Horns Focus on Beating BYU With What They Have

Habe on the Horns

By Steve Habel/Associate Editor

When Texas faces BYU on Saturday, it will be without three starters from last week’s season-opening win over North Texas and another player that likely would have run onto the field with the first team.

Still UT stands determined to find a way to enact some measure of revenge against a BYU team that humiliated the Longhorns in 2013 and sent the team on a downward path that saw it [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] lose two games in a row and fire its defensive coordinator.

Out for this week’s game after injuries against UNT are quarterback David Ash (concussion) and center Dominic Espinosa (right ankle).

Then on Wednesday, team officials announced that Kennedy Estelle, who started in week one at left tackle, and Desmond Harrison, who was reinstated for the BYU game earlier in the week after being suspended for the North Texas game and looked set to start at right tackle, would not play Saturday because they broke team rules.

Texas assistant head coach for offense and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson put the situation into perspective.

“It’s just called opportunities, man,” Watson said. “These kinds of things happen during the season. It teaches us perseverance and how to find your way through difficult situations and rise above them. And we will. We’ve got a great group of kids and the core group is buying in to everything we’re asking them to do.”

Much of the burden of making the Texas offense work will fall on the shoulders of sophomore quarterback Tyrone Swoopes but Watson pointed out that the inexperienced signal-caller doesn’t have to do everything on his own.

“He’s got to understand what he’s got at his disposal,” Watson said. “He’s got two great tailbacks, he’s got a really gifted corps of receivers, he’s got really good tight ends, he’s got a really good offensive line, so he’s got to let those people help him.

“Tyrone does not need to put an ‘S’ on his chest and a cape on his back and try to do it all by himself,” Watson added. “It won’t work that way.”

The Cougars racked up a team-record 550 yards rushing in Provo last year to embarrass the Longhorn defense.

Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford called last year’s game “disappointing and shocking.”

“If you look at the video, a few plays here and there or a guy makes a tackle or a guy does an assignment the right way, you can cut those numbers in half,” Bedford said. “That’s last year. It’s a new opportunity, a new day and that’s the approach we have to take.”

BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall understands that a lot of the talk this week has been about the way the Cougars handled Texas last year. But he also knows that what happened in 2013 has nothing to do with what goes on Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

“Ultimately we still have to get prepared and play a football game,” Mendenhall said. “We’re anxious to play; I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

BYU quarterback Taysom Hill, who gouged Texas last year for 259 yards and three rushing TDs, may have improved to play even better this year than last. In the Cougars’ season-opening win versus UConn, he scored a career-high five touchdowns, passed for 308 yards and rushed for 97 more.

The Cougars also get back running back Jamaal Williams, who sat out the win at UConn with a suspension. Williams rushed for 1,233 yards on the second team last year.

Four other players returning from suspension — cornerbacks Rob Daniel and Jordan Johnson, receiver Devon Blackmon and defensive lineman Marques Johnson – will make their season debuts for BYU.

Texas would face a steep competition against the Cougars (who easily won their season-opener on the road against Connecticut) with their full complement of players. Finding a way to win without the four key starters now unavailable – along with two others, wide receiver Daje Johnson and safety Josh Turner, who might have started against BYU – seems akin to a river too wide to cross.

And that’s just what the Horns and their coaches want people to think.

A victory against BYU when not expected gives the Horns’ players and the staff a foothold into pulling off the improbable and spurs Texas’ confidence. The Horns will need all they can get as three of their four games following BYU will come against teams ranked in the Top 10.

Just sayin’, ya know?

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