Texas Longhorns' Shipley shines with record-setting day

By BLAKE HURTIK

Special to the Star-Telegram

AUSTIN — Curtain calls may be a common occurrence at the ballpark, but they’re reserved for special occasions at football games.

Jordan Shipley’s performance Saturday against Central Florida was one of those.

The sixth-year senior broke the Texas record for receiving yards in a game by racking up 273 in the Longhorns’ 35-3 win over the Golden Knights. Tony Jones set the previous record with 242 yards in the 1987 Bluebonnet Bowl. Shipley’s total was also the second most in Big 12 history behind Oklahoma State’s Adarius Bowman (300 yards in 2006).

What was left of the 101,003 fans at Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium honored Shipley with chants of "Jor-dan" after the team sang "The Eyes of Texas."

Fittingly, the modest Shipley had to be dragged by his teammates out of the mob of players to give the fans a smile and the "Hook ’Em Horns" sign.

"I didn’t hear it at first, but those guys grabbed me and tossed me out there," Shipley said.

Flashy self-promotion simply isn’t Shipley’s style. The most celebrating his teammates have witnessed came in seven-on-seven drills this summer when he jokingly pulled his shorts around his knees after making a big catch, fellow receiver James Kirkendoll said.

"I think all of us learn from him and how he leads on the field by example," Kirkendoll said. "Jordan’s going to come back next week like that [breaking the record] didn’t happen at all."

While record-breaking, his game didn’t come out of nowhere. Shipley had set his previous personal best with 180 yards in Texas’ season-opening win against Louisiana-Monroe. Against Central Florida, Shipley had already eclipsed that mark by the third quarter.

He broke Jones’ 22-year-old record early in the fourth quarter on a drive that the Longhorns started on their own 1-yard line. A Malcolm Williams 11-yard grab pushed them to the 12.

From there, it was all Shipley.

Facing one-on-one coverage, Shipley ran a deep post route to the middle of the field. Quarterback Colt McCoy hit him perfectly in stride, allowing Shipley to break away from one defender and take it in for the 88-yard score (Shipley’s personal best).

"Colt laid it out there perfectly," Shipley said.

That wasn’t his only long catch of the day. Shipley, who usually makes most of his receptions on short routes, also had catches of 44 and 53 yards and caught 11 passes overall.

"It was fun to get to break free a little today," Shipley said. "You’ve got to give a lot credit to [offensive coordinator Greg] Davis today for finding the right match ups. We had a great offensive game plan."

But in order to break that record, he had to have someone to feed him the ball. For his efforts, McCoy came within four yards of setting a record of his own.

McCoy finished with a career-high 470 passing yards, just three shy of Major Applewhite’s school record total in the 2001 Holiday Bowl. It looked like McCoy would have a good chance of breaking the mark after leading Texas to a score with 9:13 left in the fourth, but Central Florida drained almost all of the clock on their next possession.

Had the Longhorns had the ball with four minutes or more remaining, they would have tried to get him the record, Texas coach Mack Brown said.

Applewhite, now Texas’ running backs coach, could rest easy.

"Major said, 'Now what are we doing?’ And I said, 'We’re trying to break your record,’ " Brown joked. "And Greg said, 'I like all of my quarterbacks to break records,’ so Major got really quiet and said, 'Let’s go for it.’ "

But even with all the attention the pair drew for their big days, both immediately redirected the praise to the men and women in the military. Texas welcomed a number of members of the armed forces, a gesture that was especially important to the team after the tragic shootings at nearby Fort Hood.

"We dedicated this game to the troops. We felt terrible about what happened at Fort Hood and we’ve had several guys come in and talk to us this week that were in the service," Shipley said. "It was really special for us to go out and get a win for those guys."

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