Horns Lasso Cowboys to Become Bowl-Eligible

Texas football fans and coaches alike have been waiting for a signature win all season long. The win over 23^rd-ranked West Virginia appeared to be that win, until Saturday night in Stillwater, where Charlie Strong’s team did exactly what it needed to do against struggling Oklahoma State.

Spurred on by Strong’s pregame fashion declaration, Texas imposed its physical will, dominating Oklahoma State 28-7, wrote Brian Davis in the Austin American-Statesman Sunday. On a frigid night, Strong had his players strip off the extra clothing they thought would keep them warming, challenging them to be tough and ignore the elements. It worked, remarked senior receiver John Harris.

“He challenges us as men and he challenges us as a team,” Harris said. “It’s fun to have a coach like that.”

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Harris played his part for an offense that rolled through the Cowboys defense to the tune of 430 yards, hardly gaudy numbers but plenty effective. Harris caught nine passes for 117 yards and a score from Tyrone Swoopes, who threw for 305 yards without an interception on the night. He added a second touchdown pass on a 45-yard rainbow to Armanti Foreman in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Texas held the high-octane Cowboys to less than 200 yards, by far their lowest output of the season, further solidifying Strong’s desire to have defense be his team’s calling card, writes Kirk Bohls in Wednesday’s American-Statesman.

In addition to further establishing momentum for Strong and the work his staff has done to create a different culture, the Longhorns’ sixth win all but guarantees them a spot in a bowl – no bowl looking at the Big 12’s available teams will pass on Texas with its name and fanbase – which gives Strong an extra 15 practices to continue the work.

As Cedric Golden writes in the Austin American-Statesman, bowl games couldn’t have been further from Strong’s mind just three weeks ago. “They were a hot mess. We watched a 3-5 team take a soul-crushing 23-0 loss at Kansas State. Hope wasn’t the four-letter word most of you were using at that point.”

What a difference three quick wins make. Texas beat beleaguered Texas Tech, upset West Virginia and surfed Strong around the locker room before imposing its will in a manly win against the Cowboys.

No one is patting themselves on the back for a five-loss season. In fact, Strong made it a point to say during his Monday media sessions that this better be his only such season at Texas, as Nick Bromberg reported for yahoo!sports.

“I told our coaching staff, we’re sitting here at 3-5, and we should not be pleased with where we are,” Bromberg reported Strong saying. “I said at The University of Texas that should never happen. Our record of going out and getting five losses, we’re not comfortable with that at all. That will never happen within this program again.”

If Texas continues to build on the foundation Strong has laid during this down-and-now-up season, he may be right.

As Golden summed it up, “this team has fully embraced its coach’s blueprint for success (physical run game, scary defense and no careless turnovers). The result is a group that just earned the right to play past Christmas.”

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