Nearly a year to the day after the game that changed the future of Texas football, the Longhorns get a chance to make amends for the school’s worst defensive performance ever.
Last Sept. 7, no one could have imagined that Brigham Young, fresh off a season-opening loss to a Virginia team that would win just once in its final 11 games, would thrash the Texas defense so badly that Texas made wholesale systemic changes in the days – and months – following.
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Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz’s tenure ended as soon as the team charter touched down in Austin, and despite a six game winning streak that enabled the Longhorns to play Baylor with the conference title on the line, Mack Brown resigned following the season, largely in part because he couldn’t deliver on the promise that last year’s Longhorns would return to the ranks of the elite.
As is burned into the brains of all Longhorns fans, BYU rushed for a Texas-worst 550 yards, including 259 yards and three touchdowns from quarterback Taysom Hill, as pointed out by Jeff Call in the Deseret News.
“Bolstered by a revamped offensive line, BYU quarterback Taysom Hill ran wild against the Longhorns, gaining a school-record 259 yards and scoring three touchdowns,” Call wrote. “It was the second-best single-game rushing total in school history (Eldon Fortie rushed for 272 yards against George Washington in 1962).”
Hill’s performance – coupled with those of Jamal Williams and Paul Lasike (259 rush yards combined) – is the main reason athletic director Steve Patterson brought defensive minded head coach Charlie Strong to Austin. Strong in turn brought Texas-ex Vance Bedford his defensive coordinator and tasked him with fixing a historically bad defensive unit.
The former Longhorn defensive back saw last year’s BYU two different ways: as a Texas fan and as a coach.
“I was watching the game on television,” he told the Texas media this week. “I’m going to watch Texas. I’m a Texas-Ex and a Longhorn through and through. You are always going to watch your home school. Watching that game, you know, it’s a little disappointing.”
No longer simply a Texas fan, Bedford must figure out a way to make sure Hill and the Cougars don’t run all over his defense this year.
“We talked to our kids about it and we talked about how many yards [BYU] rushed for last year,” he said. “That’s last year. It’s a new opportunity, a new day and that’s the approach we have to make.”
The coach said Texas’ top priority Saturday will be making sure Hill doesn’t run wild again, but he stressed BYU is far from a one-man show.
“He is just one of many guys that we have to stop,” Bedford said. “If you focus on just a guy, those other guys will beat you. Do we have to stop him and control him? We need to control him so he doesn’t go for 259 yards again that’s number one.”
Bedford’s defense got off on the right foot last Saturday, holding North Texas to less than 100 offensive yards. No one expects the Longhorns to duplicate that feat this week, but given the injuries and suspensions that have decimated the offensive line, another dominant performance may be necessary to lead Texas to a win, though the coach says a winning effort will require the entire team, no matter who lines up on offense.
“We’re one family, so we have to work together — offense, defense, and special teams,” he said. “Sometimes one group may have to play a little bit better than the other group until the other comes along, but that’s part of being a team though.”
Given the defense’s opening week performance, Bedford says Texas remains confident it can play well enough defensively to give the team a chance to win.
“We are going to go out there and do what we do on defense,” he said. “We’re not going to change what we do. We are going to play fundamentally, tough, hard-nosed football and that’s what we want to be here at The University of Texas.”
And don’t talk to him about getting revenge for last year or making amends for what happened. That didn’t play with him when he patrolled the secondary for Texas, and he doesn’t want his team thinking that way. Nothing Texas does Saturday night will undo what happened last year.
“Revenge, being amped up – I’m not into all of that,” he said. “You come to The University of Texas for a reason because you want to be the best and you want to play the best. If you need motivation to go out there and get fired up, you shouldn’t be here.”
Bedford, with Strong’s blessing, wants to restore the defensive mentality teams had when he played here.
“When you came out there and I had that Horn on my helmet, the rest of it didn’t matter. I looked at you and I was going to knock your block off and life goes on. This is The University of Texas and you the other people. It’s just that simple. That was the mindset back in the day. Are we there right now? No we are not there at this time, but we plan on getting back there and we have the right guy as a head coach, Charlie Strong. That’s his mindset.”
If Strong and Bedford can succeed in that plan sooner rather than later, Texas fans will have plenty to smile about and that just might make last year’s debacle ancient history.
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