No Chill in the Air as Texas Arrives in Cal Territory

Sixth-ranked Texas, which will make its first Rose Bowl appearance, against Michigan on New Year’s Day, arrived at its Century City hotel on Saturday without any fanfare from Longhorn supporters or protests from California fans angry that the Bears were leapfrogged in the bowl championship series standings by Texas.

Instead, the Longhorns got a chance to soak in the pleasant Southern California weather, which was a sharp contrast to the cold they left in Texas.

“It’s just great to be here,” Coach Mack Brown said. “It was 28 degrees when we left Texas.”

The Longhorns, who are playing in their first BCS game and facing the Wolverines for the first time, practiced for seven days in Austin, Texas, before taking a break for the Christmas holiday.

The Texas coaching staff and school administrators traveled by charter plane on Saturday, and the players were responsible for their own travel to Los Angeles with a 10 p.m. deadline.

Starting this morning, the Longhorns will practice the next five days at Home Depot Center and take part in scheduled Rose Bowl events such as a trip to Disney’s California Adventure on Monday and Lawry’s Beef Bowl on Tuesday.

Brown said the Longhorns would enjoy the week but they’ll have to work to get their rhythm back.

“Tomorrow will be our first day back together,” he said. “We’ll start our real work on Monday, and we’ll have a week of physical practices.”

Michigan has been in Southern California since Tuesday, and the Wolverines have already had a few practices at Home Depot Center.

Brown said that despite the Longhorns’ tight practice schedule, they have enough time to get ready for the Rose Bowl.

What concerns him are the little things that normally plague teams in bowl games.

‘The biggest challenges for a coach in a bowl game are the kicking game and turnovers,” Brown said.

“The time off throws off the kicking game and you have to work to get it back, and ballcarriers have a tendency to fumble because they haven’t been hit as much.”