Two years after his viral tirade, Bo Davis returns to Ames on a 9-1 team with a winning culture
The chuckle Bo Davis heard on the team bus on the way to the airport after Texas’ 30-7 loss at Iowa State in 2021 was one chuckle too many. Davis, who had won national championships in college and coached professionals in the NFL, couldn’t bear the fact that there were players on the Longhorns’ bus seemingly unfazed by their fourth consecutive loss.
[Join Inside Texas and get ONE MONTH of Longhorn intel for just $1!]
“This s**t is real! Some of you m***er f***ers need to get in the transfer portal,” Davis yelled. “You want to go? Get in the m***er f***er! This s**t ain’t a game to me! If you think it’s a game, get the f**k off of this bus! I got my ass kicked and you m***er f***ers want to laugh! S**t’s f***ing real! You think this is a G** damn joke? And some of you m****er f***ers do? Transfer out of this m***er f***er! Because I’m tired of this s**t! This s**t is G** damn real! And we want to laugh and joke? F**k that!“
Somebody from the roster on that bus wasn’t disturbed enough for Davis’ liking. Another Longhorn pulled out his phone and pressed record. The video made its way to the internet, and Davis became a bit of a cult hero among Longhorn fans for his outburst.
The effect on the team was more important. A line in the sand was drawn by Davis with that impassioned speech. What side players chose was revealed in how they answered this question with their words and actions: are you going to work hard to win or are you just happy to be here?
Of course, talent was a part of Davis’ proposition as well. Part of the reason that team went 5-7 was because of roster holes from previous recruiting misses, plus the general struggles teams have when implementing new systems in year one. But still, there weren’t enough people who were pouring their hearts into the effort to win like Davis and other coaches and players.
Because of those factors, 20 or so players who were on the 2021 roster entered the transfer portal following the 5-7 season. Several others exhausted their eligibility or went on to professional opportunities.
That allowed for 28 players and seven transfers to join the team after the 2021 campaign. Among those additions? Current starters like DJ Campbell, Kelvin Banks, Terrance Brooks, Ethan Burke, Malik Agbo, Quinn Ewers, and Ryan Watts.
Whether high school recruits or on other rosters, those players surely heard about Davis’ rant. What likely spoke to them and to the players that stayed was the bluntness of the message. It wasn’t just “please leave your keycard at the door.” It was a “get the F out” campaign not seen since early 2000s wrestling.
Davis’ message was the kind someone accustomed to winning delivers in the midst of a horrific six-game losing streak. It was a message that informed players and recruits that any festering skepticism about Steve Sarkisian’s intentions at Texas was unfounded. These were the types of coaches Sarkisian surrounded himself with; who he hired to implement his vision. Davis just had a different method of communication than had been revealed to the public up to that point.
A couple of back-to-back top five classes with potentially a third straight on the way is one way to tell that Davis’ message was heard loud and clear. But the most obvious? Texas is 9-1 as it makes its way back to Ames, Iowa two years after that impactful speech.
In that 2021 game, Breece Hall ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns in the first meeting between the two teams following his “five-star culture” comments.
One year later in 2022, Texas ran it nine times in 10 plays against the Cyclones ahead of a one-yard, game-winning touchdown pass from Ewers to Xavier Worthy. That was Texas showing the signs of a budding, strong culture during an 8-5 season.
More recently, that culture was on display in Fort Worth when Jordan Whittington and Xavier Worthy provided extraordinary effort to erase the effects of an interception during the Longhorns’ 29-26 win.
Those types of plays don’t happen without a winning culture. Texas didn’t have that in 2021 when it lost to Iowa State in Ames, as evidenced by the behavior of a few on the same bus Davis was on. Davis’ actions called that out, admittedly in a coarse manner.
But that coarse manner was what was needed. Now, Texas has a the type of culture Davis sought as its 9-1 record indicates. In addition, the two best players on the team might be in Davis’ position group in Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat.
Much has changed for Texas since that November night in 2021. Davis’ words can be looked at as what started the transformation in earnest.
