(Join Eric Schmoldt's live in-game chat at http://tribtown.trib.com/ESchmoldt/blog)

LARAMIE -- Bryan Mazza and Calvin Kirkland set their sandwiches down. Their iced teas could wait, too.

The next 15 minutes were simply about catching a glimpse of the Texas Longhorns and perhaps catching a stray high-five or a photo.

When it comes to Texas football, even the stroll from the team bus to the hotel door is an event.

"For me personally, this is a lifestyle," Mazza said, showing off a photo of quarterback Colt McCoy after the Longhorns arrived in Laramie on Friday, ahead of today's game with Wyoming. "People eat, breathe and sleep Texas football."

Mazza -- who says he reads three Longhorns online message boards, three newspapers and records games to break down the film every week -- was one of a few dozen fans on hand for the team's arrival.

Thousands more are expected to join him for today's historic game.

Texas received an allotment of 3,800 tickets, but some estimates have Longhorns fans making up more than one-third of today's sellout crowd as UW expects about 31,000 fans at War Memorial Stadium.

"We go to every game," said Deann Phillips, who was on hand for the team's arrival with husband Dave and friends Terry and Sandy Taylor, the latter of whom are attending every Longhorns game this year for the first time.

"I would say 4,000 or 5,000 [Texas fans go to every game], at least," Dave Phillips said. "And it's probably more than that."

Like most avid Texas fans, the Phillipses were drawn to Longhorns football while they were growing up.

Since then, it's become a way of life.

Mazza and Kirkland grew up Longhorns fans living a couple blocks from each other. Now they attend every home game, nearly every road game that's within a 12-hour drive and one special road game each year.

This weekend provided the perfect chance for their big trip this season.

"We pick a road game every year that we haven't been to and sticks out above the rest, and this one fit the bill," Kirkland said. "There's Friday night football in Texas, and there's Saturdays with the Longhorns. As soon as we got old enough, we hit the games.

"Football is everything in Texas."

And it shows in the team's preparation and accommodations this week.

UW officials confirmed that the Longhorns sent in personnel to inspect the Cowboys' facilities and Laramie's lodging long before the contract was even signed last year.

UW also helped arrange for an on-campus meal Friday evening, for which Texas brought its own table settings that one source at UW described as "fit for a prom." The Longhorns also requested extra outlets on the sidelines and extra ice.

UW Athletics Director Tom Burman acknowledged that this game feels different than most home games, but that none of the Longhorns' requests was that far from the ordinary.

"Everything from operationally, how we deal with Texas from the time they arrive to the time the game is over to making sure they have easy access to and from their locker rooms, it's definitely different," Burman said. "But it's basically the same template contract that we use with every other team, except at the end of this contract [in 2012] we go to Texas and they pay us $900,000."

That price may seem astronomical.

But when it comes to Texas football, there's not much that isn't.

"[Texas football] is the most exciting thing there is to us," Kirkland said. "We wait the whole year for this time of year right now.

"It's just what we do."

Contact sports reporter Eric Schmoldt at eric.schmoldt@trib.com. Check out his blog at tribtown.trib.com/ESchmoldt/blog.