Texas football has not been eliminated from College Football Playoff contention. But you wouldn\u2019t know that from spending time on the Forty Acres this week.<\/p>\n
Considering how high the expectations were entering the Longhorns\u2019 2026 campaign, confidence in them is lower than I\u2019ve ever seen during my 2 \u00bd years as a student here.<\/p>\n
The timing couldn\u2019t be worse, as No. 19 Texas prepares to host No. 7 Ole Miss this weekend in a do-or-die matchup on the Forty Acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very good game against a top 10 opponent \u2014 a very good football team,\u201d head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need (the crowd\u2019s) energy. We\u2019re going to need their passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Texas\u2019 crowd seems to be busy mourning and criticizing the team\u2019s back-to-back losses against Oklahoma and Florida. They bit their tongues after what seemed to be a flukey rivalry loss against the Sooners, but the defeat against Florida solidified for its crowd that this team is severely struggling to stay on par and establish momentum.<\/p>\n
To some extent, I understand the fanbase frustration \u2014 it\u2019s disappointing to see a team with all the right resources fall short of its goals. As junior offensive lineman Brandon Baker said on Monday in a media availability, fluctuating enthusiasm from fans is just part of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re winning, everyone loves you,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re losing, it\u2019s the opposite. That\u2019s the nature of the game. That\u2019s the nature of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
But I also believe it is a nature uniquely tied to Texas fans.<\/p>\n
Part of it is likely a natural result of being accustomed to winning \u2014 Texas is a historically prominent program that has had many strong rosters over the years. However, being desensitized to victory isn\u2019t a great trait for a fanbase to possess.<\/p>\n
That reality has also been amplified by the introduction of name, image and likeness. Expectations surrounding college football players naturally increase when players are being paid and treated like professionals.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, these players are 20 years old on average, and at the very least, they deserve to have their own fanbase in their corner. Outside negativity can have a toxic impact on teams, and I think Texas is one of the only schools where the fanbase might be louder after losing than winning.<\/p>\n
As someone who stood on the field in Neyland Stadium when Texas beat Tennessee just a few weeks ago, I can confirm that the Volunteers didn\u2019t bash their team. Because unlike their burnt orange counterparts, Tennessee fans seem to have their team\u2019s backs win or lose.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying Texas is going to make the CFP or that Longhorn fans don\u2019t have the right to be upset about the team\u2019s shortcomings \u2014 losing sucks, and I get that. But Longhorn football games are an integral part of the Texas student experience, and crowd noise has a reciprocal impact on the team itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to play the game hard, and we\u2019re going to play the game the right way,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cWe may not be perfect, and we probably won\u2019t be perfect. But we should be a team that (the fans are) very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of how Texas plays, it\u2019s not the fanbase\u2019s job to crucify the reputation of its own team. That can be left to everyone else.<\/p>\n
I believe fans can take notice of areas in which a team must improve without losing faith in the team\u2019s trajectory at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas football has not been eliminated from College Football Playoff contention. But you wouldn\u2019t know that from spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-474278","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\/474278","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=474278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}