First Director’s Cup caps an eventful year
Longhorns take top program title amid flurry of change
Back on July 21, in the midst of SEC media days, the Chronicle broke the story, the one that will define Texas (and Oklahoma) likely for decades to come. Nine days later, Texas and OU accepted invitations to join the SEC and leave the Big 12 once their current media rights deals expire in June 2025, if not sooner.
The rest of 2021 was pretty eventful for Texas, too, in ways both welcome and unwanted.
Texas claimed its first Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup on the strength of NCAA team titles in men’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis and rowing; a national runner-up finish in volleyball during an unusual spring season; and national third-place performances in women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis and baseball. The swimming and diving crown was both the program’s and coach Eddie Reese’s 15th, further cementing his status as one of the greatest collegiate coaches across any sport.
The Longhorns’ were more up and down in some of the school’s more visible sports.
First-year Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer guided the Longhorns all the way to the Elite Eight. With junior center and future WNBA No. 1 draft pick Charli Collier emerging as a dominant two-way force, the sixth-seeded ‘Horns bested third-seeded UCLA and second-seeded Maryland to advance to its first regional final since 2016. No. 1 seed South Carolina beat the Longhorns by 28, but the future is bright as ever after Schaefer reloaded with four of espnW’s top-40 2021 recruits.
Texas men’s basketball swept Kansas for the first time ever and claimed the program’s first Big 12 tournament title. But third-seeded Texas washed out in the NCAA tournament’s first round, coming up short against 14th-seeded Abilene Christian in a stunning 53-52 loss. That defeat led coach Shaka Smart to exit for Marquette after six seasons and opened the door for athletic director Chris Del Conte to hire Chris Beard away from Texas Tech.
And that was arguably Del Conte’s second-biggest hire of the year. The Texas AD decided to eat football coach Tom Herman’s $15.4 million buyout, canning him in favor of bringing in another successful Nick Saban revival project in Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
The Longhorns didn’t exactly live up to Sarkisian’s “All gas, no brakes” ethos in Year 1, though. Texas finished 5-7 and dropped six straight games for the first time since 1956, hitting an abysmal nadir in a home overtime loss to Kansas in front of visiting recruits.
Still, Texas rebounded by collecting a top-five signing class that included former Southlake Carroll star and Ohio State transfer quarterback Quinn Ewers, the No. 1 2022 prospect before reclassifying to enroll early.
The Longhorns enjoyed far more success on the diamond than the gridiron.
Texas baseball claimed a Big 12 title and won 50 games for the first time since 2009. The Longhorns swept their way through the regionals and super regionals, then dropped their first game at the College World Series only to win three straight and force an elimination game with Mississippi State for a berth in the CWS Finals. The Bulldogs won on a ninth-inning walk-off single, but a still-stacked Texas team should be back in Omaha for another run in 2022.
Texas softball made its second straight super regional appearance under manager Mike White during a season in which AllAmerican second baseman Janae Jefferson hit .446 and became the program’s alltime hits leader. Texas would eventually be eliminated from the NCAA tournament by Oklahoma State in Game 3 of the Stillwater Super Regional.
A current Longhorn might have had the best year of all, though. Senior midfielder Julia Grosso not only helped Team Canada win its first Olympic Gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games, she delivered the decisive kick in the sixth round of the penalty shootout to beat Sweden. And on December 6, the two-time All-American signed a pro contract with Juventus FC Women of Italy’s Serie A.