Fans watching Saturday’s game might have thought they were seeing a replay of last year’s contest against BYU, as the Cougars trounced Texas for the second consecutive year, picking the Longhorns apart to the tune of a 41 – 7 blowout victory at Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
BYU junior quarterback Taysom Hill picked up right where he left off last season, rushing for 99 yards and 3 touchdowns, while also throwing for 181 yards in the contest.
“It’s an embarrassment to this program, it’s an embarrassment to this university,” head coach Charlie Strong said in a fiery post game press conference. “I knew during warmup we weren’t ready to play. I said ‘we’re going to get embarrassed if we don’t watch out’ and that’s what happened.”
The Texas defense kept it close in the first half, as the Longhorns went into half-time trailing just 6-0. But with the offense struggling to sustain any production, the defense spent the majority of the game on the field and ran out of steam in the second half.
BYU scored on each of its four drives in the third quarter, with Hill running it in three times and junior running back Adam Hine plunging into the end zone for a fourth score.
“When you give up 28 points in one quarter, you aren’t ready to play, Coach [Strong] is right about that,” defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said.
Just as he did a year ago, Hill ran the read option to perfection Saturday night. He had several clutch carries for first downs, but his biggest play of the night came on a 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, when he leaped over walk-on safety Dylan Haines en route to the endzone.
“He reminds me a little bit of Tim Tebow,” Bedford said. “He’s strong, he has a good arm and if you sit back there and you don’t get him down, he’s going to come through there and make some plays, which he did tonight.”
Sophomore quarterback Tyrone Swoopes played decently in his first career start at Texas, throwing for 176 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He completed each of his first eight passes, but quarterbacks coach and play caller Shawn Watson was reluctant to let Swoopes loose in the first half, choosing to run the ball the majority of the time instead.
“I think Coach Watson was just giving me something I could handle for my first start, knowing that I would be a little nervous and antsy,” Swoopes said.
The young gunslinger noted that he did feel some butterflies early on in the contest, but quickly settled into the starting role.
“The first couple plays I was nervous,” Swoopes said. “Then I got banged up a little bit, hit a couple times, and after that I was fine.”
Check out more photos from the game in the slideshow below –
