Three years ago, Texas football stormed into Tuscaloosa, Alabama and decisively beat the Crimson Tide. The streets of West Campus rang. Students celebrated at the Tower and partied into the early hours of the next day.<\/p>\n
It was one of my most memorable nights of college, and it felt like a win that finally put Texas back into the national conversation.<\/p>\n
Since then, Texas has made the College Football Playoff semifinals and bagged its fair share of major wins. But with the Ohio State Buckeyes coming to Austin, the Longhorns have the chance to recreate that magical night from 2023.<\/p>\n
Though this game has the potential to be a legacy game for them, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the Longhorns should practice or, more importantly, play like it on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Texas can\u2019t feed into that pressure. That\u2019s easier said than done, especially when approaching a game against a high-caliber team like Ohio State. The default approach would be to chase after another identity and replicate what other teams do to be good. However, it\u2019s not about changing or having this sudden, quick transformation. It\u2019s about whether this specific Texas team can maximize what it does best.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is, for the players, that they really shouldn\u2019t change,\u201d head coach Steve Sarkisian said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to do more. What they have to do is do what we\u2019re asking them to do to the highest level, and that\u2019ll put them in the best position to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarkisian repeatedly emphasized that just because the Longhorns are playing a team like Ohio State doesn\u2019t mean everything needs to change. This being a \u201cbig game\u201d doesn\u2019t require an outlier week in the team\u2019s preparation, identity or style of play \u2014 it has been a philosophy he\u2019s had his team embrace all week.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns don\u2019t need to try to turn into 2019 LSU, 2001 Miami or even 2005 Texas. That only adds more unnecessary pressure to what is already the biggest game of the season. Senior quarterback Arch Manning doesn\u2019t need to be a superhero.<\/p>\n
For Texas, it\u2019s about playing calm, complementary and clean football. The Longhorns historically play at their best when they limit pre-snap penalties, establish an explosive run game early and open up the playbook.<\/p>\n
But none of the pieces of the X\u2019s and O\u2019s can come together if there is lack of composure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes down to execution,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cIt comes down to mental and physical toughness. It comes down to poise and composure, and doing what you need to do and owning the moment when that moment presents itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players shouldn\u2019t approach this matchup as a \u201crevenge game.\u201d Emotions and the will to win are great but won\u2019t be the saving grace. They\u2019re great for pregame hype and running out of the tunnel, but those emotions need to be contained once the ball is kicked off, because they can become a distraction instead of a driving factor.<\/p>\n
It feels like the Longhorns need this game more than Ohio State, yet Sarkisian and company don\u2019t need to become someone else to beat the Buckeyes \u2014 rather, the most polished, disciplined and confident version of themselves.<\/p>\n
That is exactly what the Longhorns did three years ago in Tuscaloosa. They reaped the benefits then, and can again on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years ago, Texas football stormed into Tuscaloosa, Alabama and decisively beat the Crimson Tide. The streets of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-432641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}