HOUSTON -- Mall rats, bargain hunters and gift exchangers filled the Galleria, making parking and traffic a big problem.
Inside a ballroom leased by the Westin, the Arkansas Razorbacks' home for the Texas Bowl, hundreds of corporate types as well as the University of Arkansas and Texas football teams sat down for a bowl luncheon that was tasty but about as useful as a Main Street pothole for the handful of media.
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema made some kind opening comments. Charlie Strong did likewise.
Three players from each team took the podium and a moderator asked them some silly questions that won't have anything to do with Monday night's game -- like who's is each team's best dancer -- but the food was good, and after the lunch both head coaches and three players from each team showed up for a news conference in a tiny, cramped room that was inadequate at best.
A few things became obvious from the luncheon and news conference.
Bielema and Strong are friendly. They are on a first-name basis.
This might not be a major bowl, but both are taking it seriously. The only smiles were by Strong when Bielema said something about not always looking forward to meeting with the media, and afterward when they posed for a picture that would only run in a newspaper desperate for artwork.
There was no cutting up or inside jokes. Both know this game can help or hurt recruiting in the state of Texas, and Bielema pointed out that the Hogs are still in hot pursuit of some Texas high school players.
Both have been reminded of the positives of this bowl. It renews an old rivalry -- although if any of the current players were alive the last time these two teams played as conference opponents they were still having their diapers changed -- and the game will be played during a prime TV time slot Monday night.
As if watching college football rivals from 22 years ago will be like watching a Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
That's OK, because there will be a captive audience. If you want to watch football Monday night, it will have be the Razorbacks and Longhorns, because that is the only game on TV.
And at one time it was one of college football's great rivalries. Bielema mentioned that he brought up the 1969 game to some former players, who were quick to point out the years they won too.
He said he got the point about Texas when white-haired women made comments to him about past games.
Bielema did show his competitive edge when he brought up the rodeo that both teams attended Friday night, where the Longhorns won a competition between the teams (although they apparently got several chances at a few events to win it).
That is why three times since the rodeo Bielema has mentioned he hopes to have better officiating during the game. The team that has won the rodeo competition has a 7-1 lead in the actual games.
Several times the moderator mentioned how much media interest there was because the room was overflowing, but more than likely he simply didn't notice the room held only about 20 seats and enough room for 10 cameras
In some ways the teams come into this game in similar fashion. Arkansas shut out ranked Ole Miss and LSU before losing a tough one to Missouri to finish the season. Texas won its first three games in November but finished the season by getting whipped, 48-10, by TCU.
This game is important to both teams because it provides extra practice and some additional exposure.
It's just not as much as a certain moderator wanted to believe.
Sports on 12/28/2014