NCAA Football Report (Week 6)
In the NCAA there are certain programs that bring with them a certain aura that cannot be matched by other programs.
These are the programs that have been involved in the national conversation for decades and have been the building blocks for so many conferences.
Teams like Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Oklahoma have built a special history behind multiple championships over years of playing the sport.
They have been the teams that people look at in awe of because they have been so dominant in the past.
They are not always the best teams each and every year but more often than not programs like these are in the running for the national title.
All could have a chance at any point in the season and when they do fall they rarely fall for very long.
There are a few of these programs and they are the ones who will always get the attention in every season.
Even when they are bad they get a lot of media attention because everyone begins wondering why they have become a team that is no longer relevant in the national conversation.
Usually, that talk only lasts for a few seasons until they make the changes that are necessary to begin competing again.
That is what makes the fall of Texas such an interesting case study in these dominant programs.
The Texas Longhorns have been a national power for a very long time and the height of that power seemed to come during the BCS era.
During this era, the Longhorns became a constant talking point as a team that could make a run at the National Championship.
They did just that in 2005 when Vince Young led the team to a BCS National Championship in a legendary game against USC.
That run continued as the Mack Brown era was one of the greatest for a program that was over 100 years old.
He continued to guide the team with great quarterbacks to the top of the rankings and went back to the National title game in 2009.
That is where the run would end though as the 2010 version of the team ended the season with a losing record, the first and only under Brown.
Since that 2010 season, the Longhorns were unable to get back into the conversation remaining a just good team.
They continued with winning records but could never be considered for the National Championship again and that ended the Brown era but brought more pain.
After Brown stepped down in 2013, the Longhorns remained a team that would not be a part of the national conversation.
Charlie Strong’s time with the team ended after three years and three straight losing seasons keeping them far from the playoff.
In 2017 Tom Herman was hired and his goal was clear, take a team that was one of the most feared teams in the country back to relevance after almost a decade of irrelevance.
The first season went well, finishing 7-6 but that is not good enough for a program like Texas who expects to sit in the playoff at the end of the year.
This year has been going much better for the Longhorns after a stumble out of the gate against Maryland they had added up four straight wins.
Week 5 was going to be the test though as this week represented the chance for Texas to step back into the national spotlight and prove that they are a program on their way back.
This week was the Red River Rivalry, a game against one of their biggest rivals in Oklahoma who have been the Big 12 team making noise for years.
If the Longhorns could beat an undefeated Oklahoma team they would prove to everyone that the program is finding it’s way back.
That is exactly what they did in dramatic fashion kicking a game-winning field goal after giving up a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The win was a massive one for this program as the Longhorns are now a one-loss team who just beat their biggest rivals.
They likely won’t end up near the playoff this year as there are a lot of teams that would need to lose to get Texas to that point.
What this game did was bring the Longhorns back to the conversation as they still have a number of important games to play but they will move up in the rankings.
The win was a bit of an announcement that Texas could be returning to relevance and it could happen soon as a legendary program will never stay down for long.
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