Winning in present tense
Texas experiences excitement shared with former teams that found success
AUSTIN — Just down the hall from the locker room where jubilant Texas players hoisted Charlie Strong onto their shoulders and tossed him into the air late Sunday night, reminders of past celebrations remain.
On the interior wall of the auditorium where UT holds its team meetings, the years of UT’s conference championships are commemorated with burnt-orange numbers affixed to the plaster. Junior defensive end Naashon Hughes has glanced at that wall dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
And all he knows for sure is it’s been far too long since a numeral has been added.
“The last one was in ’05?” he said Monday, unsure of himself. “Something like that.”
UT’s last conference title actually came in 2009, but Hughes’ uncertainty is telling and understandable. To the 18to 20-year-olds who pulled off a breakthrough 50-47 doubleovertime upset of No. 10 Notre Dame on Sunday, the only thing certain about the Longhorns’ glory days is they were part of a blurry, fading history.
To them, Colt McCoy is only marginally more current than Bobby Layne. Derrick Johnson might as well be Tommy Nobis. Vince Young is the old guy on Longhorn Network.
And that’s partly why a night like Sunday’s not only was a step forward for a program, but also a revelation.
It is one thing for young
players to hear about a winning tradition, to see statues outside the stadium and the trophies inside the halls. It’s quite another to reignite that tradition, even if only for a moment, in front of more than 100,000 frenzied souls who were remembering what it was like to win again.
“Everybody felt greatness, throughout everything,” defensive tackle Paul Boyette said.
Not only did the Longhorns see success, they found belief, too. All over the team facility this offseason, plain white pieces of paper with the single word “BELIEVE” were hung on doors, over water fountains, and next to equipment.
But Strong, who’d gone 11-14 in his first two seasons at UT, said he realized people needed more convincing than a simple slogan could provide.
“So many times, we ran off the field hanging our heads, dragging our heads,” Strong said. “Now, it was fun to see.”
For the players to believe in themselves, they needed to prove something on the field, under the lights, in the glare of the biggest national TV audience of college football’s opening weekend.
And for fans to share that belief, they needed some proof, too.
“You want people to believe in you,” Strong said. “You have to give people a reason to believe in you.”
Against the Fighting Irish, the Longhorns provided plenty of them. The most obvious was a dynamic new up-tempo offense, masterfully deployed by coordinator Sterlin Gilbert and operated by the quarterback duo of freshman Shane Buechele and senior Tyrone Swoopes.
Buechele passed for 280 yards and two touchdowns, Swoopes ran for three scores, including the game-winner, and tailback D’Onta Foreman racked up 131 yards on the ground.
And a defense that was torched throughout much of Notre Dame’s second-half rally came up with two huge late stops — first on the final possession of regulation, and then forcing a field goal in the second overtime.
And when it was over? For the first time since 2009, when many of the Longhorns were in grade school, they had an undefeated record with a victory over an AP Top 25 team.
And just down the hall from those numbers signifying old parties, Strong and his players had one of their own.
“It was electric in there,” Strong said. “It was almost like a sigh of relief, that we finally got one we needed to go get.”