Texas quarterback provides the hope, defense supplies the heartburn after 1-2

Strong is a good football coach. The stirring comeback fell short when senior kicker Nick Rose missed the extra point after Heard’s 45-yard touchdown run with 71 seconds left that could have potentially forced overtime.

“[You] can’t relive this moment”, Charlie Strong told Rose.

For these Longhorns, that is way more than they had after a season-opening 38-3 loss to No. 6 Notre Dame with former quarterback Tyrone Swoopes at the helm.

And due to the win, one of their former players won a bet with a former Longhorn legend. “You can see a different side of Texas football with the way everybody’s motivated now”. Seemingly overwhelming the Golden Bears’ defense, Heard went on to rack up 527 total yards to set the program’s single game yardage record.

There’s still a lot of work to be done with this team and I don’t expect Jerrod Heard to put up these kind of numbers every week, but giving us a glance at what he can be and what he can do for this team feeds into the long-term. There was a strong financial commitment to him and I don’t think you can judge him until after four years when he has overhauled the roster with his own recruits.

“He told me he was proud of me”, Heard said of Young, who’s now a development officer in UT’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. The onus falls upon the first line of defense, namely tackles James Looney and Mustafa Jalil from the inside, to move the line of scrimmage and force Heard out of his comfort zone. I didn’t even look.

“He’s a fabulous competitor”, Texas playcaller Jay Norvell said, “and the way he battled back, he never stopped”.

Strong, whose long-term outlook as Texas head coach could’ve conceivably taken a hit with the loss, said he sat down beside Rose, and the two talked as Saturday gave way to 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

“They grew up tonight”, Strong said.

And if their quarterback reminds them just a little bit of Vince Young? Heard threw for 364 yards and ran for another 188, that’s over 500 all-purpose yards from the QB position. “He’s just another confidence boost for us”.

It was only Heard’s second start, with the first coming the week before in a 42-28 win against Rice.