Texas head coach Charlie Strong downplayed the call. Hansen’s last catch was the most important, as it broke a 43-43 tie with 3:41 left, capping a seven-play, 65-yard drive from 12 yards out.
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However, Defee awarded California possession at the Texas one-yard line, despite senior safety Dylan Haines picking the ball up in the end zone.
But despite Webb’s yardage, Hansen’s receptions and Enwere’s 110 yards rushing, Hansen’s first post-game comment was “This win is for the O-line”, a statement echoed by Webb.
Enwere was the center of attention at the end of the game for all of the wrong reasons, however. “They did a great job executing their game plan, but all we wanted [was] to be the tougher team and get more effort, and I think we did that tonight”. “We felt we needed to run the football to win this game”. Shane had offers on the table from numerous high-octane, prolific offensive programs on the table, such as: Arizona State, Texas Tech, TCU, Cal, Oklahoma, as well as traditional powerhouses Florida State, Ole Miss, and Wisconsin. Offenses ruled the first half, which ended with Domingue missing a 53-yard field goal attempt to leave Cal with a 35-33 lead at the break. Cal reduced the deficit to 17-14 on Enwere’s 1-yard touchdown run. Because there was no immediate recovery, Cal kept the ball and ran out the clock for a second straight win over the Longhorns.
D’Onta Foreman ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns, while Chris Warren added 118 yards on the ground and two scores for the Longhorns (2-1), who were looking for their first 3-0 start since 2012. Against Cal, the Longhorns allowed 508 total yards of offense.
Shane Buechele was knocked out of the game for a while in the first half after a hard hit.
Texas and the California Golden Bears gave us quite the shootout to end the day on Saturday, trading scores back and forth.
But their inability to slow Webb and the Bears did them in. What’s worse is that Texas led early in the fourth quarter, but allowed Cal to score late in the fourth and then punted from deep in its own territory with less than two minutes remaining, which set up Cal’s controversial play. Texas finished the game with 307 rushing yards, averaging 6.0 yards per carry.
The teams scored 68 points in the first half, then went scoreless through the third quarter. An ensuing bit of trickeration resulted in a two-point conversion and a 43-40 lead with 10:45 left. E ven if it is determined that Texas did not recover the ball soon enough, it is clear that the ball became dead in the end zone and it should have been a touchback for Texas.
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Had Texas been given possession, it still would have needed to march almost the entire field in less than two minutes to tie the game.
