Of mice and Maryland
Texas head coach Herman takes novel approach after loss to Terrapins
AUSTIN—There’s an informal new course at the University of Texas: American Literature with Tom Herman.
First on the syllabus: comparing a second straight loss to Maryland with the works of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck.
Texas, Herman said Monday, was like the simple but brutish Lenny from Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men.” The Longhorns tried so hard to win they killed their chance to do it.
“Lenny wanted so badly to touch the rabbit and play with the rabbit, he squeezed it so hard he killed the rabbit,” Herman said, noting he told linebacker Gary Johnson to read the book. “I know that seems maybe out there a little bit. I think that’s what the first quarter was. We wanted it so badly, we got in our own way quite a bit.”
Herman mangled the analogy a bit. In the novel, Lenny kills a puppy, a mouse and a woman and only dreams of rabbits. And Lenny gets killed at the end.
But at 7-7 over his first 14 games at Texas, too many more losses could prompt lectures on other Steinbeck titles, such as the “The Grapes of Wrath” or “The Winter of Our Discontent.”
“This one game will not define us. How we grow from it and respond to it will,” Herman said.
Herman faces an angry fan base yet again after Saturday’s 34-29 loss to the Terrapins was punctuated by the same problems of last season’s 7-6 finish. The Longhorns trailed big early, lost a lead late and had three turnovers in the fourth quarter, two by sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger.
Nationally, much is expected of No. 23 Texas in Herman’s second year. The coach insists this year’s team is different and better, even if the early result is exactly the same.
“The reason we played so poorly, in my opinion, is actually a good reason, because of how close this team has become, how badly they wanted to perform for each other, for their coaches,” Herman said. “Everybody still believes in what we have spent the last year and a half building here.”
Texas got off to another slow start and trailed 24-7 early. Herman put the offense into an up-tempo attack and Texas rallied to within 24-22 by halftime.
A week ago, Herman said his players were enjoying being in the same offense for the second consecutive year after having multiple coordinators in recent seasons. But after the loss, Herman said they were overthinking the game early, calling it “paralysis by analysis.”
“We got on the head set and said these guys are thinking way too much,” Herman said. “We felt like the best way to get them to stop thinking so much and being so tentative was to go play.”