Texas played well against San Jose State, will have to play better to stay with USC

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — In the week-to-week grind of the college football season, wins – regardless of which teams are lined up across the line of scrimmage – are something to be celebrated, especially by a Texas team that has suffered through three straight losing campaigns and opened its 2017 schedule with a clank in falling to Maryland.

But there’s no doubt that a Longhorn win this week on the road at No. 4 USC could be a program changer and send all of those who doubt the progress Texas is making under first-year coach Tom Herman into a time-out corner, at least for about 12 days.

Herman met with the media Monday to put [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]a bow on the Longhorns’ dominant 56-0 win Saturday over San Jose State and to discuss Texas’ upcoming trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they will face the Trojans Saturday.

Herman refused to say the Longhorns’ win over San Jose State provided any salve for his team after its loss to Maryland, but did admit that the improvement across the board from week 1 to week 2 was palpable.

“We’re so far removed from Maryland, you know?” Herman said. “That wasn’t us. We can’t replay that game, so why dwell on it? Any kind of added motivation derived from how you performed two weeks ago, or whatever it is, is probably wasted energy. Each game poses its own motivation.”

Both teams should have plenty to play for this week. The Longhorns and Trojans (2-0) have not met on the gridiron since Texas beat USC in the 2006 national championship game at the Rose Bowl (you may have seen that game or some of those highlights somewhere over the past 12 years) and the Trojans have been instilled as a 17-point favorite to exact a bit of revenge on the Longhorns.

“We should be … yeah, I mean, we are an underdog,” Herman said when he was asked about playing USC. “I mean, they’ve been doing this a while at Southern Cal, and we haven’t. Great season last year. Quarterback (Sam Darnold) is as good as there is in the country … skill-position players all over the place that are good as there is in the country … coaching staff and the scheme that’s as good as there is in the country.

“So, yeah. I mean, I would say they’re definitely the favorite.”

Herman famously has won all six games he has coached against top-25 ranked teams in his two-plus-year tenure as a head coach. His teams have gone 3-0 against top 10 foes and 2-0 against teams inside the top 5.

The Longhorns (1-1) plan to do all they can to stick to their routine in the run-up to the USC game in everything but the travel aspect of a trip to Los Angeles.

“If you can make just getting on a plane the only deviation in that routine, then you have succeeded,” Herman explained. “Probably the biggest challenge is making sure that we’re dialed in and focused just as if it were a home game. The only difference is we’re going, instead of a 30-minute bus ride to our hotel, we’re getting on the plane for a couple hours.”

The biggest question for the Longhorns heading to Southern California is who will start at quarterback.

Either sophomore Shane Buechele (who passed for 375 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score in the week 1 loss to Maryland) or true freshman Sam Ehlinger (15 of 27 passing for 222 yards and one touchdown against San Jose State) will be behind center against USC for the Longhorns. Buechele missed the San Jose State game with a bruised throwing shoulder and is still day-to-day.

“If Shane’s healthy, he’s got to go prove that he’s also competent in practice,” Herman said, “so just like anywhere else or any other week, I should say. So I think if Shane can throw tomorrow and is fully cleared tomorrow, then he’s going to go with the ones. But he’s got to have a really good practice to make sure that he stays with the ones on Wednesday.”

This and that: The game notes press release from USC lists the Trojans’ record against Texas as 4-0 all time — it doesn’t include the loss in the BCS National Championship game in 2006 because the Trojans’ record was vacated due to NCAA violations … Tight end Garrett Gray and reserve guard Patrick Hudson will miss the USC game because of knee injuries suffered against San Jose State … Texas enters the game with 892 all-time wins (third-most in FBS) while USC has 825 (10th FBS). The Longhorns’ winning percentage of .706 is just ahead of USC’s .701 in the NCAA record book … Texas is 2-8 in road games over the past two seasons and has been outscored by an average of 35-21 in those games.

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]