Win over OU could set tone for Herman at UT
AUSTIN — Suddenly, big, bad Oklahoma is lurching.
Its stunning loss to Iowa State reverberated like a thunderclap around the college football world. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops has been repeatedly excoriated for giving up 38 points to a walkon quarterback making his first career start. Bob Stoops’ steady hand is gone, the Sooners (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) are vulnerable and Texas (3-2, 2-0) is in position to pounce.
Before the Cyclones shocked the Sooners, few would have (reasonably) faulted Tom Herman for falling flat against the UT’s oldest rival. OU was a team with a marquee win (on the road over then-No. 2 Ohio State), a Heisman favorite (quarterback Baker Mayfield) and an offense infused with jet fuel. But the narrative entering the 112th edition of the Red River rivalry has naturally transformed given
the divergent momentum of each program.
A win over No. 12 OU on Saturday would expunge the Maryland debacle, mollify those still fuming from the near miss in Los Angeles and set Texas on a path to the reinstated Big 12 title game. A win could transform this entire season and set the tone for Herman’s tenure.
Despite the pressurecooker Texas will find itself in at the Cotton Bowl, running back Chris Warren said he has not witnessed his coach grow emotional or edgy. Yet.
Herman warned his team to tune out the newly inflated expectations filtering in from the outside. Junior safety and breakout defensive star DeShon Elliott has even managed to refrain from powering on his phone — or so he says.
“It’s important that your team knows the formula for success is not going to change,” Herman said. “It’s not going to change depending on the opponent, it’s not going to change depending on the location, and it’s not going to change depending on what state your opponent hails from.
“The recipe for success is what it’s been the last couple weeks. Prepare really, really hard all the way up until kickoff. When the ball is kicked off cut it loose and trust your preparation and trust the preparation of the guy next to you and his motivation for your happiness and your success. Good things usually happen when you do that.”
Future repercussions?
Publicly, the players have parroted their head coach.
Privately, they understand the repercussions this game could have not only for this season, but those to come. OU and Texas routinely battle one another for the right to sign the same high school stars. A win by Herman could shift a recruit’s loyalty to the Longhorns, and vice versa for Lincoln Riley.
There’s also that difficult-to-gauge concept of momentum. Would eliminating OU from the College Football Playoff conversation and Big 12 title game contention in one fell swoop catapult Texas to heights it hasn’t reached since last decade? Hard to say. Two years ago, a Gatorade-drenched Charlie Strong crowd-surfed atop his players and donned a golden 10-gallon hat in the aftermath of a 24-17 win over the Sooners. It was a picture of pure joy, one that represented a possible turning point in his tenure. Texas went 3-3 the rest of the way and did not earn a bowl bid for the only the second time since 1998.
But Herman isn’t operating under the same circumstances as Strong was in Year 2. A victory would move the Longhorns to 3-0 in conference play for the first time since 2013 and sixth time in program history. The Longhorns would then return to Austin to face a formidable, but beatable, Oklahoma State team.
Responsibility
When asked how he felt about stepping into such a critical role in this ancient rivalry, one word immediately sprung to Herman’s mind: “Responsible.”
“Leading this program is definitely a responsibility unto itself,” Herman said. “But I would be naive not to tell you that this rivalry is important to a lot of people. A lot of stakeholders in this program, a lot of alumni and fans, citizens of the great state of Texas in general. So with that comes a responsibility.”
Junior linebacker Malik Jefferson played a pivotal role in Texas’ last rivalry win, collecting six tackles and sacking Mayfield twice. He remembers how good it felt to win on that stage. He wants to recreate that sensation, both for his teammates and his new coach.
“It was just so exhilarating,” Jefferson said. “Everybody doubted us, and we just went out there and played with our hearts out. Guys played for each other, and we played hard. … You look back at that experience, and you want it again.”
The trick this time will be to capture that feeling and ride it all the way through to the conference championship game in Arlington.
“I think we’ve got good momentum,” Herman said after Texas’s doubleovertime win over Kansas State. “I think each week in college football is its own entity. They’re all mutually exclusive, but there’s a lot of positive energy in that locker room right now. I’ve had numerous players tell me, coach, this is as close as we’ve been in a long, long time.”
Now it’s time to see if Herman can do what his predecessor couldn’t — bottle that momentum and build upon it.