KU’s cast of Texans takes its shot against Longhorns

Nick Harwell was not recruited by Texas, which is not all that surprising, really, because Harwell was not really recruited by anybody. No big schools at least. A native of Missouri City, Texas, the Longhorns never saw much in the 6-foot-1 receiver.

He was just another talented player in a state with thousands of them. He ended up at Miami of Ohio, a place far away from Austin.

That’s not to say that Harwell, now a senior transfer at Kansas, never harbored dreams of playing for Mack Brown at Texas. When he was a kid, he says, the first college football game he can remember watching was Texas’ BCS title-game victory over Southern California — the night Vince Young became a legend.

“Ever since, I’ve wanted to go to Texas so bad,” Harwell says. “But as the recruiting process went on, I just saw I wasn’t going to Texas and put it behind me.”

The same could be said for dozens of players on the KU roster — effectively more than 25 percent of the team. That’s the number of Kansas players who grew up in Texas — the number that will be motivated to face the flagship university from home when Texas (1-2) faces Kansas (2-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

“I’m pretty sure that motivates a lot of guys that are from Texas, that didn’t get the look from those guys,” says JaCorey Shepherd, a senior cornerback from Mesquite, Texas. “Why wouldn’t you want to come out here and beat them? Especially being at home and it being our homecoming and having nice weather. That just makes it all the much better.”

It is, of course, nothing new for Kansas to have a roster brimming with players from Texas — especially the talent-rich areas around Dallas and Houston. But in 11 previous Big 12 games between the two schools, the built-in motivation has not helped Kansas escape Texas’ choke-hold on the series. The Longhorns have won 11 straight — with the Jayhawks’ only victory coming in 1938. But the current players do have reason to feel like they owe Texas something.

Two years ago, Kansas lost a 21-17 heartbreaker in Charlie Weis’ first season; last year, the Jayhawks trailed 14-6 midway through the third quarter before Texas returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown, setting off a rout.

“They still have athletes,” Shepherd says, “they still have good players.”

One week ago, the Jayhawks were tied 10-10 with Central Michigan in the second half before a strong finish led to a 24-10 victory. It was, Weis conceded, really the first time Kansas had finished off an opponent in his Kansas tenure.

Now comes another shot at Texas, and the goal is simple: Finish.

“Finishing that game last week showed us, as a team, that we can finish off other games,” Shepherd said. “If we play how we play, and finish, there’s no reason why we can’t beat them.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 11:02 AM with the headline "KU’s cast of Texans takes its shot against Longhorns."