Earlier this month, I interviewed Texas Stars goaltender Rémi Poirier at preseason media day for a story I was doing on his new role within the Dallas Stars organization.
He was demoted to the organization’s fourth goaltender after struggling to close out his first full season in the American Hockey League. He saw little playing time during the first half of last season behind a more experienced goaltender.
Throughout our 10-minute conversation, Poirier kept going back to his struggle to overcome inconsistent play or play up to his standards.
Eventually, with belief in himself, his coaches and teammates, Poirier worked his way back to his place as the starter for the AHL club.
Despite starting the season on a sour note, Poirier never lost his determination, and with a little work and persistence, ended it on a positive note — going undefeated in March.
I know what you are thinking. Why on God’s green earth am I writing about a hockey player to start a football story, right? Well, the lesson of overcoming struggle and adversity does not discriminate; it is not localized to just one person or sport.
Like Poirier, the Texas Longhorns have begun their journey back to their rightful place — the top — after going through the depths of doubt.
Two weeks ago in Florida, it felt as if Texas was at its lowest point in a very long time. Inside the post-game press conference, there was an air of disappointment that hung in that little room they shoved the entire Austin media in.
And then came the lead-up to Red River, but the Longhorns maintained that they believed they could do it — shock the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners.
That’s exactly what they did.
Texas embraced the struggle, learned from the adversity and turned out a dominant performance against a pretty darn good Sooner team. Now they begin their march back as a national threat.
Here’s the thing about sports: it’s a very streaky animal. It moves in waves, very fluid and sometimes hard to capture. The question I hold now is, are the Longhorns able to maintain this surge, heading into yet another road game against a lowly conference opponent?
Just like how the Gators were two weeks ago, the Kentucky Wildcats are the same sinking boat of despair. Winless in the conference, coach on the hot seat, inconsistent offense — I could go on listing the similarities.
As I’ve written before, teams of this nature are the most dangerous to play. They want nothing more than to bring you down with them, especially when they can play spoiler to a team with a shot at the playoffs, narrow as it is for Texas.
Now, at the start of the back half of the season, the Longhorns have shown the belief and the ability to overcome, adapt and compete against some of the toughest challenges that face a college football team.
But the cat is still not out of the bag on whether they can preserve the momentum. Saturday will prove to be a good initiation.
