In the winter of 1980, a hardscrabble group of kids – college kids – came together and pulled off an upset that would etch their names into the history books. The U.S. hockey team defeated the mighty Soviet hockey team, made up of grown men, 4-3.
Many people tend to forget that the “miracle on ice” did not seal the gold medal for the Americans. They had to come back and defeat Finland a few days later to win gold.
Ahead of the matchup against the Fins, Herb Brooks, the hard-nosed coach of the American team, walked into the locker room and delivered a short but poignant speech.
“If you lose this game, you will all take it to your f’ing (expletive deleted) graves,” said Herb Brooks while pacing the room. “Your f’ing graves.”
No, I am not comparing Texas’ win over Michigan as being like the U.S. win over the Soviets. Texas was the better team before the game, during the game and after the game. Heck, the Horns were 7.5 point favorites and even that was way too low. But Brooks’ quote ahead of the Finland game is just as relevant for the Longhorn players ahead of the UTSA game.
If the Horns f around and find out about UTSA this week … after all of the hard work they have put in since the disappointing loss in the college football playoffs semifinal last year … they will take it to their f’ing graves.
Ok, even that’s a little dramatic. But it will blunt all of the momentum Texas has coming out of Ann Arbor and it will put question marks about this team in the minds of the fans, CFP selection committee and probably even raise a few doubts in the minds of the team as well.
The point is, Texas can not afford a letdown this week.
I am not just talking about coming out and losing to UTSA (which nobody truly believes will happen), I’m talking about a letdown in how this team is supposed to play.
“The opponent is irrelevant if we prepare to the standard that we have created for ourselves,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “There is a style of play and a brand of football which we take a lot of pride in playing. When we get ourselves to that point and then we go do it, the challenge for us is to then go recreate it again next week, regardless of the opponent.”
