Horns’ recent success won’t mean much at Kansas State
Texas has played well in beating ranked teams the past two weeks at home, but those victories won’t give it a leg up on anything when the Longhorns travel to Manhattan, Kan., on Saturday to square off against always-dangerous Kansas State.
The Longhorns, now 3-1 on the season and ranked 18th in the latest Associated Press poll, haven’t won in Manhattan since 2002, “since (Texas safety) Caden Sterns was two-years old,” coach Tom Herman said Monday in his regular media availability.
“I told our team yesterday: ‘They’re not going to spot us seven points in Manhattan because we beat TCU,’ ” Herman added.
“What happened against TCU, what happened against USC, for that matter what happened against Maryland, is inconsequential to how we play and how Kansas State plays against us in Manhattan.”
Herman said the team has progressed through its recent success streak and understands the benefit, and need, to move on to the next game each week.
“There’s a genuine belief (among the team) in the way that we do things,” he said.
“And now that we’ve had the added testimony to that with a couple double-digit wins here in the last couple of games against nationally ranked teams, I think — ‘how could you walk into this building and not want to do it that way again and again?’
“It seems counterintuitive to a degree now that you’ve seen and felt the rewards of doing it our way. And so, I don’t anticipate it being very difficult to motivate them moving forward.”
Now that Texas has won three games in a row for the first time since 2014 and beaten ranked teams in back-to-back weeks for first time since 2008, winning in Manhattan is the next logical step in the progression, right?
“The hardest places to play are usually the places that have really good teams, and really good coaches,” Herman said of the challenge at Kansas State. “So obviously (K-State coach) Bill Snyder is a Hall of Famer. His name is on the dang stadium.
“They’ve got a well-coached team that plays hard, that plays smart and they’ve got a raucous fan base that shows up regardless of weather, regardless of record, regardless of any of that,” Herman added. “And that makes for a difficult place to play.”