Texas Longhorns

Whipping KU was only acceptable outcome and no cause for celebration

Published Nov. 9, 2015 9:04 p.m. ET

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Texas coach Charlie Strong wasn't joking around after the 59-20 win over Kansas about the kind of beating the up-and-down Longhorns needed to put on the winless Jayhawks.

“We had to go dominate this team,” Strong told reporters afterward. “It's just fun to see the team back where it should be.”

The beat down came in the second half of a game that wasn't so much a must-win for Texas but a better-not-lose, and even better-not-just-scrape-by. Kansas has not won a road game since 2009 and has been abysmal this season. Anything other than a blowout would have only led to more speculation that Strong isn't get through to his team.

Strong, to his credit, recognized that the win to get to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 was nothing to celebrate, nothing to make any bold proclamations over as happened after Texas beat Oklahoma and seemed to actually turn that proverbial corner.

As everybody knows, it wasn't really the case.

"Well, we’re not going to write we turned the corner,” Strong said. “I want you to keep writing it’s really bad. Do not give them any hope at all. We don’t need that. Every time we get built up, it’s crash and burn.”

It's true. Beat Rice and watch Cal open up a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter. Dominate Oklahoma and get by Kansas State and lay egg at Iowa State. 

Now comes a tough matchup at West Virginia on Saturday followed by a Thanksgiving night game at home against Texas Tech and then the regular-season finale at Baylor. Texas has to win two just to qualify for a bowl game.

An early forecast for the noon ET kickoff in Morgantown on Saturday calls for cloudy, chilly weather in the 40s. If Texas is looking for challenges to prove it can carry over one encouraging effort to the next, this is it.

"We don’t want to make it a pattern where you lose, then we get mad and go beat three teams,” quarterback Jerrod Heard told reporters after the Kansas win. “Unfortunately, we’ve got only (three) games left, so we’ve got to be consistent throughout.”

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