Texas Football: 12 biggest villains in Longhorns history

9. Bill McCartney/Rick Neuheisel and the 1990’s Colorado Buffaloes

It’s hard to imagine now that there was a time when the Longhorns had trouble beating the Colorado Buffaloes on a consistent basis. But there was a point in time in which the Buffs were a national title contender on a consistent basis, and it occurred back in the 1990’s. Colorado actually held a six-game winning streak over the Longhorns from 1989-1997.

Although the 47-30 win for Colorado over Texas during the 1997 season is one that has been forfeited due to the Buffs program violations in the years since.

Former Colorado head coaches Rick Neuheisel and Bill McCartney took Colorado to much more prominent heights in the 1990’s than any of the head coaches that have tried in the last decade since have. During his run at Colorado, Neuheisel held a head coaching record of 33-14, including two seasons ranked in the top eight of the final AP Poll.

Meanwhile, McCartney held a head coaching record of 93-55-5, including a handful of conference titles, one national title, and one Coach of the Year award. The COY honors and national title would come in back-to-back seasons, with the award in 1989 and the championship in 1990.

And the most recent time that Colorado knocked off the Longhorns was in surprising fashion against Brown’s team in the 2001 Big 12 Championship Game. A shot at a double-digit win season just after the turn of the century was lost for the Longhorns after falling short to Colorado in the conference title game.