State of the Program – Longhorns have been resilient and they will need to be more so down the stretch
On the latest video episode of On Texas Football’s State of the Program, Inside Texas’s Bobby Burton and Eric Nahlin discuss the seventh-ranked Longhorns’ continued ability to find ways to win, what to look for against TCU in Fort Worth on Saturday and the overall health and depth of the team as it hits the quarter pole of the season.
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Both of Inside Texas’ experts predicted that the Longhorns would finish the regular season 10-2; at 8-1 through nine games Texas seems to be on track for those predictions, if not better.
“One of the reasons that that Texas is in the situation it’s in and has this opportunity ahead of it has been that they’ve been so resilient as a team and found a variety of ways to win,” Burton opined. “That’s something that Steve Sarkisian has really harped on all year, but it also interplays with what you and I talked about so much as roster management and how depth comes into play.”
Nahlin, the publisher of InsideTexas.com, said part of the Longhorns’ resilience has been a result of self-imposed wounds.
“A lot of times they’ve proven their resilience because they’ve also proven the ability to let teams back into the game,” Nahlin said. “So there’s a big give and take there. But in the end, they’re coming out on top from some pretty difficult situations some of that is of their own making.”
Nahlin said the Longhorns seem to have a “fatal flaw” in each game, although Texas has been able to bounce back from those mistakes in every game except the last-minute loss to Oklahoma in Dallas.
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“Texas is gonna get tested every way that they’ve shown to be susceptible so far when they play TCU,” Nahlin said. “They are gonna have to prove that they can overcome that. They were able to overcome it so far. But you know, they’ve got to start playing and hitting on all cylinders down the stretch and really start positioning themselves for the playoffs. They’ve got to start winning more convincingly.”
Burton asked Nahlin how the Longhorns’ performance in the final three regular-season games – at TCU, at Iowa State and at home on Black Friday against Texas Tech – could impact the rising program in the future.
“It’s huge for Texas going forward because it’s going to announce them as being back again to the SEC,” Nahlin said. “And I think next year presents some unique issues that they don’t have this year – there’s going to be just a lot to overcome. You need this good year to buffer and buy a little more time to work through some issues next year.”
You have to go watch the video for the specifics. There’s plenty more to glean, so go check it out in its entirety.
