The Daily Texan 2021-10-19

DT VOLUME 122, ISSUE 27 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

increased safety on 6th street cover photo by jack myer

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Longhorn Powerlifting raises awareness for breast cancer awareness month with its Bench for Breast event.

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Life&Arts

Safety improvements are coming to 6th Street in response to recent shootings.

10

Chris Beard makes a push to increase student attendance at basketball games.

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UT should house therapy pets in order to help students alleviate stress during the school year.

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CAMPUS

UT offers third doses, booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine

By Leila Saidane @leilasophiaaa

UT began offering third doses and booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to eligible individuals on campus last month.

Moderately to severely immunocompromised people are eligible for a third dose. Those 65 or older or anyone who spends time in high-risk settings such as hospitals are eligible for a booster six months after their second shot, according to CDC guidelines. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration panel voted Friday to authorize booster shots for anyone who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine two or more months ago.

Karen Geiger, clinic operations supervisor for the UT vaccination clinic, said they are recommending boosters to raise the levels of waning antibodies seen six months after the second shot.

For immunocompromised patients, the third dose will give this group the same level of antibody protection as those in the general population who received two doses.

Ilya Finkelstein, a researcher and molecular biosciences associate professor, said third shots are critical for the immunocompromised population who did not receive a protective level of antibodies from the initial two doses.

“The way to break the chains of transmission to grandma, to your family, and to your classmates, to an immunocompromised person whom you may never know, is to get vaccinated,” Finkelstein said. “That’s how you get personal protection, that’s how you protect the community around you.”

rocky higine

Psychology senior AT Tinoco, who is immunocompromised, said he got his third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in early October. If Tinoco contracted COVID-19, he said at best he would be hospitalized and at worst it would be fatal.

“People are like, ‘Oh the pandemic is over,’” Tinoco said. “Maybe it’s over for you, but it’s not over for people who are disabled, chronically ill, immunocompromised and the elderly.”

Tinoco said the public should consider the safety of immunocompromised individuals more.

“Just because we are a minority

/ the daily texan staff

doesn’t make … our voices any less deserving, and it doesn’t make our lives any less worthy,” Tinaco said.”

Getting a third dose or booster shot in the United States does not take away developing countries’ access to vaccinations, Finkelstein said.

“The doses are going to expire,” Finkelstein said. “The UT Health Clinic overestimated the demand, those (vaccines) aren’t going to get flown over to a third world country, those are going to be thrown into the trash. So, on the ground, get the shot.”

The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely. If we have made an error, let us know about it. E-mail managingeditor@thedailytexan.com.

NEWS

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

WORLD

Nurdle Patrol program expands to Mexico, saves wildlife

By Katy Nelson @Katynel86

The Nurdle Patrol program, a UT citizen science effort, began expanding into Mexico on Sept. 1.

The program, which started in 2018, has collected 1,625,813 nurdles, the raw material for plastic manufacturing, from Texas shorelines. Now, the program is collaborating with the University of Veracruz to expand nurdle collection efforts in Mexico. Nurdle Patrol founder Jace Tunnell said nurdles can clog the intestine tracks of animals that accidentally eat them.

“The biggest threat (from nurdles) is to wildlife,” Tunnell, reserve director at the marine science institute said. “There’s been plenty of research over the last 30 years that has looked at different species of shorebirds, turtles and fish that eat these plastic pellets … and they absorb harmful chemicals whenever they’re floating around in the environment.”

Tunnell said the website shows the amount of nurdles collected in different areas through color-coded dots based on concentration.

“If you look down in Mexico, there’s hardly any nurdles that have been collected and not as many surveys have been done, so there’s these big areas that we just don’t have information on, and without having that information it’s hard to make any change,” Tunnell said.

The program plans to host the third annual Plastic Pollution Symposium in Veracruz

in 2022 along with the Mission-Aransas Reserve and the Marine Science Institute, Tunnell said.

“We wanted there to be a location where all the researchers could come together once a year, talk about the research they’re doing, where we can collaborate,” Tunnell said.

The Nurdle Patrol program received over $400,000 in funding from the Marine Debris Program, which will go toward expanding into Mexico. The program will also receive $200,000 every year for the next five years from the Matagorda Bay Mitigation Trust, which the program utilizes for outreach. Steven Raabe, a trustee for the Matagorda Bay Mitigation Trust, said the program received the funding from a lawsuit against Formosa Plastics in which Formosa Plastics allegedly discharged plastic pellets like nurdles into the Matagorda Bay. “I think there’s still a lot to be learned as to what is the full impact of plastics and the particles in the environment,” Raabe said. “It’s good to see those types of situations be cleaned up and remediated so they don’t pose harm to people in the area of the ecosystem.”

Zhanfei Liu, an associate professor of marine science, said the ultimate goal of the nurdle patrol program is to inform policymakers of what changes need to be made to current policies to help the wildlife by the shorelines.

“If we can find some players or some responsible party involved, hopefully we can make a policy so we can eliminate or at least reduce the nurdles in the environment or on the coast,” Liu said.

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Nurdles, the raw material for plastic manufacturing, can clog the intestine tracks of animals that accidentally eat them.

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Editor-In-Chief | @TEXANOPINION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

COLUMN

OPINION

UT should provide in-house therapy pets for students UT should house therapy pets in student study centers to help students alleviate stress.

By Faith DuFresne columnist

here’s no denying that making the move to an entirely new city is intimidating. It’s incredibly overwhelming, exciting, scary and altogether unprecedented. Students leave families, friends and their whole lives behind to get a fresh start in college. While homesickness is a common condition that ails most students at one time or another, leaving a furry friend behind can make it that much harder to cope.

UT needs to provide a program that allows therapy pets to frequent academic centers to help alleviate the stress of being a college student. Pets provide a sense of comfort, belonging and companionship few other things in life can replicate. Though research on human-animal relationships is still new, studies have shown that interacting with animals has reduced cortisol levels

LEGALESE | Opinions expressed in The Daily Texan are those of the editor, the Editorial Board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily those of the UT administration, the Board of Regents or the Texas Student Media Board of Operating Trustees.

and blood pressure, two symptoms that tend to rise when under stress — something college students are more than prone to.

Public relations freshman Dagmawit Worke explained that while the idea of therapy pets on campus is new to her, she feels it would be beneficial to students across campus.

“I feel like there can be a direct sense of comfort that comes with animals that is often harder to find at college,” Worke said. “Having small connections, even if it’s with a dog on a day to day basis, … can be a great comfort source for a lot of students.”

Students not only feel stress from being out of their comfort zone but must also keep up with varying assignments, tests and projects. Having therapy pets on campus in popular student study centers, such as the William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center or the Peter T. Flawn Academic Center, would be a conducive outlet to release that stress.

Dr. Jennifer Maedgen, a senior associate vice president in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, explained the current situation with pets on campus.

“They are allowed in University Housing but not allowed in other buildings at this point. I think if we were to allow them in other buildings, it would probably be on a case by case basis and there would have to be some sort of review process

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to determine if it was a reasonable accommodation,” Maedgen said.

Maedgen added that while the University doesn’t have its own service for students, it could sponsor more events that allow students to interact with pets. However, those events would be on a volunteer basis, and the process requires the interested groups to register through Environmental Health Services.

Numerous universities have pets on campus for students to visit throughout the semester or during midterm and finals season. Colleges such as Kent State University and Miami University are among the many that allow students to interact with pets to reduce stress.

If UT wants to provide a community for students, the University should offer students the ability to relieve stress and find comfort in their home away from home through therapy pets. Stress can not only deteriorate the mental health of students, but it also wears them down physically and emotionally. Pets in student study centers would allow students to take a break and relax before getting back to changing the world.

Hardworking students deserve fun ways to cope with stress, and pets provide just that.

DuFresne is a journalism freshman from Dallas, Texas.

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NEWS

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

RESEARCH

UT researchers identify promising antibody that is resistant to COVID variants

By Kevin Vu @Kevin_Vu_

UT researchers identified a COVID-19 antibody that can prevent viral infection against COVID-19 and its current variants.

UT researchers, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, published their findings last month identifying an antibody they can potentially use to create an antibody therapeutic treatment, which could prevent COVID-19 infection or stop symptoms from worsening. However, it is currently unclear whether the antibody can prevent infection in future variants, said Nicole Johnson, co-author of the paper.

“Generally, antibody therapeutics are important for prophylactic or therapeutic use because it gives your immune system a head start,” said

Johnson, a biochemistry doctoral student. “So if you’re able to treat with some antibodies that can neutralize infection, you’re going to get a less severe infection while your own body is ramping up its antibody response to fight the virus.”

Johnson said the antibody has a small binding footprint that binds to the virus cell to work against current variants. She said the team conducted multiple tests to see if COVID-19 would infect a cell after being exposed to the antibody and tested how well the antibody binds to the virus.

“We have really low levels of antibodies flowing in our body at any given time,” Johnson said. “When you are exposed to some kind of pathogen, or in the case of the vaccine just the spike protein antigen, your body will recognize that some subset of those low-level antibodies that you already have have bound successfully

megan fletcher

to the pathogen and then ramps up those antibodies.”

Kevin Kramer, a Vanderbilt University alumnus and co-author of the paper, said the antibody can be used for antibody therapeutic treatment such as Regeneron. Patients can receive this treatment before or after infection. He said immunocompromised patients can take the treatment as a way to fight against COVID-19 if patients do not respond well to vaccines. “(The treatment) is given to vulnerable at-risk populations, for example, that may not be able to respond well to a vaccine given they are immunocompromised or they are taking medicine that compromises their immune system,” Kramer said.

Johnson said they do not expect the antibody to easily mutate and will be able to disarm current COVID-19 variants.

/ the daily texan staff

“I’m really proud of this work,” Johnson said. “It’s really cool that we have this method that can identify these unique antibodies that have potential to add to the toolbox that we have.”

Kramer said although they found the antibody in only one patient, they can remake it for antibody therapeutic use because they know its genetic sequence. He said discovering this antibody could potentially help treat many patients, especially those who are unable to receive the vaccine or do not gain the same antibodies from the vaccine.

“I went into grad school with an interest in biology and human health and disease, and I honestly never imagined I’d be working on a project that has such acute relevance to a problem that’s affecting so many people,” Kramer said. “I’m a scientist at heart, so I love how things work and how biology works.”

B R O O K E PA R K

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News Editor | @THEDAILYTEXAN

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

NEWS

CITY

increased safety on 6th street Austin implements increased safety measures on 6th Street after shootings.

By Tori Duff @torianneduff

orking as a 6th Street bar bouncer, Jack Corrigan said he was no more than 30 feet away from a fatal June shooting outside a bar down the street. Now, Corrigan said he has stopped working in the nightlife industry because of the toll safety concerns took on his mental health.

“There are psychological effects that happen if you go downtown too much, specifically to Dirty Sixth, because … you never

know what you’ll find,” said Corrigan, a finance and sports management junior. “I’m definitely not working downtown again just because it’s not healthy for me; it’s not healthy for normal people.”

Joseph Chacon, chief of the Austin Police Department, said in a city memo released Oct. 5 that the department is creating a command post for medical personnel to station at 6th Street on weekends. Austin Energy has also replaced 64 light fixtures with LED lighting. These initiatives are part of July Austin City Council resolution to increase safety and crack down on underage drinking on 6th Street.

The resolution also created an interdepartmental team consisting of the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Austin Energy, Austin Code and the Historic Preservation Office to handle different aspects of 6th Street safety improvements.

After the June 12 shooting,

jack myer

/ the daily texan file

A bicyclist rides down 6th Street in East Austin on Sept. 4, 2020.

where one person was killed and 14 were injured outside of Cheers Shot Bar, some students expressed concerns about gun violence on social media and said they have reservations about going to 6th Street.

Nicole Constantin, a management information systems junior, said she and her friends avoided going to 6th Street for the rest of the summer after the shooting.

“I think I’m just starting to take things more seriously, and I’m definitely more conscious of my surroundings (on 6th Street),” Constantin said. “Having Find My Friends on my iPhone (and) making sure our phones are fully charged (is) super important.”

Corrigan said he went through a number of life-threatening experiences over the summer,

including having a gun pulled on him while working the door.

Corrigan said he was also shot at on July 4 when two women were injured on 6th Street.

“I think that if downtown did have better lighting, more security, more … law enforcement and medical personnel that things would be a lot more safe,” Corrigan said. “(Violent crimes) shouldn’t necessarily be a regular occurrence.”

Camille DiGiaimo, a management information systems junior, said having more EMS could help respond to violent crimes and ensure the overall safety of 6th Street patrons.

“I definitely think having more medical people is good, not even for just shootings but for (intoxicated) people in general,” DiGiaimo said. “On 6th, there’s no

one to really help you except the bouncers and police officers, which sometimes is not the most approachable situation.”

The city is also encouraging bar owners adjacent to alleyways to install lighting on their buildings, and APD is working with the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission to target underaged drinkers, according to the memo.

Corrigan said 6th Street is “fake ID central.” However, in the months following the fatal June shooting, alcohol sales on 6th Street temporarily decreased, according to a Downtown Austin Alliance study.

“Our sales were atrocious for about three weeks because people were afraid to go out, and for good reason,” Carrigan said.

“Hopefully these new safety measures will help with that.”

LIFE&ARTS

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

STUDENT LIFE

‘It took me so much time to accept that i do belong here’ Black and Hispanic women share feelings of imposterism and self-doubt at UT.

By Sofia Treviño @sofiacis_7

ttending Calculus I office hours for the first time her freshman year, Rebecca Cedillo remembers her professor saying civil engineering “wouldn’t work out for her.” Cedillo left the encounter feeling disheartened and questioning her worth.

“It took me so much time to accept that I do belong here, that they didn’t make a mistake when they admitted me into UT,” Cedillo said.

UT’s new class welcomed 27.1% Hispanic students, a record high and 5.4% Black students, a slight decrease from last year. Many students, especially women of color, still feel out of place among their peers, leading to feelings of self-doubt.

Kevin Cokley, department chair of educational psychology, researches the imposter phenomenon. He said compared to their white peers, students of color experience the phenomenon more deeply due to outside messages about their groups.

“Individuals will work incredibly hard (and) try to be perfect,” Cokley said. “No one is perfect, and the failure to be perfect can contribute to even more feelings of (being an) imposter.”

As one of the few Black women in her graduate program, Shaina Hall, a counseling psychology doctoral student, said UT should invest more in students of color by providing more community spaces or through fellowships and research opportunities.

“Being a student of color in spaces where I’m not supported perpetuates those feelings of not being good enough,” Hall said. “We will always have imposter phenomenon if the systems that we’re in continue to validate that students are inferior.”

Amid a white male majority in her engineering classes, Cedillo said she prepared extra to gain respect from her classmates. Cedillo said her peers overlooked her input, which made her feel as though she needed to prove her capability to herself and to them. “(Faced) with microaggressions and misogyny every week in class, I felt so out of place,” Cedillo said. “(I would ask), ‘What is wrong with me? Why do I feel so dumb?’”

When she struggled with understanding class material, Cedillo said asking for help made her feel inferior to her peers. She said she felt like she needed to know all the answers all the time, and she felt unworthy of her scholarship when she didn’t know something.

“One of my biggest fears my freshman year was being seen as a failed investment because I got

a full ride,” Cedillo said. “I felt like I wasn’t doing anything with it because I was just so emotionally drained.”

Transitioning from a majority Hispanic high school in Austin to UT, journalism sophomore Michelle Tamayo said she felt as though she had to catch up to her peers’ accomplishments, especially as a first generation college student with immigrant parents.

“All my life, my dad has told me, ‘We’re doing this for you,’” Tamayo said. “‘We’re working (and) this money is for your education.’ … So I don’t want to feel like all the hard work they’ve put in since they’ve gotten here was for nothing.”

Struggling to find students with similar backgrounds as her own, government sophomore Aria-Kailyn Tolbert said she joined Texas’ Black Student Alliance to ease her overwhelming feelings of self-doubt.

“I can talk to other Black students about not just feeling like an imposter academically, but feeling like an imposter on this campus because there’s so few of us,” Tolbert said. “It’s great to know I’m not the only one who’s struggling with these (feelings).”

candace marie

/ the daily texan staff

To combat this feeling, Cokley said he recommends students who suffer from self-doubt and imposter feelings should write down any accomplishments they have, no matter how small, to look back to when doubting their abilities. He suggested talking to students who may share the same experiences.

“People will suffer in silence with insecurities,” Cokley said.

“But when you talk about it with other people who have a shared experience, you’ll find that you aren’t the only one feeling that way.

You might be surprised to find out how many people feel the way that you do.”

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

LIFE&ARTS

STUDENT LIFE

Longhorn powerlifting fundraiser supports breast cancer awareness

By Sofia Treviño @Sofiacis_7

On a Wednesday afternoon, grunts from bench pressing and cheers of support filled the air on Speedway — except the lifters weren’t showcasing their strength. Instead, students displayed their support toward breast cancer awareness by benching to bring attention to their donation drive.

Throughout the month of October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Longhorn Powerlifting will host their Bench for Breasts fundraiser on Speedway every Wednesday from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The fundraiser aims to raise money for their nationals competition and for Austin’s Breast Cancer Resource Center, while also encouraging the UT community to show up, donate and bench in support of breast cancer awareness.

After the first time the powerlifting organization hosted the fundraiser on Oct. 13, co-president Bella Vargas said she looks forward to helping the Breast Cancer Resource Center. Vargas, who organized the event, said she finds it rewarding to hear donors share their experiences with family members who struggled

with breast cancer and express their gratitude for the awareness event.

“Reading their mission, seeing women who survived or fighting come together was beautiful,” Vargas said. “They meet at this place and help each other, so I wanted to help them, and they also wanted to help us.”

As someone whose family member had breast cancer, undeclared freshman Alexa Cavazos said she gratefully signed up to table at the event. She said hearing about people donating and sharing their experiences helped her find a community to relate to.

“Even though my grandma survived (cancer), it makes me glad that I can help other people, even (if it’s just) through emotional support,” Cavazos said.

“I was very proud that we got to do this fundraiser.”

Though not everyone knows people who struggle with breast cancer or even struggle with it themselves, Cavazos said raising awareness still adds to a support system of people who care. “(Not everyone) goes through this, but you should be aware of it because you may have a mom, grandma, sister, girlfriend that does,” Cavazos said. “It’s a horrible thing to go through.”

johnathan serchand

Celina Maggi, assistant director of development and special events at the resource center, said the community center provides help not only to those with breast cancer, but also those working through a family member’s fight with cancer.

“I have family members who were affected by breast cancer and cancer in general,” Maggi said. “I found it really difficult and overwhelming to navigate, so being able to be a resource and to support patient navigators, who really make it happen, was really exciting for me. I was really happy to affect change because it’s something that’s personal to me.”

Though every October brings more attention to the resource center, Maggi stressed that they operate as a nonprofit and their services rely on the support of people who care about sharing resources.

“Breast Cancer Awareness doesn’t end in October,” Maggi said. “It’s something that we need to think about all year long. When someone gets diagnosed with breast cancer, they’re extremely overwhelmed, and they feel really lost. We’re there to help them navigate that process. The more people know about us, the more those affected by breast cancer feel supported.”

/ the daily texan staff

Bella Vargas, a communication and leadership senior, benches at Longhorn Powerlfiting’s Bench for Breasts fundraiser in support of Austin’s Breast Cancer Resource Center on Oct. 13.

LIFE&ARTS

9

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

BOOK

Off the Shelf: Kirk Lynn talks ‘All My Puny Sorrows’

By Jade Emerson @jade__emerson

Content Warning: Mentions of suicide.

As a writer himself, Kirk Lynn, an associate professor of playwriting and directing, knows the best books balance humor with devastation, laughter with sorrow and joy with hardship.

For him, no book does that better than Miriam Toews’ “All My Puny Sorrows,” which follows a woman who returns home to her sister who recently attempted suicide. Through beautifully crafted moments, Lynn said Toews’ voice succeeds in creating a simultaneously

sweet, sad, weird and real world.

The Daily Texan: How were you first introduced to this book?

Kirk Lynn: I spend a lot of time in bookstores, and I was just drawn to the title. It’s such a funny, weird title, and it turns out that it’s actually from a Coleridge poem. One of his poems has this phrase: “all my puny sorrows,” and (the author) borrowed it.

DT: Has your perspective changed since reading it for the first time?

KL: I’ve read it a bunch of times. In addition to being a playwright, I’m a novelist, and I wanted to study how it does

what it does. It is this combination of super funny and super sad at the same time, which is my favorite mix. And I think my perspective has changed in seeing how the author is deeply vulnerable and shares the personal story of her life. It is a novel, and it’s fiction, but it’s based on her own life experience. The characters inside the novel expose what is true about themselves.

of this funny book, it changes from, “I live my life inside myself and you live your life inside yourself,” to this really deep understanding that our lives are connected and that we’re not independent from each other. We rely on each other, both in good times and bad.

DT: Is there a specific part that resonates with you?

KL: As a writer, I want to find ways to be as vulnerable and as brave as the author is. I think it’s a real challenge, but as another writer, you read someone you admire, who was able to go deeply into both their own lives and what it feels like to be a weird human. … I think, “Can

KL: There’s a shift in the book where, instead of the sister occasionally attempting suicide, she asked her sister to help her commit suicide, and at that shift I couldn’t handle it. It was devastating. And so, in the midst

assad malik

DT: How has your experience as a writer influenced your thoughts on this book?

/ the daily texan staff

Kirk Lynn, an associate professor of playwriting and directing, discusses how “All My Puny Sorrows” by Miriam Toews balances humor and devastation.

I be that brave? Can I be that honest?” … I want to make my prose, my plays and my screenplays match that note of humor and honesty.

DT: What do you think this book tells us about being human?

KL: It tells us it’s really super hard. … It makes me deeply appreciate life. If (the author) does nothing else, she paints this picture of a world in which the individual moments of life — simple things like watching “Shrek” or listening to a piece of music — those moments of appreciation and wonder of the world are not to be taken for granted.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Beard tries to make Texas basketball ‘personal’ for students, fans

By Nicholas Pannes @nickpannes

Chris Beard has vowed to change what basketball means to the University of Texas. To him, that culture shift doesn’t start with the players, the coaching or the athletics department — it starts with the students.

Beard’s formula for success is a break in convention for his occupation. Instead of touting his tenure, his new allstar roster and his school’s resources, Beard is looking to the fans to help him win games.

“There’s a relationship in college basketball between attendance and winning.

It’s undeniable,” Beard said Sept. 8.

He’s echoed that same sentiment almost every time he’s met with the press since.

To foster his new strategy, Beard has gone above and beyond the duties of a coach to ensure fans stay engaged with the basketball team. Much of his focus has been on the students specifically.

Beard has attended fraternity and spirit group events and even visited the local scene on 6th Street to get better acquainted with student life at Texas. He’s expressed intent to track down students engaged in every aspect of the University.

“We look forward to going to every house, every sorority, every club — anything that’s going on in this campus,” Beard said. “Whether it’s music-based, club-based or major-based, we want to be a part of it.”

His efforts don’t stop there. If the student section sells out for Texas’ first official game of the season on Nov. 9 against Houston Baptist, he vowed to host a party in front of the UT Tower, open to all students.

Beard says he’s secured approval for the idea from the school’s athletic director Chris Del Conte and president Jay Hartzell. The head coach even threw out the possibility of the fan-favorite mascot Bevo showing up with his Silver Spur entourage.

Beard’s mission to bolster student attendance must be a relief for an athletic department that has seen a dramatic decline in ticket purchases over the last few seasons.

Since the 2015-2016 season, average attendance for men’s basketball at the Frank Erwin Center dropped from 12,828 fans per game to 9,779 in 20202021 — just shy of a 24% decrease in five seasons. The stadium has a maximum capacity of 16,540 for basketball games.

Following the completion of the Moody Center, the 2021-2022 season is officially the last season the Longhorns will play basketball at the Frank Erwin Center, marking the end of a 44-year era.

While his focus on student attendance is central, Beard’s outreach is all-inclusive. To access the broader Texas

fanbase, he meets regularly with local and major media outlets and is always accompanied by a player or two.

And for those who want to meet the man behind the coach, Beard hosts a “fireside chat” series, a tradition he first started as Texas Tech’s head coach.

Beard has touted these chats as an initiative to earn trust and build a relationship with his fan base through consistent, organic outreach. His first episode at Texas included Kiara Kabbara, the student body president and Logan Kuenstler, a senior marketing major who Beard said was the first student he met at Texas.

“The fireside chat is the way that I proudly communicate with the most important group of fans we have … the student body,” Beard said in that first

episode Sept. 2.

All of this isn’t to say he has completely abandoned the conventions of a new coaching hire. In his meetings with the media, Beard has said unequivocally that he believes his team has the talent and dedication to make a deep playoff run in his first year.

Beard himself has the coaching chops to back up what he says. At Texas Tech, he overshadowed decades of legendary coaching to bring his team to its first ever national championship appearance.

Before him, Texas Tech had never made it to the Elite Eight.

At Texas, Beard has made it clear his goals remain the same. But before he starts winning games, he’s trying to win over the student body.

julius shieh

/ the daily texan file

Men’s basketball head coach Chris Beard claims his formula for success doesn’t start with the players, the coaching or the athletics department — it starts with the students.

SPORTS

N AT H A N H A N

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Sports Editor | @TEXANSPORTS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

FOOTBALL

After second-half collapses, Sarkisian addresses mental struggles with Longhorns Head coach Steve Sarkisian said mental focus is part of the Longhorns’ second half struggles.

By Matthew Boncosky @mboncosky

hen Steve Sarkisian took over as head coach of the Texas Longhorns in January, the program he inherited came with plenty of emotional baggage.

Between a lack of success on the field over the last decade, controversies off the field and drama with previous coaching staffs, Texas football would not be fixed overnight. Regardless, in stepped Sarkisian with his hot status as Alabama’s talented offensive coordinator and his flashy “All Gas, No Brakes” slogan that excited fans and recruits.

Flash forward to mid-October, and his team is 4—3 with two conference losses.

Lofty aspirations of a Big 12 championship game appearance in his first season have been tempered by two debilitating second-half collapses to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

The same mental struggles that have prevented Texas from winning one-score games in recent years are rearing their ugly heads once again. It takes more than flashy hires and catchy slogans to fix fundamental problems that might not be apparent immediately in a new coach’s tenure.

Sarkisian gave an interesting analogy on Monday to explain what he’s encountering at Texas.

“You get a gift, right, and you open up that gift and it’s a box of golf balls,” Sarkisian said. “Then you open up that box and then there’s the sleeves of the golf balls, and then you open up that sleeve, and it’s not actually that brand of the golf ball that you thought you were going to get.”

“Sometimes you have to drill down, you have to peel back the layers to find out what potential issues you have and then you address them as they present themselves.”

For Sarkisian, fixing Texas’ current mental block is the most important priority. The Longhorns have shown they have enough talent to compete with the likes of No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 8 Oklahoma State. They took 28-7 and 17-3 first-half leads against both teams, respectively. But their frustrating inability to finish the job is keeping them from taking the next step.

“As a team we need to work on giving every play the attention it deserves.”

MORO OJOMO

junior defensive lineman It’s a recurring theme that has shown itself in Texas’ wins as well. Against Texas Tech, senior quarterback Henry Colombi completed multiple chunk passes over a Texas secondary that lost focus in the second half with a big lead. Against TCU, multiple missed opportunities on offense prevented the Longhorns from shutting the door on the Horned Frogs, ultimately leading to a tight 32-27 victory.

To fix the lapses, Sarkisian draws inspiration from the most elite competitors across

hannah clark / the daily texan staff Following second-half collapses, Moro Ojomo stressed the importance of relying on instruction both from Sarkisian and the team’s leaders to complete a full 60 minutes without letting up.

sports — think Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, famous for their mentally tough approaches — to showcase how underappreciated that aspect of competition is. The head coach has been communicating the importance of a sharp mental focus in order to develop that into a team-wide mentality since his first day on the Forty Acres.

After the Oklahoma State loss that saw Texas give up 220 rushing yards, junior defensive lineman Moro Ojomo stressed the importance of relying on instruction both from Sarkisian and the team’s leaders to complete a full 60 minutes without letting up.

“Coach Sark always says something about each play deserving attention, right, and

sometimes in football, what can happen is that guys will have a bad play and then the next play doesn’t get the attention that it deserves,” Ojomo said. “As a team we need to work on giving every play the attention it deserves.”

The last two weeks have served as a painful reminder to Sarkisian that he needs to dig a little deeper with the Longhorns if he hopes to finally put Texas’ recent struggles in the rear view mirror.

“This is a portion of me that I believe in,” Sarkisian said. “From a psyche standpoint, I feel like that’s really in our wheelhouse because we’ve already laid a really good foundation for that in the 10 months that we’ve been here.”

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Comics Editors | @TEXANCOMICS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

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