In terms of ticket prices on the secondary market, there is no more expensive Alabama home game to attend this season than Texas.

It currently costs almost $300 each for a pair of seats Sept. 9 inside Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first meeting between the two schools in Tuscaloosa since 1902.

That game, a 10-0 win for Texas, was played on the university quad. The Austin Statesman newspaper later declared in its headline, “It was an exciting game,” and, “the Texas boys outplayed the Alabama crowd at every point.”

The Longhorns certainly hope that again proves true nearly 121 years later.

“I know they’ll be amped up and ready to go for that game,” former Texas running back Roschon Johnson said last week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. “Coach Sark will have those guys ready to go out and battle it out down in Alabama. They’ll be ready.”

Last September’s meeting in Austin, a 20-19 win for Alabama, raised questions about the Tide’s national championship hopes that were proven true by season’s end. For Texas, the what-if feeling lingered all season after starting quarterback Quinn Ewers injured his shoulder in the first quarter. Ewers began the game 9-of-12 passing for 134 yards before backup Hudson Card entered.

“I know they have a little bit of a bad taste in their mouth, but I feel like we played amazing that game,” former Longhorns defensive lineman Keondre Coburn said at the NFL combine. “We literally lost by one point. You wish you could get it back in type of ways, but the thing is, the dudes on the team that is still there, they have an opportunity to go against Bama again, especially at their home.”

The coaches will be the same in Nick Saban and Steve Sarkisian, but the cast will be different for both teams. Bryce Young, who averaged only 5.5 yards per completion but led Alabama on a game-winning field goal drive, is gone. Behind center this fall will likely be Jalen Milroe or Ty Simpson.

The Longhorns’ backfield has turned over with Bijan Robinson and Johnson headed to the NFL, and Ewers is part of a competition at quarterback with five-star freshman Arch Manning. Wide receiver Xavier Worthy — whose 97 receiving yards against Alabama were his second-most in 2022 — remains.

The back half of a home-and-home series will be a prelude to Texas’ arrival in the SEC next year, and another chance to disrupt the college football landscape after nearly doing so last season.

Said Coburn: “How about we do what they did to us, at their home?”

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.