Response to loss will be telling
Longhorns bounced back nicely after opener vs. Maryland, but West Virginia offers big test
AUSTIN — Six straight wins followed Texas’ last loss, a 34-29 defeat to Maryland in the first week of the season.
Coach Tom Herman on Monday said his players did not allow that disappointing performance to infect the program with negativity, nor did it prompt any pushback. He hopes a similar response follows UT’s 38-35 loss to Oklahoma State last week.
“I think this is very similar,” Herman said. “That game in Stillwater will only define our season if we let it. We have an opportunity to define our season by how we respond to it, as well.”
While the path to an appearance in the Big 12 championship game is straightforward — win out — the road itself is menacing, filled with potential pitfalls.
Saturday’s game between No. 15 Texas (6-2, 4-1) and No. 12 West Virginia (6-1, 4-1) at Royal-Memorial Stadium will leave the loser desperate but not quite dead. There are paths to the title game for the loser, though that would require perfection on its part and good fortune elsewhere.
WVU stumbled only once this season, a 30-14 loss to Iowa State in Ames. To Austin, it will bring the top scoring defense in Big 12 play and the No. 2 scoring offense, a Heisman candidate in senior quarterback Will Grier, a trio of 500-yard receivers, and Butkus Award semifinalist linebacker David Long Jr.
Texas will focus on controlling the clock, using running backs Keaontay Ingram and Tre Watson to tire the defense while keeping Grier and his high-powered arsenal stuck on the sideline. The goal is to approximate what Iowa State did when it ran for 244 yards and held the ball for 37 minutes against the Mountaineers.
Ingram, averaging 5.9 yards per carry, should earn a more generous heap of handoffs than the 11 he received last week. His expected workload in that game was altered when Oklahoma State built an early 24-7 lead, and the same could happen if Texas’ defense again struggles out of the gate.
“The best way to stop an offense like West Virginia's is keep them off the field and don't let them get started,” Herman said. “But we've also got to score points, too. I don't think anybody is kidding themselves thinking this is going to be, you know, a 10-3 ballgame.
“So we have got to put our offense in the best position to score points, too, but to be mindful of the fact that this is a team sport, as well.”
The road beyond West Virginia doesn’t get any smoother. A trip to Lubbock to face Texas Tech and the nation’s No. 7 offense awaits, followed by the home finale against an Iowa State team that also could be playing for a spot in the Dec. 1 conference title game at AT&T Stadium.
“Kevin Washington, who does our chapel service, he talked about human beings, like an analogy of a sponge. Where when you get squeezed, it may look OK on the outside, but when you squeeze a sponge, what's really inside comes out, and we got squeezed Saturday night,” Herman said. “Now we're going to figure out what's really inside of our guys, and I think they will respond as well, if not better than we did after week one.”
On the injury front, junior linebacker Malcolm Roach could make an early return from the foot fracture he sustained in Texas’ Sept. 15 win over Southern Cal.
Herman said Roach could return as early as this week, though next week’s road game against Texas Tech is the more realistic return date.
“We're going to see how today and tomorrow go, and (he) might be able to do a little something at practice this week,” Herman said. “He has progressed to the point of everything except football drills on that foot. So, we've got to see how that goes here in the next couple days.”
Senior defensive end Breckyn Hager suffered a “pretty severe” sternoclavicular sprain, Herman announced.
The sternoclavicular is an injury to the joint where the clavicle meets the sternum. Hager is dayto-day and questionable to play against West Virginia.
Hager last week set season bests with nine tackles and two tackles for loss against Oklahoma State. Sophomore defensive linemen Ta’Quon Graham and Marquez Bimage could absorb a majority of Hager’s snaps should the injury force him to miss the contest.
Freshman receiver and kick returner D’Shawn Jamison is also considered day-to-day with a “mid-foot” sprain.