Texas Football: 3 best upset wins of the Tom Herman-era

In the 2019 Alamo Bowl, the Longhorns took down the Utes by the final score of 38-10. This took place on New Year’s Eve 2019, almost one year after the Longhorns won the Sugar Bowl to give themselves a top 10 ranking to cap the 2018 campaign. But the Longhorns did nearly get themselves firmly back into the top 25 after beating Utah in the Alamo Bowl to cap last season.

Herman surely did get two quality wins in the postseason in consecutive seasons. He is now 3-0 in the postseason as the Longhorns head coach. This was definitely one of his biggest challenges yet in any bowl game as the Texas or Houston lead man. Herman had to get his staff together right in the midst of all the coaching turnover. Former defensive coordinator Todd Orlando was already gone, as were a number of position coaches.

A solid game from junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger got the Longhorns off to a good enough start to command the pace of this entire game. Ehlinger would finish up with more than 275 total yards, four total touchdowns, and just one interception. He wasn’t much needed in the passing game since the Utah offense could never get off and running.

Most of the credit for this enormous convincing bowl game was goes to the Texas defense. Then interim defensive coordinator Craig Naivar did a fantastic job preparing his group to contain the dynamic rushing duo that was quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss. Texas would allow just 128 rushing yards (just 3.5 yards per carry) and 254 total yards of offense from the Utes.

Texas came into this game as seven-point underdogs ahead of kickoff.