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Playing a Top 10 opponent at home would be a big deal to many college football fan bases from coast-to-coast.

However, University of Texas students do not fall into that category.

As the Texas Longhorns took the field Saturday against No. 10 ranked Oklahoma State, there were two noticeably empty sections inside Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium: the northeast corner and the south end zone.

Or more commonly known as UT student sections.

The Longhorns' student attendance has been abysmal in recent years, thanks largely in part to a struggling program that held a three-season record of 16-21. But even after a complete staff overhaul, and the Longhorns being on the verge of clinching a signature win several times this season, students continue to no-show.

Tom Herman has taken notice.

"I was disappointed," Herman said of the lack of students in attendance for Oklahoma State. "Everybody loves a winner, so some of that's on us.

"I was disappointed that we had performed to the point where the students had that kind of apathy for it, so we've got to do a better job."

Quite a showing from the Texas student sections. Under seven mins until kickoff pic.twitter.com/AitliZhoCR — Ezra Siegel (@SiegelEzra) October 21, 2017

While students not attending football games is not new for the Longhorns in recent history, the lack of showing against a top-ranked opponent was impossible to ignore. The first-year head coach has worked to find ways to engage with the University of Texas student body, and ultimately encourage students to come support their peers on the football team.

"We've got to do a better job of endearing ourselves to the student body," he said. "I thought we did that with the student appreciation practice in the spring and the different things our team has been involved with, as far as with other students."

There's no denying the head coach has attempted to re-ignite UT student pride in the football program during the offseason, and even introduced a new initiative exclusively for students during pre-game warmups.

But Herman's efforts have been unsuccessful in Year 1.

"The first couple of games we even tried to do the swag surf with them when we left the field, and that wasn't as big of a hit as I thought it would be.

"We have to do better. The marketing and student engagement people need to do better. I need to do better. We all need to do better. And the students need to do better. But it was a bit disappointing."

Herman is not the first coach to address the student attendance for home games, as his predecessors Mack Brown and Charlie Strong both discussed the issue during their time in Austin.

At this point, winning might be the only thing that will encourage Texas students to start supporting the football team.



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