AUSTIN, Texas -- There's an informal new course at the University of Texas: American Literature with Tom Herman.
First on the syllabus: comparing a second straight loss to Maryland with the works of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck.
Texas, Herman said Monday, was like the simple but brutish Lenny from Steinbeck's classic "Of Mice and Men." The Longhorns tried so hard to win they killed their chance to do it.
"Lenny wanted so badly to touch the rabbit and play with the rabbit, he squeezed it so hard he killed the rabbit," Herman said, noting he told linebacker Gary Johnson to read the book.