Texas Longhorns Football

The Texas Longhorns' pipe dream of landing Urban Meyer as their next head football coach is reportedly not going to become a reality.

According to Chip Brown of 247Sports, "Meyer indicated to Texas he's leaning toward not coaching again due to health reasons."

What's more, a university source told Brown the Longhorns could ultimately keep Tom Herman if they don't land Meyer.

One of the biggest issues is Herman's buyout, which sits at $25 million. While Brown reported donors would be happy to help pay the buyout to land someone like Meyer, whether they would do so for another coach without such a great on-field track record would be more of a question mark.

According to the report, Texas has researched Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, Oregon coach Mario Cristobal, Penn State coach James Franklin and Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, but none of them can match Meyer's resume.

The former Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State coach is 187-32 in his career and won double-digit games in 12 of his 17 seasons.

Meyer, who won two national championships with the Gators and another with the Buckeyes, was known as a top-notch recruiter and offensive coach during his career, and his success helped popularize no-huddle and spread attacks that have become the norm in college football today.

However, health problems have been a significant concern for him, especially at the end of his Ohio State tenure that saw him go 83-9 in a stretch of dominance rarely seen in the sport. In 2018, he told Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports he had a congenital arachnoid cyst in his brain that caused severe headaches.

He was even seen kneeling in pain on the sidelines during a game in his final year with the Buckeyes.

With Meyer apparently out of the picture, that could leave Texas back at square one with Herman. Herman, who worked for Meyer as an offensive coordinator at Ohio State, is 31-18 with the Longhorns and has never seriously competed for the College Football Playoff.

That may be good enough for plenty of programs, but Texas considers itself one of the standard-setters of college football. 

It just sounds like Meyer will not be the one helping it in its quest to return to the upper echelon of the sport.

The University of Texas paused football activities after three students and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, the athletic department announced in a statement.

The individuals who tested positive returned negative tests Friday and traveled with the team to play Kansas State on Saturday. The team will be tested again Monday and Tuesday before a plan to return is announced.

According to Chip Brown of 247Sports, the team had a scheduled day off on Sunday, when the tests came back positive.

Texas is scheduled to play Kansas on Saturday.

Saturday's game is rescheduled from Nov. 21, when the teams were originally supposed to play before Kansas did not have enough players at a position group because of injuries and contact tracing from COVID-19 tests, per Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman.

Per Big 12 guidelines, each team must have 53 players—including seven offensive linemen, four defensive linemen and a quarterback—able to take the field on game day. According to Davis, there were five positive COVID-19 tests among 825 tests administered to the Kansas program between Nov. 8 and Nov. 21.

According to ESPN's Sam Khan Jr., Texas is tested for COVID-19 at least three times a week, per conference protocols.

The University of Texas unveiled a statue honoring trailblazing football player Julius Whittier on its campus Friday:

Whittier's statue stands outside the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame, which officially opened last year in the north end zone of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Whittier is among the most significant figures in the history of Longhorns football, as he was the first Black athlete to letter in football and receive a scholarship at the school.

After Texas fielded the last all-white national championship team in college football history in 1969, Whittier made his debut for the team in 1970.

During his three seasons at Texas, Whittier played both guard and tight end, and he helped lead the Longhorns to their second consecutive national title in 1970.

After that national championship victory in 1970, the Longhorns would not win another national title for 35 years when Vince Young, a Black quarterback, led them past USC in the National Championship Game.

In addition to the national title, Whittier's Longhorns teams won three Southwest Conference titles and went 20-1 in conference play during his tenure.

Whittier graduated from the University of Texas' law school in 1980 and went on to forge a lengthy career as a criminal prosecutor for the Dallas County district attorney's office.

Thanks to the fact that he broke the color barrier within the University of Texas' football program and excelled on the field as well, Whittier was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 2013.

Whittier was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease in 2012. He died at the age of 68 in 2018.  

Addressing rumors that he may be replaced with former Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer after this season, Texas head coach Tom Herman said he has bigger concerns.

In his regularly scheduled press conference ahead of the 5-2 Longhorns' matchup with 0-7 Kansas this weekend, Herman said (via  Jeff Howe of 247 Sports) he's "not at all" worried about his job or how rumors about his future are impacting his players and recruits: 

"I'm concerned about our players, I'm concerned about this program, I'm concerned about beating Kansas, I'm concerned about all of our goals still being in front of us. But to directly answer your question, I do think with the players it's really easy. These guys, they've seen it all, done at all. It's almost comical at times to them because they know the truth."

Herman said it's easy to discredit the rumors within the program, but he believes that other programs use the stories to their advantage in trying to lure recruits away from the Longhorns: 

"If I'm a competing recruiter, what do you do? You press 'print' and you say, 'Look, this is true! It must be true! It's on OrangeFans.com? It must be true! Or it was written by this guy, so it must be true! Or this source said this, so it must be true! That is really, really the hard part in recruiting is because these 16-year-old kids are very impressionable. Unfortunately, when negativity gets written — especially unfounded, rumor-based, unnamed source-based negativity gets written — then it makes our competing recruiter's jobs just so much more easy. They just press 'print' and say, 'Here you go.'"

The Longhorns suffered a major recruiting loss in October when they lost the commitment of Quinn Ewers, the top-rated quarterback recruit in the Class of 2022.

"The more I’ve considered, the more I’ve come to realize I didn’t explore all options as thoroughly as I would have liked," Ewers wrote. "Therefore, I’ve decided to de-commit and reassess the situation before making such an important decision for my future."

Texas was slotted to finish third in the Big 12 in the conference's preseason poll, with four first place votes, but the Longhorns are slotted fifth and ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25 poll. They haven't won the Big 12 title game since 2009, when they went 13-1 under Mack Brown. Herman is 30-17 through four seasons at Texas, with his lone 10-win season coming in 2018. 

But before Herman can worry about his job, he's focused on leading the Longhorns to their fourth-straight win on Sunday against Kansas.

The Texas Longhorns' college football recruiting class of 2018 was nicknamed "RevolUTion 18." But when current quarterback Sam Ehlinger was recruited the year before as part of the inaugural class for head coach Tom Herman, his group had a different kind of nickname.

According to Longhorns reporter Anwar Richardson, Ehlinger said one member of his class christened the group "S--t Stain 17."

As a freshman in 2017, Ehlinger played in nine games and started six while leading the team in passing and rushing. The Longhorns have gone 29-17 in his career and are 4-2 in 2020, so the sentiment of the nickname for the 2017 class doesn't entirely ring true.

Texas is back.

Back on the recruiting trail looking for a new future quarterback to build its program around, that is.

On Wednesday, Quinn Ewers announced he is decommitting from the Longhorns' 2022 recruiting class:

Ewers is a 5-star prospect, the No. 2 overall player and the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the 2022 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

This seems to be good news for the Ohio State Buckeyes, as 100 percent of the crystal ball predictions on 247Sports predict he will end up with the Big Ten powerhouse. Jeremy Birmingham of Lettermen Row noted Ohio State offered Ewers a scholarship before he even started his high school career.

The Buckeyes will be far from alone in their pursuit of one of the best players in the 2022 class.

High-profile programs such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma and USC are all listed on 247Sports' collection of interested schools. It should come as no surprise that so many teams are listed, as the 6'3" signal-caller can make seemingly every throw from the pocket and can extend plays with his legs if necessary.

In 2019 alone, he was named the MaxPreps National Sophomore of the Year and Texas District 5-6A Overall MVP while leading Southlake Carroll to a 13-1 record.

Gabe Brooks of 247Sports projects him as a first-round draft pick and compared him to potential future Hall of Famer Philip Rivers.

Ewers is the type of quarterback who can compete for the Heisman Trophy and lead a program to College Football Playoff appearances during his collegiate career. 

This is a major loss for a Longhorns program that has struggled to re-establish itself as the national powerhouse it once was, and it will be a significant development for whichever team lands him on the trail.

The "Eyes of Texas" will reportedly remain the school song of the University of Texas despite the controversy surrounding such a decision.  

According to Brian Davis of USA Today, the University of Texas System Board of Regents released a statement on Thursday reaffirming the school's position on the song after University of Texas president Jay Hartzell announced the song will remain in place.

"To be clear, the UT System Board of Regents stands unequivocally and unanimously in support of President Hartzell's announcement that The Eyes of Texas is, and will remain, the official school song," regents chairman Kevin Eltife said in the statement.

A campus committee is preparing a study on the song's origins that is expected to be released in January.

"The Eyes of Texas has been UT Austin's official school song for almost 120 years," Eltife said. "It has been performed at most official events—celebratory or solemn—and sung by proud alumni and students for generations as a common bond of the UT family. It is a longstanding symbol of The University's academic and athletic achievements in its pursuit of excellence."

This comes after Andrew Zhang of the Daily Texan reported the Longhorn Band is "fairly evenly divided in opinion" on whether its members will play the song.

The band will not perform it during Saturday's game against Baylor because it does not have the "necessary instrumentation" after its members were asked in a survey whether they were willing to play the song.

Zhang explained that "the song was originally performed at a minstrel show with performers in blackface, and the opening verse is a saying inspired by Confederate general Robert E. Lee."

In June, Dave Wilson of ESPN reported a number of Longhorns athletes requested the university rename some campus buildings and remove "The Eyes of Texas" as the official school song.

On the field, Texas is off to a disappointing start at 2-2 and could be 1-3 without a dramatic comeback win over Texas Tech. It has gone from College Football Playoff candidate to Big 12 afterthought before the Big Ten or Pac-12 have even started their seasons.

Former Austin American-Statesman photographer Nick Wagner filed a lawsuit Friday against the owners and handlers of Bevo XV, the University of Texas' live mascot, for permanent injuries he suffered while trying to take pictures of the Texas Longhorn steer at the 2019 Sugar Bowl.

Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday that Wagner, who left his position with the newspaper in May, wants a jury trial in the case and is seeking between $200,000 and $1 million in damages.

Texas faced off with Georgia in the 2019 Sugar Bowl. Before the game, which took place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, the handlers for Bevo tried to bring him closer to the Bulldogs' live mascot, Uga, for a photo-op.

Instead, the steer became aggressive, forcing people to scatter:

Wagner alleges in the lawsuit he was rammed twice by Bevo, leading to permanent injuries to his neck and back, per Davis. He said the steer's handlers, members of the Silver Spurs Alumni Association, were "unfit or not competent" and that they knew Uga's presence would spark an aggressive reaction.

Along with Silver Spurs, the lawsuit also names John and Betty Baker, the steer's owners.

Texas defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, 28-21, and new safety measures were put in place for when Bevo traveled to road games, beginning with the 2019 season.

Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte wrote a letter to fans detailing how Longhorns athletes are expected to remain on the field during the playing of "The Eyes of Texas," according to the Austin American-Statesman's Brian Davis. 

The topic arose after players left for the locker room prior to the Texas band playing the song at the end of games.

Davis shared a portion of Del Conte's letter to fans and donors:

"Many of your questions have been about our student-athletes and the confusion about why they have not remained on the field for 'The Eyes of Texas' after the games. I, like so many of you, view the song with pride and sing loudly and proudly in honor of the efforts of those who represent and support this phenomenal institution.

'As much as our student-athletes love this university, they have questions about the history of 'The Eyes' and concerns about it. ...

"With that said, I do want to clarify that I have had many conversations with our head coaches outlining my expectations that our teams show appreciation for our university, fans, and supporters by standing together as a unified group for 'The Eyes,' while we work through this issue."

As protests against police brutality and racial injustice were ongoing in June, a group of Texas athletes across multiple sports made a set of requests for school officials. Among them was replacing "The Eyes of Texas" as the alma mater.

Texas Monthly's Joe Levin provided a lengthy backstory behind the song. 

Former university President William Prather based the name off Robert E. Lee's phrase that "the eyes of the South are upon you." Lee would often tell that to students at Washington College in Virginia. During an 1899 address to Texas students, Prather said, "Forward, young men and women of the University, the eyes of Texas are upon you!" 

Two students used his words as inspiration for a new school song and debuted what became "The Eyes of Texas" at a 1903 minstrel show. Levin noted the minstrel shows carried on until the 1960s and "were fund-raisers organized by students and featured white performers singing and dancing in blackface."

Current Texas President Jay Hartzell confirmed in July that "Eyes" would remain the alma mater, but that the school could "reclaim and redefine" what the song stands for.

Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman expressed regret Saturday for the team's inability to come through with a win for quarterback Sam Ehlinger against the rival Oklahoma Sooners.

According to Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman, Herman said: "Crushed. Absolutely crushed that we as a family didn't do enough collectively for him to finish his career against these guys the way that he deserved to. I feel like we all let him down."

The No. 22 Longhorns fell 53-45 to Oklahoma in four overtimes in Saturday's Red River Showdown, leaving Ehlinger with a 1-4 career record against the Sooners.

Ehlinger, who is a senior, put up huge numbers in the losing effort. He went 30-of-53 for 287 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions while also rushing for 112 yards and four touchdowns.

While Ehlinger led Texas back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter, he made a game-ending mistake with an interception in the end zone in the fourth overtime after Oklahoma had taken an eight-point lead on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Rattler to Drake Stoops.

Ehlinger was the veteran quarterback in the game, but it was Rattler who showed more composure. The freshman was benched in favor of Tanner Mordecai in the first half, but head coach Lincoln Riley put him back in during the second half, and the decision paid dividends.

Rattler finished 23-of-35 for 209 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, plus 51 yards and one score on the ground.

Oklahoma has largely had Texas' number in the Red River Showdown in recent years. The Sooners have won three games in a row against the Longhorns and nine of the past 12.

Both teams entered Saturday's game in significant need of a win. The Sooners were 1-2 and unranked after back-to-back losses to Kansas State and Iowa State, while the Longhorns were 2-1 and coming off an upset loss against TCU.

The combination of Herman and Ehlinger was expected to lead Texas football back to prominence, but that hasn't really been the case.

Texas went 7-6 in 2017, 10-4 in 2018 and 8-5 last season. With a 2-2 record through four games this season, the Longhorns seem unlikely to vie for a College Football Playoff spot or even a Big 12 title once again in 2020.

Saturday marked an opportunity for Herman and Ehlinger to cement their legacy together at Texas as something more than disappointment, but yet another loss to Oklahoma prevented that from happening.