But a Texas defense that allowed Notre Dame to run for 203 yards (4.6 ypc) and convert 7-of-15 third downs (45 percent), bowed up as P.J. Locke sacked Kizer on second-and-8, ultimately forcing a punt that helped force OT.
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Fans wearing burnt orange glasses liked what they saw and will agree wholeheartedly.
One weekend into the Big 12 season and the world is upside down. Notre Dame wasted no time in countering, scoring touchdowns on their next two drives to cut Texas’ lead to three. Consequently, three freshmen in safeties Devin Studstill and Jalen Elliott, plus nickel Julian Love, and sophomore cornerback Shaun Crawford, medically redshirted past year, were regulars in the secondary during the second half when the Irish rallied. They had no confidence in their offense to come back from any deficit, and it was evident by the body language on the field and the sideline.
Neither team was able to put up the decisive points in the final 3:23 of regulation, and the Longhorns entered overtime locked in an offensive battle with the Irish. It’s clear that Buechele inherited his father’s arm. They made good plays. The game which ended with Texas winning 50-47 averaged a TV audience of 10.9 million viewers and a total of 786,000 unique viewers online. Only a blocked point after returned for two points saved the Irish an opportunity to go to overtime. But not this time. D’Onta Foreman rushed for 131 yards and a score on 24 carries. But how about the play from Tyrone Swoopes? You have got in the way of yourself from preparing the way you need to to lead your football team.
“Tyrone’s special. Just look at how well he’s handled this whole quarterback situation”. His performance was a thing of beauty as he punished any defender who got in his path. Then, without any sleep, he went back to work Monday morning. “In the second half, we wanted to play top-down because they were trying us on vertical routes”. “He did a lot better than I did past year, because he impacted this whole team”.
Notre Dame’s defense struggled throughout 2015 and Kelly preached in the off season how much better he expected them to be in 2016 but the level of play was more of the same in the 1st game of the new season. The Longhorns have a tough schedule over the next month, though.
Kelly said they have sent the clip to the ACC and got confirmation that it was most likely targeting.
Sunday night college football is unusual.
“The message we wanted to send (to the Irish) was, ‘We’re more conditioned than you guys, and we’re going to show it, ‘ and that’s the thing behind this offense is get the defense exhausted so we can make big plays like we did”, Burt said. Let’s not forget that this is a young Longhorns team, no matter how talented they may be.
Now it’s true they burned him by returning a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown a la Auburn vs. Alabama a couple of years back, but that just adds to the allure the Houston team should have when it comes to voting on them as a conference member.
“Explosive on offense”, Polian said.
The kind of gut-check, team win over a Top 10 opponent that can get a program to believe it can be great again.
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McConaughey even used some of his own career advice to psych up the Texas players, who opened their season in primetime at their home stadium in front of a school-record crowd of 102,315 attendees.
