Horns' Bailey recalls NU well
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
It seems like an excessive amount of love to heap on someone — a lot like those bear hugs and slobbery kisses to the cheek your perfumed-up grandmother greeted you with when you were a tyke.
Essentially, Ryan Bailey was awarded a scholarship with his hometown University of Texas football team this year for making a field goal last season that was no more difficult than an extra point.
Well — that would be your take if all you did was look at the 22 yards Bailey needed to cover to split the uprights and give the Longhorns a 22-20, last-minute victory at Nebraska.
Of course, there were a few other circumstances. For starters, Bailey was an injury replacement who was about to attempt his first collegiate field goal.
On top of that, during the cold and blustery late-October afternoon, he’d watched teammate Greg Johnson, who had a strained groin, come up short on a 39-yard attempt, miss to the right from 31 yards and ... have an extra point blocked.
“You start looking at signs around football games,” coach Mack Brown said. “We’re down to a fourth-quarter shot with a guy who has never been on the field, going in to kick into a strong wind with snow blowing at Nebraska — you figure it’s not good.”
Wide receiver Quan Cosby had the same nervous knot in his gut.
“It was scary because I really didn’t know him well at the time,” he said of Bailey. “We were shaking because we were cold, and because of that situation.”
One year later, as Texas looks to hand the Huskers their fourth straight loss, Bailey remembers the moment that changed his status with the Longhorns, primarily for how fast it went by.
“When I came to walk on, I was just trying to make the team, because that has always been my dream,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I just progressed, and now it’s worked out for me.”
After being named Big 12 special teams player of the week for his effort against Nebraska, Bailey went on to make his remaining five field- goal attempts last season.
This year, he’s 11-for-14, with a 52-yarder, the longest at Texas since 2004.
Back then, Bailey was a high school senior who had taken up kicking only two years earlier. Though he played more as a defensive back and wide receiver, making six of seven field goals got him an invitation to walk on at Texas.
That’s a decent story in itself. But because of what’s happened in the last year, it’s become one of the best Brown has witnessed during his 10 seasons in Austin.
“I really thought, when we were trying to evaluate whether he should get a scholarship or not, that was such a huge game for us,” Brown said of Bailey and last year’s game against the Huskers. “It gave us a chance to stay in the conference and national championship hunt at that time, on the road. ... That his kick alone would be worth a scholarship at The University of Texas if he never kicked again.”
That day, Bailey’s mother was in New York watching the game wind down on television when she noticed her son standing by his coach, probably “wondering what was going on there,” Brown said.
Oh, you know, nothing more than just your typical welcome-to-college-football, game-comes-down-to-you small talk.
“When his number was called, I went over and told him it was his time to go out there and make a great kick for us,” wide receiver Nate Jones said. “It’s great to see Ryan doing his thing and how everything turned out for him. He is one of the happier guys on the team ... always motivational. If you’re down, he’ll come over and talk to you on the sidelines and keep your hopes up.
“He’s one of those guys that I love to see on the team and will love to see in the future.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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