Who’s Who in Social Media for the Texas Longhorns, Individuals

Update, August 2013: The boys over at Burnt Orange Nation have released The 2013 Texas Football Twitter Directory.

Update, August 2010: I’ve now added a list of 2010 Longhorn Football Players on Twitter.

Is it football season yet?

Nope. We’re still in the doldrums of the off-season, but I wanted to write about my beloved Texas Longhorns. So, like any decent blogger would do, I came up with a related topic to fill the void.

To that end, I’m combining then Texas Longhorns with another of my favorite topics, social media, to create the “Who’s Who of Social Media for the Texas Longhorns”. The list includes bloggers, sports writers, and even former players. Part Two includes profiles of some of the most prominent sites.

All of the individuals were asked the following critically important question: Who is Texas going to beat in the national championship game in Pasadena next season, and by how much?

Ahmad Brooks (Former Football Player)
Twitter: @ahmadzone
Blog: Ahmad Brooks on The Zone

Ahmad Brooks played cornerback and free safety from 1998 to 2001 and current co-host of The Zone’s “Wake Up Call” talk radio sports show. He has not yet been interviewed.

Bobby Bragg (Burnt Orange Beat)
Twitter: @BurntOrangeBeat

Bobby is co-founder and co-owner of Burnt Orange Beat with Gerry Hamilton. With a background in technology and marketing, Bobby embraces anything that might help potential subscribers learn more about Burnt Orange Beat.

He manages the websites Twitter feed and Facebook fan page and uses LinkedIn and Facebook personally.

To the critically important question, Bobby replied:

I realize that this is the chalk answer, but Texas will beat Florida for the national championship next season.  As an homage to last season’s Oklahoma game, the score will be 45-35.

Brian Behrend (40 Acres Sports)
Twitter: @40acressports

Brian has been a Longhorn fan as long as he can remember:

My first memory of a UT football game was as a young kid at the 1991 Cotton Bowl debacle against Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Hurricanes. (1st and 40? Come on!)

As Brian was already writing about the Longhorns several times a week on his personal site and spending most of his day on UT message board, he decided to focus his efforts , launching 40 Acres Sports in early 2005.

In response to the critically important question, Brian said:

Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma have to be the favorites going into the 2009 season. If the Gators can make it through the tough SEC schedule it’ll be them on the losing end of another Texas BCS title by the lucky score of 41-38.

Cedric Golden (The Austin American Statesman)
Twitter: @CedGolden
Blog: Golden’s Nuggets

While Cedric wasn’t a fan of the Longhorns growing up, he did watch them with interest when Earl Campbell was playing for them, as both are originally from Tyler, Texas. In 2002, he began covering the Longhorns beat for the Austin American Statesman.

He joined Twitter after the Statesmen formally embraced its usage, and his editor suggested it as a way to improve readership and draw more traffic to the website.

In addition to blogging on BevoBeat, he shoots videos for it with Kirk Bohls.

He answered the critically important question thusly:

I’m not sure Texas is playing in Pasadena next season. If the Longhorns made it, I would think Florida would be the opponent. Texas would have a great chance to win in a close game.

Clendon Ross (Inside Texas)
Twitter: @clendonross

Clendon is the co-publisher of Inside Texas, and has been a Longhorn fan since he was ten years old, watching the thrilling 1977 season (undefeated regular season, Earl Campbell Hiesman, and a devastating defeat by Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl). He graduated from UT in 1989, and began covering Longhorn sports professionally in 1995.

He has been using social media for some time, having joined MySpace for its mucis content. He is on FaceBook personally, and has been using Twitter since early 2008.

To the critically important question, he said:

As for predictions on the upcoming season, I believe the Horns have a great opportunity to make another national title run. Like last year, October/early November will determine whether Texas is in the Big 12 Championship game or out of the title mix. This year, it’s Colorado in Austin, OU in Dallas, Missouri in Columbia and Oklahoma State in Stillwater. It’s not the Murder’s Row stretch that the Horns faced in October of last year, but if Texas comes out undefeated, the Horns are going to be playing in December for the Big 12 title and a spot in the national title game vs. Ohio State (they have the easiest path of any of the title contenders) in a rematch of this past Fiesta Bowl.

Cory Redding
Twitter: Cory Redding

Defensive lineman for Texas from 1999-2002. Currently playing for the Seattle Seahawks.

Drew Dunlevie (Barking Carnival)
Twitter: @dunlevie

Drew is founder and editor of Barking Carnival, one of the most entertaining Texas Longhorn blogs. He became a fan of the Longhorns when started classes at UT in 1987.

He is very active on Twitter and FaceBook, as well as some of the private boards. He checks into Rivals occasionally, but wants to make it clear that he is not on MySpace.

To the critically important question, he had a simple answer:

We will beat USC by 3.

Gail Goestenkors (Woman’s Basketball Coach)
Twitter: TexasCoachG

Gail joined the University of Texas staff on April 3, 2007 as the head coach of women’s basketball after fifteen years at Duke University. She has not yet been interviewed.

Geoff Ketchum (OrangeBloods)
Twitter: @gkketch

Geoff started the website that grew into Orangebloods.com in 2001. He has not yet been interviewed.

Kevin Durant
Twitter: @KevinDurant35

Played swingman for the Longhorn basketball team during the 2006-2007 season. Now plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kirk Bohls (The Austin American Statesman)
Twitter: @kbohls
Blog: Bohl Games

Yes, I know he voted against Vince Young for the Heisman. I can understand how many would view that as an unforgivable sin. On the other hand, he’s been writing about the Longhorns nearly as long as I’ve been alive. He covered the Horns for the Daily Texan from 1971 to 1972, and has written for the Austin American Statesman ever since.

He blogs and shoots videos with colleague Cedric Golden, and he began twittering last September.

In response to the critically important question, he said:

So you’re assuming Texas is going to be in the championship game? That’s out there even though I think Texas will be ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll. I think Florida or Alabama is the most likely opponent.

Marcus Myers (Former Football Player)
Twitter: @marcusmyers

Marcus played linebacker, fullback and special teams for the Horns from 2003 through 2006, racking up two Rose Bowl victories, with one of them being a national championship.

He decided to go to Texas because of the balance of football and academics.

I loved the atmosphere and, as cliche as it’s become to say it, the family atmosphere Coach Brown has created. I also really clicked with my fellow classmates (Class of 2002) and we all keep in contact to this day.

Marcus joined Twitter because he thought it was an interesting way to see different sides of people, mainly celebs and musicians, as well as a good way to stay in contact with people while on the go. He has been on Facebook since its beginning.

Currently, Marcus works with Frost Bank in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Other than that I’m just trying to keep up with my fiancée, former Longhorn track & field great and Adidas-sponsored Olympian Marshevet Hooker. She is coached by former Olympic sprinter Jon Drummond in Arlington.

She keeps me busy with wedding planning tasks. We’re getting married on October 3rd, 2009… I checked the date… Texas has a bye. 🙂 I’ve heard some people say that’ll come back to bite me on anniversaries in the future but Marshevet is a die hard Longhorn fan as am I and she came to all my games when we were at Texas as well as watches them all just as closely as I do now, so I think we’ll be ok in that regard.

Regarding the critically important question, he says:

My early pick would be Texas over Florida by 12. But I need to see how the rankings start out initially as well as if anyone gets injured during fall camp.

Martha Richards (Woman’s Golf Coach)
Twitter: TexasMartha

Martha became head coach of the women’s golf team on June 12, 2007. She has not yet been interviewed.

Peter Bean (Burnt Orange Nation)
Twitter: @PB_at_BON

Peter is the founder and editor of Burnt Orange Nation (see below). He has been a fan of the Longhorns as long as he’s been alive, as both his parents were professors at the University of Texas. They used to haul him to the Erwin Center as an infant.

When asked about the Longhorns, Peter said:

I’ve been rooting for Texas sports as long as I can remember, though there’s no better time to be a fan than now. 2009-10 may join ’05-’06 as the best chance Texas has ever had to win national titles in football and hoops.

In addition to being very active on Twitter, he has personal profiles on FaceBook and LinkedIn.

When asked the critically important question, Peter replied:

It’s going to be a Texas-Florida party in Pasadena, in which Tim Tebow sobs bitterly that the Gators “were the better team,” in defiance of the burnt orange confetti and flashing scoreboard: 41-38.

Randy Riggs (The Austin American Statesman)
Twitter: @ranriggs

Some might argue that Randy doesn’t belong on this list. While he occasionally blogs about Longhorn track and field, he mostly writes about Texas A&M and the Big 12 Conference. On the other hand, he has an A&M blog at Statesman.com (12th Word) that often turns into a war of words between fans of the two schools.

He wrote about the Longhorns occasionally in his first fulltime job with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal from 1973-1976. In the spring of 1978, he joined the Austin American-Statesman and started writing about the Horns a great deal more.

Randy doesn’t consider himself a fan of any team. The last time he was a fan was in high school in the ’60s when he followed the Dallas Cowboys.

At the urging of several co-workers, among them Kirk Bohls, Cedric Golden and Suzanne Halliburton, Randy joined Twitter in April of 2009.

To the critically important question, Randy replied:

Your guess is as good as mine.

Suzanne Halliburton (The Austin American Statesman)
Twitter: @suzhalliburton

Suzanne may be best known as the sports writer on Lance Armstrong’s speed dialer, but she’s also been covering the Longhorns sports beat for the Austin American Statesman since 1997. In addition to regular posts on BevoBeat and Twitter and a semi-regular chat on Statesman.com, Suzanne is on Facebook and is a regular poster on the Hooken.com bulletin board.

As soon as the Statesman introduced blogging, she started posting, and was one of the first on BevoBeat. She joined Twitter right before the 2008 football season.

She generally has the best behind-the-scenes info on the Horns, and often posts teasers to her Twitter feed even before you can find the details on the BevoBeat blog.

To the critically important question, Suzanne replied:

I think Texas plays Florida. Don’t want to pick a winner or a score, as yet.

TJ Ford
Twitter: @TJ_Ford

Guard for the Longhorn basketball team from 2001 to 2003. Now plays for the Indiana Pacers.

If I’ve forgotten someone, let me know either by email, Twitter, or the comments of this post, and I’ll update this listings.

Don’t forget Part Two, a profile of the most important Longhorn Social Media sites.

Updates:
May 5, 2009 – Added link to Cedric Golden’s blog.
August 13, 2009 – Added Cory Redding, Kevin Durant and TJ Ford