DAVID LIVINGSTON
Daily Texan Staff
For a time, the scenario seemed strangely familiar. The Horns built up an early 21-0 lead Saturday, yet Baylor somehow found itself with the ball in the game's final minutes, attempting to drive for the winning score.
This time, however, the outcome was different. In front of 75,482 fans at Darrell K Royal-Memorial Stadium, the Longhorns hung on in the final minutes to grab a crucial 28-23 win over the Bears. And for the first time this season, the Horns did not finish a close game wondering where things went wrong.
"I think we learned a lot more from winning this week than we would losing," Texas head coach John Mackovic said. "Sometimes you learn a little more from losing because you really get a chance to examine yourself, but we've been examined to say the least."
After watching three wins disappear in the fourth quarter this season, the Texas defense fought off an upset-minded Baylor team to even its record at 4-4. But for a while, it seemed that Texas would once again give the game away in the fourth.
Texas failed to move the ball in the final quarter and after a Longhorn punt the Bears set up at their own 20-yard line with just 2:37 remaining. Baylor marched the ball to the Texas 36-yard line with 56 seconds remaining when Texas blitzing linebackers Dwight Kirkpatrick and Tyson King forced Baylor quarterback Jermaine Alfred to hurry an errant screen pass to tailback Dexter Ford. The ball fell incomplete, and Texas ran the clock out to end the game.
"One thing I was really happy about was at the end of the game, the defense got a chance to go out there and stop them and show that we're a good defense," King said. "We've caught a lot of flack over the year and rightfully so. We haven't stopped many teams. But we got another chance and we came up big today."
Baylor cut the Texas lead to five when Ford strolled through an unprepared defense for a 14-yard touchdown run. It was the tough rushing of Ford (153 yards, 20 carries) and two blocked punts that managed to keep the Bears in a game that seemed to be lost in the first half.
Texas held out receiver Mike Adams and defensive backs Bryant Westbrook, Tre Thomas and Chris Carter at the beginning of the game, but their absence seemed to have little effect on the Horns. UT's first drive ended with Dean Jackson grabbing his first interception of the game. But after that, the Texas offense, which gained 510 total yards, mauled the Bears, scoring a touchdown in its next three drives.
On the Horns' second possession, quarterback James Brown completed all four of his passes for 80 yards, ending with a 48-yard touchdown pass to tight end Pat Fitzgerald with 6:48 remaining in the first quarter. The touchdown was the 11th of Fitzgerald's career, setting the record for most touchdown receptions by a tight end. But Fitzgerald didn't stop there. After Baylor's Kyle Attebury missed a 32-yard field goal attempt, Texas easily moved down the field, culminating in a 19-yard touchdown pass to Fitzgerald in the corner of the end zone. Four of Fitzgerald's 12 career touchdowns have come against Baylor.
"I've definitely had some good luck against Baylor," Fitzgerald said. "Maybe they just didn't pay enough attention to me."
Baylor's next drive ended in another missed field goal by Attebury, and just 29 seconds after that, Texas fullback Ricky Williams took a screen pass from backup quarterback Richard Walton and weaved his way for a 46-yard touchdown. The play gave Texas what appeared to be an insurmountable lead, but the Horns' offense shut down, and Baylor slowly crawled back into the game.
"This is one of those games that rips your guts out," Baylor coach Chuck Reedy said. "We obviously didn't play well in the first quarter, but we regrouped. We were just a player or two short, or a play or two short. There is nothing I can do but be proud of them. The fact that we put ourselves in position to win after being down 21-0 shows our character."
Or Texas' lack of killer instinct. Longhorn mistakes on special teams and a suddenly stagnant offense helped Baylor edge back into the game, creating an opportunity for another late-game collapse by the Horns.
"I was getting nervous, to tell you the truth," King said. "I was thinking, 'We're in this situation again, what are we going to do this time?' I gathered the defense and said, 'Look guys, it's on our shoulders. It's time to put up or shut up. Let's show them what we can do.' And that's what we did."
But first the Bears mowed through the Texas defense with a backup running back, exposing UT's soft middle by rushing for 225 of their 378 total yards. The Bears used nine plays to drive 81 yards in the second quarter to pick up their first score. Ford plowed through the right side of the Texas defense for a nine-yard touchdown run, closing the score to 21-7. The drive was highlighted by a 32-yard sprint by Ford.
The Horns, who rotated quarterbacks Brown and Walton, failed to move on their next drive. After a one-yard loss for tailback Shon Mitchell (18 carries, 116 yards) and a false-start penalty, Texas faced a third-and-16 at its own 18. When Walton dropped back to pass, BU linebacker Glenn Coy easily slipped through the Texas line, causing Walton to fumble and putting Baylor at the 16-yard line.
Baylor fullback Clifton Rubin climbed over the Texas defensive line from the one-yard line for a touchdown, but Attebury's extra-point attempt failed, closing the score to 21-16.
The Texas offense, with Walton still in the game, came back strong after Baylor's long drive, moving 80 yards in 11 plays to increase their lead to 28-16. Williams then capped off the drive on a spectacular five-yard touchdown run. The 6-0, 220-pound sophomore took Walton's handoff and headed left, immediately running into four Baylor defenders. The fullback shook off the players, reversed field and beat the BU secondary to the corner of the end zone for the score.
"Richard Walton on the audible is supposed to call it away from where [the defense] is overloaded," Williams said. "But Richard did the opposite and called it where they had two extra guys over there, so I knew when I got the ball I was going to get hit right away. I was just lucky enough to slip a couple of tackles. I was thinking, 'What's [Walton] thinking?'"
But on the next Texas drive, the offense stalled again. And again, Baylor blocked Shultis' punt attempt. BU's Nikia Codie charged through the line, blocked the kick, and returned it 26 yards to the UT 23. Ford carried the ball on the next three plays, including a nine-yard waltz into the end zone. Attebury's kick made the score 28-23, bringing back memories of past fourth quarter failures for the Longhorns.
"A [collapse] started to enter my mind until the defense made the big stop," Williams said. "... I was hoping the defense would come through for the offense, and they did."
And for the first time in three weeks, the Longhorns will not have to spend the week wondering what went wrong.
Texas head coach John Mackovic was faced with the ultimate dilemma Saturday. What do you do when your starting quarterback is showing rare form, but you want to get your backup some quality minutes? The way he responded has left many, including both quarterbacks, in a fog.
Texas quarterback James Brown began to show flashes of his old self Saturday during the first quarter. Brown hit Matt Davis over the shoulder for a gain of 21 yards, hit Shon Mitchell coming out of the backfield for 6 and hit Wane McGarity on the sideline for 15.
The junior slashed and dashed for gains of 9 and 11 yards in the first quarter, and with five completions for 95 yards already logged on the stat sheet, Brown figured to be cruising into one of his best performances of the '96 campaign.
"I think that I came out and played a pretty good game especially early in the game," Brown said. "I said to myself that this might be one of my best games of the season. I just felt that way."
Even though Brown had led Texas for 186 yards of offense and 14 points in the first half, he still threw one interception. Whether that was a determining factor or not, Texas head coach John Mackovic elected to make a switch at the controls.
Adhering to his plan to get Richard Walton some playing time, Mackovic benched Brown with 11:50 to play in the first half for the sophomore. Three plays later, Walton hit fullback Ricky Williams on a screen pass that Williams took the distance for a 46-yard touchdown. Beginning with that decision, Mackovic started spinning the revolving door of quarterbacks as he switched back and forth the rest of the evening. Brown played most of the fourth quarter, and he finished with 178 yards on 11 of 19 passes and two touchdowns.
Walton fell victim to some dropped balls by receivers, and he finished 6-for-11 for 119 yards and one touchdown.
"I didn't have a game plan on switching the quarterbacks," Mackovic said. "We have a lot of confidence in Richard and feel that he can handle our offense well. I think he did a good job, and he held his own."
The biggest shot to Walton's confidence came in the third quarter. While facing third-and-16 deep in Texas territory, Walton dropped back and was hit by Baylor linebacker Glenn Coy. Walton appeared to be in the motion of throwing the ball, but the officials ruled the loose ball a fumble. The Bears scored on a quick 16-yard drive, and the idea for Mackovic to bench Walton was tempting. But looking to see how he would respond, Mackovic left Walton in the game, and he engineered a 80-yard touchdown drive.
"That helped my confidence out because it showed that Coach Mackovic has confidence in me which really meant a lot to me," Walton said. "I'm glad that I got to go in there and get the job done."
Even though the players have confidence in both signal-callers, Brown felt after the game that constantly switching quarterbacks can mess up one's rhythm. He said that a player needs to feel the constant flow of the game to be successful from the kickoff to the final gun.
"Personally, this is my opinion, but this late in the season, you need to pick a quarterback and go with it," Brown said. "Coach Mackovic is the coach, and maybe that's not what he thinks. Richard didn't play a bad game, but he came in a got sacked a couple of times and I threw a couple of interceptions. So, it's just up Coach Mackovic and what he feels."
Brown has the legs, Walton has the arm, but Mackovic has the choice. Stay tuned.
For most of the first seven games of the season, Texas' offense struggled to find the form that kept defenses so off balance in 1995.
If they didn't completely look like their old selves Saturday against Baylor, at least two key parts returned to the mix.
Though they may have never completely disappeared, Texas tight end Pat Fitzgerald and tailback Shon Mitchell have both seen their production drop dramatically from a 1995 season when they etched their names in the Longhorn record books.
Fitzgerald caught three passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns, all in the first half, while Mitchell dashed for 114 yards on 18 carries. Fitzgerald's first touchdown reception gave him the UT record for touchdown catches by a tight end. Mitchell's yardage was the third most of his Longhorn career and his seventh career 100-yard rushing game.
Fitzgerald set a Texas tight end record last season with eight touchdown catches, including a three-TD performance against Notre Dame.
"I don't think he's had a down year at all," Texas head coach John Mackovic said. "I think he's had a good year. Maybe he didn't get some of the same things happen. Maybe he didn't catch three touchdowns in one game or anything like that, but Pat's been there in a number of instances for us."
At the end of last season, Fitzgerald was tied with Kerry Cash for the most career touchdowns by a tight end at Texas.
But until Saturday, he couldn't break the mark. He averaged 26 yards a game, nine less than a season ago. His 93 yards Saturday, however, matched a career high.
"I've got to do my job, whether its blocking, receiving, or anything," Fitzgerald said. "I'm just trying to go about it the way I can. I'm not worried about getting the ball too much because we've got some great receivers on this team and great running backs so its not a big deal for me."
The first touchdown went 48 yards after Brown threw a perfect pass to Fitzgerald, who beat strong safety Rodney Artmore deep, in stride. The second one came on a corner route when Brown hit an open Fitzgerald in the left front corner of the end zone.
"The second one was called in the huddle," Fitzgerald said. "When I saw that one-on-one coverage, I knew I was going to get it."
Getting the ball is not something that Mitchell has done very often this year. He began the year injured and struggled physically early in the season. Though his injury subsided, his carries never increased. Texas fullback Ricky Williams has taken some of them, though it was obvious from the beginning Saturday that Mitchell was the main back.
"One of the things that players have to learn over a period of time -- and sometimes it never comes up so they don't have to learn it -- is when players get injured, they have to work extra hard to get back in the flow and get back in to the real hard work," Mackovic said. "So for [Mitchell], it was really a new experience he had to do. It took him four or five weeks to get back in the swing of things."
Mitchell, who declined interview requests after the game, has run strong in four of the last five games. He racked up 117 yards against Oklahoma State and 51 tough yards against Colorado last week. His 18 carries against Baylor were six more than the second most he's had this season.
It was obvious that Mitchell would be featured over Williams after he took the first three carries of the game. Then, toward the end of the game, with Texas leading by five points with less than five minutes left, Mitchell carried three times before Texas punted.
Baylor 0 7 9 7 -- 23
Texas 7 14 7 0 -- 28
Texas Fitzgerald 48 pass from J.Brown (Dawson kick), 8:19
Texas Fitzgerald 19 pass from J.Brown (Dawson kick), 0:05
Texas Williams 46 pass from Walton (Dawson kick), 3:39
Baylor Ford 9 run (K.Atteberry kick), 6:34
Baylor FG K.Atteberry 35, 1:49
Baylor Rubin 1 run (kick failed), 5:23
Texas Williams 5 run (Dawson kick), 9:39
Baylor Ford 14 run (K.Atteberry kick), 0:35
A--75,482.
Baylor Texas
First Downs 18 28
Rushes-Yards 43-225 45-213
Passing 153 297
Comp-Att-Int 12-29-0 17-30-2
Return Yards 48 16
Punts-Avg 5-44.8 6-25.5
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1
Penalties-Yards 8-64 8-58
Time of Possession 28:45 31:15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Baylor - Ford 20-153, Douglas 10-32, Burkins 4-20, Rubin 4-11,
S.Washington 2-6, Alfred 2-2, Muhammad 1-1.
Texas - Mitchell 18-114, Williams 12-55, Brown 7-25, P.Holmes 4-22,
McGarity 1-14, Walton 3-(-17).
PASSING
Baylor - Alfred 12-29-0 153.
Texas - Brown 11-19-2 178, Walton 6-11-0 119.
RECEIVING
Baylor - Muhammad 6-83, Domel 1-21, Schmelar 1-16, S.Washington 1-12,
Pegross 1-7, Ford 1-7, Douglas 1-7.
Texas - Fitzgerald 3-93, Adams 6-88, Williams 3-57, Davis 2-32,
McGarity 1-15, Mitchell 1-6, Coleman 1-6.