The Texas Longhorns were expecting to compete for the Big 12 Championship this season. Doing so would have put them in line for a shot at a College Football Playoff berth.
They did neither.
What went wrong? The football team did what it has done throughout this decade: Lose games it absolutely can’t and play to the level of the competition.
The Longhorns came dangerously close to losing three straight games to open Big 12 Conference play. Senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger rallied his team in the final four minutes against Texas Tech to win the opener of conference play. The Longhorns struggled against a team that won three games in the conference all season.
The team followed that with back-to-back losses to Texas Christian and Oklahoma. The Longhorns had opportunities to win both, but turnovers doomed them late in both games. Texas was still in the race after it defeated Oklahoma State on the road in the middle of a three-game run. It held the lead late against Iowa State before the Cyclones snatched the win away from them.
The Longhorns sat at home on championship Saturday and watched their biggest rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners, compete for the Big 12 Championship once again. Texas hasn’t won the conference championship since 2009. Oklahoma won the title game for the fourth straight year and the Big 12 Championship for the sixth straight year.
Not only are the Sooners beating the Longhorns on the field, but also the recruiting trail. They represent the only conference team to make an appearance in the CFP. Another former rival, Texas A&M is also beating Texas. It is taking top prospects from the Longhorns while being on the cusp of a CFP appearance.
The argument for improving the football team by removing the coach during a pandemic is all about optics. How does it look to shell out $25 million for buyouts while others are taking pay cuts or being laid off? It does look bad, but a vast majority of revenue for the university is generated by the football team. The teams around the Longhorns continue to increase the gap between them and Texas. So does Texas want to win football games, or does it want to look good in the court of public opinion?
The Sooners were supposedly having a down year and found a way to win. Why? Well, they are playing football with an advantage at head coach. Their former rivals to the south have a head coach that has won a national title as well. To keep Tom Herman is to play the game at a coaching deficit. So it’s your move, Chris Del Conte.
