Iowa St. tests ability to quickly ditch rust
AUSTIN — By the time Friday rolls around, it will have been 20 days since Texas played a game.
A scheduled off week following a 17-13 win overWest Virginia on Nov. 7 evolved into a nearly three-week layoff after last Saturday’s game against Kansas was postponed due to the Jayhawks’ issues with COVID-19. Now, in lieu of a cushy matchup with the conference’s punching bag, Texas will begin this final stretch against an Iowa State team that looks like the class of the Big 12.
The Longhorns “know that every game from this point forward is the biggest game of the year,” Texas coach TomHerman said Monday. “We’re one of the few teams in America left that still control their own destiny in terms of the ability to reach their conference champion
ship. But we know that you can’t win them all until you win the first one. That’s priority No. 1.
“We also are very, very aware of the talent level and level of play of our opponent here in just five days.”
No. 15 Iowa State (6-2, 6-1) just steamrollered Kansas State 45-0 and hasn’t lost in a month.
The Cyclones rank among the league’s top two in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense and total defense. They own the most potent rushing attack (212.0 yards per game) and are tied with Oklahoma for the top rushing defense (102.0 yards per game).
Coach Matt Campbell’s team is one with few exploitable holes, leaving No. 20 Texas (5-2, 4-2) the difficult task of finding and attacking those limited vulnerabilities.
“We know that we’re going to have our hands full on both sides of the ball,” Herman said. “And not just from a talent and execution standpoint; got a ton of respect for coach Campbell and his staff. You turn on the film, and the first thing that jumps off is (they’re) very well- coordinated, very well- coached. You don’t break them a whole lot. You don’t see guys out of their gaps. You don’t see guys missing assignments on offense.” Texas has spent the past few weeks ironing out some of its own issues. And the Kansas postponement did at least allot the Longhorns more time to both prepare for Iowa State and heal up.
Redshirt sophomore receiver Joshua Moore (shoulder) and sophomore tight end Jared Wiley (shoulder) are probable to play against Iowa State. Junior tailback Keaontay Ingram (ankle) is
questionable, although Herman said the Longhorns are “going to push to see if we canmake some progress here in the next three or four days.”
Reinserting a healthy Moore and Wiley into the offense would provide a boost for Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger. Over his past two games, the senior has completed 33 of 65 passes (50.7 percent) for 365 yards with five touchdowns and seven sacks.
“The biggest thing I’m concerned about is we’ve never done this in the regular season,” Herman said. “The most important line you walk is you’ve got to get the full-speed reps, or else you’re going to be extremely rusty having not played anybody other than your scout team for 20 days.
“So we’ve just got to be smart. I think we’d like to have fun and give our guys the time off that they need. But it’s a very focused and intentional time off the field in terms of the mental preparation that still goes along with it.”
Texas surrendered all remaining wiggle room when it lost consecutive games to TCU and Oklahoma. But that also simplified the remainder of the season: Win out and earn a spot in the Big 12 title game Dec. 19, or drop even a single game and settle for yet another disappointing season.
The most arduous part of that journey back to Arlington’s AT&T Stadium is this Black Friday battle with the Cyclones and junior quarterback Brock Purdy.
Last season in Ames, Iowa, Purdy manufactured a nine-play, 53-yard drive to set up a gamewinning 36-yard field goal as time expired. That loss effectively ended the Longhorns’ long-shot hopes of making a second consecutive trip to the conference title game.
In what will likely be his final game at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Ehlinger can’t lose another duel to Purdy.
“I do like our matchup. We’re a really good football team when we play up to our capabilities,” Herman said. “So I think the biggest challenge is not going to be necessarily matchup, but can we adjust to the speed of the game early and make sure that we aren’t rusty coming out of the gate? Because they will not be.”