UT football has to have season’s best defensive performance to stop Texas Tech

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s a case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” this week for the Texas football team, which will try to take what it learned in a 35-34 win against Baylor into Saturday’s game against explosive Texas Tech.

The Longhorns have a mountain to scale to earn their first road win of the season: namely, Tech quarterback Pat Mahomes III, who as the nation’s leading passer (440 yards per game) is the triggerman for the country’s second-ranked (600 yards per game) and scoring offense (47.4 points per game).

“We’ve got to do what we can to keep [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]Mahomes in the pocket, because he’s really dangerous when he gets outside,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said Monday in his weekly media availability. “If he does get out, we have to stay with our coverage, because if he sees a sliver of an opening, Mahomes is going to wing it.”

Texas found a way to beat Baylor despite the fact the eighth-ranked Bears racked up 624 total yards, including 398 on the ground.

Strong said the only statistic that matters to him and the rest of the Longhorns is victories. To UT to add to that total, he said, it must improve on the defensive side of the ball.

“We need to do whatever it takes to win,” Strong said. “We have four games left, and we’re trying to focus on taking them each as a one-game season. We have to go play well on the road and that all begins with playing better defensively.”

The Longhorns are 0-4 away from home this season and are just 5-12 in games away from Austin (and 4-8 in “true” road games) in Strong’s two-plus-year tenure on the 40 Acres.

“We have to go be road warriors,” Strong said. “We need consistency, and we just haven’t had it when we’ve played on the road. Last week, I knew we were going to play good because we practiced good. If we are not ready this week, we can get embarrassed.”

The Texas defense has recorded 16 sacks in the past three games, thanks mostly to Strong’s decision to simplify things and attack the passer with multiple blitzes. He said Monday that he called more blitzes against Baylor than in any other game this season, and dialed up his “zero” blitz on seven straight plays in the red zone in the victory against the Bears.

“Anytime (Baylor) was inside the 20, we came with the max blitz,” Strong said. Texas limited Baylor to a pair of field goals in the third and fourth quarters that kept the game within reach.

Other items addressed in Monday’s press conference included:

• Texas linebacker Breckyn Hager told the television media multiple times that the Longhorns’ defense wants to “injure that quarterback,” while speaking of Mahomes. Sounds like some bulletin board material, right?

• Strong lauded Texas running back D’Onta Foreman and agreed with reporter’s notion that Foreman should be in the discussion for the Doak Walker Award (given each year to the nation’s best running back), as well as for the Heisman Trophy. Foreman struck a Heisman pose after his second rushing touchdown against Baylor.

• Foreman has 1,105 yards rushing this season and is the first Longhorn since Jamaal Charles in 2007 to surpass the 1,000-yard mark. He earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week kudos for his career-best 250 yards of the ground against Baylor.

• Strong talked about the confidence and continued improvement of Texas freshman quarterback Shane Buechele, saying the Longhorns’ first-year signal caller checked in and out of plays well as he read the Baylor defense. Buechele made his eighth start of the season against Baylor, tying Bobby Layne for most in school history by a true freshman quarterback.

• Buechele was named conference Newcomer of the Week for his play against the Bears.

• Saturday’s win over Baylor was the fourth straight for Texas against a Top 12 team, second in the nation behind Alabama. Those four wins over the past two seasons are the most for the Longhorns since 2007-08.

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