 "Photo: Bryant Haertlein/The Daily Texan")
It’s a good thing Texas’ newest slogan dangles freely from his neck because Brown is running out of room on his arms.
The veteran coach has bought in to the motivational sayings that dot the UT training facilities as much as his players, sporting wrist bands that say, “We’re Texas” and “All In,” this season’s mottos.
Now he’s even making up his own. “Texas Swagger,” a Brown-Sergio Kindle joint venture, is printed on a dog tag around the neck of all the players and coaches.
“I started the swagger thing at Missouri because I thought it’s time we go on the road and act like we’re going to win,” Brown said.
“For a 58-year-old, I’ve got dog tags, I’ve got armbands, I got everything on here,” he said, gesturing to his arms.
Kindle, the senior defensive end, proposed printing dog tags with the saying and giving them to the team before visiting Oklahoma State on Saturday, an idea Brown quickly warmed up to.
“One thing we all need to do a better job of is making sure the older guys buy in,” Brown said. “It’s their team, they have some input, some ownership in their team without taking over. That’s a hard thing. We constantly ask our guys [for] ideas.”
So when Kindle, working with assistant athletics director and motivational poster guru George Wynn, came up with the tags, Brown was on board.
“We handed them out on Thursday and the kids all hooted when they got them,” Brown said. “It’s to make them aware that we are in tune, we are focused, we do care. Oklahoma State was going to come out with a swagger, you need to, too.”
The Longhorns swept away their two toughest road tests by a combined score of 82 to 21 against the Tigers and Cowboys. Talk about swagger.
Dead-eye Lawrence
There’s a reason the Texas coaches refer to them as Team Automatic. The Longhorns haven’t been quite perfect in kicking field goals this season, but they’ve been pretty close.
Kicker Hunter Lawrence has made 16 of his 18 attempts, seeing one blocked and one 54-yard attempt hit the crossbar.
He’s also made 36 of 37 extra points.
“Hunter’s been so accurate,” said Texas head coach Mack Brown. “He’s done everything we’ve asked; he hits them right down the middle.”
Together with Texas’ dominating defense, Lawrence’s reliability has made the Longhorns a little less aggressive.
Facing a short fourth down on their first drive against Oklahoma State from inside the 20, Brown elected to take the automatic points.
“It’s been really important in our history here that we score first,” Brown said. “The other night, we wanted to get three points on the board.”
To start the second half, Lawrence delivered again, knocking through a field goal that widened the Texas lead to 27-7 after the offense stalled in the red zone.
Despite having some struggles inside the 20 this year, the Texas offense ranks third nationally in efficiency in that area because Lawrence has been so consistent when making kicks.
“You’d rather get touchdowns,” said offensive coordinator Greg Davis. “But we reserve the right to kick.”
Running ragged
Not for the first time this season, there was a new starter atop the Texas depth chart at running back. But instead of injuries or lack of production being the cause, Cody Johnson has moved up because of his dominating performance.
Johnson scored twice from short range against the Cowboys on Saturday, while adding a slew of punishing runs from all over the field.
After starting the season as a short yardage specialist because of weight concerns, Johnson has slimed down and become Texas’ most bruising runner.
“He’s lost 20-something pounds. He’s protecting the ball and he’s a powerful runner,”
Brown said. “What we’re all about right now is that four-yard run, and that’s something he does really well.”
Johnson is still listed as a co-starter with Fozzy Whittaker, but has moved ahead in the race for Saturday’s first carry.
“If we played today,” Brown said, “[Johnson] would start.”
4 comments
Furthermore, this piece is considered a "notebook." Guess what that is, M? It's all the halfway interesting scribblings that make their way onto the reporter's note pad but don't necessarily merit a full story. It's a staple in sports sections everywhere across all sorts, and having a "fun" segment of your notebook is far more useful than three segments on insignificant depth chart changes.The one fair criticism you could have made (spelling and grammar etc.) you actually complimented the Texan on. Generally, you'd be right, but there are at least two errors in this story that jump right off the page. And, finally, the Texan is not concerned with filling bandwidth. That doesn't even make sense.
Yes, the Texas Swagger story is fun, but it's it is no way anything more than a simple puff piece to fill column inches and bandwidth during the slow week before Central Florida.