BOULDER, Colo. — Texas tailback Chris Ogbonnaya ran into the end zone during the first quarter of Saturday night’s game only to be greeted by a not-so-friendly shower of yellow shirts thrown from the Colorado student section.
After he broke loose for a 51-yard run midway through the third quarter, most of those students started making their way to the exits.
By the time the game ended, the UT contingent of fans at Folsom Field had already begun a chant of “Beat OU.”
Ogbonnaya’s big plays and 191 yards of total offense gave the Longhorns enough of a spark to stuff the Buffaloes 38-14. With the win, both the No. 5 Longhorns and No. 1 Sooners enter next weekend’s Red River Rivalry game undefeated.
“It’s what these two teams should have mid-season,” said head coach Mack Brown. “We’ll have everybody in America talking about the game next week, and that’s what we all want.”
The Longhorns held Colorado scoreless in the first half, forcing three long field goal attempts, which kicker Aric Goodman missed. Goodman, who kicked the game-winner in an upset over then-No. 21 West Virginia, tied a school record with his misses from 36, 43 and 44 yards out.
The Texas first-team defense didn’t give up a point until the third quarter, when Colorado scored after an interception which put them deep into Texas territory.
“It [ticked] everybody off,” defensive tackle Roy Miller said. “We wanted a shutout. You just can’t get comfortable, and you have to go hard every play.”
The Longhorn front pressured Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins all night, tipping balls and holding him to 13-for-33 passing and 118 yards.
“The whole defense just came together tonight,” said linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy. “Even when the offense was struggling, we picked it up for them.”
Quarterback Colt McCoy looked nearly perfect most of the way through the first half until he threw an interception to Colorado cornerback Jalil Brown. At that point, McCoy was 8-for-10 with 157 yards and two touchdowns. His only two incompletions were blatant drops.
McCoy threw another interception later in the quarter that was tipped off of tight end Peter Ullman’s hands. McCoy finished the game 23-for-30 with 262 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s just playing so well,” Brown said. “Even on the plays he’s not proud of, the long return for the interception is man coverage, and the guy makes a good break on it. Maybe he could have had it a little farther out, but he had it to the right guy.”
Texas opened up the game with an odd scoring play. As McCoy was getting dragged to the turf near the line of scrimmage, he passed the ball short to Ogbonnaya, who broke free for a 65-yard touchdown. Officials reviewed the play to confirm that McCoy had not crossed the line of scrimmage, even though the ball had crossed the plane. Replays showed that most of McCoy’s body, including his feet, were behind the line of scrimmage.
“I just knew Chris would be there,” McCoy said. “He was my fourth option.”
McCoy then engineered another drive that finished in a 16-yard pass to Jordan Shipley. Roy Miller recovered a fumble deep in Colorado territory to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Cody Johnson.
Blake Behrens scored on a 7-yard pass from Hawkins after McCoy’s second interception. After that, Ogbonnaya stepped in and ran for 51 yards on the first play of the drive.
Johnson scored with another 1-yard touchdown run to finish the drive and make it 35-7.
“I just banged it in there and tried to get 4 yards and stay ahead of the chains,” Ogbonnaya said. “I had the opportunity to break a tackle and run.”
At that point, it was all but over. The Longhorns went to their second-teams on offense and defense and Colorado scored again on a long pass down the right side to Patrick Williams with 1:54 left.
By that point, the “Beat OU” chants had already begun.
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