BYU embarrasses Texas Longhorns again
With 12 minutes left in the third quarter, Brigham Young quarterback Taysom Hill found a gap and went 30 yards to the end zone, hurdling a Texas defender on the way, to put the Cougars up by 13 points.
From there, they didn’t look back.
BYU embarrassed Texas for the second straight year as the Cougars beat the Longhorns 41-7 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
“This was an embarrassment,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said. “It’s an embarrassment for this team, for this university and for this program. And I knew it and I didn’t do anything about it. I take full responsibility for this.”
After a week of hype surrounding Strong’s revamped defense, the Longhorns showed flashbacks of last year’s 40-21 loss in Provo, Utah, where Texas gave up a total of 679 total yards of offense and 550 rushing yards.
On Saturday, Texas allowed 429 total yards, including 248 yards on the ground. Hill, who gathered 259 yards himself against Texas last season, tallied 99 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.
“The team’s whole demeanor was off,” Strong said. “Just how they took the field and all. If you’re around long enough you can tell that and I saw they weren’t ready to play tonight.”
Texas gave up two field goals during the first half to go down six points heading into the break. It wasn’t until Hill’s breakout touchdown run that the Cougars gathered the momentum and ran away with their second win of the season. BYU recorded 28 points in the third quarter alone.
The Longhorns showed a slight glimmer of hope late in the third quarter, though, when senior wide receiver John Harris walked in the end zone on a 13-yard touchdown pass. However, BYU would capitalize on a Texas turnover in the fourth quarter and score once again to put Texas away.
With, arguably, Texas’ best starter on offense —quarterback David Ash — sidelined with concussion-related symptoms, sophomore quarterback Tyrone Swoopes took the start under center.
Swoopes, who played in just six games last season completing five passes for 26 yards, showed promise early in the game after leading Texas 44 yards downfield into the red zone. However, a penalty call held the Longhorns from another first down and junior place-kicker Nick Rose missed a 43-yard field goal attempt to keep Texas off the scoreboard early in a sign of bad things to come.
Swoopes completed his first eight passes before recording his first incompletion, finishing the night with 183 total yards and one touchdown.
“Tyrone played really well,” Strong said. “For him to be his first game starting and play like that is great. I was very pleased with the way he played and managed his team.”
As a whole, the Longhorns struggled on offense as running backs Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray failed to find success on the ground. Texas recorded 258 yards on offense with 176 passing yards and just 82 rushing yards.
The Longhorns logged four turnovers, including three fumbles and one interception, which cost them multiple scoring opportunities, especially throughout the second half.
“This will be a great learning experience,” Strong said. “We have to fight through adversity and learn from it.”
Saturday marked Texas worst loss since losing to UCLA 66-3 in 1997.
This story was originally published September 6, 2014 at 11:24 PM.