Complacency just as much of an opponent for No. 4 Texas as the visiting Wyoming Cowboys
In recent years, the Texas Longhorns football program has not handled its limited success well. Far too often, a Longhorn team has been told that its efforts have Texas “back” or close to it, only to see losses and disappointment return in short order.
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The 2023 team wants to change that and appears better equipped to do so than previous burnt orange iterations. After a win over then-No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, there’s a lot of positive press about the Longhorns and the opportunity for a special season in Austin. That press, “rat poison” as Nick Saban once put it, can kill momentum. But Texas team leaders like Jaylan Ford and Quinn Ewers know that in order to keep momentum going, they have to ignore their name being in lights thanks to their exploits out east.
Making sure the same effort that went into week 2’s performance is put into week 3’s game versus Wyoming is now the goal.
“It’s definitely a big step, but it’s only week 2,” Ewers said Monday. “There’s so much more work to do, and we cannot become complacent about it.”
Ewers would later add: “this year, we’re obviously looking to change the way we handle our success.”
Said fellow team leader Ford on Monday, “something we’ve honestly focused on since we started this year is blocking out the outside noise, not letting hype get to us, and just focusing on everything within those walls, how we prepare for these next weeks, and how we operate as a team.”
That rat poison has killed Texas’ momentum, especially early in the season over the past decade. The Longhorns are looking for their first 3-0 start since all the way back in 2012 (a start which included a win over Wyoming). Texas actually began that season 4-0 before dropping back-to-back games versus West Virginia and Oklahoma.
The Horns have had opportunities to start 3-0, like in 2020 and in 2016, but they failed to take advantage.
Speaking of 2016, that was the last time the Longhorns won their premiere out-of-conference game. Texas topped Notre Dame in overtime and was proclaimed to be back in front of a national audience, only to fall a week later at Cal.
Where other teams faltered, Ford and company want to flourish.
“Coach (Jeff) Choate hit on it today,” Ford said. “The best thing about being 2-0 is you get the opportunity to go 3-0.”
The win over Alabama could portend great things for the Longhorns this year. If Texas in Sarkisian’s third season can beat Saban’s Alabama, why shouldn’t it be able to run through the rest of the schedule?
To do that, Texas has to maintain the level of focus and preparation the week leading up to the Alabama victory had or else that 34-24 win will end up as the highlight of the 2023 campaign, an outcome neither Sarkisian nor members of his team want to come to fruition.
“That one game isn’t going to define our season last week,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Championship teams continue to improve as the season goes on. We’ve got goals and aspirations of being champions this year. We’ve got to continue to improve this week.”
Can the 2023 team do it? The next 10 games will determine that, but Ewers, himself essential to the team’s fortunes, feels as if he and his Texas teammates have the type of mindset to make it happen they didn’t have a year ago. That mentality is something Ewers admitted he lacked during his debut season in Austin, and it’s safe to assume others were in a similar predicament during the 2022 campaign.
“I think where I am right now, I’m mature enough to handle what’s been going on,” Ewers said. “I don’t think last year I was able to handle the success that I had with the addition of adversity, obviously. This year, I think I’m a lot more capable and a lot more mature.”
That task truly begins in earnest this week with the visiting Cowboys. If the Longhorns had any reason to look over the Mountain West program entering the season, that was quickly wiped away during week one when Wyoming took down the Big 12’s Texas Tech Red Raiders in an overtime thriller.
Even with the talent advantage, Texas is striving to prepare for Wyoming like it prepared for Alabama.
“Championship teams don’t change the way they prepare just on the team that they’re playing,” Ewers said. “We’re going to prepare like any other week because this is a good team. They’ve got a lot of good guys returning. They know their defense and they know what they do well.”
A 3-0 start would indicate the Longhorns have that down, and could mean the next nine Big 12 games are the genesis of something special.
“I think this university and this team is ready to do what we’ve all been planning to do for a while now,” Ewers said. “I’m excited to see how the rest of the season plays out.”
