Kansas beats Texas for the first time since 1938, and the Charlie Strong era is all but over

The Texas Longhorns, a titan of college football, just lost to Kansas in overtime, 24-21. Per Winsipedia, this is the first time the Horns have lost to the Jayhawks since the Great Depression. For context, if you don’t believe that 1938 was indeed a long time ago:

This about sums up the emotions of plenty of folks at Texas right now.

The result was so unprecedented, our Kansas blog had already written its recap of a failed comeback.

David Beaty is holding this team back. They have more talent than their record would indicate, and the offense has definitely been negatively affected by his scheme and play-calling.

But Texas QB Shane Buechele’s overtime pass was intercepted, and the Jayhawks would march the ball to the doorstep of the goal line, before kicking the winning field goal.

And shoutout to Kansas real quick, because this field storming was very much the right move, in contrast with previous incidents.

But you guys need much more practice with upsets, because this is poor form.

But points for persistence, because if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Not bad, not good, but consistently fascinating as trainwrecks often are, and always mercurial.

Remember the opening game when it seemed like Texas had found something against a Notre Dame team we thought was good?

Well we had no idea that Notre Dame would end up with a 4-7 record. And no matter which way this game was going to end, it did indeed signal major pressure for coach Charlie Strong.

Strong is on or off the hot seat seemingly weekly. This week he is very much back on it.

It seemed that Texas had gotten some things figured out with its defense lately after Strong relieved former DC Vance Bedford of those duties:

Through the first five games, opponents averaged 6.38 yards per play, but that number is now down to 5.03 yards per play, which would rank among the top 25 nationally this season.

Finding ways to force turnovers and create sacks and tackles for loss has also played a big role — 12 of the 17 takeaways have come in the last five games, along with 21 sacks and 45 tackles for loss.

But before this game even started, ESPN had reported that Houston’s Tom Herman was back squarely on UT’s radar.

In October the lure of Herman, always considered Texas’ No. 1 target, had dulled with losses to Navy and SMU and near losses to Tulsa and UCF. The SMU loss was extremely troubling to UT’s boosters because it was to a perceived “lesser school” in the state, sources said.

That all changed with Herman improving to 22-3 at Houston after Thursday’s domination of Louisville.

After that win, the bidding war for Herman is expected to start “at a minimum of $5.5 million,” an industry source said.

It’s almost a certainty that the rumors of Herman to Texas will reach a fever-pitch this week, because it is very much likely that Strong is done in Austin.