Since the season-opening loss, the biggest question circulating Texas football has gone, for the most part, unanswered:

What is this team’s identity?

Head coach Steve Sarkisian perpetually says the Longhorns need to focus on playing their own brand and style of football. But that’s a difficult thing to do when they haven’t seemed to be sure of what that brand of football even looks like.

This past weekend, however, offered some clues. And while it didn’t quite answer the question, it’s the closest thing we’ve seen this year to some form of identity that the Longhorns have adopted for themselves.

This past week, Texas played a style of football that was undeniably hungry. Hungry for a win. Hungry to prove others wrong — hungry to prove themselves right. Hungry for more than a placement as an unranked team that had fallen far from grace in the eyes of everyone but themselves.

After losing to Florida and falling out of the AP Top 25, Texas football was in a highly unique position — a place it hadn’t been in since the start of Sarkisian’s career at Texas in 2021. Because after that catastrophe, no one in their right mind looked at the matchup versus No. 6 Oklahoma the next week and said, “Yes, Texas is the favorite to win.”

Even so, Texas was still favored to win against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry as 2.5-point favorites, even with redshirt junior quarterback John Mateer leading an Oklahoma team that featured the best defense in the country, all odds pointed in the Sooners’ favor.

I even picked Oklahoma to win last week! The only entity to believe in the Longhorns before Saturday was Las Vegas.

Despite my predictions, Texas outshone Oklahoma in every way and completely shut out what was supposed to be one of the best teams in the country.

Even as underdogs, Texas was still favored more than it deserved pre-game. Past games — particularly the latest instance of proof in Florida — offered no evidence Texas could beat a top-rated Oklahoma team.

And as the overrated underdog, Texas won.

Maybe that’s the identity this team has found. Young and growing into the massive shoes that last year’s team left for them to fill, but steadily making progress toward finding their place amidst the media craze and fanbase hype.

It’s a team that has a long shadow to sit under when it comes to narratives (Texas is back, baby! It’s our year!). It’s a team that has a long road ahead to offer validation in either direction the outside world tries to take, to finally earn the moniker of being “good” or “bad.” It’s a team with everything to prove, yet everything to lose.

Not complacent, but confident. Not paying attention to the outside narrative, but knowing that validation is highly sought, hard-earned and hard to come by. That nothing is ever guaranteed. That there is no way to be truly satisfied this season, because they have such a long way to climb back up to the top.

If the Longhorns keep that identity — stay hungry and stave off complacency — they’re in a good spot.