It was deja vu on Saturday evening. Texas appeared to be the 2012 team it didn’t want to be.  

After close to a two-hour weather delay, Brigham Young University and Texas took the field for a game that the Longhorns definitely want back. The 40-21 loss for Texas brought flashbacks of the 2012 team, the same defensive unit that was the worst in school history. 

“We didn’t get done what we needed to do on either side of the ball,” head coach Mack Brown said. “They’re smart. They understand that we didn’t get our job done as players or coaches.”

Texas started slow both offensively and defensively. The Longhorn defense gave up 349 rushing yards to BYU in the first half alone, the most it has allowed in one half in the last 10 seasons. In total, Manny Diaz’s defense gave up 550 yards on the ground, which broke a dubious record for the most rushing yards allowed in a single game in program history.  

Texas’ offense was without star Daje Johnson, who left the game in the first quarter with an ankle injury. It got worse for Texas when Ash eventually left the game after being shaken up on a scramble in the fourth quarter.

Major Applewhite’s offense struggled without Johnson, who is a key weapon for the Longhorns on the ground and in the air. Texas was only able to capitalize on three drives in the game, which was a problem Brown hoped to solve with the team’s new up-tempo offense.

“When you lose a guy that’s involved in packages, like Daje, obviously you’ve got to find somebody else to put in that place, and certain things immediately go out the window,” Applewhite said. 

In the second half, Texas showed no improvement. BYU quarterback Taysom Hill was able to lead his team down the field for another 13 points while the Longhorns failed to produce points on offense.

Diaz’s defense has faced criticism in the past for not being able to stop the run game, and the unit struggled once again Saturday night. Hill ran over Texas’ defense, recording 259 rushing yards — the second most yards in a single game in BYU history.

“They got after us,” Diaz said. “They outplayed us. The quarterback obviously was the difference in the game. We just could not execute getting stops. Very disappointing.” 

All Brown could do was explain the obvious and he did it quite simply.

“I didn’t think our coaches and our players lived up to what we needed to win tonight, including me,” Brown said.