Greatness eludes inconsistent Longhorns
AUSTIN — Last weekend, in the exuberant, hazy aftermath of a frenetic come-from-behind overtime win over Texas Tech, the Texas Longhorns spoke about greatness.
Great teams, they posited, always survived and grew from these brushes with disaster. What transpired in Lubbock— squander a 31-21 halftime lead, roar back from 15 points down with about three minutes remaining, exhale — allowedTexas tokeepfaith, even if some of the cracks that game revealed were more like fissures.
“I think we had a couple players say the same thing in the locker room, that great teams have a game or two like this,” Herman said Sept. 26 following UT’s 63-56 overtime win. “Hopefully this humbles some guys who thought this was going to be easy, that every game was going to be like UTEP. I think that point was made very clear here tonight.”
There was no talk of greatness, or even its possibility, by Texas (2-1, 1-1 Big 12) Saturday evening at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Whatever lessons the Longhorns were supposed to learn in the circus of a game against Tech didn’t seem to help in a 33-31 loss to TCU (1-1, 1-1) riddled with errors andmissed opportunities.
“Self-inflicted mistakes killed us,” muttered senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger. “This university deserves better and it’s very frustrating when it’s self-inflicted and it’s preventable by attention to detail and playing the way we all know everybody is capable of playing in this program.”
Herman and Ehlinger both vowed to make UT great again when they began this journey in 2017. But the program has been stumbling since New Year’s Day 2019, when the Longhorns toppled No. 5 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, leading to the quarterback’s infamous postgame “We’re back!” proclamation.
All Texas seems to be back to in 2020 is frustrating fans. The university didn’t permit Herman to fire most of his staff and hire two newhigh-priced coordinators and five assistants just to bully UTEP. The Longhorns need Big 12 championship trophies and College
Football Playoff berths.
Though two Big 12 games, new defensive coordinator Chris Ash’s unit ranks seventh in total defense, eighth in scoring defense, eighth in third-down defense and last in sacks. Texas also ranks ninth with 22 penalties for 192 yards.
Offensive coordinator MikeYurcich’s grouphas fared better, ranking first in scoring offense, second in rushing offense and fifth in total offense. But there have been some confounding play calls and poor execution at times, and the right side of the offensive line has been erratic throughout these first
three games.
The Longhorns’ biggest problem, one that has lingered since Herman’s arrival, is discipline and confidence. Even though TCU accumulated more penalties (14) and penalty yards (104) than Texas (12 penalties, 92 yards), supposedly “great” teams tend to overcome a downpour of flags and questionable officiating, exactly what coach Gary Patterson’s Horned Frogs did Saturday at DKR.
Junior running back Keaontay Ingram’s lost fumblewhile lunging for a go-ahead touchdown is the easiest play to pick when discussing when exactly Texas lost the game. But Ingram doesn’t deserve to be a scapegoat — this loss was a collective effort from the coaches, trainers, assistants and players.
Two ineligible player downfield penalties wiped out big gains and potential scoring drives for Texas. Sophomore receiver Jake Smith dropped a third-down pass with nothing but open field ahead. Ehlinger and redshirt sophomore wideout Josh Moore had drastically different ideas about who should be where on a pass TCU safety La’Kendrick Van Zandt intercepted.
On maybe the most pivotal play of the day, Texas couldn’t catch TCU sophomore Max Duggan on a quarterback draw. He dashed 26 yards down the middle of the field, high-stepping awayfromdiving Joseph Ossai and beating the defensive backs into the end zone to take a 29-26 lead with four minutes remaining.
Now Texas, which dropped 13 spots to No. 22 in this week’s Associated Press poll, has to prepare to salvage this season at the Cotton Bowl against now-unranked Oklahoma (1-2, 0-2). And a game that once looked like a Big 12 championship preview will instead feature two desperate teams fighting to remain relevant in the conference race.
“I do knowthat the want to, the desire, the intensity level will be there,” Herman said. “It’s more a matter of us finding a way to take the practice reps to the field on Saturday. That falls on me, our coaches and on the leadership of this team to make sure we get that done.”