By Adam Zuvanich | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Late on the night of Oct. 4, after his team wrapped up a 38-14 win at Colorado to open Big 12 Conference play, Texas coach Mack Brown must have been worried.

Sure, his Longhorns were 5-0, ranked fifth in the nation and had outscored their opponents 236-57. But they were about to begin what might be the toughest stretch in college football this season.

Here’s what awaited Texas after the Colorado game, with each opponent’s record and Associated Press ranking at the time: No. 1 Oklahoma (5-0), No. 3 Missouri (5-0), No. 17 Oklahoma State (5-0) and No. 7 Texas Tech (5-0).

Three games and nearly one month later, the Longhorns (8-0, 4-0 Big 12) are still undefeated and ranked first in every major poll.

“Very honestly, this team has played hard for eight weeks,” said Brown, whose team concludes the treacherous stretch today against the undefeated Red Raiders (8-0, 4-0). “That’s hard to do, so you have to give the team credit (for) their character and their toughness and their blue-collar attitude.”

There must be more to it than that. It’s helped that none of the Longhorns’ last three games has been on the road – they faced OU at a neutral site in Dallas – and they’ve managed to avoid any significant injuries.

The Longhorns also have found different ways to win. They overcame a pair of 11-point deficits to knock off OU, jumped out to a 35-0 lead against Missouri and then held off Oklahoma State in a close game throughout.

And, for the most part, Texas has been on top of its game in all three phases. Its offense has rolled up 1,533 total yards and 16 touchdowns in the last three games, and the defense – despite having been gashed for 1,199 yards and 12 TDs – has turned four turnovers into 17 points. The Longhorns haven’t missed a kick, either.

Perhaps most importantly, Texas’ players seem to have embraced the challenge. At least four Longhorns used the word “fun” this week when asked about the grueling stretch.

“It has been a blast,” center Chris Hall said. “Really, it’s not too often you get to play four top-10 teams all in a row. It’s really not too hard to get back up because it’s a huge game every weekend. It’s a national game every weekend. Not a lot of players can look back on their college career and say they had an opportunity like this.”

The Longhorns also have managed to stay hungry and humble despite their success. Running back Chris Ogbonnaya said they “understand that everyone in this conference is very talented and that any team can beat any team,” and quarterback Colt McCoy said the team is “really focused on what we need to do to get better.”

Brown and his staff have come up with some creative motivational ploys as well, like the one he offered this week.

“What we’re doing is saying, instead of this is the last of a four-game stretch, we’re calling it the first of a tough four-game stretch to end the season,” he said. “… So we’re trying to start over with this team this week and make this the first instead of the last.”

Still, most would expect Texas to complete an undefeated regular season if it survives the trip to Jones AT&T Stadium. That’s a big if, though, and the Longhorns know they’re in for a fight against a well-rounded Texas Tech team with an explosive offenses and much-improved defense.

Lose in Lubbock, and all Texas has done during the last month won’t mean nearly as much.

“They are on a roll. They have great chemistry. They have great guys,” said UT linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy, the team’s leading tackler this season. “We’ve just got to come in there and play our football this weekend. They are going to give us their best.”