Mamba mentality? John Wick mindset? How Texas welcomed the hate
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff WriterNov 30, 2023, 07:00 AM ET Close Dave Wilson is an editor for ESPN.com because 2010. He previously worked at The Dallas Early Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Sun.WHEN TEXAS players walk up the stairs into the football offices beyond the south endzone, they’re greeted with big orange and silver obstruct letters on a white wall with a mantra that has served the Longhorns all year. On top, it says “Mamba Mindset. “On the bottom, Kobe Bryant’s signature, in addition to this message:”Learn to enjoy the hate. Accept it
. Enjoy it. You made it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyone should have one about you. Haters are a good issue to have. Nobody hates the great ones. They dislike the excellent ones.”
Texas, like the other renowned brand names in college football, understands the hate. The Longhorns are connected with Notre Dame for the fourth most wins perpetuity, behind only Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama. Previous athletic director DeLoss Dodds once famously stated that while other schools need to stay up to date with the Joneses, “We are the Joneses.” The school’s 2 latest marketing taglines were “We’re Texas” and “What starts here alters the world.” The Longhorn Network was the only single-school tv network in college sports.In 2019, University of Memphis teacher Cody Havard, who studies fan behavior, told ESPN that research study revealed that matches with the Longhorns were often circled around on the calendars of other teams ‘fans. “We polled college fans and asked them who their most significant competitor was,”Havard said.” Texas has 11 various groups identifying them as a competitor, without a doubt the most in the nation.”Editor’s Picks
1 Related So while Texas has had the hate down, the great has been more difficult to come by. Heading into this year, the Longhorns have lost four or more games every season however one because 2010. Steve Sarkisian went 5-7 in 2021, and then revealed indications of a development last season. The Longhorns won 8 regular-season games for just the second time in the past nine years, and all 5 of their losses were by seven points or fewer.The third-year
Texas coach was confident he had developed a contender. And with the school headed to the SEC next year, a lot of those competitors were trying to find one more chance at the Longhorns. But Texas was figured out to head out by itself terms.
“I believe this group is on an objective, they’ve taken this frame of mind of being on a mission. They’ve kind of adopted the John Wick mindset,” Sarkisian said on Aug. 1, referencing the movie character that embarks on a “unflinching rampage to hound his enemies,” according to the film’s website.
“I think that they’ve sort of assumed this mindset of, ‘Em brace the hate,'” Sarkisian continued. “We get it. We’re the University of Texas. This is our in 2015 in the Huge 12. We can sit there and be a punching bag, or we can go attack individuals that we’re going to play. And I think that they’ve assumed that responsibility to state, ‘Hey, we’re gon na go after everybody else, too.’ I think that that’s the right mindset to have.”
Sarkisian’s marching orders weren’t simply some manufactured bulletin-board coachspeak, either. Challengers didn’t mind sharing how terribly they wanted to beat the Longhorns. In the very first Big 12 trip of the season, Texas went to Waco, where the Longhorns had lost in their last two journeys and Baylor coach Dave Aranda told reporters there was one consistent message he heard from fans.
“I can’t inform you the number of times this offseason I heard ‘Dave, simply win this one game,'” Aranda stated that week. “That has actually been brought up to me several times.” The Longhorns squashed the Bears, 38-6.
Before a trip to Houston, Cougars coach Dana Holgorsen echoed Aranda.
“I have actually got a great deal of comments,” Holgorson said. “Simply beat Texas. Do not care if you win any of them but you’ve got to win that one. You can go 1-11 and it’s okay if you beat Texas.” Holgorsen didn’t, losing 31-24, and while the Cougars won 4 games instead of just one, he was still fired at completion of the season even after, in his words, he “took the magnificent Texas Longhorns down to the wire.”
Iowa State offensive lineman Jarrod Hufford shot his shot as well before Texas traveled to Ames to play the Cyclones on Nov. 18
“It’s going to be one heck of a goodbye present,” he said. “They are going to be available in here on senior night in the dark. I don’t think they actually understand what is going to be coming for them. We have actually beaten them four out of the last five times at home. They do not have a great record here.”
After Texas’ 26-16 win, and a strong protective efficiency especially up front versus Hufford’s offensive line, Sarkisian and his players commemorated with the Texas section in Jack Trice Stadium. Protective take on Byron Murphy II tweeted, “9 yards rushing … that’s all. Do not compose no check you can’t cash little guy” and defensive back Jahdae Barron wanted Hufford a “happy senior night.”
The Longhorns have because publicly withdrawed utilizing “hate” analogies, mindful there are larger concerns on the planet than football. Early on, there were Tee shirts printed with the motto, however no more.
“A lot has actually been made about a T-shirt being made,” Sarkisian stated in August. “Let’s not make this more than it is. This is about us, we are concentrated on what we get to do and why we get to do it. We are happy to be part of the University of Texas. We are proud to represent burnt orange and white.”
X’Avion Brice and the Longhorns left Tuscaloosa with the type of win we do not often see versus the Crimson Tide. Aaron E. Martinez/USA TODAY NETWORK
THE TAKE-ON-ALL-COMERS method has led Texas to a No. 7 ranking and an 11-1 regular season, simply the second time given that 2010 that it has actually reached the 10-win mark. On Saturday, Sarkisian will lead the Longhorns into the Huge 12 championship game for the first time because 2018 looking to end a 13-season dry spell without winning a conference title, the longest since Texas initially joined a conference in 1915. They’ll face another group they’re leaving– Oklahoma State, who didn’t play Texas in the routine season this year– and the Longhorns have a score to settle there, too. Texas is 4-9 versus the Cowboys since 2010. Just Oklahoma, with 11 wins versus Texas over that span, has more, including a significant come-from-behind 34-30 win this year to hand the Longhorns their only loss.Texas clinched a spot in the title game last Friday with a 57-7 thrashing of Texas Tech, which beat the Longhorns in 2015 in among those close games. Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Arena acted as one huge party, complete with a goodbye to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who infamously spoke at a fan luncheon before the season in Lubbock and implored Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire to “take care of business” in Austin this year.As the game wound down, Texas’ video board showed the speech, sending the crowd into a craze. It was a last moment of celebration for a season in which the Longhorns had a target on their back in every game, but dished out their own brand of vengeance.
“That was amazing and I believe they deserved that,” protective deal with T’Vondre Sweat stated after the game, of the Yormark video, stating the “they” described, in his words, “Little Lubbock.”
The Texas video board is playing the hits for Brett Yormark in their last Huge 12 home game. pic.twitter.com/DWjMs7mThY!.?.!— Dave Wilson(@dwil)November 25, 2023 Drew Martin, one of Texas ‘senior associate athletic directors, manages the game-day experience for the Longhorns. He stated Friday’s environment at DKR was the best he’s seen because he came to Texas in 2018, and that it was by design.”We knew at the beginning of this ’23- ’24 whole athletic season … that we were probably public enemy No. 1 amongst the Big 12 Conference,” Martin stated. “This is one last go-round. It’s their swan song to having a go at you. We’ve got to go in it simply embracing all of that hatred and vitriol that is coming your way. Just own it. Every game you go out there in this conference, whenever you dip into home, away, no matter what, in a competition, at a neutral website, you know, you’re gon na get their best shot.”Longhorns fantastic Britt Hager, who racked up 499 tackles at linebacker between 1984 and 1988 and still holds the school’s all-time record, lived his whole profession with a chip on his shoulder. Hager played at legendary Texas high school program Odessa Permian (the school included in “Friday Night Lights”), starred at Texas, then played for Friend Ryan’s Philadelphia Eagles, where he was abhored by Dallas Cowboys fans. He was a star, had the swagger, the mindset– and the horseshoe mustache– to appear straight out of main casting as a football villain. He understands the importance of backing up what you task. “The thing for me was the chip, constantly just showing yourself,”Hager said. “It’s the chip, more than hate. You’ve got to have a chip on your shoulder and Texas hasn’t had one. This year, starting with the quarterback all the way down, they’ve truly done that.” That, to him, was cause for event throughout the Texas Tech blowout. With a win over Oklahoma State on Saturday, Texas would exit the Huge
12 with a win in its last game versus 8 of the nine Big 12 schools that were in the league prior to the 2023 expansion.”It was a truly huge deal for [Big 12 groups] to try to knock Texas off,”Hager said.”So it’s sort of paradoxical that the only one that came and
did it was a team that’s choosing them to the SEC.” The Longhorns sent a message to their brand-new league, too, rolling into Tuscaloosa on Sept. 9 and beating then-No. 3 Alabama, 34-24, handing the Tide their first nonconference home loss
in 16 years.”I hear so much about how difficult the SEC is, however I haven’t seen any of those groups go in Alabama and win, either, so I feel respectable about our group,”Sarkisian stated in late October, making his case ahead of the very first College Football Playoff rankings.This season, Sarkisian passed 10 wins for the very first time in his 10 seasons as a head coach. Whether Texas was galvanized by the alignment of forces versus them or not, whether it was Sarkisian’s self-confidence, Hager stated he saw a sense of swagger going back to the Longhorns. “It appears like the guys appear to actually want to bet Coach Sark, play for UT and appreciate UT, “Hager said.”That’s what you type of saw this year. So when you embrace the hate, for me it’s sort of welcoming the tradition more than anything.”However there’s still incomplete company on Saturday, with an opportunity for the Longhorns to end their Huge 12 period with a conference title and make their case for a CFP berth. They’ll have another John Wick assignment: to beat an Oklahoma
State team that scored the last 17 points of their match with Texas in 2015 to win 41-34 in Stillwater.Hager, who had children bet Baylor (Bryce)and Texas (Breckyn)proudly explained what about Texas attracts such disdain from other programs and fans.” It’s a university that approves academic community, ‘change the world’type of thing,”Hager said.” It’s a university that reaches beyond the state borders … It’s unbelievable what they’re doing. The endowment is unbelievable. I can see why other individuals want to can be found in and beat them. You have actually got a spectacular stadium, you’ve got a cool logo. I get it.”Martin said his boss, athletic director Chris Del Conte, provided an obstacle to all Texas coaches and players across all sports before this athletic season started, informing them to head out and win every Big 12 championship they could. Now, he’s viewing them increase to the event.” It’s been remarkable to view soccer go
out and do that. Volley ball has just done that, “Martin stated.”Football has a chance to do that on Saturday. And we’re just going to keep going down the line. I think it’s fair to say that Texas, across the board this year, is playing with that little bit of edge to us and the chip on the
shoulder of heading out there and taking care of business. “