Brigham Down the Horns

Brigham Young put a beatdown on the Longhorns Saturday night at Darrell K. Royal Stadium, winning 41-7 in Texas’ worst home defeat in 17 years. The Cougars (2-0) relied on their defense to completely shut down an inexperienced UT offensive line.

Texas sophomore Tyrone Swoopes got his first career start in place of oft-injured signal caller David Ash and threw for 176 yards on 31 passes for an average of only 5.7 yards per attempt. The Horns looked to keep the gameplan simple with short passes to build his confidence, but the QB’s downfield inaccuracy became more and more apparent as they fell further behind.

The Longhorns went into this game shorthanded due to both injury and self-inflicted wounds. Ash is out indefinitely, and the Horns now go without their only veteran lineman in center Dominic Espinosa, who suffered a broken ankle in last weekend’s victory over North Texas. As if that wasn’t enough, head coach Charlie Strong stayed the course on his commitment to tight discipline and suspended both starting tackles.

As such, Texas was unable to get any type of offensive rhythm going behind the inexperienced linemen. Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray could only manage a combined 75 yards on the ground, leaving their young quarterback alone to make things happen in the play-action passing game. The Longhorns’ makeshift line had no push on first and second downs, leaving them in precarious third-and-long situations more often than not and frequently sending a tired defense back onto the field without a breather.

The Longhorn defense that played so stout against North Texas last week looked hapless against BYU’s read-option attack. They didn’t get gashed for 550 yards like they did last year in Provo, but they tackled poorly as a unit and had trouble diagnosing the ball carrier. BYU’s quarterback Taysom Hill flat-out embarrassed the Horns’ defense on a third-quarter 30-yard touchdown run that culminated in the junior passer hurdling over a Texas defender at the goal line.

The real problem here is that things around the 40 Acres are likely to get worse before they get any better. In fact, Texas now appears to be staring down a 2-4 start. Their next four games come against UCLA, Kansas, Baylor, and Oklahoma. Chances are they’ll only be favored against the hapless Jayhawks that last weekend of September. And if they play the way they did against BYU, they’ll be lucky to come out of that one with a victory.

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UT plays UCLA in the AdvoCare Cowboys Showdown in Arlington, Tex., on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 7pm. Read Eric Sollenberger's game preview in this week's issue, on stands Thursday.