisible. The last PPV game I paid for never actually showed up on my set. Time Warner on hold music served as Craig Way background.
scott_tiger - February 16, 2012 via iPhone app
Spring Game
I’ve been before and I was pretty dissapointed. I know that I’m an old, tired scrooge, but I really wanted to have fun. It was just so poorly managed and unfriendly that I’m still kind of pissed about it.
I drove up from Houston to take my little neice and nephew to the game. I figured they would enjoy all the kid related activities, etc. and I want to be a good uncle. Well, it sucked. We waited in line to go on the bouncy slide, etc. The line was incredibly long (longer than the women’s restroom line at half-time of the OU game long). When we got to the front of the line, they shut it down. The dude just let the air out of the thing and walked away. I had the twins shoes in my hands and they were wide eyed in shock as it just deflated in front of them. I was truly dumbfounded, and I was actually pissed. But, trying to keep my mind in “Uncle” mode vs. pissed off wanting to deck a punk mode, I managed to switch their attention to something else. It wasn’t easy. None of the concession stands were open. We go to the seats, and the music was some gangster rap stuff that was worse than the punk that drives by my office everday at 4:59 with his ghetto blaster going. The crowd was pretty small, like under 10K if even that much. All lower deck, only from the 25yd lines on either side maybe 30 rows up or so.
Our school has enough money and makes enough off ticket holders like me to make the spring game a real fan appreciation day. And, they threw a crappy party.
I see other spring games on TV and they look fun. I was really disappointed. They should have the involvement of every campus spirit group, all the fraternities, etc…. It was actually pretty lame, and I was trying to check on the recruits in attendance. The lack of student involvement was bizarre and it seemed like a completely unorganized affair.
Wrangler86 - February 16, 2012
I've been twice as a student and it looked like people were having fun, lots of kid stuff etc.
As far as attendence…remember this is the same fanbase that largely shows up 10 minutes late to most games, especially if its a morning game. We are not Alabama, UT just does not pack the stadium for spring games. The variety of options for entertainment is too high around Austin, especially when the game itself doesn’t offer much real excitement unless you are a diehard follower, or a parent trying to give the kids something to do.
owenh - February 16, 2012
We may have more options than Bama, but there isn't any reason we can't get 40K or more to that game.
The Admin. could do a LOT better job and it should be a fan appreciation event. Our students could learn a lesson from the DGB-ZOU fans. They did a good job and who wouldn’t feel welcome and wanted by their quick rally. I’m happy for DGB. He looked like he was at home.
Maybe it is my incredible UT Marketing degree showing (ha-but true), but it doesn’t take much effort or creativitiy to plan a lot of fun events for a Spring Football game. Our game comes off like a cheap afterthought and I’ve seen car dealerships do a better job on any given Saturday.
Where are the students? Why aren’t the fraternities and sororities involved in competitions to make it a school wide event. Hell, the finals of the ‘competition’ could be the half-time in the middle of the field. It could be a lot of fun and who wouldn’t want to get on the field even if it is to be doing something silly.
You get the band doing something fun before hand and during. Invite the service organizations to put on aspects of the kid’s events, they love that charity stuff….etc.
Just because we are a big school doesn’t mean we can’t give it an intimate feel for the players, recruits and their families. The “vibe” was all wrong in my opinion. It was like being in after hours bar (music wise) in the middle of the bright sunny day. It was weird.
Wrangler86 - February 16, 2012
correct - just bad marketing
Basketball football , etc. Special events are always poor efforts by athletics dept. The fact that they are announcing it in a timely manner is surprising
MJY6087 - February 16, 2012
or doing it on Easter Sunday
Wrangler86 - February 17, 2012
That was a truly bad idea!
I don’t know who thought it up, but hopefully it never occurs again.
Saul! - February 20, 2012
I think you can blame roundup for the lower student involvement
Everyone is still recovering
ryanlionrah - February 16, 2012
Now that I was Debbie Downer
I wanted to bring some decent news. The TCU scandal looks a lot smaller than alleged in the drug dealer/player’s affidavit.
Only 5 guys tested positive (no names yet). Only 11 had trace of weed within margin of error (ie, they hadn’t smoked it in the last few days). And none had hard drugs (My money is that they didn’t test for that—no one wants to know that answer, especially Patterson).
So, that leaves 5 guys off the team and we can all guess which 4 are in that group of 5. It also leaves 11 guys with probably internal discipline issues. So, TCU isn’t going to be the new SMU and may have competition for the Fuller Cup, although they have a hell of a lead. Kind of like the old UT recruiting leads.
Wrangler86 - February 16, 2012
How is this good news...?
MJY6087 - February 16, 2012
did you hear that? The sound of Longhorn fans everywhere giggling like kids on XMAS....
football in March. god i love this country. anyway we can start a movement that extends the games by two more and allows preseason games as well. and, more spring practices….
in fact, year round football please. i need that hit man, come on man, just alittle more :^)
hornyaustinite - February 16, 2012
What are you a TCU student?
Hold it together man.
pleaseplaykindle - February 16, 2012
He must be the one fan that LHN
Party at hornyaustinite’s house!!
Wrangler86 - February 16, 2012
highlights
Why don’t we have many highlight films on our players. I see other schools with highlight film for each year of one player. Just wondering if people that have the connections to make them. Would like to show off certain longhorns to my friends ya know.
susuata - February 16, 2012
highlights courtesy of alphahydro
Fozzy 2011 Highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHaLxn04r6A&feature=related
Joe Bergeron Highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPGRJOrD1f0&feature=related
Malcolm Brown Mid-season Highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td6DDCTnfcw&feature=related
More on alpha’s channel.
CMDR - February 17, 2012
I feel like the Horns are being held hostage
I want to pay the ransome money!I have called and E-maileed direct TV a dozen times and you can see what the results are.
The past spring games have been almost a touch football game.Not worth the trip down for the game.Tailgating and seeing friends is why I go.
TCB Orange Dino - February 16, 2012
Quick question
Is the annual Orange-White game free or do you need tickets to go? I’ll be in town for a conference that day and have some time. Thanks guys.
wyolonghorn - February 17, 2012
come on!!
Free? The school trade marked a color. You are lucky they don’t charge for air. It is a cheap ticket though. I want to say like 10 if a remember correctly
codaxx - February 17, 2012 via mobile
Surprised, but it has always been free
Wrangler86 - February 17, 2012
Im pretty sure the game is free.....
Ive been a few times and never been charged. Have no idea what codaxx is talking about
MJY6087 - February 17, 2012
I went last year.
It was definitely free.
mccoy12 - February 17, 2012
Thinking about the QB competition...
…I remember that Karam and Wallace ended up not happening, but was there ever any contact with Scotty Young? He’s leaving TT, and reportedly might be headed for UNT, but he seems like he’d be a decent grayshirt candidate at worst.
burntorangehorn - February 17, 2012
not gonna happen.
We got who we got.
CMDR - February 17, 2012
Sure things are set in stone now, but my question was about whether there was ever a consideration
Obviously there’s no guarantee Young would’ve developed into anything better than even Ash or McCoy, but you’d think an in-state talent who’s looking to transfer to another regional school would have been an option. I’m not second-guessing, though, because there could be any number of reasons coaches wouldn’t look at him, from baseball to disagreement on his talent.
burntorangehorn - February 17, 2012
I think they looked over their options
when Case was considering a transfer. Once the coaches were satisfied that Case wasn’t going anywhere, they stopped looking around.
I don’t think they’ve seriously considered another QB option since that was settled.
CMDR - February 17, 2012
Off topic, but Swoopes in in per OB.
WestTxHornFan - February 17, 2012
Yeah, saw that Ketchup tweeted that
Interesting if true. Wonder if that means RSJ is in as well?
burntorangehorn - February 17, 2012
just a matter of time, I think
WestTxHornFan - February 17, 2012
Yay open practices!
Already told my manager I’ll be sneaking out early for the Friday one. Taking the wife to the Saturday one.
I enjoy the spring game. Fun to just sit back, watch some stress free exhibition football, and see some of the recruits walking around. Saw Ced Reed and Mykelle Thompson at halftime last year.
The Audit Horn - February 17, 2012 via mobile
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