By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AUSTIN, Texas — There are a lot of lessons to be learned from Texas’ gut-wrenching 45-40 Oct. 8 loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, but a good measure of what ails the porous Longhorns defense can be summed up in two words — “get back!”
The Longhorns gave up eight plays of 20 yards or more to the Sooners and that, according to Texas head coach Charlie Strong at his Oct. 10 Monday media availability, just can’t continue to happen.
“That’s something we have to continue to [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]improve on,” Strong said. “On the deep balls, our guys are losing their eyes on the receiver. We work on covering the deep ball in practice because that’s a big part of our offense, and we make plays on those passes. We have to carry that over to the games.”
Strong lamented the Longhorns’ inability to make more out of Oklahoma’s four turnovers and said “two or three plays” made a difference in winning and losing against the Sooners.
“As bad as we played, we still had an opportunity to win the football game,” Strong said. “The mistakes we made are all very correctable and we are determined to get them fixed. We’ve been in this situation before — it’s a simple game that we are making too complicated.”
If it sounds a lot like the comments Strong has made after the Longhorns’ past three games — each of which UT lost — then rest assured that the coach understands and acknowledges the frustration of the fans.
Texas hasn’t played a game at home since Sept. 10 (a span of 35 days and three games), and it will be interesting to see how the Longhorns are received based on their current swoon. Iowa State (1-5 overall and 0-3 in Big 12 play) hits town Saturday for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
“Everybody wants to have a winning team and a winning program,” Strong said. “When the players signed on here, they knew the expectations would be high, but they also signed on for the level of support our fans can give us. I can guarantee that we are going to give everything we’ve got.”
Given the way things have gone lately, a win against Iowa State — which embarrassed Texas, 24-0, in Ames last season — could be the key to the Longhorns’ season.
“They are a different team with a different coach than they were last year, and we are different, too,” Strong explained. “This conference is so competitive that we can’t afford to take any team lightly. Iowa State is a lot like us: a couple of plays that past two weeks (versus Baylor and Oklahoma State) have cost them games they could have won.”
Other items addressed by Strong on Monday included:
• Strong said he enjoyed taking over the defense Saturday even as Oklahoma racked up 672 of total offense. “It was kind of like the old days,” he said, harking back to his time as a defensive coordinator at South Carolina and Florida.
• There will be changes coming to the Longhorns’ “18 Wheeler” package to make it harder to defend. Oklahoma basically didn’t even cover Texas’ receivers when Tyrone Swoopes came in to quarterback the power-running package, opting to stack the line and blitz from the outside to contain the run. “We have passes available in that package, and we will see some changes to what we run out of it,” Strong said.
• Strong praised wide receivers Devin Duvernay, Dorian Leonard and Armanti Foreman for their play against Oklahoma. “There is a constant competition going on with the wide receivers, but they all know they are eventually going to get the ball thrown to them as long as they keep working,” Strong said.
• The Longhorns’ Oct. 22 game at Kansas State has been scheduled for an 11 a.m. kickoff and will be televised by ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.
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