Texas Longhorns Becoming a Powerhouse Under Charlie Strong

Watch out the rest of the Big 12. The Texas Longhorns are coming. Charlie Strong is coming. And finally, everything came together on Saturday.

The Longhorns have struggled all year, and we have documented at length how bad their offense is. But let’s not forget, Strong suspended nearly half of the starters this year, the offense lost quarterback David Ash to an injury that convinced him to end his career, the culture change has been a problem, and this team has been stuck playing in a much deeper Big 12 than anybody thought.

But they finally got a breakthrough on Saturday as the beat the West Virginia Mountaineers 33-16.

When Texas jumped out to a 7-0 lead, nobody probably took them seriously. When West Virginia was held to a field goal to make it 7-3, we still all believed Texas would blow it. But then the Longhorns reeled off 17 straight points. And with a 24-3 lead, which turned into a 33-16 victory, we have to admit that this team is coming together. And they are so loaded that they don’t need a great quarterback.

Tyrone Swoopes wasn’t that impressive, but the Texas running game showed up strong with Jonathan Gray and Malcolm Brown. The defense forced multiple turnovers, and Michael Davidson had an epic day as a punter to help the special teams.

And going forward, all of a sudden, at 5-5, a bowl game is very possible with Oklahoma State up next. They have a great chance to pull off an upset right there.

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But what’s more important is that this incredibly young team might just have an exciting future. The recruiting under Strong hasn’t been great yet, but he knows how to maximize the talents of the team he is with.

And it’s only going to get better. As it does, recruiting in the state of Texas will take care of itself.

Let’s celebrate for a minute that the Longhorns pulled off a huge win.

As for West Virginia, Dana Holgorsen’s team is still dramatically better than last year, but this was an awful underperformance. After impressing people throughout the early part of the season, could this team be starting to unravel? That appears to be the case on offense.

Clint Trickett completed a lot of passes on Saturday and was very efficient but couldn’t get the ball in the end zone through the air. And tiwh two critical turnovers, the West Virginia offense had serious problems all day.

And we already knew the defense was awful against the run.

So they have things to work on as well. But after Saturday, the story is about Texas.