Revered Texas Football Coach Darrell K Royal passed away

**synapticwave** · 11-07-2012, 09:37 AM

For anyone who follows Longhorn football, this is a sad day, and they will almost certainly do a big memorial to him at the game Saturday. He was a great coach, and a good person and all the respect in the world to him for what he in the Austin community and state of Texas.

As a cyclone fan, I wonder if this could impact the game in any way. It could help ISU, if it's a distraction to the Texas staff/players throughout the week. Or, it could hurt us if they use it motivationally. IMO it probably won't impact the game too much, but just thought I'd see if anyone else had thoughts on this.

**VeloClone** · 11-07-2012, 09:43 AM

While it could have a small effect I just don't see it inspiring the Tejas players that much. None of them ever saw a Royal team play and even some of their parents never saw a Royal team play.

**clone2011** · 11-07-2012, 09:45 AM

Sad. Learned today via Twitter that he was a star for Oklahoma as a multi-purpose player, and also that he was a fairly regular figure at UT football practices.

I would imagine it will affect Texas players the same way it would affect ISU players if Johnny Majors passed mid-season. Majors has been to a couple ISU practices a year for quite a few years now and current players definitely know and respect him. No doubt it's the same down there.

**synapticwave** · 11-07-2012, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by VeloClone

While it could have a small effect I just don't see it inspiring the Tejas players that much. None of them ever saw a Royal team play and even some of their parents never saw a Royal team play.

Yeah, good point; I was more thinking about the the coaching staff when I posted this because I'm pretty sure Mack Brown is really close to the Royal family, so I would think he'll be distracted the rest of this week, but I'm not sure how much that really matters to the team's preparation.

**Senolcyc** · 11-07-2012, 10:03 AM

Bad timing for Iowa State. It's like playing Notre Dame three days after the pope dies. He was the last person before Vince Young to win a national championship for Texas. They should name their stadium after him or something.

Originally Posted by synapticwave

For anyone who follows Longhorn football, this is a sad day, and they will almost certainly do a big memorial to him at the game Saturday. He was a great coach, and a good person and all the respect in the world to him for what he in the Austin community and state of Texas.

As a cyclone fan, I wonder if this could impact the game in any way. It could help ISU, if it's a distraction to the Texas staff/players throughout the week. Or, it could hurt us if they use it motivationally. IMO it probably won't impact the game too much, but just thought I'd see if anyone else had thoughts on this.

**VeloClone** · 11-07-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Senolcyc

It's like playing Notre Dame three days after the pope dies.

I have often wondered what percentage of ND football and men's basketball players are Catholic.

**AustinCy** · 11-07-2012, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Senolcyc

Bad timing for Iowa State. It's like playing Notre Dame three days after the pope dies. He was the last person before Vince Young to win a national championship for Texas. They should name their stadium after him or something.

Bad Timing has been Iowa State's middle name for years so what's new ...

It won't affect the players. Those kids were mostly still in grade school when DKR used to show up at practices in Mack's earlier years. Will it affect Mack since DeLoss Dodd's has openly admittedly DKR is the main reason for Brown's hire back in '97? Nah, Mack and his coaches will all be business come Sat.

But will it affect the sold-out crowd of 102K fans (less the 1300 or so of us ISU folks in Section 32 and scattered about) ... ABSOLUTELY. I expect an excessively boisterous burnt orange crowd surrounding us and in all the UT games I have been to Mack's FB squad always seems to feed better off that crowd's loudness frankly better than CPR's squad has at JTF.

**NickTheGreat** · 11-07-2012, 12:20 PM

This is further down the list of things I'm worried about against Texas.

**pulse** · 11-07-2012, 12:26 PM

Seriously. Lets not over analyze this. (wait thats what we do). This will have zero effect on anything related to the game being played.

**UNIGuy4Cy** · 11-07-2012, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by pulse

Seriously. Lets not over analyze this. (wait thats what we do). This will have zero effect on anything related to the game being played.

But they named the stadium after him

**UNIGuy4Cy** · 11-07-2012, 01:24 PM

Mack Brown ‏@UT_MackBrown Today we mourn the loss & Sat we celebrate. We'll wear a DKR decal on our helmet & we'll honor coach by lining up in wishbone to start game

**zwclones51** · 11-07-2012, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by pulse

Seriously. Lets not over analyze this. (wait thats what we do). This will have zero effect on anything related to the game being played.

It's gonna be like OSU. We only beat them because of the plane crash obviously.

**ISUFB** · 11-07-2012, 01:50 PM

That's a pretty cool thing to do of Mack. Hope they don't score on the first play!

**Erik4Cy** · 11-07-2012, 02:38 PM

If Texas scores or makes a huge play on their first play out of the wishbone...I'd be very angry. Knowing us we'll still lineup with DB's 10-15 yards off against the wishbone.

**AustinCy** · 11-07-2012, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by UNIGuy4Cy

But they named the stadium after him

God I really do start to despise how some naive people living in Iowa think football is not much of a bigger deal down here in Texas than Ames or Iowa City. When you actually make it down here someday to DKR to see a few dozen more soldout Horns games (and more than just when ISU is in town), you'll realize seemingly insignificant things like a coach's passing *do* add to the much higher stakes of Longhorn Football than either Ames' or Iowa City's programs could possibly fathom.

The fan base is much bigger, the donor $$$ is much richer, merchandising revenue is by far the largest in the country - with all of that the Orange Bleeders are all much more demanding on their program than we Cyclones are ... and any sense of a rallying cry, especially a home game, loads on much more gameday pressure than I have ever seen in dozens and dozens of my Jack Trice visits both when I lived in Iowa and when I came back to visit.

Hell, my Facebook feed is already clogging up this morning with UT friends' sympathy posts for DKR and people now talking about somehow coming to an already sold-out game just to see what the memorial might be! As ridiculous as it may seem, it's a bigger deal than you think my Iowa brotheren ...