Open week allows chance to heal, but no time for leisure LSU highlights 2019 schedule
AUSTIN — Calvin Anderson used to view the off week as an escape.
Once every season, Anderson used the time to focus on hobbies or bask in the free weekend. Texas’ graduate-transfer left tackle has a different philosophy these days.
“As a veteran, you realize that having opportunities like a bye week give you advantages, and you need to take advantage of those,” Anderson said Tuesday. “To take the opportunity to study more film or get your body right is the biggest thing.
“When I was younger, I looked at a bye week as a chance to do something else or get my mind off football; whereas now, I look at it as an opportunity to be purposeful about getting my body recovered instead of just taking time off.”
The seventh-ranked Longhorns (6-1, 4-0 Big 12) enter their off week on top of the Big 12. Winners of six straight, Texas can sit comfortably this weekend.
Though when Tuesday morning arrived, strength and conditioning coach
Yancy McKnight made it known this would not be a spa week. Texas must continue warring against complacency and any sense of accomplishment with five games remaining.
“It’s just a mentality that’s around here,” Anderson said. “Coach McKnight told us this morning, ‘Don’t take days off — you’re taking a deep breath to rest your body, but at the end of the day, you still have to prepare.’ ” Junior safety Brandon
Jones plans to use whatever spare time he has to catch up on coursework. The sport management major said he is “trying to do as much work as possible and get it out the way so I don’t have to worry about it down the road later on in the season.”
The best news for Texas is this open week affords sophomore quarterback
Sam Ehlinger more time to recover heading into an Oct. 27 game at Oklahoma State (4-3, 1-3).
Ehlinger was removed during the opening drive of Texas’ 23-17 win over Baylor and diagnosed with a first-degree right shoulder sprain.
“Sam is progressing pretty much right on schedule,” coach Tom
Herman said. “Three treatments a day. Pain is way down, range of motion is up. On schedule is what they tell me. The goal is for Sunday’s practice to really see if see can get out there and do everything. But he’ll have really until Tuesday of next week until the meat of the game plan goes in.”
Junior Shane Buechele will prepare like the starter while Ehlinger works his way back.
“We don’t really see it as a bye week or an off week. We just see it as we don’t have a game on Saturday,” wide receiver Collin Johnson said. “The normal routine continues, just work and stuff like that, but we just happen to not play a game on Saturday.”
Minor injuries for McCulloch
On Tuesday, Texas junior linebacker Jeffrey
McCulloch fell victim to hazardous road conditions. Fortunately, his injuries were minor after his car hydroplaned and struck a light pole.
McCulloch was evaluated and diagnosed with a minor neck strain, the school announced Thursday. He has appeared in all seven games and recorded 15 tackles.
The Big 12 on Thursday released its 2019 conference football schedule, finalizing Texas’ slate for next season. The Longhorns open with home games against Louisiana Tech on Aug. 31 and LSU on Sept. 7, then travels to Houston for a meeting with Rice at NRG Stadium on Sept. 14.
Texas scheduled a home-and-home series with LSU in 2014, and the Longhorns will travel to Baton Rouge, La., in 2020 to complete the two-game set. Next September will mark the first regularseason meeting between the programs since 1954.
The 2019 Red River Showdown with Oklahoma is set for Oct. 12 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
And Longhorns fans will be thankful to hear the team won’t be traveling during Thanksgiving next November. Texas will welcome Texas Tech to Royal-Memorial Stadium on Nov. 29 to close out the regular season.