Should Texas Longhorns Be Satisfied with Just a Moral Victory?

Texas senior wide receiver Daje Johnson has been around long enough that he can accurately sum up the state of Longhorn football in a single money quote.

"It did kind of feel like a victory," Johnson said after Texas' 45-44 loss to Cal in Week 3, per Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman. "People are more excited about our performance now."

A one-point loss felt like a victory. Kind of.

Texas is talking about moral victories now. A lot of people will view that as an indictment of the program since it shows how far things have fallen since 2009, the last time the Longhorns played for a national title. Additionally, the notion of participation trophies is a cardinal sin in some people's eyes.

Head coach Charlie Strong isn't interested in moral victories, and he shouldn't be. But this situation isn't so black-and-white, either.

In losing to Cal, a young Texas team—and that part cannot be emphasized enough—showed resiliency, explosiveness and confidence in itself. That's something Strong and everyone in Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium saw, per freelance reporter David Ubben:

That hasn't always been the case in recent years. It certainly wasn't two weeks ago in a 38-3 loss to Notre Dame. So just because the concept of moral victories might be viewed incredulously doesn't mean Johnson is necessarily wrong.

Just look at—or listen to—DKR from last Saturday. It was electric. As Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News pointed out, even if for only a few seconds before Nick Rose missed the would-be tying extra point, Texas was actually back.

You wouldn't think a 100,000-plus-seat stadium would have trouble generating noise, but as Horns247 tweeted, Saturday was the first time in a while that DKR was truly rocking:

Even in defeat, this was not the Texas of two weeks ago or two years ago. The coaching and personnel changes Strong made—changing play-callers and starting redshirt freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard—undeniably worked against Rice and Cal.

That has to provide Strong with a feeling of validation, especially considering he had grossly mishandled the offense before.

Granted, that doesn't mean all of those moves are long-term answers—for instance, Heard running around behind a makeshift offensive line in a quick-fix version of the spread is not what Texas should strive to be in 2016—but they at least get Texas going somewhere in the meantime.

The concept of Texas actually moving forward shouldn't be lost on this conversation. It's important not to define the Longhorns as anything other than what they are. And they are a true rebuilding project.

At the moment, Texas has the fourth-best program in its own state behind Baylor, TCU and Texas A&M. Texas is losing out on blue-chip recruits to rival in-state schools like never before in the star system era.

Therein lies a key word: "losing." There's been a lot of losing for Texas lately. Not just any type of losing, either. Bad losing. The type of losing where you repeatedly get outclassed. We saw this two weeks ago against Notre Dame. And last year against Arkansas. And TCU. And Kansas State. And Baylor. And BYU.

And BYU again in 2013. And Baylor again. And Ole Miss. And Oklahoma State. And Oregon.

Michael Thomas/Associated Press

In fact, 11 of Texas' last 14 losses dating back to 2013 have come by double-digit points. So, yeah, Johnson is one of the program veterans who's seen it all, and what he's seen has usually been awful. By comparison, a game lost by a missed extra point—however surreal and agonizing as it might have been—probably did feel closer to a win than some of the other losses he's experienced.

Even though Texas is 16 games into the Strong era, it feels in many ways like this team is discovering itself for the first time. A tough nonconference schedule will tell you way more about a team, both the good and the bad, than playing a bunch of nobodies.

Sean Adams of Inside Texas took this approach when comparing Texas' out-of-conference schedule to those of West Virginia (Georgia Southern, Liberty), Baylor (SMU, Lamar) and Oklahoma State (Central Michigan, Central Arkansas, UTSA):

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Texas would be undefeated against all three of those schedule [and] guess what—Tyrone Swoopes would still be the quarterback and Shawn Watson would still be calling the plays for the Longhorns.

Texas playing Notre Dame, Rice, and Cal (three bowl teams) gave them exactly what the nonconference schedule should—a great lesson is who they are and where their flaws reside.

Texas knows more about themselves than just about anyone in the Big 12 whether you like what you know or not.

"

What Texas knows about itself is that more tough days could be ahead. Three ranked teams—Oklahoma State, TCU and Oklahoma—round out the first half of the schedule.

What Texas knows is that there will be more moments of agony before there are moments of euphoria. In a way, Strong and his coaching staff are like parents, and this team is like their infant child. There will be proud moments, but they will likely be sandwiched between infuriating mistakes.

Mixed in all of those instances will be progress, seconds in which Texas looks "back." If things go according to plan, those seconds will turn into minutes, and those minutes will turn into entire games.

Strong was brought in to win those big games, not feel good about coming close. That doesn't mean the latter can't precede the former, however.

In fact, it's usually necessary.

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand.