In Texas Longhorn country, success means playing for championships

At most schools, nine regular-season wins and a trip to one of the better non-Bowl Championship Series games is not cause for blowing up the depth chart and returning to training camp-style practices.

GRAPHIC: View last six seasons of University of Texas football

However, that is happening at Texas, where — in the aftermath of an ugly loss against rival Texas A&M in the regular-season finale — coach Mack Brown is making even accomplished veteran players earn their starting assignments for the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl against Arizona State.

“We’ve opened up all positions and told them that they were going back to work,” Brown said on Tuesday. “We’ve had the most physical practices that we’ve ever had for a bowl game. …

“We won’t have a depth chart finalized until right before game time, so that the guys understand that the ones who will play are the ones who produced in practice.”

Brown, UT’s 10th-year coach, has deemed the drastic measures necessary for a program that — with four national titles, the most recent two years ago — has high expectations from some of the most loyal fans in college football.

A loss against the Sun Devils would break a string of six straight seasons in which the Longhorns have posted double-digit wins.

“The standard has been set high,” said Brown, who is 102-25 at UT. “After we won nine games my first three years here, we won 11. And people were mad. I thought they were crazy. I called my brother, Watson, who coached at the time at Alabama-Birmingham, and he said. 'Don’t call me about being unhappy with 11 wins. I won’t talk to you.’

“But our goal should be to win every game. It’s a great amount of pressure on the coaches and kids, but we all want the same thing. We aren’t fighting our fans, believe me. They’ve been great.”

Texas overcame injuries and inconsistency to make a late-season push, with five straight wins putting them in the BCS conversation. The Longhorns then played at a Texas A&M squad that had lost four of its previous five games and was dealing with the tenuous status of coach Dennis Franchione.

The Aggies won 38-30, and Franchione quit after the game. Texas, which dropped to 17th in the rankings, was left with questions.

“We have done a lot of positive things, but things have not come easy for us,” quarterback Colt McCoy said. “We experienced a lot of adversity and fought back in games that we should have lost. But we have not been as consistent as we should have. We’ll go out and play well, and then not play well at all.

“Up and down, every week, and that’s something great teams don’t do.”

McCoy’s touchdown passes are down (from 29 to 21) and his interceptions up (from seven to 18) from his record-setting freshman season. Three key offensive starters — wide receiver Limas Sweed (wrist), center Dallas Griffin (knee) and tackle Tony Hills (leg) — suffered season-ending injuries.

On defense, the Longhorns have allowed 1,258 yards and 13 TDs through the air in the last three games.

Hence the depth-chart re-evaluation. ASU coach Dennis Erickson, a friend of Brown’s, said he considers such a tactic a luxury of the manpower that Texas annually draws.

“It’s a message that he’s got some depth, and if some guys aren’t playing as well as he would like, he can replace them with guys that are practicing well,” Erickson said. “We don’t quite have that situation. …

“You have to remember that these are the most highly recruited athletes in the country. Texas is always near the top in recruiting (classes).”

Defensive lineman Frank Okam said the intense workouts have helped the Longhorns get fit and focused, which they will need to be during the Holiday Bowl — No. 12 ASU has won 10 games — and afterward.

For not long after the final gun sounds in San Diego, the high expectations for UT in 2008 will begin.

“I wondered how the team would respond, but our team went into it with the right attitude,” said Okam, a senior. “You could have easily said 'Whatever,’ and thrown in the towel, but our guys responded.

“We’re competing every day and working hard in practice, because every job is open. That should give us a lot of momentum for the bowl game and carry over into the spring and next fall.”