Welcome to the Extra Points, our weekly college wrap-up at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. This is your one stop to quickly get up to date with all the most important FBS happenings in the state from Week 6.
DALLAS -- Even after beating No. 7 Oklahoma in a thrilling 48-45 performance in the Red River Showdown, the Texas Longhorns aren’t really that concerned about whether you think they’re back or not.
“It’s irrelevant to us I think is the best way to put it,” Texas coach Tom Herman said. “We’re not so concerned where people think Texas is. We’re concerned about what we think in our locker room. Those are the people that we have to answer to on a daily basis.”
The Longhorns have heard all the jokes, all the premature affirmations. They’ve watched closely as the program missed bowl games and finished below .500 in consecutive seasons. Finally, Texas football has some ammo.
Since the season-opening loss against Maryland, Texas has been close to flawless. The Longhorns have five consecutive wins. Three of those performances were against AP Top 25 ranked opponents: No. 22 USC, No. 17 TCU and No. 7 Oklahoma. Even the normally cautious Herman was forward about how impressive the stretch has been.
“We’ve taken some steps here the past few weeks,” Herman said. “I’m not going to downplay that for these players. They’ve taken some steps in this program’s development.”
This was the Texas everyone expected to see when Herman was hired as head coach in December 2016. Herman led Houston to a 6-0 record against ranked opponents during his time with the Cougars, including a pair of wins against top 10 opponents. Texas was close a year ago. Finally, the payoff is coming.
Texas hasn’t won three games against ranked opponents in one year since the 2009 season. Everyone remembers what happened then… Texas played for a national championship against Alabama. Heck, the Longhorns were a Colt McCoy injury away from maybe winning the whole dang thing.
The Longhorns probably aren’t ready to win a national championship. Herman even laughed off the idea that he’d be thinking about it. But maybe, just maybe, Texas isn’t as far away as we thought.
Again, the one blemish on the schedule is against Maryland in the first week of the season. Ask the players and it’s not that big a deal.
"I’m glad we lost that game, I’m still so happy we lost that game,” defensive end Breckyn Hager said, per CNHI’s Sean Isabella. “I mean, sheesh, they had God on their side. How you gonna beat God? Rest in peace to that man."
There’s plenty of precedent for losing to a bad team and still making the College Football Playoff. Clemson lost to Syracuse a season ago and still made it. Ohio State famously lost to Virginia Tech in 2014, and had no issues.
The Red River Showdown is a season-changing type of game, especially when both teams are good. Texas proved on Saturday that it can hang with – and beat – any team in the Big 12.