Longhorns assess loss to Notre Dame, prep for Rice
While the fan base shouldn't have huge expectations for a young Longhorn team, head coach Charlie Strong knows progress is not negotiable. Strong didn't see any progress in UT's 38-3 loss to Notre Dame, just more of the same that had led to three straight blowout losses.
After UT’s 35 point season opening loss to the Fighting Irish, there were several ways to describe it.
Coach Strong said it was “not acceptable” while sophomore tight end Andrew Beck said it “wasn’t what we wanted it to be.”
Freshman linebacker Malik Jefferson said, “It’s a setback.”
Now the Horns will take a step back and try to get things fixed.
"This week we're gonna take our time. We started on yesterday and just evaluate everything with this program. Just start all over again," Coach Strong says.
Senior offensive lineman Sedrick Flowers says, "After a loss like that you come into this game. The rest of the season. And you want to re-evaluate what we did. The things that we did do good.”
“Then all the things we did bad. You want to see what caused those things. And you want to improve on them and make sure they don't happen again," Flowers adds.
There's no question that Texas was horrible on both sides of the ball. But one big thing that stands out is out of 121 FBS schools, Texas finished dead last in total offense over the weekend with just 163 yards.
Even though neither quarterback Tyrone Swoopes or backup Jerrod Heard had much of a chance to do anything with the line they were behind, a lot of folks are feeling like it's time to make a change and go with the more mobile Heard."
"With Tyrone and Jerrod we're gonna go through this week then gonna make that decision later on at the end of the week. We can't go through another season with a bad offense. That cannot happen," Coach Strong says.
"They both bring different things. Jerrod's an athletic kid. So there were a couple of times he'd get away and he'd make things happen with his feet that maybe Tyrone couldn't. And vice-versa,” TE Andrew Beck says.
“Tyrone made things happen with his feet that you guys saw Saturday night. Unfortunately, some of it was him running for his life. But he's just as athletic and can sling the ball down field," Beck adds.
Linebacker Jefferson says, "We have to keep moving forward."
"Can't panic after one game," junior quarterback Swoopes says.
Coach Strong says, "There's millions and millions of people involved with this program. And we gotta give them hope. And they need to see progress. You have all these young players, but still though, you may have all these young players, but still we gotta, it's gotta be something in it for us.”
“Where we're looking to say hey, you maybe are moving forward. Maybe we do see a change. Maybe we are getting better. And we didn't see those things," Coach Strong adds.