By Steve Habel/Associate Editor
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Two weeks ago — after being shut out by Kansas State in Manhattan —
That all changed in a fortnight, the latest example coming in the form of the Longhorns’ dominating 33-16 win over No. 23 West Virginia Saturday before a sun-splashed crowd of 95,714 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
All of a sudden, Texas is a team to be reckoned with, a group finding its[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] stride along with its confidence just in time to make a late-season run into bowl eligibility.
The Longhorns Football team (5-5 overall, 4-3 in Big 12 play) beat a deep and talented West Virginia team with a combination of bend-but-don’t-break defense and a powerful rushing offense. The offense ran over, around and through the Mountaineers in building a 24-3 lead at halftime and held on when things got tight in the second half.
“Week by week we continue to get better,” head coach Charlie Strong said afterward, minutes after his players picked him up like a rag doll. “It was a big game for our team and the process we’ve been going through.”
The final stats will show that West Virginia (6-4 overall, and 4-3 in Big 12 play) outgained the Longhorns 448-351 and wasted a ton of scoring chances, especially in the first half. But the Mountaineers had to run 90 offensive plays to get those yards and actually ended up averaging less per snap (5.0) than Texas did (5.2).
West Virginia had five trips into the red zone but only got points out of three of them (one was a field goal). Texas was inside the 20 three times and scored touchdowns on each of those trips. The difference led to a 17-point win that should help define the Longhorns’ season.
“People will say that this was a signature win for us because we beat a ranked team and got back to even on the season,” defensive tackle Malcom Brown said. “But we think we should’ve already had some signature wins — we could’ve beat Baylor and Oklahoma. This is just another game we won like we should have.”
Texas scored on its first possession, moving 90 yards in 11 plays to a 2-yard touchdown pass from Tyrone Swoopes to Geoff Swaim. Two key plays happened during the drive, including Swoopes’ pass to Jaxon Shipley, which converted a third down and 15. The second was a jump ball pass to John Harris that moved the Longhorns 29 yards after Harris outmuscled West Virginia cornerback Daryl Worley for a 50/50 throw into the wind.
West Virginia had a chance to answer on its ensuing possession, which began with a 48-yard kickoff return to the Texas 45 by Mario Alford. The Mountaineers moved to the Texas 1 and lined up to try for the tying touchdown when tight end Russ Haughton-James was whistled for a false start. The penalty pushed West Virginia back to the Texas 6 and facilitated a 22-yard field goal from Josh Lambert, cutting the Texas lead to 7-3 with 3:10 to play in the first quarter.
From that point forward, the Longhorns ruled the first half. Texas pushed its advantage to 14-3 with 8:56 to play in the second quarter on a juking, 39-yard run by Johnathan Gray. Gray leaped into the pylon in the front corner of the end zone as he was being pushed out of bounds.
Two more long runs set the table for a third Texas touchdown in the half — one for 25 yards by Malcolm Brown and the other by Gray for 40 yards, most of which came after he planted his right foot while carrying a full head of steam and cut right past West Virginia safety Karl Joseph.
After a fluttering pass by Swoopes toward Harris enticed a pass interference call in the end zone on WVU’s Ishmael Banks, Gray burst over the right tackle for a 2-yard touchdown and a 21-3 Texas advantage.
The Longhorns added to their lead with a 39-yard field goal by Nick Rose that came three plays after Texas cornerback Quandre Diggs intercepted WVU quarterback Clint Trickett and returned the pick to the 22-yard line.
Texas outgained West Virginia 266-141 in the half and 174-49 in the second quarter, when they outscored the Mountaineers 17-0.
The Longhorns’ offense did next to nothing after the band left the field, gaining just 85 total yards after halftime thanks to a blitzing West Virginia defense and ultra-conservative play calling. But the defense continued to shine, holding the Mountaineers out of the end zone until a Dreamius Smith 9-yard run at the 13:25 mark of the third quarter.
Texas’ defense even found a way to score when a resurgent Cedric Reed tackled Trickett for a safety after a punt pinned the Mountaineers at their own 1-yard line.
West Virginia cut the Texas lead to 26-16 at the 6:38 mark of the final quarter when Smith’s 62-yard run set the table for Wendell Smallwood’s 3-yard touchdown. But the end game belonged to the Longhorns, who added a touchdown on a Gray 15-yard run with 3:06 remaining after the Texas defense forced the ball over on downs at the WVU 15.
The Texas defense made a final statement by stopping West Virginia on the final drive that ended a foot short of the goal line as time expired.
1.Why was Texas so successful running the ball in the first half?
A successful rush attack is all about creating holes for the runners to exploit, and the Longhorns’ offensive line opened some gaping lanes in the West Virginia defense early on.
Gray (101 yards on 10 carries) and Brown (20 totes for 90 yards) roared through those holes and made plays against the Mountaineers’ linebackers and secondary for the extra yards.
Because of injuries and suspensions, the offensive line took some time to gel. The process wore at both Gray and Brown — two guys who are used to getting clean air to run through.
“Those guys were going through changes [during the first part] of the year,” Gray said. “Each and every week they’re doing what they’re supposed to and getting better. That’s what we need from them and we’re trying to help them out.”
Strong said the style of football the Longhorns played in the first half is a blueprint for the team’s success.
“Eventually that’s who we’re going to become and I hope it happens a lot sooner than later,” Strong said. “We’re going to be able to physically pound the football. The game is all about being physical. We have the players, the talent and it’s all about putting it together.”
2. Why did that all go away in the second half?
West Virginia is a tough, hard-nosed football team and its coaching staff made the adjustments it needed to stop Texas after halftime — especially when the Longhorns’ offense got tired and went very vanilla with its attack.
The Mountaineers crowded the line to stop the run and its blitzes forced Swoopes to get rid of the ball quicker than he wanted to when the Longhorns tried to pass.
Fatigue was an issue as well. The starting five offensive linemen — Marcus Hutchins at left tackle, Sedrick Flowers at left guard, Taylor Doyle at center, Kent Perkins at right guard and Camrhon Hughes at right tackle — played as a unit for all but a handful of the Longhorns’ 68 snaps.
“Maybe Jake [Raulerson] played one or two snaps (at center) when Taylor [Doyle] had something in his eye and he had to come out for a play,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “They’ve been remarkable because they just keep giving it to us. And those kids get a lot of reps during the week. That’s an outstanding crew of people. They need a day off. Those poor guys, we wear them out. They’ve had to shoulder the load.”
3. Has Swoopes reached his glass ceiling and stopped in his progression?
Any offensive attack is only as good as its quarterback, and Texas will need more from Swoopes to continue winning.
Against West Virginia, Swoopes hit on just 11 of his 29 passes for just 124 yards with one touchdown and one very ugly interception. The pick came in the second half when he completed just three of his 15 throws for 36 yards.
“No, he hasn’t stopped progressing,” Watson said. “When you get a young quarterback in there everybody’s going to do what — blitz him. He has to grow through this process. He has to stand in there and make some throws.”
“Tyrone is seeing the rush,” Watson added. “He didn’t set his feet and make the kind of throws he was making in the first half. When young quarterbacks see a lot of pressure, they don’t set their feet. It’s one of the things we’ve got to grow him through. It’s part of the process. He has to gain confidence.”
There’s no doubt that Texas played things close to the vest in the second half. The team converted just four of its 15 third-down opportunities and was 1 for 8 on third downs in the final two quarters.
Only once after halftime did the Longhorns have a manageable third down chance — when they had a third and 1 early in the fourth quarter and converted the opportunity. The other seven third downs needed to gain six yards or more, and four of those needed 10 yards or more.
Those types of situations force the quarterback to think outside of his comfort zone, an aspect Swoopes is not yet ready for.
4. Who was the Longhorns’ best player against West Virginia?
Reed — who many believed would carry the Longhorns throughout the season from his rush-end spot — gets the nod, but just barely over Diggs and Gray.
The senior defensive end was credited with a season-high 12 tackles, including four for a loss, and a career-best three sacks. He also had a forced fumble and was credited with the aforementioned safety.
“A lot of stuff was working for me tonight,” Reed said. “The coaches came to me last Sunday and said, ‘We’re going to give you more plays and put you in spots for one-on-ones.’ It just opened up like the red sea. It was right there in front of me. Someone just had to have the right scheme for me to go out there and play against, and it happened to be West Virginia tonight. It feels great.”
For his efforts, Reed was named the Athlon National Defensive Player of the Week.
“It was fun watching Ced finally come alive tonight,” Strong said, “It was amazing to watch him and the plays he made.”
In his career, Reed now has 17 sacks and six forced fumbles. He has started the last 29 games, which leads the team. His three sacks against West Virginia were the most by a Longhorn since Jackson Jeffcoat tallied three in last year’s Texas Tech game (Nov. 28).
Part of the reason Reed and the Texas pass rush was so successful was due to the fact that Trickett was forced to come off his hot read multiple times — thanks to the Texas secondary covering the receiver.
“Give Reed credit but also give some to the DBs for covering,” linebacker Jordan Hicks said. “With the coverage we had the quarterback hold the ball, and, especially with the wide receivers West Virginia has, it’s a tough duty to do. When you’ve got guys like Ced Reed and Malcom Brown giving pressure the way they do, somebody has to make a play.”
For the second straight week, that player was Reed.
5. What’s next for the Longhorns?
Texas’ future certainly looks much brighter than it did at Halloween but the Longhorns need to stick to the one-game-at-a-time mentality that has brought them back to relevance.
They’ll bring a full head of steam into their final road game of the season on Nov. 15 at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys (5-4, 3-3 in league play) have lost three straight Big 12 games (by an average of 30 points), including a 24-point loss at home to West Virginia.
It might be the best time for Texas, one win away from the postseason, to be hitting Stillwater.
“Collectively we came out and we said that we wanted to go out and make plays this week — we wanted to win this game on defense,” Diggs said. “We had great turnovers, we had safeties, we did what we wanted to do and we dominated. We have to continue to get better, we can’t just settle on this. At the same time, we’re going to celebrate. We just need to be ready to regroup and get ready for Oklahoma State.”
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