Notes From The Nosebleeds and Austin: BBN will be back to Texas

Kentucky’s first SEC road trip to Texas resulted in a 17-point loss to the third-ranked Longhorns. The loss was Kentucky‘s seventh on the 2024 schedule, thus the end of the Wildcats’ eight straight seasons with a bowl bid.

Before we close the book on the game and move forward with the Cutter Boley Experience into the Governor’s Cup, some stories of the fun and impressions of Austin outside of the football game:

Blue got in early.

I was on the 7:00 a.m. on Thursday out of Lexington going through Charlotte, and my flights and many others were full of Kentucky fans eager to take on the Texas experience. BBN set the tone early, wearing UK gear from head to toe, like we do.

Once we touched down, my first stop before checking in was at Banger’s Sausage Garden & Beer House on Rainey Street, where Kentucky fans had already taken up the long family-style tables, plus the first arrivals to a bachelor party from Lexington beside me at the bar.

On my other side, a Canadian man named Tim waited alone for the rest of his group to arrive for a 40th birthday party. More on Tim in a moment.

The live music? Also from Kentucky.

Though we enjoyed Rainey Street, probably more than one should, Austin’s larger entertainment district is the famous 6th Street, so we made sure our party of 15+ spent plenty of time there, too. We went on the hunt for live music on Friday afternoon and piled into the first place we could hear: San Jac Saloon.

Inside, there were several Kentucky fans, as expected. What I didn’t expect was that the live musician on the San Jac stage would also be from Kentucky. During a break, Devin Hale, a singer/songwriter from Ashland, told us he booked the show and drove to Texas to watch the Cats.

Overall, 6th Street was very welcoming to Kentucky fans the entire weekend. A few places even flew the Kentucky flag to welcome Big Blue Nation to Austin.

Bars in Austin, TX welcoming us Kentucky fans! #BBN #kentuckywildcats @KySportsRadio pic.twitter.com/5hsIH1KZBv

— Justin Brown (@bigbluefan95) November 21, 2024

Friday night’s basketball game-watch party was a highlight of the trip.

You couldn’t fit another Kentucky fan into Lavaca Street Bar, which streamed the Kentucky-Jackson State basketball game on all of its TVs on Friday night. (Again, great hosts in Austin.) Lavaca Street had three separate areas filled with roars for each 3-pointer back home in Lexington. Everyone was so excited about the basketball on TV and the hope for an upset on Saturday. Many of us talked ourselves into it before we left.

It was a star-studded event, too. Actor Josh Hopkins, a lifelong Kentucky fan, had a large party in the back. Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, another die-hard UK fan, also joined the fun and energetic environment. Nick Roush even wore his blue cowboy hat for it.

I did not eat any Texas BBQ.

In hindsight, I probably messed up on that one.

Tailgating was fun, but different.

There was a line down the block to get into Scholz Garten, a popular spot that Kentucky fans took over near the stadium, but not much traditional tailgating like we see around the SEC. The pop-up tents and tables with big food spreads and other games on TV were few and far between and mostly set up through professional companies rather than pulled out of the back of a truck as Kentucky fans do in Lexington. Those existed in some areas, but much of the pregame fun was around Scholz Garten, the Bevo Boulevard street fair, or the Longhorn City Limits concert stage. With so many people, the pregame scene outside the stadium is an event in itself. So many people.

SEC pic.twitter.com/MnqjVHn752

— Adam Luckett (@AdamLuckettKSR) November 23, 2024

Everything is bigger in Texas.

DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium is massive, with an official attendance for the Kentucky game announced at 102,811. That number should be at least eight people higher because I had all eight of my group’s tickets on my phone, and nobody scanned us in. My man at the gate must’ve been having one of those days because he waved all of us in without a care when his scanner didn’t work.

Once inside, we took escalator after escalator after escalator to get to the upper level, then a long climb up a mountain to join other Kentucky fans at the top of the stadium. The players looked like ants and the field miles away. Still, it was crazy to see a place of that size from that perspective.

Texas puts on a good show, too. The band is one of the biggest and best in the country. The 5,700-square-foot video board surrounded by suites is another sight to behold. Even in a 100-year-old stadium, Texas knows how to host a football game. It felt more like a pro game in some ways, being in a big city.

What are the odds?

Let’s go back to Tim from Canada from Thursday lunch at Banger’s. He asked if we had any suggestions for things to do in Austin, so naturally, we told Tim to consider taking in the Kentucky-Texas game on Saturday. We wished each other well in our Austin adventures and went our separate ways.

Tim and the guys decided to take in the game on Saturday. I know this because their group walked up the steps of Section 108 late in the first quarter and sat directly in front of our group. We were in row 40, they were in row 39, with the exact seat numbers in a stadium of at least 102,819 people. That’s a crazy coincidence, and it’s a little messed up that they had better seats when we suggested it to him in the first place.

Austin is one that BBN will do again and again.

From the game atmosphere to the entertainment scene and all of the hospitality around town, Austin was an all-around great experience. I talked to several fans throughout the weekend, and they hoped for more Austin trips in the future. BBN will continue to take over 6th Street and all of the BBQ joints when given the opportunity, like in February for the first basketball trip. Because even in defeat on the football field, Kentucky fans’ first SEC road trip to Austin was a lot of fun away from the loss. Thanks for having us, Texas.