The Horns’ character has been revealed
Back when I played football, I lined up at the wide receiver position. I ran the wrong route one time and it prevented the tight end from catching a touchdown pass in a very important drive for my offense going into halftime. After receiving an ample chewing from my quarterback and my receiver coach, it was the tight end that said, “I thought they were in man–to–man too, earlier in the game.” He gave me a few keys to watch for in how the defense was disguising the coverage. We scored on the same play in the second half and we pulled off the upset.
It was that valuable conversation of no more than 30 seconds that helped us score later in the game. He didn’t talk to me because I blew a touchdown catch for him. He came and talked to me because the team needed me to do my part and he was going to help me get there. It was the locker room at halftime that changed the course of that game.
Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Texas was desperate when it took the field Saturday against TCU. The Horned Frogs were playing a level of defense that had every Longhorn fan hoping that Texas would not turn the ball over because the Texas defense was having relative success but the offense looked woefully inept. When the turnovers did happen the desperation increased. By the time this team got to the locker room at halftime down 10-0, the desperation reached a high level.
When I left the game at halftime to head over the Scholz’s, the mood was somber as I walked out of the stadium. Somebody that knew me said, “You may not want to take phone calls tonight.” As I left the stadium, I had no reason to believe that the Texas Longhorns would be able to do anything to change their current path.
As I sat at Scholz’s watching the second half of the game, I couldn’t help but wonder what took place in the locker room during halftime. For a team that has clearly had some leadership issues over the course of the last five games, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall of the locker room. Who was doing the yelling? Who was doing the encouraging? Who was doing the teaching? Who was nurturing the young guys?
Every player needs different things. Some players need an encouraging word. Some players need to be told what to do and to learn some thought processes from the older guys. Some guys need to be called out. Some players need to be taken to the side and simply told, “You’re better than this and this team needs you to reflect that.” Every player has his own motivation.
The locker room is where part of the magic happens.
Something happened in that Longhorn locker room at halftime because a different team emerged to start the second half.
Everyone is going to tell you, and rightfully so, that the Texas Longhorns are not out of the woods yet and there are things you still don’t know about this team. That is right. This team still has questions but might have played the best and most experienced defense it will face in 2007.
Texas was desperate on Saturday night. Texas was desperate to remain at the top of the food chain for football in the state of Texas. Texas was desperate to break the chain of bad football it had played over the course of four games. The Longhorns were desperate to be reflective of their own beliefs.
Desperation is a good thing. Desperation when combined with character brings about the results that everyone saw on Saturday night.
If someone tries to tell you that you can’t take too much stock in what happened on Saturday, feel free to tell them to shut up.
We might not have learned whether this team will beat Oklahoma. We might not have learned whether it can take this act on the road and perform when the crowd is not on its side. We don’t know if they can put 60 minutes of football together like the second half against TCU. While the defense played great, especially in the second half, we don’t know what it can do against a high powered offense.
We did learn that this team has tremendous character and that is one heck of a starting point to answering the other questions.
Jon Wooden always said that sports don’t build character, they reveal it. It was revealed to me against TCU that this team has the desire to win. It was reveled to me that this team has the components to win. More important than those, the Longhorns revealed that they have the character to win. While this team might not blow other teams out like the 2005 team, that character will give them a puncher’s chance in every game it has on the schedule.
After Kansas State, Texas A&M, Iowa and Arkansas State, character was the best thing for you to see coming out of this game.