Longhorns hoping to get back on track Saturday against Baylor

“We’re still trying to figure out who we’re going to play, who the players are going to be,” Tom Herman. “Right now, our assumption is that Baylor will be here. How many players they’ll have active for that game, I’m not quite sure.”

The Longhorns, who rose as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press poll before plummeting from the poll following their two consecutive defeats, need to eliminate mistakes and penalties to climb back into the conference race. 

There has been marked improvement on defense over the past two games and UT’s attack is powerful, ranking first in the nation in scoring offense (49.5 points per game) and 13th in the nation in total offense (495.3 ypg).

“To paint (our situation) with such a broad brush or a broad stroke is not really fair. I think you’ve got to dive into the minutia,” Herman said. “There are a ton of bright spots in the last two games that we can definitely build on.”

Baylor (1-1 overall, 1-1 in Big 12 play) heads back to the field after an open week and then a 10-day program-wide shutdown of football activities due to a Covid spike on the team.

The Bears practiced Sunday for the first time since Oct. 7 following a coronavirus outbreak that included 28 players and 14 coaches testing positive after their Oct. 3 road game at West Virginia. Seventeen other Baylor players underwent contact tracing Oct. 12.

Baylor has had three games either cancelled or postponed because of Covid. It opened the season Sept. 26 with a 47-14 win over Kansas before dropping a 27-21 double-overtime decision to the Mountaineers three weeks ago.

First-year Baylor coach Dave Aranda said he is optimistic his team will be ready to go against Texas. 

“As far as getting 11 guys on offense and defense, I feel really good about that,” Aranda said. “I feel like, by the middle of the week, we’ll have most everybody back. So far, so good — we’re headed in the right direction.”

Saturday’s dustup will feature two of the nation’s most experienced signal-callers in Baylor’s Charlie Brewer and UT’s Sam Ehlinger, each a four-year starter. Ehlinger has passed for 1,211 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions in Texas’ four games this season while Brewer has thrown for 371 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions in Baylor’s two contests.