Horns back to work for crucial road game at Texas Tech

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas – Longhorns head coach Tom Herman said he had a lot of pride, and frustration, regarding the Texas Football team’s close losses to Oklahoma State and West Virginia over the past two Saturdays.

The ‘Horns head man also added that he and his team are ready to go back to work to elevate the latter emotion.

Texas, which remained 15th in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings, have no time or, as Herman said, any inclination to pout or wallow in self-pity after losing 42-41 to the Mountaineers at home last Saturday on a gutsy two-point conversion by WVU.

“I’m proud and frustrated at the same time,” Herman said on Monday during his regular media availability. “I’m so proud of the way that we fought two weeks ago in Stillwater. I’m extremely proud of the level of intensity and physicality that we continue to play with. That is something that will never waver in this program. I’m extremely proud of that.”

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Focused Frustration

The frustration comes from both ends of the spectrum right now.

“I’m certainly frustrated that we couldn’t close the deal this past weekend, got off to such a poor start the weekend prior,” Herman added.

Instead, Texas will focus on overcoming several key injuries that affected the proficiency of its defense and finding a way to regain its swagger on that side of the ball after two down weeks that resulted in two setbacks.

The defense has been uncharacteristically tentative in the losses to Oklahoma State and West Virginia, Herman said.

“For whatever reason we haven’t cut it loose at times,” Herman opined. “That’s on us to figure out why. Maybe it’s an uncertainty. Yeah, just playing tentative at times. The easiest way to aleve some of that is to trim down your call sheet a little bit, and make sure that guys are ultimately confident in what we’re doing.

“Not that they haven’t been.”

Herman added that the coaching staff would try to uncover every stone and find the way to get the Texas defense back to making stops and forcing turnovers.

“We’ve got to just have more precision,” Herman said. “We’ve got to coach our guys to fit our gaps more precisely and make sure we’re playing a lot more disciplined.”

Big Things Eluding Longhorns

The Longhorns (6-3, 4-2 in Big 12 play) no longer control their own destiny to reach the Big 12 Championship game.

Texas’ three losses this season have come by an average of three points per contest, and Herman and his staff are continuing to preach about how the attention to of every detail in the team’s preparation and during the games can make the difference.

“The communication of that has been done throughout the two years in our program,” Herman said. “We’ve got to continue to coach it better and drive home those points.

“I don’t think there’s a guy in that locker room that would tell you we don’t understand that everything matters, and what’s necessary to win close ballgames. We’ve experienced it. We have been able to do it, so it’s not like it’s something that we haven’t done. We just need to do it more consistently.”

With three regular-season games remaining and a bowl game already clinched, Herman admitted that the Longhorns have made progress but are far from a finished product.

“We’ve shown all the progress, not all the progress … we still can show more progress,” Herman explained. “But I don’t think there’s anybody that’s watched us for the last two years or watched this program for the last five or six that would argue that we’ve made substantial progress up until this point.

“We know what we’re capable of, though, too. I am very optimistic that we have proven to ourselves what we’re capable of. I have no doubt that we’ll see that again this week.”

He also refused to say how he would, or could, define this year as a success.

“I’m not going to get into what would be successful and not successful. The big picture is irrelevant. We’ve got to worry about making progress this week in terms of our level the play to be able to go on the road and win a big-time ballgame. Our success right now to go 1-0 against Texas Tech.”

That will be a tall order against a much-improved Red Raider squad that lost to No. 7 Oklahoma 51-46 on Saturday. Texas Tech (5-4, 3-3 in Big 12 play), like Texas, has dropped two games in a row by close margins.

More From Monday

An updated injury report:

♦ Defensive end Marqez Bimage dislocated his shoulder against West Virginia and will miss this week’s game in Lubbock.

♦ Cornerback Davante Davis is still nursing the neck sprain, and Herman lists him as questionable for Texas Tech.

♦ As is defensive end Breckyn Hager, who dislocated his radius early in the game against the Mountaineers.

♦ Brandon Jones, who reinjured his ankle at the team hotel prior to the West Virginia game in what Herman keeps calling “a freak deal,” is doing everything he can to try to get back.

“But if we played today, Brandon would not play,” the coach said. “We’re hoping he takes a turn for the better here in the coming days.”

♦ Herman said the Longhorns would likely employ different defensive packages to try to counter the strengths of the two Texas Tech quarterbacks that they will likely see on Saturday.

♦ Alan Bowman, who is considered the better passer of the two Red Raider quarterbacks, remains in the hospital with a collapsed lung from the Oklahoma game; his status for Saturday remains unknown. If he plays, Texas would use more of a dime, or “lightning” defensive package.

♦ Jeff Duffey, the better runner of the two Tech signalcallers, is more likely to start on Saturday; if so, the Longhorns will employ more nickel defense.

“These guys that have played for us on defense, they kind of know the ins-and-outs, the strengths and weaknesses of each call,” Herman said. “I think we’ll have a good package of both available to us. Nothing will be completely foreign or new for our guys.”

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