Texas Ready To Focus On Arkansas

File Photo Charlie Strong, the first-year coach, and several Texas players met with the media in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday.
File Photo Charlie Strong, the first-year coach, and several Texas players met with the media in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Texas coach Charlie Strong has had nearly three weeks to move on, but admitted he isn't quite over the disappointment just yet.

He thought his team had turned the corner and was ready to cap an up-and-down season with a memorable effort. He wanted his seniors to enjoy their final home game. So the 48-10 loss to TCU on Thanksgiving was not what he had in mind.

"We had been playing well, and then you get to that game and you had a big stage," Strong said Tuesday. "You would have thought that we would have come out and performed better than what we performed. It was just a hard one to swallow."

Strong and the Longhorns (6-6) don't plan to let the loss linger much longer, though, as they close in on their Texas Bowl matchup with Arkansas (6-6) on Dec. 29. The first-year coach and several Texas players met with the media in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, and said they're eager to put the ugly performance behind them.

There's a good reason. Texas committed five turnovers against the Horned Frogs, who were competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Two and the mistakes were returned for touchdowns by TCU.

The defense performed well considering the offense sputtered most of the night, but TCU's 48 points still were the most allowed by the Longhorns all season.

"Yeah it was definitely not good," Texas linebacker Jordan Hicks said. "It left a bad taste in our mouth, for sure, but for us, we understand what we have ahead and we've got one more game to prove ourselves versus a very, very, very good team, an SEC team, who's very physical and who's going to test us on both sides of the ball.

"We've got a lot of time to prepare and we've got to be focused on them, not TCU."

Strong, whose team has fit some early bowl practices in around final exams, said the Longhorns will zero in on their plans for the Razorbacks beginning Thursday. Texas will practice in Austin until Dec. 24, when they make the short trip to Houston.

The Longhorns will arrive two days before the Razorbacks and want to impress during their first bowl game under Strong, who enjoyed postseason success while at Louisville. The Cardinals were 3-1 in the postseason under his guidance, including big wins against Florida (2013 Sugar Bowl) and Miami (2013 Russell Athletic Bowl).

So far Strong believes his new team is motivated to continue the success.

"It's about guys that just want it," Strong said. "It's about your preparation, but then it comes down to just how bad guys can go out and practice and how important it is to them. Right now our attitude is pretty good. You can tell in the first few days whether they're going to want to go to a bowl game or just go through the motions."

Texas guard Sedrick Flowers said the Longhorns will be ready to compete.

"Coming off the loss we had against TCU, we had a bitter taste in our mouth," Flowers said. "We're just ready to go out there and compete and show what we've got, show that our team isn't weak or lower than any other team that's going to go out there. We'll compete and give it all we've got."

The Texas Bowl will wrap up what Strong described as an "up and down" first season with the Longhorns. The former Louisville coach replaced Mack Brown last January and has had an eventful year trying to mold the program to his liking.

Strong dismissed several players before the season began for not adhering to his core values. The Longhorns have had some medical problems to navigate as well. The most notable: Quarterback David Ash gave up football because of concussions.

Texas had problems on the field, too. The Longhorns endured plenty of struggles offensively in opening 2-4. They were dangerously close to missing the postseason a few weeks later. Texas eased those concerns by putting together a three-game win streak, reaching the six-win mark before its disappointment against TCU.

Strong didn't make any excuses for his team's struggles on the field, though.

"The only thing I ever regret is just I think we could've played a lot better and I would've loved to see us play better," Strong said about the season. "Sometimes it just eats at you and it should because just think we're a better football team than a 6-6 team. Consistency, just finishing, just playing hard all the time, it's just a pride factor. I just don't think sometimes that we showed that."

His team gets one more chance to show it against the Razorbacks on Dec. 29.

But Strong said his team must be prepared to beat a "really good football team" to avoid a losing season. Receiver John Harris said losing to TCU was frustrating, but the Longhorns will be ready to pass a "great test" in the Texas Bowl.

"We just want to go out and finish the right way," Harris said. "That's the goal and that's the mindset. We didn't get to finish our senior night the way we wanted to, so we want to leave out of here the right way and leave Coach Strong on a good note."

Sports on 12/17/2014

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