A look back at a bittersweet experience
Herman’s season ran gamut from disappointments to bowl jubilation
AUSTIN — The honeymoon phase ended abruptly — as most do — though its expiration date arrived sooner than all but the most cynical Texas fans anticipated.
About 15 minutes after the Longhorns’ 51-41 season-opening loss to Maryland, coach Tom Herman sauntered to his postgame soapbox in the MoncriefNeuhaus Athletic Center and tried making sense of it all.
“I told our guys to never get used to this feeling,” the $5-million-a-year coach said, “but that if we all thought that we were going to come in here and in nine months, sprinkle some fairy dust on this team and think that we’ve arrived, then we’re wrong.”
Season in retrospect
Four months later, it’s difficult to reconcile the gamut of emotions experienced during Herman’s first season in Austin.
But it might help to explore some of those feelings in a retrospective context.
• Sorrow: The regular season was bookended by losses to Maryland and Texas Tech, the latter of which featured a stunning fourth-quarter meltdown.
In between, UT nearly executed three shocking upsets. It came up short each time, felled once by Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and twice by the turnovers of its own true freshman quarterback.
Sam Ehlinger doesn’t deserve all the blame for UT’s double-overtime loss to Southern Cal and overtime loss to Oklahoma State. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s crunchtime play calling factored in both, plus the irrepressible Austin Westlake product likely played with a concussion against the Cowboys.
“Pretty heartbreaking loss,” Herman said after UT’s 27-24 defeat to USC. “To play with that much passion, energy, commitment and love for the guy next to you. It’s amazing how many mistakes you can overcome with attitude and effort, and we made our fair share of them.
“I told them in the locker room, there’s no moral victories in college football. They don’t put ‘loss,’ and in parentheses, ‘yeah but they played really hard.’ That doesn’t happen. We lost.”
• Pride: The Longhorns displayed grit following that heartbreaker in Los Angeles. Next time out, they defeated Iowa State 17-7 in a notoriously hostile Thursday night road environment. They followed with a 40-34 doubleovertime win over a solid Kansas State team that went on to beat Oklahoma State and smash UCLA in the Cactus Bowl.
“The one thing that was so very encouraging was there was never any dejection,” Herman said following the team’s 1-2 start. “There was never any head hanging. There was never any finger pointing. It was just, let’s get this fixed.”
Stayed competitive
UT was never able to parlay its 2-0 start in conference play into a more fruitful season, but aside from a 24-7 road defeat to 10th-ranked TCU, Herman’s team won or threatened to win each of its final dozen contests.
• Bitterness: The injuries began before Maryland left for Austin.
Elijah Rodriguez and Andrew Beck suffered season-ending injuries in August, though Rodriguez returned to start at left tackle for the Texas Bowl.
All-American left tackle Connor Williams suffered a knee injury in the first quarter against USC and missed the next seven games before skipping the bowl to prepare for the NFL draft.
“Where would we have been with Andrew Beck, Elijah Rodriguez and Connor Williams all season?” Herman said. “I don’t know.
“Do we need to do better as coaches coaching up those true freshmen that are in there? Certainly, we do. But there’s not many teams out there lighting the world on fire offensively with true freshman right tackles, tight ends, tailbacks and quarterbacks. You don’t see that very often.”
Ehlinger and Shane Buechele traded various injury designations throughout the season. Holton Hill, the team’s best cover cornerback, was suspended Nov. 7 for the remainder of the season for a rules violation. In 13 games, UT started eight configurations along the offensive line.
As the season wore on, the swelling numbers of unavailable players weighed on Herman and his staff.
“One of the most devastating things was pregame at TCU,” Tim Beck said. “I looked over and our strength coach had Andrew Beck, Connor Williams, Zack Shackelford, Elijah Rodriguez, Toneil Carter and Sam Ehlinger working out in their shorts.
“That was the most frustrating thing, to go play that defense with those guys missing.”
• Hope: Despite the familiar peaks and valleys, Herman’s first season ended on a hopeful note.
Fine recruiting class
UT defeated Missouri in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl 3316 to claim its first bowl title since 2012 and first winning season since 2013.
It did so with a roster thinned by injuries and suspensions and players sitting out to preserve their bodies for the NFL.
The Longhorns danced on NRG Stadium’s turf and celebrated the present and a future that includes the nation’s No. 3 incoming recruiting class.
“Any time you can get confidence, give confidence to a fragile group of guys, it’s big,” Herman said. “They should have confidence going into this offseason with another year of development and a year of continuity and a year of consistency.
“And then add in some of these newcomers that are extremely talented and extremely competitive. I think that it gives us a lot of hope.”