Next up for Texas football: securing a winning season

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — The initial goal for the Texas football team, its first bowl appearance since 2014, was secured by winning Saturday at No. 24 West Virginia in cold and rainy Morgantown, W.V.

Now UT is on the hunt for an even bigger achievement: a winning overall season, which can be accomplished by defeating Texas Tech when the two teams square off in Austin at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Black Friday.

The Longhorns (6-5 overall, 5-3 in Big 12 Conference play) want desperately to build on the momentum [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]a bowl game and a winning season would provide but they understand that the Red Raiders (5-6 overall, 2-6 in conference play) will be a formidable foe, especially with the possibility that Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury likely needs to win by his team this game to keep his job.

“I’m excited about this week,” Texas coach Tom Herman said at his Monday media availability. “Here we are again, preparing for a team that’s in the top 10 in the country in total offense, and this time on a short week. We know we have our hands full.

“There’s a lot at stake for this football game, and a lot to still be played for … and not just a better bowl position.”

A victory would give the Longhorns a winning record at home and would mean finishing the regular season with a winning record, which hasn’t been accomplished by Texas since 2013. The ‘Horns also haven’t won their final three games of the regular season since, incredibly, 2009, the year they played Alabama for the national championship.

The Longhorns are 1-6 on Senior Day over the past seven years, and Herman wants his small but proud senior class to be able to take a victory lap around the stadium after a win.

“We are excited to beat a top-25 (West Virginia) team on the road, and we are pleased to be bowl-eligible, but we are far from done,” Herman said.” Our players want to be able to leave their legacy as a senior class that ushered in a new way of doing things and helping this program return to prominence.”

Herman announced that freshman Sam Ehlinger would start against Texas Tech, but said that sophomore Shane Buechele also would get playing time, probably early in the game. Last week, those roles were reversed, with Buechele getting the start and Ehlinger entering in the third series and never coming out.

Ehlinger amassed 227 total yards and two passing touchdowns and played his usual all-out game that feature the good (scrambles, catching a pass and acting as lead blocker on several plays) and the bad: a 94-yard pick-six when he was being sacked.

A big part of UT’s win over West Virginia and any success it will have moving forward is a better run game. Freshman Daniel Young ran for a career-high 85 yards and a touchdown in the victory against the Mountaineers as All-America left tackle Connor Williams returned to the offensive line for the first time in eight games after a knee injury.

Herman confirmed that left guard Patrick Vahe will miss the Texas Tech game with a sprained knee and added that nickel back P.J. Locke was extremely doubtful with an ankle injury that has kept him out of the past two games.

THIS AND THAT: Texas Tech’s 48-45 victory in 2015 was its first in Austin since 1997 and also ended the Longhorns’ six-game winning streak in the series; the Red Raiders hadn’t beaten Texas since doing so in Lubbock in 2008. Texas won, 45-37, in Lubbock last season … Junior linebacker Gary Johnson was named the Big 12 Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Monday following his standout performance in Saturday’s win at West Virginia. He had seven tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry. It is the first weekly award for Johnson in his career … The Augusta Sports Council announced Monday that junior punter Michael Dickson has been named a finalist for the 2017 Ray Guy Award, which annually recognizes the best punter in college football. Dickson, who also was a finalist a season ago, is trying to become the first Longhorn to ever win the award. Dickson is leading the nation averaging 48.03 yards per punt and his net punting average of 44.22 yards per punt is also the best in the country. His 2016 average of 47.4 yards per punt is the school record, at least for now … Texas allowed just 56 yards on the ground to West Virginia and improved from 11th to eighth nationally in the stat. The Longhorns are second in the Big 12, behind TCU, in yards allowed on the ground per game (109.6).[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]