Texas seniors have valued progress
Hopes for better program through their play
AUSTIN — Patrick Vahe was thrilled to be included on the trip to South Bend, Ind.
He never expected it. He didn’t expect to be named Longhorns starting left tackle as a true freshman. It was all a wonderful surprise.
So there he was, a day-one Texas starter tasked with protecting quarterback Tyrone Swoopes against No. 11 Notre Dame. In an NBC prime-time game. In a stadium that housed some of the greatest teams in college football history.
Vahe will never forget Sept. 5, 2015. It was brutal.
“I went against one of the topnotch defensive tackles, (senior) Sheldon Day,” Vahe said with a
mock grimace. “That guy was a freak of nature. He welcomed me to college football, I’ll tell you that.
“I think him, then (junior linebacker) Jaylon Smith. I remember I had to try to block both of them at the same time. I cracked
my helmet. I think they took away my Adam’s apple. It was a lot of learning up there.”
Defensive end Charles Omenihu remembers that game well. Vahe’s fellow 2015 signee didn’t start as a freshman, but he saw action during Notre Dame’s 38-3 win over Texas.
Scrawny for a lineman at 235 pounds, Omenihu had the pleasure of tussling with 6-5, 325pound sophomore left guard Quenton Nelson, the sixth overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
“I’ll never forget, Quenton Nelson came on the pull,” Omenihu said. “Man, I see why that dog was the sixth overall pick. That man was coming with some steam. He hit me right up the side of my chin. I was like, that’s a welcome to college football hit right there.”
That pain lingered through a pair of losing seasons and a churning coaching carousel. Classmates transferred to other programs or departed early. Pernicious rumors floated around the Forty Acres.
Through it all, the pair remained determined to accomplish what they set out to do: return Texas to a place of national prominence.
Now seniors, Vahe and Omenihu have been instrumental in the resurrection of the Longhorns.
Vahe has long been a steady, calming presence on the line, having started 41 of 44 career games. Omenihu, a robust 275 pounds, has emerged as one of the Big 12’s pre-eminent sack artists after collecting 7½ (and 12½ tackles for loss) in 10 games this season.
Along with 24 other seniors, they’ll play their final game at Royal-Memorial Stadium for the 15thranked Longhorns (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) Saturday against 16th-ranked Iowa State (6-3, 5-2).
This moment snuck up on fifthyear senior nose tackle Chris Nelson.
As a fledging Longhorn, the Florida native paid little heed to warnings from his elders about how rapidly the end would come. Malcolm Brown, a senior running back in 2014, would gather the freshmen around in the locker room and regale them with tales, like story time around a camp fire.
“Malcolm Brown, Big Mal,” Nelson said with a grin. “He always told us, ‘This is going to come up on y’all fast.’ We’d just sit there and laugh while he’d tell us all these stories, like man he’s going down memory lane.
“Some of the guys now are like, ‘Does it really go by that fast?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, man, it really does, so y’all gotta lock into this and enjoy it while you can.’”
It’s been easy to enjoy Texas football these last two years under coach Tom Herman’s regime. A 7-6 finish and a 33-16 win over Missouri in the 2017 Texas Bowl, the program’s first postseason victory since 2012, was the first sign of a new culture settling in.
This group of seniors helped usher in that change by advocating for a total buy-in. There was initial resistance, most notably from senior defensive end Breckyn Hager, but bit by bit the Longhorns chipped away at many of the ills that had infected this program for too long.
UT is 14-9 under Herman. Its average margin of defeat is 5.7 points. It rattled off six straight wins this season, including a 48-45 thriller over No. 7 Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown. A Big 12 title is in play.
None of the seniors are content, though. After all the trials and tribulations, they’ve learned to value progress and crave improvement. They want to lay the groundwork for those they’ll soon leave behind.
“We came in as a class and we thought, OK, we’re going to turn this thing upside down,” Omenihu said. “We didn’t really turn it upside too much.
“Texas, to be real, has been in a hole. This year we’ve kind of seen the light a little bit. But throughout the next years, even when I’m gone, I think they’re going to be all right.”