Longhorns want Texas football Senior Day to be special

By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas – There will be plenty on the line for Texas when it hosts Texas Tech on Black Friday in the regular-season finale for both teams. It will be the last time the Longhorns’ seniors will take the field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and Tom Herman and his staff and the fellow Texas want to make sure the class goes out with a bang … and a win.

The 16-member senior class, which includes both scholarship and non-scholarship players, will be [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]feted before kickoff Friday but the real indication of how the rest of the team will honor this season’s seniors is by how it plays after that celebration.

“We owe it to our senior class, which has done so much for this program since we got here to put us in a position to be successful moving forward,” Texas coach Tom Herman said Monday at his final weekly press conference of the regular season. “There’s nobody in that locker room that should not feel a debt of gratitude toward them and we want to be able to repay that my making their Senior Day really, really memorable.”

Those being recognized are offensive linemen Parker Braun, Ishan Rison, Zach Shackelford and J.P. Urquidez; defensive linemen Malcolm Roach, Jamari Chisholm, Gerald Wilbon and D’Andre Christmas-Giles; wide receivers John Burt, Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson; tight end Austin Hibbetts; running back Kirk Johnson, safety Brandon Jones, linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch, kicker/punter Chris Naggar; and defensive back/running back Mason Ramirez.

Herman said that he admires the senior class for its gumption and dedication to the team as much as its play on the field.

“Well, they stayed when we got here,” Herman explained. “They were young. They bought in. Some took — a couple took — longer than others but for the most part this crew when you say ‘jump’ they ask ‘how high?’ They don’t want to know ‘why am I jumping? Jump where?’

“They don’t ask questions. They’re unbelievable soldiers for the program. We will forever be indebted to them because of their development.”

Duvernay, Johnson, Jones, Roach and Shackelford are five of the Longhorns’ six team captains this season.

“You look, and I know Collin has been hurt most of the season, but you look at him as a true sophomore to the level he was playing at toward the end of last year and then this year, and Devin Duvernay and Zach Shackelford,” Herman added. “I mean, the list goes on and on of these seniors that have really, really developed in our three years here, not just from a skill set standpoint but emotionally and from a leadership standpoint.”

The 2019 seniors have combined to play in 458 games in the Burnt Orange and White during their careers, amassing 6,594 all-purpose yards and scoring 34 total touchdowns.

Defensively, this year’s senior class has combined for 482 career tackles, 45.0 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks.
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