By Steve Habel/Associate Editor
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The box score for the Texas Football’s thrilling 48-45 win against Iowa State Saturday night will show that the winning points came on Nick Rose’s 21-yard field goal with three seconds to play.
But the victory – both in the short [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]run against the tougher-than-steel Cyclones and in the long run – really came from the confidence the Longhorns’ coaches showed in quarterback Tyrone Swoopes.
In the past month, Swoopes has grown from a player Texas coach Charlie Strong at first thought might not be good enough to play quarterback at the highest level of college football to a bona fide star. Never was that more on display than in the final seconds of a tied game Saturday against Iowa State.
With just 20 seconds to play, the Texas braintrust decided to eschew overtime and put the game in Swoopes’ hands. Two huge fearless passes from Swoopes – for 39 yards to Jaxon Shipley and then 29 yards to John Harris – made Rose’s chip-shot game-winning kick all but academic and allowed the Horns to send the crowd of 92,017 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium ecstatic and 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.
“I sure didn’t know it would get like that,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said afterward. “The overall attitude the team showed throughout – when we just refused to quit – is like a shot of juice for us all.”
With the win, the Horns 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. They played without fear and showed a newfound confidence.
Things could have gone south after the Horns had the early momentum but lost it.
Texas looked like it would 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 Horns’ first touchdown came on nifty 28-yard pass from Swoopes to Marcus Johnson to cap a 52-yard, three-play drive. That TD pass was Swoopes’ first to a wide receiver besides Harris this season.
The Horns’ 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 well-coached and showed it on its ensuing possession, moving 75 yards in 12 plays to a 4-yard TD pass from Sam B. Richardson to E.J. Bibbs to cut the Horns’ 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 Horns’ drive and turning around the game’s momentum.
On Texas’ next snap, Harris fumbled while running around left end. The bouncing ball was snared by the Cyclones’ Jevohn Miller, who returned in 51 yards for a TD that tied the game at 14-14.
Iowa State then flexed its muscle with a 67-yard, seven-play scoring drive that culminated in an 8-yard TD pass from Richardson to Allen Lazard and a 21-14 Cyclones’ lead. Texas immediately responded with a statement march of its own – nine plays, 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 really coming together and giving me the chance to make the right decisions.”
The Horns 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 of the 2:50 remaining of the second quarter clock in moving 75 yards to the tying score – a 5-yard run around right end 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 Horns 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 Horns 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 its own 11-play drive – this one covering 72 yards.
Brown rammed home from the ISU-1 for the lead touchdown and a 38-31 UT advantage with 10:22 to play.
But there was plenty still 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, that had the crowd thing the Horns had done enough to win.
The Cyclones responded again, moving crisply down the field in just 53 seconds to Richardson’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Bibbs that tied the score.
All the thinking then was about overtime, but offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and Strong had other plans, and Swoopes, Shipley and Harris made the plays when they needed to the most.
Texas can’t be too happy about this win for too long. Next up is a trip to the Little Apple – Manhattan, Kansas, for surging Kansas State, which beat Oklahoma 31-30 Saturday to take the lead in the conference race. The Horns never seem to play well at at KSU, but maybe this is the year.
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