Longhorns receivers say win over Alabama came from hard work and togetherness
Plenty will be taken from Texas’ benchmark win against Alabama in Tuscaloosa Saturday but there’s one thing that likely rises above the others: when the Longhorns say they are focused and prepared and “as one” as a team, maybe it’s time to believe them.
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An example of the latter is the postgame press conference with receivers Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell, who interviewed together after Texas’ 34-24 win.
Worthy finished with five catches for 75 yards that included a 44-yard TD. Mitchell had 78 yards on three catches, two of them for touchdowns (7 and 29 yards, respectively). Worthy even passed to Mitchell in a play that resulted in a pass interference penalty.
Worthy discarded the notion that the Longhorns’ win “validated” the team.
“We don’t really I feel like we have anything to prove to anybody, we just have to prove things to ourselves,” Worthy said. “So I feel like this is what we knew we could do all time. I feel like we owed (Alabama) this.”
Mitchell inferred that the Longhorns’ performance and its positive outcome should not have been surprising.
“We just came out there executed and just played the way we knew we could play it all the time – it showed tonight,” Mitchell explained. “If we just execute and play our brand of football it’s gonna be the same every time. It’s just about us and our preparation and execution.
“We just played together as a unit the whole day from special teams to defense to offense. I feel like we all just fed off each other and you know when you when you do that you come together and play the way you play we played.”
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Both receivers lauded the play of quarterback Quinn Ewers, who they said showed what he’s been bringing at practice.
“Ewers is just the player that we’ve seen the whole year,” Mitchell said. “We’ve always believed in him. He’s a leader. You know, even in the fourth quarter when we got up he was just telling everybody ‘look, the job’s not finished. We’re not done.’”
Don’t expect the Longhorns to rest on their laurels – it’s back to work next week in preparation for Wyoming, which beat Texas Tech in two overtimes in its season opener and comes to Austin undefeated.
“Coming off a big win I feel like that can linger into next week,” Worthy said. “We are just going to work on staying focused because we have bigger goals ahead of us.”
With the duo helping keep Texas on track, the sky is the limit.
“The work has been put in the whole year – spring, summer workouts, fall camp – but the work never stops,” Mitchell said.
