AUSTIN, Texas – Drew Martin and Charles Branch are holed up on Labor Day in the corner of a typically eccentric Austin coffee shop. Pacha, an organic café, sits a few miles north of the University of Texas, where College GameDay will be in five short days for the first time since Sept. 19, 2009. Yep, it’s been a decade. Martin, Texas’ Executive Senior Associate AD for External Affairs, and Branch, a Senior Marketing Coordinator, are tasked with planning for the arrival of an 100-plus person College GameDay crew. They want to “roll out the burnt orange carpet.”

The pair didn’t know College GameDay would come to town until late Saturday evening, and the previous two days were a blur of scheduling and texts to clear the way for a show that averaged nearly two million viewers last season.

It’s a juggernaut three-hour program. Martin said there’s “nothing like it from an exposure standpoint.” When “College GameDay” is ‘Comin’ To Your City,’ you do everything possible to make it work.

All of a sudden, Martin receives a text from Lindsey Lloyd, College GameDay’s Senior Production Manager.

“Also, can you help with a horse? We may need it for a grand entrance.”

Yes. Martin can help with a horse. Burnt orange carpet, remember? But that’s a peek into what it’s like to plan for College GameDay. With the show making its first appearance in Austin in a decade, 247Sports went behind the scenes with Texas as it prepares to play host.

Sometimes it means finding animals. Mostly it means saying yes.

“To be able to showcase (this University) in front of that many eyeballs is important,” Texas head coach Tom Herman said. “We know recruits wake up and they watch this show. We want to put our best foot forward and show off our players.”

***

Planning for College GameDay starts two weeks before a potential hosting opportunity. ESPN reaches out to prospective schools and tells them they’re on a short list. There’s no pre-determination from week-to-week. Lloyd told 247Sports the crew often doesn’t know where it’s going until Sunday afternoon or even Monday.

“It’s such cloak and dagger,” Martin said. “It’s, ‘Hey, heads up. We might be thinking about you guys.’”

Just because College GameDay gives you a warning doesn’t mean it’s coming. Martin, who worked a combined 20 years at Texas A&M and TCU before he arrived at Texas, planned for potential hosting opportunities on more than one occasion only not to be selected.

Martin said he looks at the calendar to see just how realistic it would be to host. On this occasion, he knew it’d come down to Texas and Clemson, which plays Texas A&M this week. Thus, Texas began preparing for College GameDay two weeks ago. That meant site surveys and discussions about where on campus would be best to place the set.

The Forty Acres had hosted GameDay six times in the past, and a variety of locations were used. Those include the South Mall, which sits in front of the UT Tower, and the Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field. Once, GameDay even began the morning inside of Darrell K. Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium. But with 10 years separating Texas’ last hosting opportunity, the dust hardly came off those previous blueprints.

Instead, the overwhelming pick to host the set was the Lyndon B. Johnson Library Lawn. The space, which will hold 4,000-5,000 people, gives the set a view of DKR and the UT Tower, while also providing easy access to a number of Texas’ other gameday features: Longhorn City Limits (a pregame concert venue), Smokey’s Midway and Bevo Blvd. (both of which hold food trucks, beer sales and gameday activities for fans).

“With the tower as the backdrop, it’s going to be beautiful,” Branch said.

That’s exactly what College GameDay looks for. Lloyd said College GameDay’s producers want an “iconic backdrop” more than anything when selecting sites for the show.

In preparation for a possible hosting opportunity, Texas also produced numerous social media posts and videos to advertise the event. Those assets might’ve forever been lost on a hard drive. But Martin got the call at the end of the third quarter of the Longhorns’ win against Louisiana Tech. Texas would host. Martin found out only minutes before the rest of the country did.

At game’s end, Texas put up a video announcing GameDay’s presence in Austin. Herman didn’t want a mid-game proclamation. Even that detail came up prior to an official OK. Everything had to be planned for – just in case.

“It’s just like going to a national championship,” Martin said. “You don’t know if you’re going to win or not. You want to, so you create all these assets. But only one team will win, and you hope it’s you.”

***

Texas may not have hosted College GameDay in a decade, but Martin’s helped plan for several.

In 14 years at Texas A&M and six years at TCU, Martin helped coordinator College GameDay on multiple occasions. Asked if he brought his Horned Frog playbook to Texas, Martin admits something that might not be popular. This College GameDay setup is an evolution and amalgamation of his Texas A&M plan.

“I took my playbook from A&M and brought it with me to TCU and spent a year figuring out what might not work,” Martin said. “I was trying to put a lens on something and take the best pieces and see if they could work. By the time I got to Texas, I’ve got 20 years of experience trying to lay a lens on Texas.”

As Martin and Branch sit in Pacha, both have laptops open with a myriad of tabs and spreadsheets in constant flux. Martin’s current task is figuring out food. He estimates 115 GameDay crew members need to be fed as they trickle in Wednesday. He’s trying to figure out if it’s best to cater barbeque or tacos, and when the crew would like to go out to eat versus dining in the tank. It goes as far as what pizza Texas could bring in. Martin’s been planning for food going on two hours.

When I said Domino’s could just hotspot a delivery to the LBJ Library Lawn, Martin is quick to point out College GameDay’s pizza sponsor is Pizza Hut. That’s a no-go. Texas will hold the construction of some pre-game sponsored locations because they contradict with College GameDay’s sponsors.

Another spreadsheet on Martin’s computer shows the shirt, short and shoe sizes of every crew member. Texas plans to give a swag bag for everyone who works on College GameDay. Figuring out who gets what – not to mention who packs the gift bags – is just one aspect of GameDay coming to town.

That crew arrives in a trickle.

Lloyd said almost everyone on staff flies home after the previous week’s show, except for the production’s 10-plus semi truck drivers. They start the journey to the next week’s location shortly after the previous week’s show is complete. The rest of the crew tends to arrive like this:

Wednesday: Much of the operations staff arrives and buildup starts on the set.

Thursday: Television producers roll in and construction continues.

Friday: The College GameDay set is complete and the crew holds meetings, does live hits and finishes any other odd jobs.

Saturday: The crew is up “bright and early” – Texas will open the pit for students at 5:30 a.m. – for the 8 a.m. CT show.

College GameDay’s crew is split into distinct groups: 1. Production. 2. Operations. 3. PR and media. 4. Talent. 5. Security. Several other smaller teams play a part as well. “It’s a variety,” Lloyd said.

Part of the reason Martin and Branch were chugging tea and Topo Chicos in a coffee shop Monday is they could only do so much ahead-of-time planning. Lloyd said much of GameDay’s success depends on a working relationship with a school. That’s where Martin, Branch and people like Texas sports information director John Bianco serve as critical on-campus liaisons.

Martin’s plans for later in the week are down to the minute. They have to be. Texas transformed its gameday experience last season with the introduction of Bevo Blvd. and Longhorn City Limits. New athletic director Chris Del Conte wanted to spice up a previously ho-hum on campus pregame atmosphere. Bevo Blvd. is where the Stadium Stampede occurs, which sees Texas’ players walk through a mass of Longhorn fans on the way to the stadium.

Texas wants to show that off for College GameDay. Except … many of those features occur adjacent to College GameDay’s set.

Longhorn City Limits, which will feature a pregame performance from Midland and Rob Baird, also sets up its stage on LBJ Library Lawn. The College GameDay set is massive, 200x130-feet, and takes almost two full days to construct. That means the majority of the Longhorn City Limits stage will be built Friday after the College GameDay set is completed.

The schedule gets tight, too. College GameDay finishes at 11 a.m., at which point teardown begins. At 2:30 p.m. the GameDay crew will stop, and the Longhorn City limits crew comes in. The first act is on at 3:30 p.m. Texas will hold a silent disco after the game, and College GameDay’s crew will hold its striking process until Sunday morning.

“It’s a tight, tight turn for everybody,” Martin said. “It’s communication and finding a way to say yes.”

***

Alright, so what about those College GameDay traditions? We’ve got some answers – sort of.

When it comes to headgear, the College GameDay staff requests it from both cheer squads a few days before the game. The pick itself is top secret. There’s enough space under the College GameDay desk to hold a person, whose job is to hand Lee Corso whichever headgear he chooses. “There’s literally a man under the desk, Martin said.

The guest picker is another cipher. Martin said schools can suggest options, but that’s “one thing we can’t push on.” Texas offered its Minister of Culture, aka Matthew McConaughey, but Texas didn’t know for sure McConaughey was the guest picker until Thursday when College GameDay announced it.

“That’s probably a better kept secret than the venue,” Martin said.

Even the famed College GameDay signs aren’t as straightforward as you’d think. Monday, Martin and Branch were still attempting to figure out when to set up poster-making stations on campus. Texas wants the pit packed with students toting interesting signs. Those stations will also come with instruction, because there are a lot of messages that won’t make it through security – yes, there’s a GameDay security crew that’s partly designated for sign patrol.

No offensive signage

No signage that contradicts sponsor logos (no Domino’s ads instead of Pizza Hut)

No dry erase boards

***

That College GameDay is back in Austin for the first time in a decade is no coincidence. Texas posted its first 10-win season since 2009 a year ago, fully launching the “Texas is back” hype train. This non-conference meeting with LSU is an opportunity for the Longhorns to show where they are and where they may be going.

Texas’ branding of GameDay for the week comes with a simple phrase: “Celebrate GameDay. Celebrate Texas.”

“There is an energy here that hasn’t been here in …,” Martin starts before, Branch chimes in: “10 years.”

“We want to see that pride and we want to see the country see this rejuvenated Texas.”

Over 100 College GameDay crew members and over 100 Texas staffers will combine Saturday for a show that will likely be seen by two-million-plus people. It’s a decade-in-the-making appearance for the Longhorns, and they’ll do anything necessary to make sure this massive operation goes off without a hitch.

Speaking of … yes, that includes procuring a horse.

“We feel confident in a horse,” Lloyd said. “We’re still figuring out if we’re going to use it. But that’s the quirkiness of our show.”