On Monday Texas head coach Tom Herman spoke with the media. When he wasn’t going on rants about unnamed sources or media hurting his recruiting efforts, he did speak about the upcoming game.
With the rising number of games being cancelled due to COVID-19, the first question of the day revolved around how confident Herman is about being able to finish the season. The Longhorns are one of the few teams that haven’t dealt with a major outbreak. With their policies in place, they have been a model team.
“I know it sounds like coach speak,” Herman stated “but I don’t think about those things. We are so focused on Kansas right now, our team, what we need to do and where we need to improve to put up a good showing against Kansas.” Herman went on to say that “they will focus on Kansas and they will let those decisions be handled by people who are not coaches.”
One of the questions ahead of Kansas is are the Longhorns looking to get younger players snaps. The Jayhawks are 0-7 this year and have lost their last three games by an average of 41.9 points per game. That is a mindset that the team could have. Herman didn’t give you the idea that the team or staff has that mentality.
“I think the concern is that one, playing on the road is difficult.” He continued, “you obviously look at a record and if you are not mature enough, can be swayed by that record. I think that we have a mature group of guys that have gotten tremendously better. Both individually and as a team throughout the season. [And] three out of the last four years we needed a last second field goal to beat them. We needed to recover two onside kicks the last time we were in Lawrence.”
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“Recent history has shown that we are going to need to bring our ‘A’ game to win the game.” Tom Herman clearly doesn’t want to give any inclination that they are looking past Kansas. Despite the fact that they are expected to handle a undermanned Jayhawks football team, he wants to keep their level of focus high. They need to steer clear of a trap game that could derail their hopes of playing in the Big 12 Championship.
As far as playing younger players, the head coach mentioned letting that play itself out. They don’t want to plan on getting younger guys snaps because given the nature of this series as of late. they are playing their starters the entire game. Winning the game should be the No. 1 priority as Herman mentioned.
During the presser Herman mentioned a “four-game stretch.” Which tells you this team has every intention of playing for the Big 12 title game. If they take care of business then they will be playing for the title if it falls their way. Their biggest test remaining will come next Friday against Iowa State at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Over the last three games against the Jayhawks, Texas margin of victory has only been eight points. When asked about why, Herman stated “it doesn’t matter.” He would go into further explanation, “a 2-point loss against TCU counts the same as a 7-point win at Oklahoma State. We got the job done which is first and foremost.”
“As to why? I think human nature is very difficult to defeat. You know 18-22 year old kids are going to look at records, they are going to look at point spreads. They are going to look articles, they are going to look at this and that. It is our job to make sure that we bring them down to earth.” He went on to say they have to remind them that they are the University of Texas and 11 different schools named them their rivals. Going against Kansas they will give them their “best shot.”
That speaks to what Kansas head coach Les Miles said on Monday when he stated that “Texas will get you focused.” The Longhorns are a team in the national spotlight week in and week out. Teams will want to take advantage of being in that spotlight and want to be the team that brought you down when the world is watching.
Listen to the full press conference:
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