Technically a win, the postmortem on Texas’ victory over Kansas had the feeling of something else at Tom Herman’s Monday press conference.
The focus was what had gone wrong – looking at you, much maligned defense – instead of everything that led to a 50-48 last-second win. TCU, the next opponent Saturday in Fort Worth, was pretty much an afterthought.
For his part, Herman seemed to own all the shortcomings more so than he did immediately after the game when his favorite phrase was “next question.”
Herman acknowledged that Texas fans should be concerned. He is.
“No, no, they should be. We have standards at The University of Texas that we need to play up to and we didn’t on that side of the ball,” Herman said, noting the two offensive turnovers in the fourth quarter and the nine freshmen and sophomores starting on defense.
“But none of us are OK or satisfied with that defensive performance just because we won the game. Are we happy to win the game? Absolutely.”
After allowing 569 yards to Kansas, Texas ranks ninth in the Big 12 in yards allowed per game (469.9) and yards per play (6.42). Both are worse than the numbers posted last season at Oklahoma, which forced major changes. Yes, TCU ranks last in the Big 12 passing efficiency, but Kansas’ Carter Stanley lit the Longhorns up for 310 yards and four touchdowns.
At Texas, the priority is fixing things, which won’t be easy even with cornerback Jalen Green (shoulder) close to returning from a three-game absence.
“If it were that easy it would be fixed tomorrow, but it's not,” Herman said. “To just say it's one thing or if we do this then we will be a really good defense. I think guys that have been here for two and three years should be able to play man-to-man coverage and quarters coverage.
“The coaches, we need to uphold our end of the bargain in terms of the techniques and the players need to uphold their end by employing those techniques on gameday.”
So, as far as turning the page? Not quite.
Herman was 10 questions into the availability when he finally got a question about TCU.
