By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Things have not exactly gone as planned for the Texas football team this season, but the Longhorns have one more chance to make a statement about the postseason ahead and campaigns in the near future Friday when they host Texas Tech at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorials Stadium.
No one, least of all the Texas players and coaches, thought they would need to beat the Red Raiders to guarantee a winning record for the year. But that is what happens when a confluence of injuries, unimaginative play calling and poor defense come together in the most inopportune times.
It surely didn’t help either that[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] every one of UT’s opponents over the past six weeks have played the best games of the year when squaring off against the Longhorns.
“I don’t know that we will be tight,” Texas coach Tom Herman said about his players. “I would imagine they will be loose. At Texas, regardless of your record, we’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”
Texas (6-5 overall, and 4-4 in Big 12 play) has lost four of those games, and two in a row, and have fallen deep into the conference pack when it was expected to be among the leaders.
Herman said this week that he and his staff have not found a way to get the most out of his talented roster.
“We recruited them and their personalities, so it’s our job to find the right buttons to push, if you will,” Herman explained. “If you’ve giving them these tools and the young man is not using those tools, then it’s still your job to then educate them on why it’s important to use those tools.”
Texas Tech coach Matt Wells said there is more to Texas week than others because of the long-time rivalry between the two schools. The fact that this bunch of Red Raiders (4-7 overall, 2-6 in Big 12 games) is playing its final game of the year also has a place in the proceedings.
“In terms of the meaning,” Wells said this week, “this is certainly a big rivalry, and has been going on for a long time here, to the people at Texas Tech. I certainly heard about it the day I was hired, and so I have a respect for that rivalry as well.”
Tech is a 10-point underdog, but the Red Raiders have a rare opportunity to win in Austin three times in a row after Kliff Kingsbury’s teams did it in 2015 and 2017.
Tech has dropped five of its past six, four by three points or fewer. The last time that happened was 1985.
“The way these kids have continued to invest over the last, probably, six weeks since the Baylor game, when they have had emotional disappointment and high emotional games that came down to the wire and they get beat,” Wells said. “That’s what tells me this thing’s starting to turn.”
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