No. 11 Texas shrugs off mid-game doldrums, roars past UTEP 41-7

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — It might have been expected that the Texas Longhorns would experience a bit of a letdown Saturday against UTEP after its huge win over Notre Dame just six days ago.

And there’s no doubt that the 11th-ranked Longhorns were handicapped with injuries that kept three of their starting offensive linemen (and five who are in the two-deep rotation), as well as their top ground-gainer from last year and last week, on the sidelines.

Given those parameters, UT’s 41-7 win over a much-improved Miners team before a crowd of 92,863 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was solid, if not spectacular.

It took a while to become [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]the runaway victory that most expected, but the easy win showcased the Longhorns’ overall talent and depth — aspects that were major question marks during back-to-back losing seasons in 2014 and 2015.

Freshman quarterback Shane Buechele threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns and completed passes to eight different receivers for the Longhorns, who improved to 2-0. He completed 22 of 27 passes, did not throw an interception and hit three different Longhorns receivers for touchdowns.

Buechele’s start last Sunday against Notre Dame was just the second time a true freshman had started the season opener at quarterback for Texas, and the first since Bobby Layne in 1944. With 280 yards through the air, Buechele is just the second true freshman in school history to pass for more than 200 yards in a game (Rick McIvor was the first, against Baylor in 1979).

Through his first two collegiate games, Buechele has shown a propensity for getting the ball down field and spreading the wealth, with six connections of 20-plus yards and six total touchdowns to five different receivers.

Chris Warren III, normally the Longhorns’ co-featured back with D’Onta Foreman, ran for 95 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Texas outgained UTEP, 416-208, and won its first two games in a season for the first time since 2012 when the Longhorns started 4-0.

“I was concerned about how we would play after last week and worried about how we would respond with our short week of preparation.” Texas coach Charlie Strong said. “I always felt like were a day behind. It was a good win but we didn’t play as consistent as I would have liked. We had a chance to put the game away in the first half and didn’t.”

UTEP starting quarterback Kavika Johnson managed just 42 passing yards on nine completions while replacing Zach Greenlee, who started Sept. 3 for the Miners against New Mexico State but missed the Texas game with a medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury.

UTEP coach Sean Kugler said it obviously hurt not to have Greenlee in the game.

“You work with a guy [Greenlee] that takes almost all the reps during fall camp and then you go a week getting a new guy [Johnson] to be prepared and to try to change some things to fit what he does best,” Kugler explained. “But we don’t make any excuses for anything. Texas whipped us handily.”

The Miners (1-1) got 123 rushing yards and their only touchdown from Aaron Jones. UTEP has never defeated Texas in the five games between the two teams; four of those five games have been played in Austin.

Texas moved the ball at will in the early going. Its first drive ended poorly when Jacorey Warrick was stripped of the ball as he crossed the goal line on a potential 11-yard touchdown pass from Buechele, with the loose ball bouncing out of bounds for a touchback.

But the Longhorns got on the board on its next drive when quarterback-turned-receiver Jerrod Heard hauled in a 29-yard scoring strike from Buechele to give the Longhorns a 7-0 lead.

Trent Domingue pushed the Texas advantage to 10-0 with a 22-yard field goal three plays after the Longhorns’ Brandon Jones blocked a punt that rolled out of bounds at the UTEP 6-yard line.

Aaron Jones’ 51-yard touchdown run cut the Texas lead to 10-7 at the 8:28 mark of the second quarter. Jones entered the game as the nation’s leading rusher after amassing 249 yards on a career-high 31 carries in UTEP’s opener against New Mexico State. His rushing total also was a career-high and the third-highest single-game total in Miner history.

That scoring run stunned the Longhorns out of a mini-funk. They responded with a 49-yard drive that netted a second Domingue field goal — this one from 43 yards out — and a 13-7 Texas lead with 4:42 left in the second quarter.

The Longhorns played add-on on its final possession of the first half with a nifty 60-yard drive and an eight-yard touchdown pass from Buechele to Warrick, who just got his left foot down in the end zone before going out of bounds.

“It took about a quarter for our whole team to get settled in that game in all three phases, and then in about the second quarter they settled in and played extremely hard,” Kugler said. “The game was in the balance at halftime, and then we gave Texas short-field opportunities. There were just too many. I thought the defense played pretty well but the final score doesn’t indicate that.”

Warren expanded the Longhorns’ lead to 27-7 with a one-yard run at the 8:09 mark of the third quarter as the culmination of a 12-play, 52-yard march. Then Buechele struck for his third touchdown of the night, hitting Dorian Leonard for a 46-yard bomb that put the game on ice.

Buechele hit Heard again for a seven-yard touchdown with 9:30 to play, the first time this season he connected on a score with the same receiver twice.

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