Longhorns face huge challenge, opportunity at TCU

No. Texas hasn’t been Texas since Colt McCoy went down against Alabama and in a college football landscape ripe with parity, I don’t that they can ever regain the dominating presence they had for so long.

I’ve been a Charlie Strong fan since he was at Florida. When asked about the 16 penalties against Texas, two less than they were flagged for in the first three games combined, in their 30-27 loss to Oklahoma State including one in him after a rare defensive holding call on Texas on a running play. The opening line is so big, it elicited a pretty genuine reaction from Strong.

Texas is certainly on hard times, the Longhorns are 1-3 on the season and it doesn’t look like they will be piling up wins anytime soon.

The Longhorns still feel burned by their 48-10 home loss to the Horned Frogs last season. To all those Texas fans that think Texas can rise back to the top by next year, WAKE UP!

The Odds: TCU is a 15 point favorite against Texas.

“I do know that Texans are concerned about the fact so much money is going to Louisiana and to Oklahoma who have essentially built casinos on our borders to attract money out of Texas”. Both the Longhorns and Horned Frogs take their second step in Big 12 play this Saturday coming off highly competitive games that were decided late in the fourth quarters. Williams has also shown well in the run game with a +2.1 grade, and he’s become one of the few bright spots on the Texas offense.

So far this season, quarterback Jerrod Heard has been their most consistent playmaker and leads the team in passing yards as well as rushing yards. With number four TCU as their next opponent, Charlie Strong will clearly have his work cut out for him as he attempts to pull off what could be a major upset next Saturday, barring another failure in the dying seconds of the game.

The Horned Frogs went from missing a bowl game in 2013 to being in contention for the College Football Playoff the following season, last year.

The best part of all is that the Frogs have been dominant in the homecoming game in recent years. Trevone Boykin has thrown for 1,470 yards and 14 touchdowns while rushing for 190 yards and two scores. Since then, Texas has been atrocious on offense, and relatively sound on defense. Texas has forced ten turnovers and has four of their own. It’s that us-against-them mentality that sometimes provides a spark and propels the road team to a victory.

But a defensive or special teams score can really ignite the emotion and confidence of the underdog.