By Colby Gordon
AUSTIN, Texas — A bye week may have done the Longhorns good.
Getting Saturday off following the disappointing loss at TCU Oct. 26, Texas players at their weekly media availability session Tuesday said they have had a mental reset prior the final stretch run of their season, which starts with this week’s home game against Kansas State.
“Rejuvenated,” quarterback Sam Ehlinger said when asked what the week off did for the team. “The rest coming over the bye week was incredible. I’m motivated and ready to get back to work.”
The physical[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] rest from not playing also should help, as sophomore defensive backs Caden Sterns and B.J. Foster appear likely to play against the Wildcats, which is welcome news for a secondary that has been decimated by injuries for most of the year.
“It’ll make my job easier, because we have our dudes back,” defensive lineman Keondre Coburn said. “They’ve been hurt. Having them back will help us, and (the media) can stop getting on us about having a bad defense.”
The Longhorns’ defense currently ranks 118th in the nation and ninth in the Big 12 — ahead of only Kansas — and is allowing more than 465 yards per game and nearly 6.5 yards per play.
Senior wideout Devin Duvernay noted it is pretty simple how having Sterns and Foster back will help.
“Just their experience, as they played a lot last year and had good freshman years,” he said. “Getting them back would definitely help a lot.”
The loss to the Horned Frogs sparked an intense focus in practice last week. Coburn said every player was more involved in each aspect of practice and there were sessions of the first-team offense going against the first-team defense.
“Practice has been increased to where everybody is involved,” he said. “You hear everybody talking trash to each other and getting motivated from each other. It’s just been fun lately.”
While Texas needs to win out and get a little help to reach the Big 12’s championship game, Ehlinger said there has been no sense of panic throughout the program and said the Longhorns still take an approach of looking at things one game at a time.
“We have a great opportunity to continue to get better and develop,” Ehlinger said. “The bye week got some guys back healthy and got everybody’s feet underneath them. The break helped everybody realize the sky’s not falling, and if we take care of our business and do the things we can do, we’ll be in a good spot.”
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