I am excited to announce a weekly series called Nichole and The Cliff: Longhorn Football. If you have been following along on my Facebook for that past few weeks you have followed my roller coaster journey of mainly lows as I have traveled and endured a painful Longhorn football season. I have decided to expound upon my posts and begin a weekly series where I will dive into the pain and anguish that comes with being a Texas fan and the effects it has had on my life.

Since we are already half way through the season I am going to recap the season so far.

September 5th:

The Texas Longhorns headed to South Bend where they would compete against a team that is famous for a thing called “touchdown Jesus” and this kid named Rudy.

Hold your Rudy chants for another time please.

This was also my birthday weekend. I was excited as I drug my group of friends to a sports bar to watch my Texas Longhorns open up the season on a national stage. New season. New team. This season has to be better than last year.

I ordered my greasy food and drink and held back the urge to scream Texas Fight in a room full of people who didn’t understand my passionate behavior.

Fast forward to halftime: This game got ugly fast. So did the look on my face as I stared down the Aggie across the bar who cheered every. single. time. Texas did something stupid. Which, if you watched that game, was about every five seconds.

I couldn’t finish watching the game. It was so extremely painful and Texas had managed to lose on my birthday weekend for the third straight year. The journey to The Cliff had not begun yet, but I was beginning to pack my bags.

Final score: 3 – 38 L

September 12th:

First home game of the season. After the embarrassment of the previous week I was thankful we were playing Rice. I was ready to “steam” roll them and gain back my confidence as a trash talking Texas Longhorn fan.

It was a long and wonderful day of tailgating and stopping by the Texas Exes Alumni Center tailgate where I quickly realized I was the youngest person there.

Finally, it was time to return to DKR. I was ready to cheer, yell, throw things, and clear rows of people. It felt good to be home.

This game did not go like it should’ve. There were some definite improvements offensively. Like the fact that we managed to score points…something that almost didn’t happen the previous week. Defensively it was a nightmare. Giving up 28 points to Rice is just sad… But It was a win. I unpacked my bags and let The Cliff journey return to an after thought… For now.

Final score: 42-28 W

September 19th: 

Our last non conference game of the season was against the now ranked Cal. I really hate this team. Not sure why, but for someone reason the hate was flowing through me that day. After another day of tailgating, I was back in DKR with incredible seats on the 50 yd line.

This game was beyond stressful, but it sure was exciting. We gave up a major lead moments before halftime which was just absurd. Little did I know things would only get worse.

The 3rd quarter was just brutal and it looked like Texas had yet again found a way to lose.

Enter Jerrod Heard–the miracle man.

Minutes left and Jerrod Heard had managed to bring Texas back with 21 points. An incredible run for a touchdown and all we needed was the kicker to make the extra point and this game was headed to overtime.

Enter Nick Rose. (I type his name basically breaking the keys)

He missed the extra point. We lost the game by ONE. POINT.

The bags were packed the journey to the cliff had begun and I was bringing the kicker with me.

Final score: 44-45 L

September 26th:

I am trying to control my anger yet again as I attempt to describe the event that occurred this fateful Saturday. It was the first conference game of the season. Which in my mind meant Texas had a chance to redeem themselves. We were playing the Halloween inspired Oklahoma St. Cowboys and their freaking terrifying mascot Pistol Pete. I mean seriously have you seen this strange and scary thing? I recommend turning the other way if you can.

This game was a battle. Not between Texas and OSU,  but between Texas and the refs.

When I die I will ask Jesus if the refs threw that game because I will still be holding a grudge. Bogus penalties, lead to another Texas defeat. That and a botched punt by our punter.

The punter joined the kicker and I as we continued our search for the cliff.

Final score: 27-30 L

October 3rd: 

Ahhh. What a truly horrific day this was. Because my dedication to Texas is extremely deep, I decided to travel to Fort Worth to watch my Horns play TCU at home with two of my best friends. I truly despise the color purple.

Four minutes. That’s how long it took for TCU to score not one. Not two. But THREE touchdowns.

I left at halftime. I have never left a game early in my life. Especially a game I had traveled all the way to watch.

On top of everything else, some of our players decide to get on Twitter during halftime…You know because they didn’t need to make any halftime adjustments or anything.

Nick Rose missed every field goal he attempted. We scored one touch down with maybe like two minutes left.

The whole entire team joined me on my journey, and the kicker may have been the first to arrive to the cliff.

Final score: 7-50 L

October 11th (The Golden Day): 

After a bad weekend of Texas football followed up by an embarrassing press conference–where players called out their teammates ensuing a Twitter war–and Bevo being diagnosed with cancer meaning he would not make the trip to Dallas, I regained my pride and began my favorite week of the year. Hate week. Hate week is a well-known event amongst the Texas and OU programs where we spend an entire week trash talking and posting our extreme distaste for the other program. And of course reminding the world that no matter what time it was… OU still sucked.

This game was a special game. Taking place at the State Fair of Texas with crowds of people dressed in burnt orange and crimson. The Cotton Bowl divided evenly between the two fan bases on the 50 yd line which makes for one of the coolest sites in college football.

I made the trip to Dallas, wore my “O WHO” shirt with pride, and prepared for the inevitable defeat that I would later attempt to forget by drowning my sorrows with deep-fried anything.

This year was special though because it was the first time my father and I would attend this game together. He and I had been attempting to make this game a reality since I was a little girl, but it just never happened. Finally, our schedules worked and we were prepared to endure a painful four quarters, but hey at least the band would be amazing.

The morning of I dressed in my favorite gameday boots from the University of Texas CO-OP, put on my Texas Exes ring and prayed that I would be able to control my anger during the game.

No matter how much I talked to myself–because yes I do this–I just wasn’t prepared to lose…again. But I tried to enjoy the hours before the game with the little hope that remained way down deep. We visited with OU fans who oddly were nervous about the game. I reassured them they had nothing to worry about and they would get to keep the coveted Golden Hat in that awful state they call home.

After scarfing down some deep-fried heaven and taking 1,000 pictures to commemorate the day, we joined the crowds of screaming fans yelling Texas Fight and Boomer Sooner (can someone please explain to me what a Sooner is?) and made our way into the sacred grounds of the Cotton Bowl.

Because my life is full of hilarious situations, I was not surprised when the ONE OU FAN in our section sat next to me. One of us was going home early and I prayed it would be him and his girlfriend who had made the mistake of buying tickets in the wrong section (oops).

The game started. My heart sank. My palms were sweating. That’s when Marcus Johnson scored a touchdown. Yeah, I type this in shock. Texas scored a touchdown…in the 1st quarter… and they were the first to get points on the board. WAIT WHAT?!

Fast forward to halftime, Texas is leading 14-3. I was having an out-of-body experience.

My dad and I were doing everything in our power to remain calm. Texas still had 2 more quarters to royally screw everything up. And history showed that was most likely going to happen.

The second half was dream. Nick Rose made extra points and field goals, our defense made tackles and had several sacks, the QB made smart plays, and the coaches managed the clock well. It was like I was living a football dream where Texas was going to upset OU just like my senior year.

The final three minutes had me losing my mind. I would like to formally apologize to the very sweet people in front of me who had to deal with me during that game. God will reward you.

The clock struck 0. The scoreboard read 24-17. Texas had won.

My father physically lifted me off the ground in joy and the cheers of OU SUCKS broke out amongst the crowd…well those in burnt orange anyways.

The team lifted Charlie Strong with joy and pride and Coach Strong put that beautiful Golden Hat on his head and pointed to the media to shutdown any belief that he wasn’t the man for the job.

We sang The Eyes of Texas with Texas-sized pride, and with coercing finally made our way out of the stadium to celebrate with Big Tex.

It was a game I will tell my children about one day as I remind them that OU sucks and I will never pay for them to attend that university (or A&M…or Tech..) just like my dad did with me.

The journey to the cliff had come to a slight halt and instead OU rushed to the cliff with full force.

With that much-needed break that we get this week, I can’t help but think that journey will pick back up next Saturday against Kansas St. Who knows..but what I do know is that Texas has the Golden Hat and of course…OU STILL SUCKS.

Final score: 24-17 W

Check back next week as I resume my journey to the cliff as my Texas Longhorns take on the Kansas State Cougars back at DKR.

Hook’Em Horns

Nichole

Follow me on Instagram: nichole_davidson

Follow me on Twitter: @NicholeDavidson