Game Eight Billboard Slogan of the Week: "Remember Our Alamo"

BY TIM SCANDURRO

Chaos came early this year.  We’re not even in November yet, and already all the noise from last November and December is starting up.  You all know the trifecta:

1: The Transfer Portal.  We lost nine or ten players to power conference teams last year.  Several of our current players are on the radar again, which is to be expected in this era and with a quality roster.  If they’re on the radar you can bet they’ve been pinged directly or indirectly, or will be soon, in this new one-portal system.  It’s not about whether we can retain some that others want or replace those that leave; we’ve proven that we can.  It’s about their focus and energy in the most critical part of the schedule here coming up. 

2: The Coaching Carousel.  It started early this year and is showing no signs of abating, with three SEC jobs already open and others that may open soon.  Our coach is in the mix.  He turned down “power” conference offers when he came here and again after last season, but the openings this time are deeper and more attractive than those were. He will get asked about it by somebody every single day.   We survived it last year, but it was a distraction and here we go again.

3: Memphis/Rat Poison.  I would have had our Top 25 poll ranking listed here had it happened, but mercifully it did not happen this week.  Memphis got that honor instead. The Tigers cruelly ended our playoff dreams last year and are looming on November 7, and that is one of the three circled games on the schedule.  We took care of business in the other two already, but this always figured to be the biggest of them all and so it will be, with enormous stakes hanging in the balance. The problem is we don’t play them this week.

This week we play Texas-San Antonio, and we play them on the road.  One hundred and eighty-nine years ago, a different invader with big dreams and grand designs on a championship season went into San Antonio and took an early lead at a mission building called The Alamo, only to get routed in the second half and soundly defeated by Coach Sam Houston and his rebuilt roster at the Battle of San Jacinto. 

So history proves you can make plays on them, but it’s hard to come out of there with a win.

This opponent Thursday night is very good at home and plays in front of a raucous crowd.  We’ve never played in this venue, but our last road game in a noisy atmosphere didn’t go very well back in September.  We are a slim favorite, as both Coach Sumrall and Las Vegas continue to await the kind of clean, complete game that we all hope to see.

The outside noise is loud already and it’s only going to get louder.  That’s what being relevant means in college football.  It’s urgent and it’s hot and it comes at you fast. Our “remember the Alamo” assignment this week is not to recall what happened in 1836, but to remember what happened last year.  Those late season outside distractions and playoff scenario dreams were focus-robbers, and we didn’t handle them very well.  They’ve all arrived earlier this year.  Thursday night will be a maturity test of what we learned from that experience, what we’re trying to do differently this time, and what kind of character this 2025 football team and program have.  Focus on today, on what’s right in front of us, and we’ll be fine.

Let’s all hope that our season didn’t die last year in vain, and that we can use that disappointment and heartbreak to fuel a different outcome this week and the rest of the year.  Remember our Alamo.