Texas honors Darrell Royal with the Wishbone (VIDEO)

On Wednesday, after the passing of Darrell Royal, Texas' Mack Brown announced that the Longhorns would honor the former UT coach by running its first play of Saturday's game against Iowa State out of the Wishbone formation.

"Today is a very sad day," Brown said. "I lost a wonderful friend, a mentor, a confidant and my hero.College football lost maybe its best ever and the world lost a great man. I can hardly put in words how much Coach Royal means to me and all that he has done for me and my family. I wouldn't even be at Texas without Coach. His counsel and friendship meant a lot to me before I came to Texas, but it's been my guiding light for my 15 years here."

Royal was rightfully considered as the "father" of the Wishbone, an offensive formation – a philosophy – he developed in the late 1960s. Over the following few seasons, the Wishbone spread throughout the Big 8, Southwest Conference and, by and large, the rest of college football.

This was one way Brown felt that he could honor his coaching mentor; in addition to being one of Brown's primary influences, Royal stood as the coach in UT's history – there was only one Royal, and many Texas fans bristled at the comparison of Brown to Royal.(Others hesitated to even say the two names in the same sentence.)

So does the Wishbone still work? Well, considering that Brown telegraphed his team's opening formation on Wednesday, I'd say that the Wishbone works just fine:

To be fair, that play is not what pops into my head when I think Wishbone – I don't think toss-pass-back-deep-heave. Royal also believed that only three things can happen when you pass the ball, and two of 'em are bad. Hey, it worked. Here's to you, coach Royal.

After going back to its present-day offensive philosophy, Texas went three plays, failed to gain a first down and punted the ball into the end zone.

In addition to the Wishbone,Texas has put "DKR" decals on its helmets and painted a large "DKR" onto the logo at midfield.