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Forty Acres Insider: October 22

Forty Acres Insider: October 22

Longhorn Nation, 

HERE’S TO YOU AND AN EMPHATIC THANK YOU from all of us in Texas Athletics! We are oh so grateful for all of you and your never-ending support. The passion, pride and steadfast devotion of the Longhorn Faithful is unmatched. And boy was it on full display on the Forty Acres last weekend as y’all showed up and showed out in full force, bringing your best Texas Fight all the livelong day on Saturday. It was one big Longhorn Party! The South Mall was wall-to-wall rockin’ the Burnt Orange & White by the thousands for the world to see bright and early on College GameDay, and y’all took that energy straight to Bevo Blvd, Smokey’s Midway, LCL and all the pregame activities before getting pumped up for Coach Sark and the team’s arrival at the Stadium Stampede. Onward we charged into DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium for a packed house and electric scene to the tune of our all-time attendance record of 105,215. It was a who’s who of Longhorn Greats, celebs and even our guy Kirk Herbstreit’s celebrity pet, Ben, taking in the epic festivities (oh and how about all those Olympic Medalists we had the privilege of honoring?!).

Y’all brought it big-time! It was a breathtaking scene, a magnificent turnout, and Coach Sark and the squad were incredibly grateful for all of your support. Our Horns fought hard in a top-five SEC matchup, hung in there until the bitter end, and though it didn’t come out the way we had hoped in the 30-15 loss to Georgia, we all certainly stood tall beside our team when we sang The Eyes of Texas after the game. We just couldn’t get clicking on all cylinders in this one, but we left it all on the field, and though we didn’t get the W, played our hearts out until the final whistle. Y’all brought it, too, and we are beyond thankful for you and the energy you bring to our game days! I’ve also got to give a BIG thank you to our friends at ESPN who made the Longhorns and the F1 race a Texas Takeover Weekend. What incredible publicity and exposure for our great university! Hey, and our Volleyball leader Jerritt Elliott got his 600 and 601st victories at Texas, to boot!

While we truly appreciate the passion of our great supporters, I DO NEED TO REINFORCE OUR DISAPPOINTMENT OVER THE BEHAVIOR OF SOME FANS in the third quarter of our game with Georgia. Chairman Eltife, President Hartzell and I issued a joint statement on Sunday addressing the throwing of objects onto the field during that game. We’ve reached out and apologized to the folks at Georgia, Commissioner Sankey and the Southeastern Conference. This is not who we are, it is unacceptable, such a poor representation to our new league partners across the SEC, and not the standard that has been built on years of integrity and sportsmanship at The University of Texas. Those involved will have ramifications for their actions, and it will never be tolerated, as we need to ensure this type of behavior does not happen again. We are better than that. The safety of the players, coaches, officials and everyone on the field and in the stands is paramount, and we must represent our university with pride and respect. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shoutout to our support staff, spirt groups and student staffers who took immediate action and did a yeoman’s job gathering all the debris from the field expeditiously. Their efforts are much appreciated as are Coach Sark’s in helping to put a stop to the objects being thrown on the field. Our guy Matthew McConaughey said it so well in part of a post on social media, “Next up, November 9th, when the Gators come to town, let’s make sure they feel the heat, can’t hear the play calls, and burn their timeouts-but remember, nothing hits OUR field except that Texas Fight.”

Now it’s onward and upward as there is so much more football to be played and all our goals and aspirations are still in play. Coach Sark and our team leaders will have our squad refocused and ready for their next challenge – heading to top-25-ranked Vanderbilt (3:15 p.m. CT/SEC Network) on Saturday (and I know you will be too!) This is a resilient bunch with great leadership, and that was evident in the locker room after the game. They’ve already picked themselves up, dusted off, and gotten right back to work on Monday. Coach Sark said it best at his Monday press conference — “I’d much rather get knocked down in the sixth round than knocked out in the 12th round.” We’ll get back up off the mat and keep fighting until the end. Coach Sark added on Monday, “We’ve got a bunch of great competitors in our locker room. We’ve got a bunch of great competitors on our staff. So, we do need to stay 10 toes down and we need to get back to work. We’re a really good football team. We just need to get back to playing our brand, our style of football.” We’ve got this, let’s get those Horns Up and Hook ‘Em!

Speaking of Horns Up, it was another awesome weekend at The Greg as y’all raised the roof and No. 7 Volleyball responded with a Friday sweep of Arkansas and a 3-1 win over Georgia on Sunday. That keeps our squad perfect in SEC play at 7-0 with five via the sweep! And Coach Elliott registered career wins number 600 and 601 in the process!! Now we welcome the Aggies to The Greg in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT/ESPNU) before getting a well-deserved week off.

Coach Kelly and Soccer gave No. 5 Arkansas a heck of a game, coming up just short, 4-3, last Friday at Myers Stadium. We’ll be back at home this week on Thursday as we welcome in Missouri (7 p.m. CT/SEC Network+), before traveling east to Georgia to conclude the regular season on Sunday (3 p.m. CT/SEC Network+).

Are you ready for some hoops?! Coach Schaefer and Women’s Basketball will take to the court at Moody Center on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT for the Orange-White Scrimmage, so come on out and get ready for another great season of roundball! Beach Volleyball, Softball and Tennis will all be in action, too, as we head into another great week to cheer on your Horns!

In closing, let’s give an emphatic Hook Em, Horns to our Longhorn Legend and National Champion Brent Buckman on his well-deserved induction into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame!

And while I’ve got you and before we get to all the notes, if you didn’t see this incredible story on our Outland Trophy candidate Kelvin Banks Jr. and his mom, it’s must-see-TV.

Volleyball continues unbeaten start to SEC play!

All we do is win, win, win no matter what! That’s right, our Longhorns took down Arkansas and Georgia last week to remain unbeaten in SEC play and extend their winning streak to NINE-straight matches. Marianna Singletary has been a huge part of that success and earned SEC Player of the Week honors for the second time in three weeks AND SEC Defensive Player of the Week recognition for the third-consecutive week. Coach Elliott also deserves a shoutout for claiming his 600th victory while at Texas in Friday’s win over Arkansas. Congrats Coach! We’ve got a fun one this week as we host Texas A&M on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT/ESPNU) in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown, so let’s pack The Greg again and keep the momentum going.

Soccer’s Missimo reaches another career milestone

The list of career accolades for Lexi Missimo grew again last week as the GOAT of Texas Soccer became the first player in program history to reach 60 career assists during Friday’s hard-fought 4-3 loss to No. 5 Arkansas. Lexi now leads all THREE major career soccer statistical categories (goals, assists and points) on the Forty Acres AND she’s also the active leader in career points in NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer. We’ll be able to celebrate Lexi and the entire 10-person senior class following Thursday’s home match against Missouri (7 p.m. CT / SEC Network+). It’ll be the final time these seniors and graduate students take the pitch at Mike A. Myers Stadium during the regular season, so let’s send them out in style! Then we’ll wrap the regular season on Sunday at Georgia (3 p.m. CT/SEC Network+).

Women’s Golf finishes third at Stanford Intercollegiate

Our ladies went up against some of the top teams in the nation over the weekend and finished in third place at the Stanford Intercollegiate. We lit it up on Sunday in the final round as we shot 12-under-par, tying our program record for lowest 18-hole team score. Sophomore Farah O’Keefe tied for third place in the individual standings, and she carded a 64 in her final round to tie the school record for lowest 18-hole score! The ladies conclude their fall season on Oct. 28-30 (next Monday-Wednesday) at the Nanea Invitational in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. 

Men’s Tennis sweeps the titles at the ITA Texas Regionals

A big Hook ‘Em to Men’s Tennis for sweeping both the singles and doubles titles at the ITA Texas Regionals in Waco today! Timo Legout got the double and was crowned the champ in singles along with doubles with Lucas Brown! Just like the ladies last week, it was an all-Longhorn singles final with Jonah Braswell getting the runner-up spot, so congrats to all three of them! Timo is just a redshirt freshman and has been en fuego to start his career on the 40 with two singles titles in two tournaments (both coincidentally enough in Waco) after he was the SEC MVP of the Big 12/SEC Challenge a couple of weeks ago! So way to go Timo (and Timo is from France, so that’s pronounced Tee like T-shirt and Mo like in The Stooges…or I might go Mr. Legout, since it rhymes with Mr. Magoo, ha)!

Cross Country concludes regular season schedule and preps for SEC Championship

Our Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams completed their regular season schedule at the Wisconsin Pre-National meet on Saturday and were led by grad students Isaac Alonzo in the men’s 8K and Olivia Howell in the women’s 6K. Alonzo posted a two-second personal best with a time of 23.19.0, while Howell was just shy of hers at 20:04.0. The men and women will compete in the first SEC Championship of the fall season on Friday, Nov. 1 in College Station.

Hook ‘Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — I see what you did there, Boss! What Starts Here!!

P.S. — Incredible! DKR After Dark!!

P.S. — The Pride and Winning Tradition right here!

P.S. — F1 and Texas, what a great Team!

P.S. — Thanks for stopping by Chef Ramsay!

P.S. — Never get enough of the Big Fella!

P.S. — So Cool, Ben and Bevo are buddies!

P.S. — What a joy it was honoring our Longhorn Paris Olympic Medalists!

HEADLINES:

Vince Young named to 2024 SEC Football Legends Class

No. 5/6 Football’s Hill added to Chuck Bednarik Award watch list

Women’s Basketball’s Booker named Preseason AP All-American

Ten former Longhorns on NBA opening night rosters

Men’s Tennis to play for ITA Texas Regionals singles and doubles titles

No. 5/6 Football’s Barron, Mukuba named quarterfinalists for Lott IMPACT Trophy

No. 7 Volleyball’s Singletary named SEC Player of the Week again

Video: Steve Sarkisian press conference (Oct. 21)

Men’s Tennis puts three into semifinals of ITA Texas Regionals

Video: Steve Sarkisian postgame press conference (Georgia)

Men’s Tennis moves three into quarterfinals of ITA Texas Regionals

Men’s Tennis advances five to second round of ITA Texas Regionals

Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition: Patrick D. Hall

Mind over matter: How UT supports Texas athletes’ mental health (Daily Texan)

Men’s Tennis advances three to main draw of ITA Texas Regionals

Video: Steve Sarkisian media availability (Oct. 17)

4EVER Texas hosts content creator panel

No. 1/1 Football’s Sarkisian named to Dodd Trophy Midseason watch list

No. 1/1 Football’s Hill recognized as Lott IMPACT Trophy Player of the Week

No. 1/1 Football’s Sarkisian selected to Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year watch list

No. 3 Men’s Swimming & Diving’s Harris named SEC Diver of the Week

No. 2 Women’s Swimming & Diving’s Cox and Sticklen earn SEC weekly honors

Baseball to host Orange & White game October 25

Women’s Tennis’ Anazagasty-Pursoo wins ITA Texas Regionals singles title

No. 1/1 Football’s Hill garners Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week

Women’s Basketball ranked No. 4 in AP preseason poll

No. 1/1 Football’s Banks named Outland Trophy National Player of the Week