DALLAS — OK, Southeastern Conference. Stop the snickering. All you power football people, suck on your cloud of dust. Sure, Texas doesn’t look like your classic blueprint for a national champion. The defense gave up five touchdown passes Saturday, and the leading rusher on the year is still the quarterback.
So what?
Don’t insult the biggest crowd in Cotton Bowl stadium history or a seasoned Texas coach who’s suddenly in the national title picture after what he called simply “one of the greatest football games I’ve ever seen.”
Two of the four best quarterbacks in the nation put on a show for 92,182 fans, and the top of the rankings today will get shaken up like Texas’ and Oklahoma’s secondaries. Fifth- ranked Texas’ wild 45-35 win over top-ranked Oklahoma sent a shock wave through college football.
Texas is back, thanks to two roommates, quarterback Colt McCoy and receiver Jordan Shipley, sons of prep coaches who were roommates in college. Shipley caught 11 of McCoy’s 28 completions for 112 yards and a touchdown and lifted Texas from the brink of a blowout with a 96-yard kickoff return.
Combined with Cody Johnson’s three short touchdown runs, Texas (6-0, 2-0 Big 12) is in the thick of the national title race.
“Everybody’s questioned this team, including me,” Texas coach Mack Brown said. “I don’t sit around and say, ‘I don’t know how good we are.’ But today we played good and we played team football.”
For a while, Texas wasn’t very good. Its allegedly improved defense was a mere stiff breeze against Sam Bradford, the nation’s second-ranked passer who hit 28-of-39 passes for 387 yards and five TDs. He found Manuel Johnson and Ryan Broyles for two touchdown passes and a 14-3 lead and appeared headed toward Oklahoma’s average of 49.6 points a game.
McCoy wouldn’t let the Longhorns wilt. Screaming at his teammates on the sidelines not to quit, his words proved prophetic seconds later on OU’s kickoff. Shipley sliced the middle of the defense, raced to the sideline and went 96 yards to give the momentum a decided burnt-orange shade.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Shipley said. “There’s nothing like it, nothing I’ve ever been a part of before. It’s a rush. It’s such a blessing that we got to make that play, and the guys blocking did a phenomenal job.”
Texas’ defense, absolute grease to Bradford’s fire, made it interesting. A blown coverage led to a wide-open Jermaine Gresham for a 52-yard TD pass, and another TD pass to Johnson gave Oklahoma a 28-20 lead in the third quarter.
But after McCoy found Shipley for a 2-yard dart to cut the lead to 28-27, Texas’ special teams made the turning point in the game. With Oklahoma facing fourth-and-6 from its 48 and star linebacker Ryan Reynolds blowing out his knee earlier in the period, Sooners coach and trick-play guru Bob Stoops reached into the back pages of his playbook.
Stoops faked a punt, but Curtis Brown stopped punter Mike Knall a yard from the first down. Texas turned it into Hunter Lawrence’s 28-yard field goal for a 30-28 lead.
“I felt we’d have a chance to give us some momentum, give us a chance to steal a possession,” Stoops said. “Without Ryan Reynolds, I thought this was an opportunity.”
Still, Bradford’s fifth TD pass, a 14-yarder to Johnson in the corner, gave Oklahoma (5-1, 1-1) a 35-30 lead with 11:42 left, but the Texas roomies weren’t finished. On his fourth straight completion in a 79-yard drive, McCoy found Shipley wide open over the middle and he raced 37 yards to the 1, where Cody Johnson bulled over, and McCoy’s pass on a two-point conversion made it 38-35 at 7:37.
McCoy, 28-of-35 for 277 yards, didn’t match Bradford’s numbers. But McCoy did it against the nation’s top-ranked pass defense and he topped Bradford in moxie. In a wide- open Heisman Trophy race, McCoy is as big a contender for national honors as his team.
“We had an idea coming in to throw the ball,” said McCoy, fourth nationally entering the day. “No one had thrown the ball on OU.”
Stoops has lost a few petals off his rosy image after losing his past four BCS bowls, and he will get second- guessed today for punting on fourth- and-2 from the Sooners’ 46 with 6 1/2 minutes to play. Texas then drove 80 yards and may have found a tailback when senior Chris Ogbonnaya, who had a breakout game the week before at Colorado, ran 62 yards to the 2, where Johnson iced the win.
The Longhorns can’t rest. Missouri is next. But make no doubt. The eyes of America are upon Texas.
