Forty Acres Insider: February 4

Chris Del Conte head shot

Longhorn Nation,

February here we are my friends! With Groundhog Day behind us, Super Bowl Sunday upon us, and wall-to-wall winter and spring seasons stampeding ahead, it's so awesome to be a Longhorn. I'm not sure about the six more weeks of winter that Punxsutawney Phil's shadow predicted on Sunday, but in these here parts spring is definitely in the air on the Forty Acres. With sunshine across the ATX, an incredible week of weather ahead and a full slate of Texas sports on all those livelong days, I'm fired up to talk about another great week gone by and all that's on the horizon!

First off, we've got a whole lot of tales of Texas triumphs to celebrate from last week, including several more outstanding victories over our longtime rivals from Texas A&M in Lone Star Showdowns. No. 5 Women's Basketball got the road rivalry win on Coach Schaefer's old stomping grounds at College Station on Sunday. With a decisive 20-point victory (70-50), our HORNS PROUDLY RAISED THE COTTON HOLDINGS LONE STAR SHOWDOWN TROPHY high and extended our lead to 6-1 in the overall LSS Standings. The Longhorn Road Warriors sport a 22-2 record and return home on Thursday to host No. 24 Vanderbilt (8 p.m. CT/SEC Network), and what a great time it is to come on out and raise those Horns High for our conquering heroes. They'll follow that one up with the defending National Champions and No. 2-ranked South Carolina in our house on Sunday (1 p.m. CT/ESPN). We need to pack Moody, raise the roof and bring the heat for those two critical SEC matchups as we're taking dead aim on a string of four-straight top-25 opponents!

put 'em up 🤘⬆️#HookEm | @TheCottonWatch pic.twitter.com/qMtW0Atoab
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 3, 2025

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIENDS! Coach Fields and our No. 5 Men's Golf squad was raising a trophy as well last week, with that one coming out west in claiming the Southwestern Invitational team title in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Talk about a stampede of Texas Fight, we put the pedal to the metal and were all gas, no brakes on the final few holes to surge into the lead and bring home the crown. They're back in action later this week in Hawaii at the Amer Ari Invitational on Thursday-Saturday.

TEAM VICTORY! Our guys are the 2025 Southwestern Invitational Champs.🤘🏆#HookEm | #TakeDeadAim pic.twitter.com/5Jrq9om6HJ
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) January 30, 2025

After a heartbreaking near-miss last Wednesday at No. 23/23 Ole Miss (72-69), Coach Terry and Men's Basketball bounced back with an emphatic 89-58 win at LSU on Saturday to improve to 15-7 on the season. We'll be back in the friendly confines of Moody Center and looking forward to a raucous crowd of Longhorn faithful behind us as we welcome in our longtime rival Arkansas on Wednesday (8 p.m. CT/ESPN2). There's nothing like our biggest rivals that go back generations, and this is certainly one of those. Can't wait to see you there in your Burnt Orange & White best, rockin' The Mood and helping us take down the Razorbacks!

What a blast it was seeing y'all on Saturday and SHOWING OUR APPRECIATION FOR THE BEST FANS IN THE LAND at our annual Baseball Alumni Game and Fan Appreciation Day. An event that's always circled on the calendar to kick-off the baseball season, it delivered big-time this year with a gorgeous afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. We can't thank y'all enough for spending the day with us and watching our current Horns secure the 6-3 victory over the alumni squad. It was a wonderful way to get back in the swing of baseball with our Horns and Coach Schloss preparing to head to Arlington for the Shriner's Children College Showdown set to officially start the season next weekend.

best fraternity in college baseball 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/bUZUYVH94K
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 2, 2025

For Coach White and No. 1-ranked Softball, they'll break out the bats, gloves and balls in getting the season underway with a slew of games from Lafayette to Beaumont and Huntsville in their season-opening weekend. Mark your calendars as the preseason favorites for the SEC title bring their game to Red & Charline McCombs Field for the home season opener with the Bevo Classic next weekend (Feb. 14-16). What a great way to launch your Valentine's Day weekend by cheering on the Horns!

MORE CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE ON THE LINE THIS WEEK as the ITA National Indoor Championship begins this Friday with No. 11 Women's Tennis in the hunt for the title again. Coach Joffe's squad heads to Illinois as one of the final 16 teams in contention for that crown. It's the eighth-straight year our ladies have advanced to the ITA National Indoor Championships. Meanwhile, after securing a spot in the ITA National Indoor Championships (Feb. 14-17 in Waco and Dallas), Coach Berque and No. 1-ranked Men's Tennis traveled to No. 5 Virginia on Sunday and played their hearts out in a back-and-forth affair before dropping a nailbiter, 4-3. They're back at home Friday for a top-five matchup with rival and second-ranked TCU at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center (5:30 p.m. CT) before heading to ITA's next weekend.

Horns on the move this week 🤘#HookEm | @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/PlUcTBDTGZ
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) February 3, 2025

There were a couple more RESOUNDING LONE STAR SHOWDOWN RIVALRY WINS last week. No. 1 Men's and No. 2 Women's Swimming and Diving closed out the regular season with a dual-meet sweep of Texas A&M and strong performances at the Sterkel Classic last weekend at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Coach Bowman's men finished off the regular season with a perfect 8-0 dual meet record, while Coach Capitani's women's squad went 7-1 with the lone loss coming at the hands of No. 1 Virginia. It was a glorious time celebrating our incredible men's squad of seniors and the sensational seniors for our women's team as well on a super special weekend of swimming and diving. Now it's on to the postseason and up next for our Longhorn squads is a trip to Athens, Ga., in a couple weeks (Feb. 18-22) and the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships.

SUPER BOWL LIX WILL HAVE A WONDERFUL BURNT ORANGE GLOW to it and as y'all settle in to tune in later this week, you can do it with a whole lot of Longhorn Pride. Texas Greats will be representing us on both sidelines with Charles Omenihu and Xavier Worthy suiting up for the Kansas City Chiefs, while Moro Ojomo is playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. Charles is looking for a second-straight SB Ring to boot! It marks the 19th time in the last 20 Super Bowls we've had a Longhorn featured on a roster for The Big Game and we're guaranteed to have a Lombardi Trophy winner for the 14th time in the last 20 years. How cool is that?!

Before we get to all notes, I've got to give an emphatic Hook 'Em Horns and gigantic CONGRATULATIONS TO JAHDAE BARRON WHO WILL OFFICIALLY BE ACCEPTING HIS JIM THORPE AWARD as the nation's most outstanding defensive back tonight in Oklahoma City. Jahdae had an incredible year, was an extraordinary leader in helping our Horns advance to the CFP semifinals for a second straight year and is just an all-around great guy. He joins Longhorn Legends Michael Huff (2005) and Aaron Ross (2006) as our third Thorpe Award winner, extending that great legacy of DBU. Congrats Jahdae, we are so incredibly proud of you and enjoy your much deserved recognition, rewards and flowers tonight!

2024 Thorpe Award Winner

🏆 Jahdae Barron 🏆 pic.twitter.com/xO6cH8XPkE
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 13, 2024

Men's Basketball earns third win in last four games and hosts Arkansas on Wednesday

RT and our guys are definitely playing at a more consistent and higher level over the past two weeks and have now won three of their last four games. The Longhorns began last week with a hard-fought 72-69 loss at No. 23/23 Ole Miss on Wednesday. The guys put themselves in position to earn a win in Oxford and had some great looks at the basket in the final seconds but came up just short. That marked the seventh AP-ranked opponent we had faced in our first eight SEC games, talk about an absolute beast of a schedule! Following the game, our group was handed a bit of adversity as fog back in Austin forced the travel party to stay overnight in Oxford and Coach Terry caught the flu bug. After the making the right choice to head straight to Baton Rouge on Thursday, RT (with some great care and treatment from our legendary athletic trainer Warren Young) rejoined the guys on Friday night and our Longhorns were certainly in sync when they took the court on Saturday and delivered an 89-58 victory over LSU. How about this cool nugget – that marked our largest road conference win since a 31-point victory in the 2010-11 season! Kadin Shedrick was huge in the win with a double-double, and Tramon Mark posted 18 points while dominating on the defensive end of the court. The kid Tre Johnson continues to impress and earned his third SEC Freshman of the Week honor on Monday. Our Longhorns are back in The Mood to host Arkansas on Wednesday (8 p.m. CT, ESPN2) and we need the place ready to rock long before tipoff! Then RT and the guys head out to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt on Saturday (Noon CT, SEC Network).

.@iamtrejohnson1 showing what we know 🤘#HookEm | #WestAward pic.twitter.com/2u6MhzU85P
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) February 4, 2025

Women's Basketball is on a roll and back in Moody for pair of big-time games this week!

Coach Schaefer and our No. 4 Women's Basketball team keep on rollin' and they rolled into College Station and beat the Aggies by 20 points on Sunday! The Longhorns captured their sixth straight win with a decisive 70-50 triumph over Texas A&M to earn a full point in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown rivalry series, as super sophomore Madison Booker led the way with 17 points and 13 rebounds. The Longhorns, now 22-2 overall and 8-1 in the SEC, picked up their seventh road win of the season. And how about a well-deserved Thank You to all our fans that made the trip to College Station, your support is so appreciated! Earlier in the week, the team took down former Big 12 foe Missouri 70-61 at Moody Center. Taylor Jones paced the team with 17 points and six rebounds, Rori Harmon recorded her 20th game of the year with at least five assists and Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda scored a season-high 10 points. Now we turn the page and have two big home games this week and we need The Mood to be rocking! We're 11-0 in Moody Center this year, so let's keep it going. The Longhorns host No. 24 Vanderbilt on Thursday (8 p.m. CT/SEC Network) and then it's a rematch against No. 2 South Carolina on Sunday (1 p.m. CT/ESPN).

start your Monday with highlights from win no. 22 📺🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/6OCcts78nD
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 3, 2025

Baseball season opens with great turnout at Alumni Game

Coach Schloss and our Baseball team welcomed home over 150 alumni to UFCU Disch-Falk Field on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the ATX for the annual Alumni Game. Our current varsity squad used some big swings to top the Alumni, 6-3. A pair of freshmen led the charge, as rookies Cole Chamberlain and Adrian Rodriguez both launched two-run homers. The Alumni Team featured MLB standouts Tres Barrera, Kody Clemens, John Curtiss, Bryce Elder, Duke Ellis, David Hamilton, Corey Knebel, Ty Madden and fan favorites like Cincinnati Reds farmhand Trey Faltine and New York Mets prospect Tanner Witt. Prior to the exhibition contest, the Longhorns hosted their annual Fan Appreciation Day. Thousands of fans met the players and coaches, while kids got the opportunity to play catch on the field and take photos with Bevo XV. Our guys open the 2025 campaign next weekend in the Metroplex at Globe Life Field as part of the Shriners Children's College Showdown. The Longhorns will take on Louisville on Friday, Feb. 14 (7 p.m. CT), Ole Miss on Saturday, Feb. 15 (7 p.m. CT) and Oklahoma State on Sunday, Feb. 16 (6:30 p.m. CT) before playing its home opener at UFCU Disch-Falk Field against Houston on Tuesday, Feb. 18 (time TBA).

nothin' quite like the Texas Alumni Game 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/0Dz3UJuE25
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 2, 2025

No. 1 Men's Swim & Dive concludes regular season undefeated in dual meets

Coach Bowman and our guys finished the regular season undefeated in dual meets after crushing No. 17 Texas A&M, 218.5-80.5, on Friday during Senior Day at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center! Rex Maurer owns the top times in the nation in both the 500 free and the 400 IM following the weekend, and the trio of David Johnston (No. 3 at 8:40.74), Maurer (No. 5 at 8:41.23) and Jackson Huckabay (No. 10 at 8:54.38) all cracked the top-10 on our school's all-time best performer list in the 1000 free. Our Longhorns will rest up and prepare to compete for a league title when they head to Athens, Ga., on Feb. 17-22 (Monday-Saturday) for the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships.

well that was fun 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/rWsGHaEEYT
— Texas Men's Swimming & Diving (@TexasMSD) January 31, 2025

No. 2 Women's Swim and Dive finishes regular season with 7-1 mark in dual meets

Coach Capitani and our ladies took down No. 19 Texas A&M, 197-102, last Friday during Senior Day! There's nothing better than celebrating your senior class than with a big win over a rival, and our The finished the regular season 7-1 in dual meets. Freshman Lillie Nesty continues to etch her name into the program record book and moved up to No. 5 on our all-time best performer list in the 1000 free (9:35.01), while senior sensation Emma Sticklen won the 100 back (52.04) and 100 free (48.03) and led the 200 free relay to victory. And congrats to Alejandra Estudillo who won the 3-meter title in her Longhorn debut! The ladies will join our men and get ready to compete for a league title when they head to Athens, Ga., on Feb. 17-22 (Monday-Saturday) for the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships.

took care of business on senior day 🤘 pic.twitter.com/nkelwTqqvC
— Texas Women's Swimming & Diving (@TexasWSD) January 31, 2025

Men's Golf opens spring season with team title at Southwestern Invitational

Coach Fields and our No. 5 Men's Golf team got its spring season off to a fabulous start by winning the team championship at the Southwestern Invitational last week at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Entering the final round two strokes off the lead and in a tie for second place, the Longhorns rallied in the final few holes to card a 6-under-par 278 on Wednesday to post a one-shot victory over runner-up San Diego State. Our guys registered a three-round total of 8-under 844 (289-277-278) to earn our first team championship of the 2024-25 season. Freshman Daniel Bennett continues to impress as he posted a 4-under 67 in the final round to place in a tie for second in the individual standings with a 54-hole score of 4-under 209 (72-70-67). Our guys have a quick turnaround and are already out in Hawaii where they will compete in the Amer Ari Invitational at Kohala Coast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Let's keep the momentum going boys!

still thinking about that championship round 🤘#HookEm | #TakeDeadAim pic.twitter.com/eHc7xbsU1Y
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) February 1, 2025

Big upcoming week for Tennis

We're certainly proud to be able to say that our Men's and Women's Tennis teams make us one of just five schools to have both advance to the upcoming ITA National Indoor Championships. Our women will be heading to those this week in Illinois and start play on Friday, but in the lead up to that, they had a thrilling win against a 19th-ranked NC State team that went down to a tiebreaker of the last singles match before Vivian Ovrootsky sent our Horns to a 4-3 victory out at Weller. They followed that up with an impressive 5-0 sweep of ACU on Sunday where they only lost seven total games in those five wins, wow! Also, a big congrats to our coaching staff on back-to-back top-TWO recruiting classes, our lineup will be stacked for years to come!

The men's ITA Indoors tournament gets going next week here in Texas with our fellas playing in Dallas, but before that, we've got a HUGE match out at Weller that's our No. 1 Horns versus No. 2 TCU on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Let me tell you, this is one of the biggest matches we've ever played indoors, so we need you to bring all of your Burnt Orange passion and pride out to the UT Golf Club where we'll pulling out all the stops with even the big guy Bevo on hand! Get out there early because with the limited space we'll have a capacity of 500 (that doesn't count Bevo, he'll be getting things going outside), but the first 100 of you will get a free T-shirt with the doors opening at 4 p.m., so we'll see you there! Our guys are coming off a hard-fought match where they came up ever so short, 4-3, on the road at No. 5 Virginia, but we know Coach Berque will have them fired up and ready to get back on the court!

This Friday! Bevo will be there, so should you! Doors open at 4 pm so arrive early as capacity is limited to the first 500 fans! #HookEm 🤘🎾 pic.twitter.com/8llMJD8cKT
— Texas Men's Tennis (@TexasMTN) February 3, 2025

Track & Field distance squads shine in Fayetteville

Our No. 7/19 middle distance and distance programs competed at the Razorback Invitational over the weekend and put up some quality times. Eva Jess got it done in the women's 3000-meter and posted the fifth-fastest time in UT history at 9:10.72. She lowered his personal best set just two weeks ago by 11 seconds! Flo and the rest of the squad head back to Albuquerque, N.M, for the NM Collegiate Classic this weekend. We can't wait to see the fast times and top performances that our Longhorns put up!

You don't want to miss this!

We've discussed this new platform before, but it's time for another reminder. If you haven't checked out our reimagined Longhorn Network, you're missing out. This should be Longhorn Nation's go-to destination for original content, and wow, do we have something special for you this week. The debut show of "94 feet with Vic Schaefer" can be streamed starting on Wednesday at 5 p.m. CT, exclusively on LHN. This will be a great avenue for our fans to hear from our Women's Basketball head coach, to better learn the stories of our players and to get an incredible look inside the program. The streaming platform is free on mobile devices, smart TVs and web.

Longhorn Legend Tim Campbell passes away

We received very sad news with the passing of Tim Campbell, a great Longhorn from a legendary Texas Football family. Tim and his twin brother Steve were teammates with our Heisman Trophy winner Earl and achieved greatness in their own rights. We will be forever blessed that their mother, Ann, trusted The University of Texas and our football program so much, and in turn her sons accomplished so much and carry that legacy and love of the Longhorns on. We send our most sincere sympathy, condolences and love to Earl, Steve, the entire Campbell family and the many friends and teammates that cared so deeply for Tim.

Tim Campbell, a @TexasFootball all-SWC defensive lineman and the younger brother of Earl Campbell and twin brother of Steve Campbell, passed away Sunday, Feb. 2. Campbell is 2nd in program history with 39.5 career sacks. Our condolences go out to the entire Campbell family 💐🧡 pic.twitter.com/Ri3Y4mRGEd
— T-Association (@txtassociation) February 4, 2025

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — Love our Fans! We love showing y'all appreciation!!

you're the best, Longhorn Nation 🤘

thank you to 5,000+ of our best friends that made Fan Appreciation Day so special!#HookEm pic.twitter.com/JEySIrUtsy
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 2, 2025

P.S. — So awesome when our Longhorns are up for national awards!

well-deserved recognition for this duo 🤘@T_morrison_88 | @christiaanmaas1 #TakeDeadAim | @BenHoganAward pic.twitter.com/mshj301hCe
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) January 29, 2025

P.S. — Playing on the big stage!

Augusta, here they come! 🤘#HookEm | @anwagolf pic.twitter.com/ExJ1o4BGgi
— Texas Women's Golf (@TexasWGolf) January 29, 2025

P.S. — We see ya Barryn, way to go!

𝑩𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮: 🤘Texas' Barryn Sorrell was named top DL on American squad in vote from OL group at Practice Player-of-the-Week awards ceremony today at 2025 Reese's Senior Bowl. 📈#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE™️ pic.twitter.com/VZDZiUmq10
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) January 31, 2025

P.S. — Everybody loves Bijan, yes they do!

Everybody loves Bijan ✨ pic.twitter.com/ALahgY3zVw
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) January 31, 2025

P.S. — Thanks for the shoutout Nathan, it was an incredible day!

Excellent @TexasBaseball alumni weekend! Best attendance I've seen from fans, active pros and has beens. Well done @CoachSchloss @TexasOneFund and all involved. #HookEm
— Nathan Thornhill (@NathanThornhill) February 1, 2025

HEADLINES:

Men's Basketball's Johnson named one of Top 10 midseason candidates for the Jerry West Award

Belyeu tabbed Baseball America preseason All-American

Baseball debuts at No. 17 in NCBWA preseason poll

No. 5 Women's Golf climbs to third following round two of Therese Hession Regional Challenge

Women's Basketball trio earns spots on USBWA National Player of the Year Midseason Top 50

97th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays entries now open

Video: Men's Basketball media availability (Feb. 3)

Women's Basketball's Harmon named Top 10 finalist for Nancy Lieberman Award

Johnson named SEC Men's Basketball Freshman of the Week

Kansas City Chiefs' rookie WR Xavier Worthy sets Chiefs' rookie record (SI.com)

DICK'S Sporting Goods named official sporting goods retailer of the Texas Longhorns