Longhorns feel comfortable in return trip to Pasadena

Been here, done that.

The Texas Longhorns, 38-37 winners over Michigan in the Rose Bowl game in January, are coming back for an encore. And they say they won’t be awed by the hoopla surrounding their return, even if their much-anticipated showdown Jan. 4 against top-ranked USC is for the national championship.

“Our team will not be intimidated by the Rose Bowl,” Coach Mack Brown said last week. “We just left. We’re staying at the same hotel, we’re practicing at the same field. We know how long it takes to get to the stadium.”

The Longhorns arrive today, the coaching staff via a charter flight from Austin, Texas, and the players from points far afield after scattering for a five-day Christmas break. They’ll practice Thursday for the first time since Dec. 21.

And up until kickoff, which is three days and three hours later than usual, the second-ranked Longhorns might experience deja vu.

As Rose Bowl veterans, they’ll run into some familiar faces.

As was the case a year ago, they’ll visit Disneyland. They’ll eat at Lawry’s, bowl at Lucky Strike in Hollywood. They’ll meet the media in Beverly Hills, bunk down in Century City, practice (closed to the public) at the Home Depot Center.

The familiarity, they say, can’t help but benefit them as they try to bring Texas its first national championship since 1970.

“It will be really big for us to know the ropes,” tight end David Thomas said. “We know the practice facilities and we know what’s going on because we’ve been there. I think that will be big for us in that we can go there ... without being too wide-eyed and not see it as a vacation. I think we will go there and get to work.”

Eighty-seven Longhorns from the last Rose Bowl roster are back, among them All-American quarterback Vince Young. The Heisman Trophy runner-up to USC’s Reggie Bush was the 2005 game’s most valuable player after rushing for 192 yards and four touchdowns, passing for 180 yards and one touchdown and driving the Longhorns into position for Dusty Mangum’s game-winning 37-yard field goal as time expired.

“It was a wonderful setting,” Brown said of the Longhorns’ first Rose Bowl appearance. “I called [former USC coach] John Robinson before the game last year and asked him what to expect. He told me that the only thing he wanted me to do was to stand out there before the game, look into those mountains and think about how cool it was. Not many people get to coach or play at the Rose Bowl and now we have an opportunity to do it twice.”

The Longhorns won’t need guide books this time.

“It’s good that we know what California’s like,” defensive tackle Rodrique Wright said. “We know exactly where the Rose Bowl is, so it’s not new to us. The biggest deal is going to be the hype and the anticipation....

“We know the atmosphere. We know the sites and everything. We’re not going to be overwhelmed by anything.”

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Times staff writer Peter Yoon contributed to this report.