Texas hasn’t turned the corner, but it’s getting closer

Laken Litman | USA TODAY Sports

AUSTIN, Texas — Special teams glitches have become synonymous with Texas football this season. There was the missed extra point that would have tied the game and sent it to overtime against California in Week 3, and the fumbled snap against Oklahoma State the following Saturday that led to a Cowboys field goal and victory.

As early losses piled up for the Longhorns, these silly mishaps started to become a metaphor for the season.

And there was almost another familiar moment on Saturday. Early in the fourth quarter with Texas leading Kansas State 16-9, punter Michael Dickson saw a snap fly over his head. He quickly recovered and was able to get off a 33-yard punt that was pinned at the Wildcats’ 8-yard line.

Crisis averted.

Texas went onto a 23-9 victory.

Was Dickson converting that play into something positive perhaps a new metaphor for Charlie Strong’s team turning things around?

The last time we saw these Longhorns, Strong was wearing a golden cowboy hat, pointing at cameras, and body surfing his players at midfield of the Cotton Bowl after pulling a 24-17 upset win against then-No.9 Oklahoma.

Texas entered Saturday’s game having lost six of its past seven games vs. Kansas State and needing a win to preserve its postseason hopes and prove the Oklahoma win was not a fluke. Now the Longhorns (3-4, 2-2 Big 12) are riding a two game win streak with games against Iowa State, Kansas, West Virginia, Texas Tech and Baylor left on the schedule.

Ask this team where its confidence levels are right now and players are quick to tell you things are different than they were just a few weeks ago. “It’s very high,” said quarterback Jerrod Heard, who amassed 160 yards of offense.

Heard said that after losing by 43 points to TCU, the Texas players held a meeting and talked through their flaws and changed their mindset.

“If you look at us against Notre Dame and then watch the past two games we’ve played, I think you see a different football team on all sides of the ball,” said safety Dyland Haines. “It has nothing to do with people turning a switch on or amazing talent being developed. It’s a mindset, you know? It’s preparation. It’s confidence. It’s knowing what to do and then executing it on game day.

“I think we’re taking that to heart and people aren’t in that, ‘Oh, here we go again’ kind of attitude that we’ve been having. It’s the second half of the season now and I think we can win them all.”

With stormy conditions from Hurricane Patricia impacting the game, Texas was still able to pile 274 yards on statistically the best rush defense in the Big 12. Kansas State entered the game allowing allowing opponents 126.33 yards per game, and the Longhorns more than doubled that.

Quarterbacks Heard and Tyrone Swoopes combined for 111 rushing yards while tailback Johnathan Gray added 103. Heard went 10 of 15 passing for 99 yards, only looking downfield for passes late in the second half because the wet ball felt like a shot put, he said.

Defensively, Texas held Kansas State 242 total yards, a touchdown right before halftime and then a field goal. Haines sealed the win with 3:02 to play when he intercepted a deep ball by Joe Hubener, which led to a touchdown drive ending in a 10-yard run by Swoopes to put Texas up two scores.

After both plays — Haines’ interception and Swoopes’ touchdown — Texas players were jumping into each other’s arms, pumping up the fans who stayed to watch in the wind and rain, and generally having a good time with each other. The team appears far removed from freshman Kris Boyd’s TCU Twitter fiasco, when he retweeted a Texas A&M fan suggesting he transfer during halftime, and Haines calling out younger players for their lack of work ethic — and then being called out by them on social media.

Texas is still below .500. But is it slowly turning into a good football team?

“I think we can still continue to improve, and I tell our players all the time that they have to believe they’re a good team, because if they stay believing, they’ll start playing like it all the time,” Strong said.

“But I said to them this morning, let’s get something straight guys, I know we beat Oklahoma, but we’re still sitting here at 2-4, so let’s not get full of ourselves and let’s not start believing what everyone is saying. Just don’t buy into it. Let us continue to improve this football team, and let’s continue to get better because we can have us a good season, we just have to continue to play, we just cant go out there and go through the motions.”

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