“It was never lost, boss.”
When asked about the Texas Longhorns defense recovering its swagger last Saturday against the Iowa State Cyclones, senior defensive end Charles Omenihu provided the defining response on Tuesday.
In the game’s immediate aftermath, Longhorns head coach Tom Herman had a similar perspective.
“This is a defense that has taken a lot of hits lately,” Herman said in the post-game press conference. “A lot of people thought we had forgotten how to play defense or how to coach defense.”
Any assessments in that vein — and there were many — lost the key context.