Longhorns Football | Five Questions Iowa State

By Steve Habel/Associate Editor

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With three seconds to play, Nick Rose made a 21-yard field goal, giving Texas Football the win in a thrilling game against Iowa State on Saturday night.

The Longhorns were successful in the short run against the tougher-than-steel Cyclones and in the long run. But the real victory was[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] the coaches’ confidence in quarterback Tyrone Swoopes.

In the past month, Swoopes has transitioned from a player who the coaches questioned his ability to play at the college level, to a bona fide star. Never was that more on display than in the final seconds of a tied game against the Cyclones.

With just 20 seconds to play, the Texas brain trust decided to avoid overtime and put the game in Swoopes’ hands. Two fearless passes from Swoopes — one for 39 yards to Jaxon Shipley and the other for 29 yards to John Harris — made Rose’s chip-shot game-winning kick all but academic. The Longhorns won 48-45 and sent the crowd of 92,017 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium home enthused about the team’s continued improvement.

Swoopes threw for 321 yards and one touchdown and ran for 95 yards and another score in amassing 416 yards of total offense — a career-high and the ninth-highest total Texas history.

“Wow, I didn’t know it would end like that. Wow,” head coach Charlie Strong said. “The overall attitude the team showed throughout the game — when we refused to quit — is like a shot of juice for all of us.”

The Longhorns improve to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in Big 12 play. But this win was much more significant than just the score — it’s huge because of the way Texas accomplished it. The team played without fear and a showed a newfound confidence.

However, the game could’ve gone south for the Longhorns. The team had the early momentum and then lost it.

Texas looked like it could blow away the Cyclones (2-5 overall, 0-4 in Big 12) in the early going, easily scoring on its first two possessions to take a 14-0 lead. The Longhorns’ first touchdown came on nifty 28-yard pass from Swoopes to Marcus Johnson to cap a 52-yard, three-play drive. That touchdown pass was Swoopes’ first to a wide receiver besides John Harris this season.

The Longhorns’ second drive was a little more arduous, as Texas marched 85 yards in eight plays to a 2-yard touchdown run by Johnathan Gray. Swoopes was 5-for-5 passing on the drive and — for a few minutes — all was well on the 40 Acres.

But Iowa State is tough and showed it on its ensuing possession, moving 75 yards in 12 plays to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Sam B. Richardson to E.J. Bibbs, cutting the Longhorns’ lead to 14-7.

Texas seemed to shrug off the Iowa State parry, again looking unstoppable on offense while moving steadily down the field to the ISU 8-yard line. Then Swoopes, facing pressure, threw a pass across his body toward Shipley that was easily intercepted by the Cyclones’ Nigel Tribune, ending the Longhorns’ drive and turning around the game’s momentum.

On Texas’ next snap, Harris fumbled while running around left end. The Cyclones’ Jevohn Miller picked up the bouncing ball and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown. The score tied the game, 14-14.

Iowa State then flexed its muscle with a 67-yard, seven-play scoring drive that culminated in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Richardson to Allen Lazard and a 21-14 Cyclones’ lead. Texas immediately responded with a statement march of its own — nine plays for 72 yards and a 6-yard scoring run around right end by Swoopes.

“I’m more confident with the running game because the coaches are giving me more options than they did at the start of the season,” Swoopes said. “It helps that the offensive line is coming together and giving me the chance to make the right decisions.”

The Longhorns then turned the tables on Iowa State as Dylan Haines, a former walk-on from the far-north Austin suburb of Lago Vista, intercepted a Richardson slant pass and weaved his way 74 yards for a touchdown.

The Cyclones capped a wild first half by using all but three seconds left in the 2:50 remaining on the second quarter clock by moving 75 yards and ending with a 5-yard touchdown by Richardson.

The first half, tied 28-28, couldn’t have been any tighter. Texas had 288 total yards of offense to Iowa State’s 289. The Longhorns had 15 first downs to ISU’s 16.

Texas regained the lead at the 4:15 mark of the third quarter when Rose booted a 45-yard field goal at the end of an 11-play, 44-yard march. Twice in the drive Swoopes threw passes that were almost intercepted but the Longhorns dodged both bullets.

Iowa State’s Cole Netten returned the favor in the waning seconds of the quarter, nailing a 21-yard field goal at the end of the Cyclones’ own 11-play drive — this one covering 72 yards.

Malcolm Brown rammed home from the ISU-1 for the touchdown and a 38-31 Texas advantage with 10:22 to play.

But with time remaining, there was still plenty to be decided.

Iowa State’s Aaron Wimberly scored on an 8-yard run to re-tie the game at the 5:24 mark. On Texas’ next turn with the ball, Brown found the end zone for the third time, on a 4-yard run with 1:19 to play.

The Cyclones responded again, moving crisply down the field in just 53 seconds with Richardson’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Bibbs that tied the score.

All anyone could think about was overtime, but offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and Strong had other plans.

Swoopes, Shipley and Harris then made the plays when they needed to the most.

Texas can’t remain happy about this win for too long. Next up is a trip to the Little Apple — Manhattan, Kan. — to face a surging Kansas State team, which beat Oklahoma 31-30 Saturday to take the lead in the conference race. The Longhorns never seem to play well against KSU, but maybe this is the year.

 

1. Why were the Texas coaches so daring at the end of the game?

The coaches could have played it safe in the final 20 seconds of a tied game, especially with a relatively new quarterback triggering the attack. But Strong and Watson threw caution to the wind and Swoopes made them look like mad geniuses, at least for 10 minutes.

Strong said conditions were favorable for Texas to gamble at the end, beginning with a kickoff return by Roderick Bernard that gave the Longhorns relatively good field position at their own 28.

“I was going to say take a knee to overtime because I didn’t think [Iowa State] could stop us on the offense,” Strong said. “But once we ended up where we did with the kick-off return, I said, ‘Let’s take a shot.’”

Watson said he had a good idea that Iowa State would stay in its base “press” defense rather than a prevent mode, and that gave him confidence that attacking along down the sideline would work.

“We came back with two plays that we had open earlier,” Watson said. “We ran it back-to-back and it was open both times. It also happens to be one of Tyrone’s favorite plays and he has a lot of confidence in it, so it was an easy go-to play call.”

Swoopes said he wasn’t surprised about the plan of attack in the final seconds.

“I’d say it was 50-50 on whether we were going to take a knee or take a shot, but I’m glad we decided to go for it,” he said. “[Shipley] got the defender on his hip and I just tried to give him a ball he could go get, and fortunately it worked. And then it worked again, but that was more Harris’ great play than anything else.”

 

2. How has Swoopes improved so quickly?

Watson said the repetition of practice and the young quarterback’s hard work on the field and in the film room are the reasons for his improvement.

“It’s gratifying to see Tyrone’s development over the last two weeks,” Watson said. “He was so eager to please and he wants to do everything perfect, but sometimes you can’t. Along the way this guy started catching excellence because he’s learned to compete.”

“Right now I have all the confidence in the world in him because he shows it in practice and in the meeting room. His demeanor around us is very consistent. He’s kept his feet on the ground and kept working,” Watson added.

Strong said his quarterback is playing better because the players around him are playing better too.

“It’s all about the confidence with the offensive line,” Strong said. “They brought a lot of pressure and kept blitzing. Sometimes they would turn a guy loose but Swoopes just hung in there and made sure he released the football.”

Part of the process was getting Swoopes to be better on the run. He was the Longhorns’ leading rusher and, with his size, will continue to be more of a dual threat as the season progresses.

“Tyrone has come a long way — that kid has grown up so much,” Harris said. “You saw it tonight — the poise and just the way he commanded the offense. He basically took over the offense in the fourth quarter with his feet. That’s the first time I’ve seen him do that.”

 

3. What happened to the Texas defense?

With the exception of a forgettable third quarter against BYU in week two, the Longhorns’ defense had served as the team’s backbone for the first six games. But the defense wilted against Iowa State, a situation Strong chalked up to the need for a “wake up call” after receiving too much praise.

“We didn’t make plays on defense,” Strong said. “We allowed Richardson [who passed for 345 yards and three touchdowns] to sit back and throw the football. It was just fundamentals and technique more than anything.”

Texas linebacker Jordan Hicks said Iowa State’s attack wasn’t anything that surprised the Longhorns’ defense.

“We weren’t executing,” Hicks said. “Our eyes were in the wrong place sometimes. We weren’t playing the way we should have. They were able to get some big throws and some big runs on us. They had us on our heels a few times. Our offense did a great job battling back and keeping us in the game.”

Haines did step up although he gambled on the pass he intercepted.

“It was just man-to-man coverage,” Haines explained. “My dude motioned, and I carried him, anticipated the route and just jumped in front of him and made a play. It was a momentum changer. You know going in right before the half and making that play you know you look back at it and that obviously helped us win the game.”

 

4. Is this the win that the Longhorns were looking for?

Texas had two wins coming into the Iowa State game, but they were against North Texas and Kansas — two teams that are in the bottom tier of the FBS. Beating a team like Iowa State in the manner the Longhorns did Saturday can only give them confidence and accelerate the learning curve.

“We talked about it in our meetings and even [Saturday] at pregame about how we needed somebody to step up and make a play,” Strong said. “At some point somebody needs to stand up and start just leading the team and put ’em on their shoulders and a few guys did that.”

The Longhorns are getting stronger by the game and are loads better now than they were just a few weeks back.

“We’ve taken some big steps to becoming a football family, a team and the chemistry is so good right now,” Watson said. “The attitude is in our building, and it’s been a process, but you can feel it, over the last two weeks especially.”

Winning a game that the Longhorns could have lost is an important step to the team coming together.

“In a way, any win is good,” Swoopes said. “It feels good to come in here and talk about a win rather than a loss. Winning like this gives us hope going in to these next five games. The Big 12 is kind of crazy right now. You’ve just got to go out, stay focused and get these next five.”

 

5. What’s next for the Longhorns?

The initial impression of the 2014 season was that the Longhorns’ schedule was front-loaded with difficult games during the first six weeks.

That assumption is thrown out the window now as two of the teams that Texas will face in its final five-game stretch (Kansas State on Oct. 25 and TCU on Thanksgiving night) have ascended to the top of the Big 12. West Virginia (at home on Nov. 8) and Oklahoma State (in Stillwater on Nov. 15) will also be very tough to beat.

“We’re just happy to get the win,” Strong said. “We know we made mistakes. We feel good about correcting those mistakes and we have a week to get it done before playing Kansas State.”

Malcolm Brown said a conference championship is still possible for Texas, mainly because of the parity in the Big 12.

“You can never know what could happen,” he said. “We could still be up there for a Big 12 title. You never know what happens to the other teams, so if we go and do our jobs, there are a lot of things still possible for us.”

 

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