Skip to main content
Texas

Texas prepares for Breece Hall almost a year after "five-star culture" comment

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook11/05/21josephcook89
texas-prepares-for-breece-hall-almost-a-year-after-five-star-culture-comment
Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

After the Iowa State Cyclones topped the Texas Longhorns on November 27, 2020, ISU running back Breece Hall delivered a quote that has turned into a rallying cry for the Cyclone program and a marketing ploy for Hall himself.

A pedantic view of that statement would say the Texas team that lost 23-20 to the Cyclones wasn’t chock full of five-star players, a consistent lament of Longhorn fans for almost a decade. While the Longhorns fielded higher-rated players at most positions, then-head coach Tom Herman’s team could not overcome the No. 15 Cyclones at home.

[Subscribe to Inside Texas and get 50% off an annual or monthly membership!]

The score that set up the Cyclone victory? A three-yard rushing touchdown by Hall with under 90 seconds left. Following Cameron Dicker’s failed 58-yard attempt, Hall delivered the quote emblematic of Matt Campbell’s football program.

When asked about the phrase on Monday, Texas players who were on the field last year could do nothing but tip their cap.

“I can’t get mad at him for saying that,” Keondre Coburn said. “It is what it is. It don’t hurt me. It’s football at the end of the day. I get another chance to see him.”

Moro Ojomo put it this way: “You say what you want when you win.”

In order to prevent Hall from receiving another opportunity to create NIL merchandise, current Longhorns know they’ll have to stop a player comparable to Bijan Robinson. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian described Hall as Iowa State’s offensive focal point during his Thursday availability.

“I think he that he gets the hard yards in between the tackles,” Sarkisian said. “When he gets on the edge or into the secondary, he can create those explosive plays. Then they utilize him in the passing game in a way that he can create explosive plays there, whether that’s the wheel routes and different things or the check downs coming out of the backfield.”

Robinson and Hall are on similar statistical footing. Both are within 100 yards of eclipsing the 1000-yard mark. Both have scored double-digit rushing touchdowns and added a handful of scores via touchdown receptions. Robinson has recorded 100-yard games six times this season, one more than Hall.

Their similarities have helped the two Big 12 backs craft a friendship off the field.

“Breece is my dude,” Robinson said Monday. “We always talk after game just to see how we’re doing outside of football and on the football field. It’s always good to have another good running back on the other side of the ball.”

Like with Robinson, defending Hall is not an easy task.

“He’s good a finding the hole,” DeMarvion Overshown said Tuesday. “He’s very patient.”

The key to stopping him?: “Basically, hopping on him fast, fitting gaps fast and physical, not giving him a chance to react what we’re doing,” Overshown said.

There are other weapons on the Cyclone offense. Quarterback Brock Purdy played well during Iowa State’s 3-1 October. Xavier Hutchinson has caught about one-third of Purdy’s completions this year, and Charlie Kolar remains a consistent threat at tight end.

But as Sarkisian noted, “it starts with Breece.”

You may also like

Arch Manning
Inside Texas

A Field With A Ball

RT Young•07/31/25

I wrote this article last summer, but with fall camp underway and college football just 30 days from kickoff, it felt fitting to run it back. A lot...