STRONG OF CHARACTER
Beleaguered Longhorns give their coach— and their fans— something to be proud about
Charlie Strong kept jabbing two fists into the air. His smile was as wide as the Red River— and his shirt, after a Gatorade shower, as wet — as he lay back onto the hands of his Texas players and body-surfed right there on the field at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
It was quite a sight. It was hugely emotional. And it was utterly fitting for Strong and his up-against-it team to come together like that after a stunning 24-17 upset of No. 10 Oklahoma in a Red River Rivalry classic.
‘‘I’m just so proud of our players,’’ Strong said after the Longhorns won for only the second time in six tries this season. ‘‘I know this, I’ve been saying it and I truly believe it: We have a good football team.’’
Indeed, he has been saying it. But it was impossible to believe through five games. Do we have to recount the misery? Sure, we do:
Notre Dame 38, Texas 3. California 45, Texas 44. Oklahoma State 30, Texas 27. And then in Week 5— the humanity!— TCU 50, Texas 7.
The last game was 40-0 at halftime. That’s when a young Longhorns player infamously was outed for being on Twitter— yes, from the losing locker room during halftime. In the ensuing days leading up to the all-important game against the Sooners, freshman Longhorns bickered publicly with upperclassmen.
The team seemed to have fallen apart. Strong, in his second season at the helm of this iconic program, was taking searing heat from a disguted fan base. The only thing surprising about the 17-point spread Saturday was that Oklahoma hadn’t been favored by more.
‘‘We heard all week how the pride has been lost, how we don’t play hard,’’ Strong said. ‘‘And I don’t have an answer for last week; we [went] out and kind of just laid an egg. This week, we came out and wanted to impose our will. We wanted to play physical and watch our team just go to work.’’
They did that and then some. The Longhorns rushed for 313 yards against Oklahoma. They sacked Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield six times. This was the same Oklahoma squad that had won at Tennessee and dominated West Virginia. It figured to be a Red River mismatch, and for most of the game it was— just the other way around.
Hours later, No. 2 TCU came back from 18 points down at the half and squeaked out a 52-45 victory at Kansas State. It was a pretty gutsy effort, but let’s face it: The Week 6 Horned Frogs wouldn’t have beaten the Week 6 Longhorns by a score anywhere close to 50-7.
But college football is funny like that. Young athletes sometimes don’t have a clue what they’re capable of until they’re faced— for the first time, in the case of Texas’ freshmen— with deep doubt and angry criticism.
It helps to have a coach who puts the ‘‘strong’’ in the term ‘‘strong-willed.’’
We’ll see how far Texas can go after a 1-4 start. Maybe the Longhorns won’t truly be back until next season, but they just took a giant step in the right direction. And no one’s dumping on Charlie Strong anymore. ‘‘We needed this,’’ he said. In the worst way.