Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas returned interceptions for touchdowns and Cody Johnson had two short TD runs as the third-ranked Longhorns routed No. 13 Oklahoma State 41-14 on Saturday night to establish themselves as the clear front-runner in the Big 12 Conference's South Division.

McCoy passed for 171 yards and threw his 100th career touchdown pass, and the Longhorns avoided the kind of letdown on Halloween weekend that cost them a chance to play for the Big 12 and national championships a year ago.

Said McCoy: "That was a bad feeling, and I think (Texas coach Mack Brown) kind of put it on the seniors' shoulders and said, 'Hey, this is your team. You control your destiny. Don't let it happen again.'"

A year after letting an undefeated season slip away against another rising divisional rival in a 39-33 loss at Texas Tech on a last-second touchdown, the same secondary members who ended up as the goats in that game came through as heroes against the only other team without a loss in Big 12 play entering Saturday.

Curtis Brown and Thomas had been the ones who let Michael Crabtree slip into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown in Tech's win, and Blake Gideon dropped an interception that would have sealed the game.

Against Oklahoma State, they all came up with picks.

Texas (8-0, 5-0) came in with the nation's toughest defense against the run, then played havoc with Zac Robinson and the Oklahoma State (6-2, 3-1) passing attack. Robinson came in as the conference's top-rated passer after breaking the Cowboys' record for accuracy in a game last week, but he threw a career-high four picks against the Longhorns.

Texas scored 28 points off of OSU's five turnovers. Johnson scored on runs of 2 and 1 yards after takeaways.

"We want to be the best team in the country, and we want to continue to play like that," Mack Brown said.