No. 12 Longhorns roll to 48-13 win over Rice

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

HOUSTON, Texas — The Texas Longhorns’ attitude of “no hangover, no letdown and no letup” meant no quarter for Rice Saturday in a battle of former Southwest Conference rivals.

If you expected anything less of the rampaging and talented Longhorns, then you haven’t been paying attention.

UT quarterback Sam Ehlinger passed for 279 yards and three touchdowns, two to freshman Jake Smith, in less than three quarters of play as No. 12 Texas overwhelmed winless Rice, 48-13, Saturday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

The Longhorns (2-1) bounced back in a big way after a seven-point loss at home to then-No. 6 LSU last week, making things look easy in taking a 31-0 lead by halftime and strolling to the finish. Texas now has[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] defeated Rice in 42 of the teams’ 43 meetings since 1966.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Texas coach Tom Herman said. “Certainly the way that they started they did what we asked them to do all week, which was to put last week behind them.”

Ehlinger connected on 23 of his 27 throws without an interception — he still has not thrown one this season — and did not get sacked.

Tom Stewart passed for 179 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead Rice, but the Owls were never in the game.

“That’s a heck of a football team on that other sideline tonight,” Rice coach Mike Bloomgren said. “They did a lot of things to make it tough on us. From 1 to 22, we couldn’t really match up with them. You’ve got to make plays and tonight their guys made plays.”

Texas marched 82 yards in 12 plays on the game’s opening possession to a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ehlinger to quarterback-turned-tunning back Roschon Johnson. The Longhorns converted three third downs on the drive.

Later in the quarter, Ehlinger hit Smith for a picture-perfect 53-yard touchdown pass and a 14-0 Longhorns lead. Ehlinger dropped the throw right into the bucket over the Rice safety and into Smith’s hands and Smith carried it the rest of the way.

“This week was going to be the big test to prove to ourselves that we can prepare, train and take care of our bodies at an elite level,” Herman said, “and then obviously we had to go out and play hard and start fast, and we did. Myself and everybody associated with the team was certainly proud of the way that we played those first three quarters.”

Texas added to its advantage early in the second quarter on a 26-yard touchdown run by Keaontay Ingram that made it 21-0. Ehlinger then hit Smith with a 12-yard touchdown pass at the end of an eight-play, 79-yard drive.

“We came out and played at an elite level,” Smith said. “We didn’t, you know, not to talk bad about Rice or anything, but we didn’t play down to our opponent. Being consistent every week is our goal.”

The Longhorns also got a career-long 57-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker with 1:01 to play in the second quarter to make it 31-0 at intermission.

Texas scored on five of its six possessions in the first half, outgained Rice, 350-56, and had nearly as many first downs (19) as the Owls had offensive snaps (20).

“Converting on third downs was huge,” Ehlinger said. “When we’re over 50 percent on third down, it’s hard for defenses to keep us off the field, and (when) we’re doing things on offense and going on long drives it really takes it takes the life out of the defense.”

Ingram strolled 14 yards into the end zone for another touchdown on UT’s first drive of the third quarter as the Longhorns marched 91 yards in 11 plays to make in 38-0. Dicker later booted a 46-yard field goal to expand the lead.

Stewart’s touchdown passes of 3 and 4 yards to Aston Walter in the fourth quarter allowed the Owls to get something on the scoreboard, but it was just window dressing.

“Obviously, we can’t ever let a team beat us twice, and we knew we had to rebound, and quickly, from the LSU game,” Ehlinger said. “We wanted to prove that nothing’s changed and prove to ourselves that we can only play well and that no one can stop us and I think we did.”

The Longhorns’ D’Shawn Jamison ended the scoring with a 98-yard kickoff return, Texas’s first since 2012.

Texas steps up in class next week when it hosts unbeaten Oklahoma State in the two teams’ Big 12 Conference opener.
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