GET THE MESSAGE!!---EYES TO EYES MY FRIENDS

Now, I know Vince (the one on this blog, not the player) stayed the whole game, but when players start to notice the empty stands, ON SENIOR DAY NO LESS, something is wrong. I don't care how much of a blowout it is, and 52-0 at the half is pretty fucking bad, on senior day, when your team is undefeated and headed to the bigXII and possibly national championship, you stay at the game, and you show these guys some love. What I heard about and read today is appalling. Here is an article that is going to appear in the statesman tomorrow, and I hope all longhorn fans read it.

from the Austin American Statesman:
In fact, next year if the fans leave this quickly, they may have to consider renaming the celebration Senior Couple of Hours Give or Take.

Let's face it. Mack Brown's football team was just too good, and Longhorn fans were just too fickle or too bored. As a result, about a third of the crowd of 83,696 seemed to disappear early from Royal-Memorial Stadium.

At this rate, Mack may have to change his slogan. Come early. Wear orange. Be loud. Stay at least until the band marches at halftime.

The Texas head coach won't lose any sleep over a few empty seats in a game his team easily won 66-14. It beats having a team with empty uniforms.

"I guess that's a good problem to have," Brown said. "But when Kansas scored in the first two plays after the half, I thought we may have left, too."

Small lapse, that. You want suspense in Austin, wait for the next anti-KKK rally.

The 31 Longhorn seniors were lucky there was anyone left in the stands at all to serenade them with "The Eyes of Texas." Entire sections were almost vacant after the nation's unbeaten, second-ranked team erupted for 52 first-half points against what we were led to believe was an excellent Kansas defense.

We were led wrong. This game was so lopsided that had it been a boxing match, it would have been a lousy one.

Saturday's blowout was yet another example that Texas is a giant in a league of dwarves. That shouldn't be held against the Longhorns because they've also beaten an 8-2 Ohio State, a 7-3 Colorado, an 8-2 Texas Tech and an Oklahoma team that could go 8-3.

Texas may well be the best team in school history. That it is having to prove it against some of the worst teams in the Big 12's decade-long existence shouldn't detract from the Longhorns' greatness.

It was a shame so few fans remained to soak that up in the final home game. In fairness, we salute those who did stay because they were appropriately loud and enthused and helped the second-team defense thwart the Jayhawks with a late goal-line stand.

"I guess the rowdy fans are the ones that are staying," senior guard Will Allen said.

What should have been a long celebration of a team that I believe is the best in America was slightly subdued. Texas deserved a louder sendoff.

Granted, fans who plunk down their hard-earned 55 bucks can stay as long or short as they wish. Some, we're sure, had valid reasons for leaving early. Cabela's doesn't stay open all night.

"It's pathetic," one Texas school official said of the early departures. "But it's always been that way. People come to party. It's sad, really. And I think everybody's more worried about Rose Bowl tickets than they are the Big 12 championship game in Houston."

Yeah, who in their right mind would give Colorado a chance to knock off a heavily favored Longhorn team in a league championship game played in the state of Texas for a chance to go to the Rose Bowl? Oh, right. Sorry.

In truth, the best team in the nation deserves the best support in the nation unless this is more of a football lukewarm-bed. We're not sure where most of those exiting early were headed for, but we know it wasn't to a Texas basketball game. (Hoops season starts Tuesday. Come early. Be loud. Aw, forget it.)

Does ESPN's "GameDay" really need to be on campus to incite the locals into a frenzy? National sportscasters whisper — some of them louder than others — about how lacking the Longhorn atmosphere is.

Ramonce Taylor was shocked when he emerged from the locker room after intermission and took a gander at the stands.

"I was wondering why at the end of the half everybody was leaving," the Longhorn running back said. "After the half, I saw where one whole section was empty. I thought everybody was supposed to come early, be loud and stay late. Somebody's not getting the message."

Maybe those flocks of fans who left early wanted an early start before the city instituted toll roads. Those who did missed plenty.

They didn't get to see senior Matt Nordgren's first career interception. Wasn't all his fault. Got tipped.

They failed to witness the stirring, first career touchdown by third-string tight end Peter Ullman.

They won't get to tell their grandkids that they were there when senior walk-on Kyle Phillips kicked the first and last extra point of his career.

But as senior cornerback Cedric Griffin pointed out, they could brag about one thing.

"Hey," he said, "they beat the traffic."