AUSTIN – There was hope.

Swoopes played admirably but it wasn't enough as the Texas offense was inept for most of the night. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

Texas had managed to contain Taysom Hill and the BYU offense enough to only trail 6-0 going into the locker room at halftime. The defense was locked in, Tyrone Swoopes performed admirably and the game was well within reach despite a first half that included a missed field goal and two turnovers.

And then the second half started.

The culture might be changing, Charlie Strong might have his core values in place, but what was on the field in a 41-7 loss to the Cougars on Saturday was disturbing sight.

That same ol' Texas.

At least the Texas we've come to know in recent years. The Texas that gets dominated along the lines of scrimmage. The Texas gets its dauber down when things go bad.

The Texas that comes out and lays an egg whenever it has a chance to prove itself on a national stage. That Texas is, unfortunately, alive and well.

Strong might have cleaned up a lot of the mess that was left from the end of the Mack Brown Era, but isn't just a little spill to mop up. Saturday night was proof that the Texas Longhorns have entered Exxon Valdez territory in terms of the level of recovery that it'll take to get the program back to blue blood status.

"It's an embarrassment to this program and this University,” an irate Strong said suffering the worst loss of his coaching career in just his second game on the Forty Acres. “I didn't do anything about it. I take responsibility for this loss."

The Longhorns contained Hill in the first half, but he ran right through them in the third quarter. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

He should take responsibility as any head coach should in his position, but this one isn't on Strong.

It's not Shawn Watson, whose offense had two punts, a missed field goal and two fumbles to open the game and followed up that effort with four consecutive punts. It's not on Vance Bedford, even though his defense did give up 159 yards on four straight touchdown drives by BYU to open the second half after allowing just 189 yards over the first two quarters of play.

The worst home loss the program has suffered since the infamous “Rout 66” game that started the bus John Mackovic was destined to hop aboard at the end of the 1997 season is on one group and one group only.

The players.

The only common denominator between the disheartening four-year run the program just experienced and a sobering loss Saturday night are the players who wore burnt orange jerseys.

The ones who failed to bring down Taysom Hill and instead of shutting him down showed the college football world that he's one of the best quarterbacks in America.

“We put him in the Heisman race,” Bedford said.

The ones who failed to open holes for a running game that lost the battle on the ground 248-82.

Texas lost the line of scrimmage battle again in a game where the country saw the Longhorns embarrassed. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

The coaches have changed. The strength program is different. The busses lining up to take them to practice every day are gone. The country club has been shut down.

None of that mattered on Saturday.

Even after having their noses rubbed in last year's undressing in Provo for year the Longhorns put on a performance in front of 93,463 fans that makes a 6-6 finish to the season seem like such an uncertainty right now, it makes you wonder just what it's going to take to get this team back to just playing consistently good football.

Consistency shouldn't be too much to ask. Yet after last weekend's win over a North Texas team that looks better after thumping SMU on Saturday, the Longhorns showed they still don't know how to handle success.

While the opener seemed to be a step in the right direction, the abomination that was a 34-point loss was a giant Taysom Hill leapfrog in the other direction. That's squarely on the shoulders of a group of players Strong felt weren't ready to play at kickoff.

“I knew during warmups we weren't ready to play,” Strong said. “I told them, I said we're getting ready to play a really good football team and we're going to get embarrassed if we don't watch out. That's what ended up happening.”

A team that's had reminder after reminder of a loss that cost a man his job, completely changed the trajectory of a season and started the wheels in motion for a regime change can't get ready to play in the rematch of that loss?

Color me confused. About as confused as Longhorn players looked after the game.

Individual accomplishments like Quandre Diggs' first interception since 2012 were overshadowed by the failure of the team.

“It's all about focus and being a disciplined football team,” Strong said. “That not what we were tonight.”

Swoopes played well considering fumbles, penalties and general offensive ineptitude will take whatever shine there might otherwise be off of a 20-for-31 performance where he threw a touchdown and did enough to at least move the ball at times. But that effort and a career night for Malcom Brown where the junior defensive tackle looked like a million bucks (11 tackles, three sacks, five tackles for loss, one forced fumble) and an inspired performance by Jordan Hicks (11 tackles, 0.5 sacks, two tackles for loss) aren't enough to wash away the stink from this one.

There's nowhere for this team to look for answers except the mirror. Longhorn fans should be sick of hearing about going back to the drawing board, the need to execute better and the 24-hour rule.

The excuses are gone and no longer valid. Strong isn't even buying the injuries to David Ash and Dominic Espinosa and the suspensions in the middle of the week of Kennedy Estelle and Desmond Harrison as reasons for a loss of embarrassingly epic proportions.

“That had nothing to do with it,” Strong said. “Those guys were injured a week ago and the suspensions had nothing to do with it.”

For the Longhorns, the only thing there is to do is figure out how to change themselves in order to change the perception of the program.

“I don't know if it's a serious problem,” Strong said. “The same thing happened last year. I don't know how much of a reality check it is. The reality is we have to come prepared and go play great defense if you want to play and go compete.”

Strong's mission to put the 'T' back in Texas was halted by a group of players who appear now to completely lack mental toughness and the intangibles that were supposed to be acquired from a staff that now looks like they've wasted their breath and effort. Even if the BYU game had ended in a loss, and when the Cougars got up 13-0 in the third quarter it seemed like an insurmountable hill to climb, getting drubbed by 34 points at home is never acceptable.

Harris caught a touchdown, but he also had a fumble that stopped a drive where the Longhorns had something going. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

“I would have left too,” Bedford said when asked about the fans who headed for the exits early. “I would have left if I would have bought a ticket and seen that mess.”

Texas looks like a hot mess and at 1-1 with three top-ten teams on the schedule in the next four games the Longhorns could very be looking at having a 2-4 record at the halfway point of the season. The only way to avoid going down that road is if the players decide they want something different.

Everything around them has been changed, but now the Longhorns have to decide just how much they want to change themselves in order to keep the 2014 season from being another year where we're still talking about the same unimpressive, uninspired product on the field.

“Well, just how to fight through adversity,” Strong said when asked what he learned about his team on Saturday. “When things go bad, can we just continue to play? You play an unbelievable first half on defense and then you come back, like I said, in the second half and didn't play so well. But can we pick ourselves up and brush ourselves off and just continue to play?”

The only people who can answer that are the ones who laid another egg and provided the swollen face of the program with yet another black eye.