The upstart in the Red River Conference has to be the University of Texas Austin.

The Longhorns, once one of the stronger teams in the conference, had hit upon hard times not helped by a revolving door of coaches. They have a new coaching staff again, but perhaps some solidity. Certainly there's a group of players who are behind their new head guy.

The surprise new coach is Brian Hannon, who is still in his 20s. It all came about because Connally McKay, who has been coaching the 'Horns for three years, was stepping down. Hannon, whose girlfriend is from Austin, Texas, had moved to be with her.

"Crazy story; I ended up at a birthday party and one my girlfriend's friends was dating an Aussie guy who played with the Austin Blacks. He knew Connolly McKay, who was going to be retiring from UT and the next thing you know I was in the interview process," said Hannon.

The rest is history, as Hannon impressed the alumni and the players and was hired. The normal way of doing things at UT is for a small stipend to be paid to the coaching staff, with the Head Coach taking 90% of a $5,000 pot and an assistant taking 10%. But when Hannon brought in former Houston Sabercats forward Van Stewart, they decided to split the stipend 50-50.

"I said to him you're 26 I'm 26, we're both working to make a living, we're both all in, so let's just split this down the middle," explained Hannon. "It's been well worth it. You can't be a one-man show."

It quickly created a nice coaching partnership for UT.

"We know it's going to an uphill battle but we see a future here and we can start producing," said Hannon.

They produced in the first week, beating Baylor 31-7 to open the league season. 

"Coming into UT I had a lot to learn," said Hannon, who coached at his old HS team, Royal Irish, and then under Ethan Pougnet at Rebel Rugby Academy. "I didn't know what hand I was being dealt. Thankfully I stumbled upon Van before the season. The plan was to get in there, feel it out and find out what the culture was, and let the players lead. We wanted to set the standard high and we had expectations."

So they approached it all in little pieces. Hannon and Stewart met with the upperclassmen and basically told them that the culture would be heavily influenced by them, and that new players would be looking to them as examples.

They started to establish standards of hard work and being open to learn.

And then Hannon ordered kit. The team's kit was relatively old and "I wanted them practicing in the same stuff, playing in the same stuff. It's important that you look the part and everyone's wearing the same socks. That matters."

In training Hannon and Stewart focused heavily on skills and started to instill a pattern of play.

"It kind of helped us out to start with 7s because it helped us with skills and we had no choice but to be thrown into the mix," said Hannon. The results started to come in 7s—they made the conference semis before losing to Baylor 14-12—and it has translated into 15s. They started to recruit more players, and three first-year players are now starting.

"The one thing I will say put it all out there for 80," said Hannon. "They play whistle to whistle. They may be a bit disorganized but they play hard."