A small school’s brief moment in the sun

I spent my Saturday in a fog — a delirious, jittery, ultimately disappointing fog.

Only college football can create this indescribable mixture of overpowering nostalgia and misguided optimism, especially when your small-potatoes alma mater is hosting one of the sport’s true powerhouses.

When news started to circulate that the Texas Longhorns (yes, Mack Brown’s burnt orange football juggernaut) would be facing the Wyoming Cowboys, I assumed that the game would naturally take place in Austin. There is no financial or competitive incentive for Texas to travel the 1,200 miles to War Memorial Stadium.

Somehow, it happened. Thousands of Longhorn fans descended on Laramie this past week, giving that town a brief moment in the college football spotlight.

A little background: I spent four years in Laramie, Wyo., graduating with my journalism degree in 2004. My first three years on campus, our football team won a grand total of five games, thanks to the abysmal efforts of Vic Koenning.

Laramie is a town of roughly 27,000 people when school is in session (closer to 13,000 during the summer), so there is precious little to do in terms of entertainment. Put it this way — a weekend trip to Wal-Mart was considered a real event. And if you didn’t want to shop at Wal-Mart? Tough luck, because the closest shopping mall was a 45-minute drive away.

Anyone who spends a significant portion of time in a town like Laramie develops what I like to call a “small-town complex.” We feel perpetually neglected. We hardly exist in the minds of our big-city counterparts. People still ask me if I rode a horse to class (answer: of course not. We drove cars, just like anyone else).

If you grew up in a small town, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

When I first moved to Tucson (which isn’t a huge metropolis by any stretch), I was blown away with all of the entertainment options. Not only does this town have high-level Div. 1 athletics, but it also has multiple movie theaters and more than one place to shop!

So, you can only understand what a visit from No. 2-ranked Texas means to Laramie. All of my friends who stuck around the area built up yesterday’s contest as if it were the Super Bowl, Christmas and a UFO sighting all rolled into one.

My old college roommate (now an accountant in the state capital) bought season tickets, just to go to this game alone.

Very few people thought we’d actually beat Texas, mind you, but that hardly mattered. Yeah, the Pokes were 32-point underdogs, and Colt McCoy is one of the best players in Texas’ vaunted history.

But in the build-up to this momentous event, my dear friends have been feeding displaced me all sorts of tidbits to warp my perception of this game. Heck, Texas hasn’t played at 7,200 feet above sea level; how are those boys even supposed to breathe up there? New Wyoming head coach Dave Christiansen (possibly the best coach we’ve had since the great Joe Tiller) was the offensive coordinator at Missouri before moving north; he already knows all of Texas’ offensive schemes!

And Mountain West Conference arch-rival BYU shocked everyone by beating No. 3 Oklahoma last week. Who knows, maybe McCoy would fall on his shoulder wrong and we’d stand a chance here.

And for the first 28 minutes, that optimism was rewarded — and then some.

Wyoming’s defense put together the most inspired performance I can remember. For much of the first half, McCoy looked less like a Heisman candidate and more like a nervous freshman.

In addition, the Cowboys were catching some outstanding breaks on special teams (a mind-boggling failed fake punt inside Texas’ own five, and a spectacular punt block from Luke Ruff, leading to the Pokes’ only touchdown) and had all the momentum in the world.

Of course, Texas finally remembered it was the No. 2-ranked team in the country and quit messing around. Had the Cowboys gotten decent quarterback play, it might’ve been a more competitive game in the second half, but Arizona native Robert Benjamin (16-38, 121 yards) has to be among the most inaccurate quarterbacks in college football. Yeesh.

Oh, well. For a few glorious minutes, confused college football fans across the nation caught a glimpse of the score ticker and saw Wyoming 10, Texas 6. It didn’t last, but boy, was it ever worth it.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747