But with Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and his teammates making the right plays at the crucial times on both sides, the Longhorns had just enough to overcome the Sooners and put themselves - for now, at least - in prime position to pursue a second national championship in four years.
Temple native Jordan Shipley scored on a 96-yard kickoff return and made a 37-yard catch to set up Cody Johnson’s go-ahead touchdown run with half a quarter left, then Texas’ revived defense withstood OU’s final charges to give the Longhorns a 45-35 victory in front of a Cotton Bowl-record 92,182 fans.
“This was a great football game, and it’s a shame that two teams in the same league, much less the same division, have to meet this early,” Texas coach Mack Brown said after his Longhorns (6-0 overall, 2-0 Big 12 Conference) beat the Sooners for the third time in four years as he moved to 5-6 against Oklahoma.
“These are two of the best teams in the country and this was a hard-fought game,” Brown added. “The players left everything on the field and were totally exhausted. I’m really proud of our guys. This team has shown a lot of fight.”
Shipley caught 11 passes - the most by anyone on either team in this 103-game series - for 112 yards and a touchdown. Quan Cosby had nine grabs for 122 yards and Chris Ogbonnaya ran for 127 yards, including a back-breaking 62-yard sprint with 4½ minutes left that set up Texas’ game-clinching score, Johnson’s third short rushing TD.
It took all the Longhorns could muster to get past Heisman Trophy contender Bradford and two-time defending Big 12 champ Oklahoma (5-1, 1-1). Brown said the stakes were raised even higher for Texas’ clash with No. 3 Missouri next Saturday in Austin, but that duel lost some luster later when the Tigers were upset 28-23 at home by No. 17 Oklahoma State.
Senior Shipley, whose team could rise to No. 1 when the new poll is released today, wanted to let his team’s conquest sink in.
“You’ve got to enjoy a win like this, because it doesn’t happen every day,” said Shipley, who was born in Temple when his father, Bob, was a Wildcats assistant coach. “We’ll enjoy this one for a while, and then we’ll go back to work.”
Texas senior defensive tackle and Killeen Shoemaker graduate Roy Miller got plenty of enjoyment after improving to 3-1 against Oklahoma.
“It’s very enjoyable to win this game three out of four times, especially because I was almost going to go to OU,” said Miller, who made three tackles and played some on offense in the goal-line package, though he did drop a would-be touchdown pass right before Texas’ final score. “I’m proud of my team, and being in your senior year and getting to wear the Golden Hat (trophy) feels good.”
Meanwhile, junior third-year starter McCoy strengthened his Heisman profile by completing 28 of 35 passes for 277 yards with a touchdown. Texas’ leading rusher, he also ran for 31 yards and avoided pressure before hitting Shipley, Cosby and others for key first downs.
“The most important thing for me to do was to get a win. That was the main goal,” McCoy said. “We were able to attack and throw the ball, and we have to give credit to the offensive line. If there are any awards at the end of the season, they are team awards. I truly feel that way.”
Although not out of the Big 12 South and national title pictures, Oklahoma suffered a damaging defeat in a game it twice led by 11 points.
“Congratulations to Texas for playing an outstanding game and really executing well,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops, 6-4 against the Longhorns. “We weren’t good enough, and they were. They made the plays to win it.”
Executing the no-huddle offense nearly to perfection in the first 48 minutes, sophomore Bradford connected with Manuel Johnson for three touchdowns and also hit Ryan Broyles and Jermaine Gresham with scoring passes.
But after Bradford fired a 14-yard TD pass to Johnson to put the Sooners up 35-30 with 11:42 left, the Texas defense of fiery first-year coordinator Will Muschamp stepped up and stymied OU in crunch time.
“We just made some stops,” said Muschamp, whose defense allowed only 48 rushing yards, intercepted Bradford twice and sacked him three times. “When the game was on the line, our kids made plays.”
Said Bradford: “In the first half we played at a fast tempo and made plays. Texas made some adjustments in the second half, but most of all we can’t play behind our (usual fast) pace. That’s what stopped us.”
Oklahoma came out hot in its no-huddle attack, with Bradford throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Johnson with less than three minutes gone and adding an 8-yard scoring toss - it glanced off of tight end Gresham’s hands - to Broyles early in the second quarter to give the Sooners a 14-3 lead.
Said McCoy: “Sam Bradford is a great leader. He ran them up and down the field. He’s a special player and we knew they were going to score some points.”
The Longhorns needed a spark, and Shipley - McCoy’s best friend - gave it to them. He received the ensuing kickoff at his 4-yard line, raced up the middle and blazed down the right side for a 96-yard TD and a 14-10 game.
“Jordan’s return was a big answer,” Brown said. “We had to win the turnover ratio and win the kicking game to win this game.”
OU came right back, with Bradford finding a wide-open Gresham down the left sideline for a 52-yard score that made it 21-10.
But McCoy’s sharp passing led an 80-yard drive that Johnson capped with his first of two 1-yard TD runs, and a diving interception by Earl Thomas and Cosby’s 36-yard catch set up Hunter Lawrence’s 33-yard field goal as the first half expired, slicing the Sooners’ lead to 21-20.
Bradford hit Johnson with a 14-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter, but McCoy’s 2-yard scoring dart to Shipley in the back of the end zone made it 28-27 with 5:33 left.
Stoops gambled a few minutes later. On fourth-and-6 from the OU 48 he tried to have punter Mike Knall run for the first down, but Curtis Brown dragged Knall down a football short.
McCoy then almost had a pass to the end zone picked off before Lawrence’s 28-yard field goal gave Texas its first lead at 30-28 going into the final period.
Following a questionable running-into-the-punter penalty that extended the Sooners’ next drive, Bradford hit Killeen graduate Juaquin Iglesias (seven catches, 92 yards) for 26 yards, and Bradford’s 14-yard strike to Johnson put OU back up at 35-30 with 11:42 left.
From that point on, however, the game belonged to the Longhorns.
McCoy drove Texas to OU’s 38 and then passed to the middle for Shipley, who picked up a crushing block from Cosby and wasn’t tackled until he was inside the 1. Johnson then blasted in for a 36-35 lead, and Cosby batted McCoy’s two-point pass high in the air and snared it for a three-point edge with 7:37 left.
UT’s defense forced a quick punt, then McCoy hit Ogbonnaya for 10 key yards on third down before Ogbonnaya used a great burst to the right side to gain 62 yards to the OU 2. Johnson powered in for his third TD and a 45-35 lead at the 4:02 mark, and Bradford’s must-have fourth-down pass in Texas territory eluded Iglesias.
That sparked a raucous celebration by Texas and its fans, who soaked in the Longhorns’ first win over a No. 1-ranked team since they outdueled Southern California in the Rose Bowl to capture the 2005 national title.
“This (win) is about heart, character, toughness, and being together as a team,” said Brown, whose squad has road games left against No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 16 Kansas.
NOTES: Texas leads Oklahoma 58-40-5 in their series. . . . The renovated Cotton Bowl added 16,000 seats for this year’s game - split evenly among the two schools, with Texas fans in burnt orange on one side of the 50-yard line and Oklahoma fans in crimson on the other half.
