The Daily Texan Double Coverage 2020-12-11

T H E D A I LY TEXAN PRESENTS

Double Coverage VOL. 15 ISSUE 10 | Dec. 11, 2020

A reluctant

end

Texas won’t play its final game due to a COVID-19 outbreak. joshua guenther

/ the daily texan file

2

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DOUBLE COVERAGE

TEXAN

STAFF PICKS

Myah Taylor

Stephen Wagner

Nathan Han

Carter Yates

Brittany Archer

Matthew Boncosky

Daniela Perez

Brett Hintz

Jack Myer

No. 17 North Carolina @ No. 10 Miami

North Carolina

Miami

North Carolina

North Carolina

Miami

North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina

Navy @ Army

Army

Navy

Army

Army

Army

Army

Army

Navy

Army

Virginia @ Virginia Tech

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Auburn @ Mississippi State

Auburn

Mississippi State

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Minnesota @ Nebraska

Nebraska

Minnesota

Nebraska

Nebraska

Minnesota

Nebraska

Nebraska

Minnesota

Nebraska

Wisconsin @ No. 16 Iowa

Iowa

Iowa

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Iowa

Iowa

Wisconsin

Grant Daniels

Production Michael Gammon Account Executives Diane Byram, Pam Garner, Julianne Phillipp Design Tillie Policastro

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Week 14 Results

4-4

3-5

5-3

4-4

6-2

4-4

5-3

5-3

5-3

Overall Record

57-34

50-41

57-34

58-33

56-35

50-41

55-36

55-36

58-33

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overall standings

t-1

t-3

5

t-6

t-8

Carter Yates, Jack Myer

Myah Taylor, Nathan Han

Brittany Archer

Brett Hintz, Daniela Perez

Stephen Wagner, Matthew Boncosky

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EDITOR’S NOTE Texas did not reach its goal of playing in the Big 12 Championship, but the Longhorns enjoyed their fourth winning season since Tom Herman took over the program in 2016. After a fall characterized by hot seats, controversy and this pesky little thing called COVID-19, which canceled the team’s last game of the regular season, Texas will try to regroup for a potential bowl game.

DOUBLE COVERAGE Double Coverage Editors Myah Taylor, Stephen Wagner Design Editor

Myah Taylor & Stephen Wagner

Christina Peebles

Photo Editor

Jack Myer

Copy Editor

Brittany Miller

Writers Nathan Han

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Matthew Boncosky

Carter Yates

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Daniela Perez

Brittany Archer

Brett Hintz

Issue Designers Minka Atkinson Management Jason Lihuang, Trinady Joslin

Isabella Waltz

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DOUBLE COVERAGE

texas ends regular season The Longhorns’ 2020 season ends on a disappointing note as its final game was canceled.

By Stephen Wagner @stephenwag22

T

his season hasn’t gone the way the Longhorns expected it to.

Losses to TCU, Oklahoma and Iowa State have dashed Texas’ hopes of returning to the Big 12 Championship game and left the Longhorns with little to play for in their final game of the regular season. Had Texas not had nine student-athletes and 13 staff members test positive for COVID-19 Thursday afternoon, it would have played against a Kansas team that also has fallen short of expectations.

The 6–3 Longhorns haven’t been as bleak as the winless Jayhawks, though they’ve fallen well short of their preseason hopes of rejoining the national championship conversation and dethroning Oklahoma as king of the Big 12.

Head coach Tom Herman said he didn’t think this season has been up to his standards.

“We’ve done some really, really good things and come up short in a four-overtime game,” Herman said. “We’ve come up three points short and two points short in two other games, and we’ve got to find a way to win those close ones in the future and get us over that hump.”

If this week’s matchup between Texas and Kansas been played four weeks ago, when it was originally scheduled, the two teams would’ve had something to play for besides dignity and pride. At the time, the Longhorns were still clinging to their conference championship hopes, while the Jayhawks were hoping to match last season’s three-win total.

joshua guenther

But this time, it’s Texas that has been hit by the virus. Nine positive players and 13 positive staff members led the team to suspend all operations after stating Wednesday the team would return to “limited outdoor activities.” The Big 12 announced Thursday that the matchup would be considered a “no contest” and would not be rescheduled a second time.

Had the game been played, the Jayhawks would have had little more to play for than Texas. Kansas

fans initially rejoiced after the NCAA announced it was abandoning win requirements for bowl eligibility in the 2020 football season.

But nine grueling losses later, the Jayhawks’ chances of receiving a bowl invitation are becoming increasingly bleak. Kansas lost its season opener to Sun Belt member Coastal Carolina for the second consecutive season and has only lost one game by fewer than 15 points.

Both head coach Les Miles and

Herman cited the shortened spring practices as partial reasons for why their teams have struggled. Both claimed they weren’t making excuses.

“I think our team can be a more talented team,” Miles said after a 16-13 loss to Texas Tech last week.

“I think we have to be with them in the spring. I think we could be a lot better team than we are right now, but there were some issues with our time frame.”

Although Texas hasn’t met any of its preseason goals, Herman said in

/ the daily texan file

last week’s press conference that he still hoped to send the seniors out with a fourth straight winning season. Though this weekend’s game against Kansas won’t be played, the Longhorns can still send their seniors out on a high note in a likely bowl game.

“They’re competitors,” Herman said. “This is what they do.

They’re young men who compete. And they want to go out, and they want to win every game that they play.”

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020

GAMEsTO WATCH

By Brittany Archer

|

5

@brittanyarcher_

No. 9 georgia AT No. 25 missouri

LSU AT No. 6 florida

Dec. 12, 11 a.m. CT, SECN

Dec. 12, 6 p.m. CT, ESPN

The No. 9 Georgia Bulldogs travel to Columbia, Missouri, to face the No. 25 Missouri Tigers after their initial game on Nov. 14 was canceled due to COVID-19 cases and contact tracing. While not much was expected from the Tigers this year after firing former head coach Barry Odom in the offseason, Missouri has come to rely on first-year starter Connor Bazelak, who is averaging over 277 yards in the past four games. While Missouri may be missing two key defensive players in junior cornerback Jarvis Ware and senior linebacker Tre Williams, the Bulldogs will have a challenge as the Tigers have a 4–1 home record. Their only loss? To No. 2 Alabama in Week Four.

LSU won’t be heading to a bowl game after announcing a self-imposed bowl ban for the season, but the team still has to travel to The Swamp to face No. 6 Florida Gators. The Tigers handily defeated the Gators 42-28 last year and left a bad taste in their mouths. This year, Florida will look to their explosive offense and Heisman-hopeful senior quarterback Kyle Trask and junior tight end Kyle Pitts to secure the win. The Gators will use this game as a final tuneup before facing Alabama in the SEC Championship next week.

wisconsin AT No. 16 iowa Dec. 12, 2:30 p.m. CT, FS1 The Iowa Hawkeyes are looking to snap a four-game losing streak against the Wisconsin Badgers.The Badgers have had a whirlwind season. Three of the Badgers’ seven scheduled games have been canceled due to COVID outbreaks, both within the program and at opposing schools, making Wisconsin ineligible for the Big 10 Championship game. And last week, the Badgers lost to Indiana for the first time since 2002. Iowa, on the other hand, enters the game on a five-game win streak. Will the Hawkeyes continue their streak and get their first win over the Badgers since 2015?

No. 15 USC AT UCLA Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m. CT, ABC It’s rivalry time in Southern California as the two Los Angeles schools meet at the Rose Bowl.

While Trojans enter the game undefeated at 4–0, they narrowly avoided upsets against Arizona and Arizona State before dominating Washington State last weekend. They will look to junior wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who tied the Pac-12 and program’s single-game record with four touchdown catches in the first quarter last weekend. UCLA is entering the game with a twogame win streak and is looking forward to fully returning junior starting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson after missing the last two games due to contract tracing.

No. 13 coastal carolina AT troy Dec. 12, 2 p.m. CT, ESPN+ It’s time to put some respect toward the Chanticleers. In a whirlwind season, Coastal Carolina has responded to challenge after challenge. After COVID-19 protocols forced Liberty to cancel its game against Coastal Carolina, the BYU Cougars were quickly brought in as a replacement. The Chanticleers sent the Cougars packing back to Utah with a nail-biting 22-17 loss. Coastal Carolina is expected to compete in the Sun Belt Conference Championship next week after this week’s matchup against Troy.

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DOUBLE COVERAGE

BIG 12

1. Iowa state cyclones

By Matthew Boncosky

|

@mboncosky

POWER RANKINGS

Iowa State had no trouble beating West Virginia 42-6 last week. The Cyclones easily moved the ball against a Mountaineer defense that had been solid all season. The win concluded Iowa State’s regular season, and the Cyclones clinched the top spot in the Big 12 heading into the conference championship game.

2. Oklahoma Sooners

3. TEXAS LONGHORNS

Oklahoma struggled early but pulled away against Baylor 27-14 last week. The win secured another Big 12 title game appearance for the Sooners, who are seeking their sixth straight conference championship, though Oklahoma will have to beat a strong Iowa State team they lost to earlier in the season. The Sooners were initially scheduled to conclude the regular season against West Virginia before the game was canceled due to COVID-19.

The Longhorns routed Kansas State last week 69-31 in their performance of the year, though the win came too late. Running backs freshman Bijan Robinson and sophomore Roschon Johnson ran through the Wildcat defense for a combined 311 yards and six touchdowns on 23 carries. A COVID-19 outbreak at Texas caused the Longhorns’ final game of the season against Kanas to be canceled.

4. TCU HORNED FROGS

5. Oklahoma state cowboys

TCU’s 29-22 win over then-No. 15 Oklahoma State last week cemented its status as the season-wrecker in the Big 12 this season after it did the same to then-No. 9 Texas in October. Sophomore quarterback Max Duggan was the star of the Horned Frogs once again, throwing for 265 yards and adding another 104 on the ground.

Whatever slim Big 12 title game hopes Oklahoma State had ended last week after the Cowboys lost to TCU. Oklahoma State started the season out strong, but three losses in its last five games was enough to remove the Cowboys from contention in a disappointing final stretch of the season.

6. WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS

7. baylor bears

West Virginia proved no match for then-No. 9 Iowa State last week, losing a 42-6 rout. The Mountaineers scored a season low and allowed a season high in points to the Cyclones. West Virginia will not conclude its regular season against Oklahoma after the game was canceled due to COVID-19.

Baylor put up a commendable fight against Oklahoma last week, keeping it close until the Sooners pulled away in the second half. The Bears’ defense held Oklahoma redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler to just 193 passing yards, his fewest of the season.

8. texas tech red raiders

9. KANSAS STATE WILDCATS

Texas Tech narrowly escaped an embarrassing loss to Kansas for the second consecutive season last week with a 16-13 win. Junior kicker Jonathan Garibay kicked a go-ahead field goal with 5 1/2 minutes left in the game. The Red Raiders finished their season with a 4–6 record.

Kansas State was humiliated by Texas last week. The Wildcats had no answer for the Longhorns’ offensive attack, allowing over 600 yards and nine touchdowns.

The loss was the fifth in a row for the Wildcats, a stinging reminder of how quickly they fell after starting the season 4–1.

10. kansas jayhawks check us out

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Kansas concludes the season in the place where it started and where it’s stayed all season: last place. The Jayhawks’ season will conclude without a win for the second time in six seasons and without a conference win for the second time in four seasons.

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020

DANIELA’S DIGS

Texas fans can rejoice that 2020 is coming to close.

By Daniela Perez

n

is in order.

Anxiety characterized the late summer months, as the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions of the college football season’s viability. Power Five programs went into a tailspin trying to keep their seasons alive. By August, it was clear Texas’ season would be played, even if its schedule was altered.

The Longhorns’ first game was a blowout win against UT-El Paso. The usual excited chants of an undefeated season brewed, while skeptics still saw the flaws in Texas’ defense and its reliance on senior quarterback and then-Heisman-contender Sam Ehlinger.

Texas’ 63-56 overtime win over Texas Tech put the team’s faults on display.

These weaknesses were ever-present in the Longhorns’ 33-31 loss to TCU. In a year filled with uncertainty, Texas’ season hung in the balance — a loss to TCU could either energize an undefeated run or be one of the cogs that would sit the team out of another Big 12 Championship.

“I told our guys that the cool thing about the Big 12 is the teams with the two best records at the end of the season are going to play for the championship,” head coach Tom Herman said

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ow that Texas has completed its regular season, a 2020 recap

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in the TCU postgame press conference.

“So we’ve still got a long way to go, hopefully, in this season.

We’ll lick our wounds tonight (and) get back to the drawing board.”

In October, the Golden Hat took a quick trip down to Dallas and back to Norman, despite the Sooners entering the game with a losing record. Herman remained adamant that the back-toback losses were a bump in the road, but the Longhorns’ mission remained clear. The national championship was out of the conversation at that point, but a Big 12 appearance was still plausible, right?

Even after a three-game win streak, Texas’ season would end in familiar territory. The team had highlights over Oklahoma State and a dominating performance against Kansas State, but its Big 12 hopes came to an end with a loss to Iowa State. It’s been discussed ad nauseum, but what needs to change in Texas to bring the Longhorns back?

Former Florida and Ohio State head coach and Texas fan-favorite Urban Meyer is now out of the equation to replace Herman, and another year of the fourth-year head coach seems to be the Longhorns’ fate. Everything has come full circle. The

issues posed by the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the season are still present at the end.

It was only a matter of time before the coronavirus caught up to the team.

Texas announced Thursday that its matchup against Kansas on Dec. 12 would be canceled and not rescheduled. Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said in a statement that nine players and 13 staff members in the program have tested positive for the virus this week. The Longhorns were initially supposed to play the Jayhawks on Nov. 21 before that game was canceled due to Kansas’ failure to meet Big 12 roster requirements.

The new college football “normal” was the same as the national standard for handling COVID cases: Quarantine those who were sick and test those exposed on a daily basis, but still play football on Saturday.

Normalcy as we once knew it seems to be months away given current vaccine rollouts. Even then, it’ll take years to finally get back to what we once knew. But one thing is for sure — 2020 is weeks from ending, and the Longhorns and people around the world alike are happy it’s coming to a close.

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DOUBLE COVERAGE

BREAKOUT PLAYERS

By Myah Taylor @t_myah

Not much went Texas’ way in 2020. The Longhorns navigated off-field controversy along with a global pandemic. They lost to rival Oklahoma and TCU — again — and will finish the season with a middling 6–3 record. It’s safe to say, times have been better in Austin. While Texas did not meet its goal of playing in the Big 12 Championship game, the season still counted for something. Several Longhorns showed noticeable potential on the field, possibly hinting at what’s to come in 2021 and beyond.

Here are four Texas players who had breakout seasons in 2020:

Bijan Robinson — Running back Bijan Robinson’s arrival in Austin was highly anticipated. The No. 1 running back recruit in the class of 2020 has lived up to expectations, but it took him time to adjust to the speed of the college game. In Texas’ shootout with Texas Tech on Sept.

26, he attempted to hurdle a defender only to get twisted up like a pretzel. It was an interesting welcome to Big 12 play for the smiley freshman, but as the season wore on, Robinson got more comfortable. He started to really heat up in the Longhorns’ game against West Virginia, rushing for 113 yards on 12 carries. His 172-yard, three touchdown performance in Texas’ game against Kansas State last weekend is what the Longhorn faithful hoped they’d see out of “Little Ricky.” Now adjusted to the college speed, Robinson is off to the races.

D’Shawn Jamison — Defensive back/ Kick returner It started with a drop and then turned into a kick return for a touchdown.

D’Shawn Jamison’s special teams score in Texas’ game against Oklahoma State on Halloween was a real game changer, giving the Longhorns the momentum they

would need en route to pulling off the upset in Stillwater. But Jamison is no one -trick pony. The two-way player nearly accomplished a similar feat in Texas’ 69-31 victory over Kansas State last Saturday.

That time, he returned the ball 98 yards up the field, just a yard shy of the score.

Perhaps the most prolific returner in the Big 12, Jamison is also a veteran defensive back on the team. This season, the junior showed that the Longhorns have a real swiss army knife on their hands looking forward.

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Jake Smith — Wide receiver Plagued by drops his freshman season and then injuries in the early games of his sophomore year, Jake Smith came up huge in Texas’ upset victory over Oklahoma State. The receiver was on the other end of the fourth-and-7 play which Tom Herman called one of the best of senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s career. The duo connected for the 12-yard score that would give Texas the lead. Smith said that play in particular helped his confidence.

Ehlinger said he’s always had trust in the slot receiver, who led the Longhorns receiving core that night with 70 yards and seven receptions. With a natural athleticism and renewed confidence, Smith should be a top receiver heading into his junior season.

DeMarvion Overshown — Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown has gracefully transitioned from safety to linebacker this year, becoming one of the rising stars on the Texas defense. Overshown had his biggest game of the season against Oklahoma in October. At the Cotton Bowl, he recorded 11 total tackles and an interception. In Texas’ win over Oklahoma State, the hybrid player forced a fumble. The junior isn’t even at full force yet. Herman said he’d like to see Overshown put on a bit more weight, but the linebacker is well on his way to becoming a marquee member of the Texas defense.

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