Austin, we have a problem: Texas losing to Maryland (again) is cause for concern
The Texas Longhorns dropped a disappointing game on the road to Maryland to begin the season. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned in Austin right now.
It only took about a half of football for the Texas Longhorns to become the college football world’s biggest joke on social media on Saturday. With disappointing play after disappointing play, the fine comedians of social media such as yourself were tweeting “Texas is back!” in a mocking fashion.
Needless to say, the Longhorns earned every last joke given the nature of their loss to Maryland on Saturday. For the second year in a row, the Terrapins had the Longhorns’ number and they kept dialing it for a good time.
That good time was once again defeating the sleeping giant and picking up a win for their fallen teammate, Jordan McNair.
Texas wasn’t prepared for a motivated Maryland team, who lost their teammate, Jordan McNair due to heatstroke after an offseason workout. While playing a galvanized program will always present its challenges, there are zero excuses for the way the Longhorns played.
Tom Herman and his $5 million salary was outcoached by a team without a coach. Maryland is currently being led by interim coach Matt Canada, who is filling in while DJ Durkin on administrative leave
Sam Ehlinger did nothing yet again to prove that he’s the answer at quarterback for the Longhorns and two late turnovers further nosedived the confidence in the young quarterback.
Last season, Texas had some bad losses but made up enough wins to provide some optimism going into Herman’s second season. This performance is not going to fly to begin the second year under his tenure.
This felt like a first-season loss and let’s be honest, Texas disappointed in last year’s affair as well. Herman’s been bamboozled by Maryland two straight seasons and he’s probably going to have nightmares of the seventh state’s flag for some time now.
Just how bad is it that Texas has lost to Maryland two seasons in a row? The Terrapins only have two wins against ranked teams since 2011. Both have come against Herman’s Longhorns.
Now, the Longhorns begin their season with a loss and there’s the fear of where things could turn from here. This was supposed to be the next step in the program’s growth under Herman and while that still might happen, it’s going to be tough for things not to be tense after this and for players to be tight on game day.
Everyone’s been waiting for the program to come back from life and people might have naively believed that it was a quick turnaround as soon as Herman arrived. If Saturday’s awful start to the year proved anything, Texas is indeed not back.