ITYT: Been there, done that, Brian Robison and Drew Kelson discuss playing in the RRS

On Tuesday morning, Texas great Brian Robison joined Inside Texas Football mainstays Drew Kelson, Paul Wadlington, and Texas Homer to discuss his experience playing in the Red River Shootout.

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Robison and Kelson were teammates who combined to make one of the key plays of the magical 2005 season — Kelson’s strip of Ohio State quarterback Justin Zwick and Robison’s recovery. The play clinched UT’s monster road win and helped propel the Horns to the National Championship.

Brian Robison on Cotton Bowl atmosphere

“I know people say it all the time that are a part of the rivalry but it is one of the best if not the best rivalry in the country. When you enter a stadium and all you’re hearing is boos and cuss words and this and that and people just mocking you and then all of a sudden you get halfway to the field and now it’s turned into a home game and everything else. It’s like that throughout the game you’re kind of going back and forth and it’s a mix between crowd noise and silence. It’s something like no other — I’ve actually been to a lot of other rivalry games and it just does not compare.”

Robison on his famous sack of Rhett Bomar

Wadlington notes that Robison was unblocked on the play.

Robison responds:

“You want to know what the crazy thing was, Paul? The crazy thing was, that wasn’t the first, second, or third time that happened in that game. They left me unblocked numerous times and I got to him. I had three or four shots on him in that game where I just teed off on him. That just happened to be the one time where we made him hold on to the ball just a split second longer and that was the nail in the coffin for sure.”

Kelson chimes in:

“He [Robison] is literally the last person on that entire roster you want with a clean shot coming off the edge. From a size, speed, explosion…no.”

Comparisons from the Mack Brown teams to this Sark led team

Drew Kelson:

“One of the main things, and B-Rob could probably, we knew we wanted to win, we knew how to work, and we were a close-knit team. I think now, Sark is intentional about building those things. It felt like we were just naturally and organically that way. We were close, we were hungry, we wanted to win, we were talented, we knew we could win. I think as a fan now looking at Sark’s program, you feel like, yeah they’re having fun, but they feel like they’re strictly business. That’s probably not the case. I feel like for us we had so much fun that year.”

Kelson mentions B-Rob was one of the main guys on the team who kept things light.

Robison:

“I don’t know the locker room dynamic of what Sark and them got going on but I do know from what has been spoken outward by not only Sark but also the players, there’s an attitude around the building. You had a great year, and I compare it to us with the back-to-back Rose Bowls, we had a great year coming off a Rose Bowl win. We were happy about that but we knew where we wanted to get back to. But the whole offseason was building upon our success. With Sark and them, you may get to the College Football Playoff and the whole offseason they’re angry. The whole offseason is about being angry, we’re not good enough, we’re trying to be on top.”

For more, including Robison’s thoughts on the overall talent level of the current team compared to the ’05 squad, give the video a watch:

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