Hurricane Harvey: The real effect on the start of the Texas Football season
Hurricane Harvey has brought devastation and floods to the Southeast region of Texas, affecting the sports world in a significant way.
That includes the Texas Longhorns one week before the start of the 2017 college football season.
The final weekend before the start of the season should have been a time for final preparations before the first Gameweek of the Tom Herman Era as Texas Football head coach.
Instead, players were concerned for the safety of loved ones in Houston and the populated areas surrounding Houston. The concern extended to 2018 Texas Football recruit Keondre Coburn, who had to be rescued from his home.
The Houston area was hit the hardest, but Hurricane Harvey was so monstrous that flooding extended to Austin and other parts of Central Texas. And, the hurricane might not be letting up.
Will the Texas Longhorns even be able to play a game in less than a week at DKR Memorial Stadium in Austin? The game should be okay to be played, but it remains to be seen how many fans will be able to travel safely to Austin to watch the start of a new Longhorns season.
One thing is for sure about this storm is it brought people together in a very unexpected way.
Longhorns and Cougars Working Together!
Tom Herman left the University of Houston for the University of Texas nine months ago. Herman was the third recent coach to leave the Cougars for an in-state school, which was too much for Cougars fans who thought Herman was building something special after two amazingly successful seasons in Houston.
- Art Briles: Houston to Baylor
- Kevin Sumlin: Houston to Texas A&M
- Tom Herman: Houston to Texas
Tom Herman and Texas Football became Public Enemy No. 1 for Cougar fans over the summer. This despite the Cougars’ new head coach being all-time great Texas Longhorns QB Major Applewhite.
Fast forward to the week before the start of the college football season. Now, the Cougars and Horns are working together. With Hurricane Harvey making parts of Houston uninhabitable, the Cougars traveled to Austin to practice with the Longhorns … and Tom Herman.
It’s neat to see the two schools working together after a summer of animosity from Cougars fans who are rightfully tired of being viewed as a stepping stone while U of H is routinely overlooked by big conferences for realignment opportunities. (Ahem, Big 12.)
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- Texas Football: 4-Star A&M OT commit officially visiting for KU game
- How to watch Texas football vs. Baylor: TV, stream, game time
- Texas Football: Predicting each remaining 5-Star commit for Horns this fall
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The next step is getting Texas and Houston to play a college football game again. There are still lingering issues over that, though, but that’s another story for another time.
It’s just good to see the premiere school in the state and the premiere city school in Texas getting together. It’s unfortunate it took a major hurricane and disaster to make it happen. But, perhaps there will be healing from the Cougars linking up with the Longhorns.
Also, decisions will have to be made next week about whether Texas Football will be able to open the regular season against Maryland and whether Houston will be able to make it to San Antonio to open the season against UT-San Antonio.
Welcome to the new world of college football in Texas after the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.