Last season, I was one of the many faces that littered the crowd in the morning hours of Oct. 19, 2024, when ESPN College Gameday set up its stage on the South Mall. Sometime after, the sun rose from the horizon, struggling to peer through the thick grey clouds of that morning, I heard Nick Saban, former Alabama head coach, deliver his “Nothing speech.”
Set up on an accompanying stage to the right, Saban, like a general preparing his troops for battle, began to run off orders to the crowd with simple scenarios.
“If you lose your discipline and work ethic, what would that get you?” Nothing, the crowd of burnt orange responded.
“If you fail to prepare and pay attention to detail, what would that get you?” Nothing, the crowd repeated.
“Nothing is more important than staying focused on being the best you can be, no matter what you choose to do,” Saban concluded.
Being a perennial power in this game comes with certain responsibilities to uphold — the legacy of those before you, serving as a model for others around you and most importantly, living up to the expectations currently placed on you.
On the other side of that coin is UTEP, a motley crew headed by a young, energetic coach, with a misfit quarterback rising from the ashes. A team of this nature is dangerous; they live by the code of “any given Saturday,” and their ambitions to shock college football only grow when they play a team of Texas’ caliber.
“Why not us?”
That was the question that UTEP head coach Scotty Walden asked his team during the lead-up to their showdown with the No. 7 Texas this weekend. In his preview press conference on Tuesday, Walden said he put up every “Group of Five” upset over a major opponent as motivation for his team.
It’s games like these that can be the most dangerous for teams with ambitions of the postseason. A Southeastern Conference team like Texas can afford to drop a game or two to a tough opponent, but losing to a group of five team? It’s a different story.
The Longhorns are still massaging out the kinks and are a couple of steps away before I feel confident to see them take on the nation’s best. Although they got out with a win against San José State, Texas still has issues that need to be addressed — penalties, missed connections, etc.
Malachi Nelson, UTEP redshirt sophomore quarterback, will be a more dynamic threat than what Texas faced last week in redshirt senior Walker Eget behind center. UTEP also boasts one of the nation’s better pass rushes, given the small sample size we have so far.
This game should be a blowout of five scoring drives by the end of the first half, with senior backup quarterback Matthew Caldwell and the rest of the second team coming in to finish the job.
Do not be surprised if the Miners put up a better fight than San José State did last week — it’s good for the Longhorns here early in the season to fend off a gritty team throwing everything they have at the wall because they have nothing else to lose.
