No. 9 Longhorns’ eyes forward focused on Bears

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas climbed from head-scratching loser in Week 1 in Maryland to No. 9 in the country over five games, on the strength of victories over three ranked teams and historically good play from quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

It’s been a wild ride already through the first half of the year.

Now, one of the real challenges for the Longhorns, beginning with this Saturday’s home game against Baylor, will be staying on course, blocking out the “noise” and continuing to improve.

That will be easier said than done. Texas coach Tom Herman said in his Monday media availability that he received 197 text messages in the 24 hours following the Longhorns’ thrilling 48-45 win over the then seventh-ranked Sooners last week in the AT&T Red River Showdown.

“I got nine after we lost to Maryland — I got nine,” Herman said. “With an 18- to 22-year-old kid that’s on probably four different social media platforms, I would imagine that his circle is being pulled in every direction to try to expand.”

The Longhorns have not been ranked this highly for their seventh game of a season since 2009.

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Cinch up the circle

“You need to tighten your circle in times like this, not expand it,” Herman said. “The only people that should matter in terms of what they think of you are the teammates that see you practice every day, and your coaches that see you practice and prepare.”

With a wild win just barely behind them, Herman looked a bit worse for the wear Monday, perhaps a reflection of the grind he and his team have worked through on their way out of the swamps east of the nation’s capital six weeks ago. UT’s No. 9 ranking is its highest in the Associated Press poll since week four of 2010.

“We’re banged up. These last four weeks have been kind of a bit of a meat grinder, if you will,” Herman said. “I’m maybe the most proud of how the team came to work yesterday. They came ready to get better, understanding that we’re 0-0 against Baylor this week and that our preparation is what’s led us to where we’re at now.”

Go 1-and-0

Herman was asked how he came up with the “go 1-and-0 this week” mantra that’s been so crucial to his team’s success.

“I’ve always believed in competition,” the second-year Texas coach said. “We want to go 1-and-0 every week, but it’s much more micro in our program. It’s about winning every rep in practice, it’s about winning every offseason drill, it’s about winning every test you take in the classroom.

“Being competitive in everything you do in any facet life is going to lead to success, no matter how you define success.”

Yes, the Longhorns are rolling and have worked to regain what many consider the program’s rightful spot among the elite of college football. But Herman also said his team is not to the point where winning is an expectation.

“I don’t think we’re at a place right now where you can say winning is expected and that’s OK,” Herman explained. “Winning, right now, is the fruit of the labor of the week of preparation, and it should be celebrated immensely, whether you’re beating Tulsa or Oklahoma. It doesn’t matter. Winning is extremely difficult.”

More from Monday:

Herman said the Longhorns’ limited wide receiver rotation over the past three weeks has been the product of three aspects: the need to have the best players on the field; the fact that starters Collin Johnson, Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Devin Duvernay have “separated” from the rest of the receivers; and that injuries have limited the contributions of some of the other wideouts.

“The philosophy last year was that they were all on the same level, in terms of quality of play, so it was easier to rotate,” Herman said. “(Johnson, Humphrey and Duvernay) have kind of separated themselves a little bit.”

Herman has found the proper buttons to push for success with this team, and said he has no intent to change anything as long as it’s been working as well as it has the past five weeks.

“We figured out a bit of a blueprint now, and when you find that, you don’t change. They would think I was crazy if I walked in there and said ‘hey, guys, I know you just beat Oklahoma and we have a conference game at home, but we’re going to do a bunch of things really different this week.’

“We’re not. We’re going to do ’em a little harder, a little better, a little more of them each and every week. In order for us to continue to get better, we’ve got to continue to ratchet-up our level of preparation, regardless of opponent, but it has been fun, and it’s been challenging.”

Herman said the team did not suffer any injuries against Oklahoma and would be at near-full strength for this weekend’s game against Baylor. He said his team would have to bring its “A game” to beat the Bears (4-2, 2-1 in Big 12 play).

Bears always a threat

“Baylor has a ridiculously high-powered offense that can run and throw the football,” Herman said. “That’s the biggest thing. It’s just a really good football team that we’re playing, and in the Big 12 they’re all going to be. You play all nine of them. We play really good people every week.

“We’re still at a point in our program where it’s an impossibility, almost, that we would have any kind of letting off of the gas or arrogance or think we’re going to roll our helmets out and think we’re going to win football games. Have you seen the last four years Hopefully someday, our ‘C game’ will be good enough to beat some people, but right now our kids really, really believe that we have to play our best to win, but that if we do play our best we’ve got a great chance.”

Baylor is coming off a narrow last-second win on a field goal of its own over Kansas State last week. Texas will host the Bears back at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

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