Texas football pulling out all the stops to earn bowl game berth

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — One win and they’re in.

That’s the philosophy being adopted by the Texas football team over the next 11 days and final two games of the regular season in search of earning its first bowl berth since 2014.

But given the opposition — Texas kicks off against No. 24 West Virginia at 11 a.m. this Saturday in Morgantown, followed six days laterby a primetime home shootout against Texas Tech on Black Friday — nothing will be easy for the Longhorns, and they know it.

So coach Tom Herman is ready to pull out all the stops.

Herman’s latest strategic move will [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]be to use both the quarterbacks who have started games for the Longhorns this season, sophomore Shane Buechele and freshman Sam Ehlinger, in a situational platoon of sorts against West Virginia.

“These last two games it’s going to be, ‘what do we need to win, and what do these guys do well in the game plan?’” Herman said. “Do we need to run the quarterback a little bit more and have more of a presence in the zone read game? Then we’ll play Sam a little bit more. If we’ve got to throw the ball downfield and we’ve got to get the ball out of our hands really quickly and some of the (read-pass-option) stuff because of the zone coverages that we’re seeing, then that’s, obviously, right up Shane’s alley.

“As we see how the game plan develops, we’ll know a lot more in terms of the number of reps. I would imagine you’ll see both of them at some point. But in what ratio, I don’t know just yet.”

Herman already has moved the running back who has gained the most yards for Texas this season, junior Chris Warren III, to H-back to get him on the field after Warren’s carries have been given to freshmen Toneil Carter and Danny Young, and he has played mix-and-match all year with his talented trove of wide receivers, preferring to give more opportunities to the players who practiced best prior to each game, rather than employing a true starter at the positions.

“Nobody has completely separated themselves at those positions, so there is a lot of deserving players to play,” Herman said. “To say that you’re going to play three wide receivers the entire game, their legs would fall off, as much running as they do — the tempo at which we play and no-huddle and all of that — so I think that’s pretty standard for most no-huddle spread teams.”

UT’s receiver corps will be without one of those moveable parts for the rest of the season after senior Dorian Leonard broke his right foot Saturday in the win over Kansas.

The Longhorns’ ragtag offensive line is expected to get a serious boost this week as junior All-America left tackle Connor Williams is set to return after missing the past seven-and-a-half games with a knee injury.

Texas heads to the Allegheny Mountains after a less-than-scintillating 42-27 win over hapless Kansas, a team that has won one game against an FCS opponent since 2014

Asked after the game if it was upsetting that his team didn’t enjoy a more comfortable win over a Jayhawks team that Texas should be able to dominate, Herman said “no,” and did so emphatically.

“There’s no lack of confidence. There’s no issue with perception,” Herman said. “Winning for us right now is going to be hard, especially with where we are with this program, and that’s OK, as long as we win.”

THIS AND THAT: Fifth-year senior defensive back Antwuan Davis was named Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Week Monday following his standout performance Saturday in the Longhorns’ victory over Kansas. Davis had three tackles, two interceptions, a touchdown and a fumble recovery to earn the award for the first time in his career. … Junior punter Michael Dickson leads the nation with an average of 48.6 yards per punt and is the frontrunner for the Ray Guy Award, awarded to the nation’s best punter. The Longhorns’ net average of 44.65 per punt is the best in the country. … Texas allowed 96 yards on the ground to Kansas but fell from 11th to 12th nationally in rushing defense. The Longhorns are second in the Big 12, behind TCU, in rushing yards allowed per game (115).

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