Editor’s Note: This story was included in The Athletic’s Best of 2019. See the full list.



AUSTIN, Texas — It is sweltering hot, the sort of hot where improperly soled shoes have been known to melt when stuck too long to the turfed field. The sort of hot where you walk not the most direct route, but the one that provides even a sliver of shade. All across campus, parents tearfully and sweatily lug their children’s prized possessions into dormitories, performing the rite of passage known as college move-in day. In a few days, those newly minted college students will gather here, inside Darrell K. Royal Stadium, for the first football game of a highly anticipated season at the University of Texas. Right now, the stadium is empty but sizzling, the bowl offers no respite from a sun that has raised temperatures to more than 100 degrees for 18 consecutive days. A bucket of ice sits on the sideline awaiting the Longhorns for a walk-through practice.