Notes and quotes from Tom Herman’s press conference

Compiled by Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas football head coach Tom Herman met with the media Monday to break down the Longhorns’ 23-21 loss at Iowa State last week and to preview Saturday’s game at No. 13 Baylor.

Here are some quotes from Herman and some notes from Texas football in [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]advance of the game:

• Herman on why Texas went so conservative on its final possession against Iowa State, when two running plays and an incomplete pass allowed the Cyclones to take over with three minutes to play and drive to the winning score: “Had we thrown three incomplete passes and let 30 seconds run off the clock, I’d be answering a lot harder questions than I am right now (had the play-calling been more aggressive). At that point in the game, time is a humongous factor and we’d been playing pretty good defense.

“And we felt, regardless of how we had been running the football throughout different games in our tenure here, we have been able to do that at the end of the game at a very, very successful rate. We felt like the right thing to do was use the clock to our advantage.”

• Texas is 78-26-4 all-time against Baylor, and is 2-0 against the Bears under head coach Tom Herman. The Longhorns won in Waco, 38-7, in 2017. The 31-point margin was UT’s largest in a win during Herman’s tenure.

• Herman on the status of his players after the loss to Iowa State and where the Longhorns go from here:

“We’ve still got a bunch of seniors in that locker room that have bled, sweat and cried for this program. We owe it (to them) to be determined to correct the mistakes that were made and do our best to go 1-0 against Baylor this week.

“Again, 18- to 22-year-old kids are pretty resilient and they’re all competitors, and they understand that we’ve got a game to play this week against an in-state opponent that’s only lost one game, and that was by three points last week.”

• The Longhorns have won eight of 11 matchups in Waco since the programs joined the Big 12 Conference prior to the 1996 season. Texas has won the last two meetings, including a 38-7 victory at McLane Stadium during Herman’s first season as head coach.

• Texas has been slow out of the gate in its past two games, and has been outscored, 21-0, in the first quarter against Kansas State and Iowa State. “The simplest answer is to get the offense in rhythm, get the quarterback in rhythm, and on defense maybe keep some of the calls pretty simple so they can get their feet wet and not fly around,” Herman said.

• The two schools first met in 1901, when Texas defeated Baylor, 23-0, in Waco. They have faced off 107 times since then, including every year since 1945.

• Thanks to Baylor’s loss to Oklahoma last week, the Longhorns still can earn a trip to the Big 12 championship through the back door and with a lot of hand-wringing. To sneak in:

— Texas would have to beat Baylor and Texas Tech at home on Black Friday
— Baylor, meanwhile, would need to go 0-2 in its final games, at home Saturday against Texas and then the following week at Kansas
— Iowa State would have to lose one of its final two, this week at home against Kansas, or in its regular-season finale at Kansas State.
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