Down 21 early, McCoy sparks Texas' rally past Texas Tech

 

 

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Top 25 Overview

It was over when... Texas QB Colt McCoy scrambled 33 yards on third down and five, allowing Texas to kneel down twice for the win. Gameball goes to... McCoy. The redshirt freshman was 21-of-31 for 256 yards and four touchdowns. McCoy also added 68 yards rushing. Stat of the game... -1. While the Red Raiders did pass for 519 yards, they had practically no running game -- once stopped on a crucial fourth and inches late in the game -- rushing for minus-1 yards. Complete Top 25 Overview

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	29	27
Total Yards	483	518
Passing	256	519
Rushing	227	-1
Penalties	5-40	12-127
3rd Down Conversions	5-9	5-14
4th Down Conversions	1-1	1-3
Turnovers	4	2
Possession	31:14	28:46

Individual Leaders

Texas Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT McCoy 21/31 256 4 1	Texas Tech Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Harrell 42/62 519 3 1
Texas Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Charles 13 85 0 20 Young 20 78 1 14 McCoy 9 68 0 33	Texas Tech Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Woods 8 11 0 5 Filani 1 8 0 8 Amendola 1 -7 0 0
Texas Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Cosby 7 79 1 28 Finley 3 47 0 26 Shipley 3 42 1 28 Young 3 22 0 11	Texas Tech Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Hicks 9 156 1 40 Johnson 9 98 0 32 Amendola 7 92 0 23 Filani 6 79 0 17

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER				TEX	TTU
	TD	11:54	SHANNON WOODS 18 YD PASS FROM GRAHAM HARRELL (ALEX TRLICA KICK) Drive info: 9 plays, 77 yards.	0	7
	TD	6:31	ERIC MORRIS 3 YD PASS FROM GRAHAM HARRELL (ALEX TRLICA KICK) Drive info: 10 plays, 79 yards.	0	14
	TD	1:04	FLETCHER SESSION 19 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (ALEX TRLICA KICK)	0	21
SECOND QUARTER				TEX	TTU
	TD	11:18	NATE JONES 16 YD PASS FROM COLT MCCOY (RYAN BAILEY KICK) Drive info: 13 plays, 80 yards.	7	21
	FG	6:51	ALEX TRLICA 20 YD FG Drive info: 7 plays, 77 yards.	7	24
	TD	4:35	JORDAN SHIPLEY 28 YD PASS FROM COLT MCCOY (RYAN BAILEY KICK) Drive info: 7 plays, 76 yards.	14	24
	TD	2:15	LIMAS SWEED 45 YD PASS FROM COLT MCCOY (RYAN BAILEY KICK) Drive info: 1 plays, 45 yards.	21	24
	TD	0:24	JARRETT HICKS 30 YD PASS FROM GRAHAM HARRELL (ALEX TRLICA KICK) Drive info: 6 plays, 80 yards.	21	31
THIRD QUARTER				TEX	TTU
	TD	7:51	SELVIN YOUNG 1 YD RUN (RYAN BAILEY KICK) Drive info: 9 plays, 75 yards.	28	31
FOURTH QUARTER				TEX	TTU
	TD	13:24	QUAN COSBY 28 YD PASS FROM COLT MCCOY (RYAN BAILEY KICK) Drive info: 5 plays, 63 yards.	35	31

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Every four years for the past 12, Texas had left Lubbock a loser.

It looked like that trend might continue Saturday night when Texas Tech jumped out to a three-touchdown lead in the first half.

Playing like a veteran
Since Texas' 24-7 loss to Ohio State back on Sept. 9, the Longhorns have reeled off seven straight wins and gotten themselves right back in the thick of BCS title talk. One of the forces behind Texas' re-emergence has been the play of freshman quarterback Colt McCoy. McCoy has been calm, consistent and courageous, qualities most recently displayed in the Horns' 35-31 comeback win on Saturday after being down 21-0 to Texas Tech. Indeed, despite the departure of Prince Vince, the future in Austin remains quite bright. McCoy's stats, since the Week 2 loss to Ohio State:
W-L	7-0
Comp. Pct.	69.9
Pass YPG	196.1
TD-INT	20-3

But the No. 5 Longhorns overcame four turnovers and erased the big deficit to beat the Red Raiders 35-31.

"This team doesn't know how to quit," said Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, who threw for 256 yards and four touchdowns. "We just kept hanging in there. We are determined and we fight to the end."

The Longhorns (8-1, 5-0 Big 12) won their 20th straight conference game and 17th consecutive road game.

Texas didn't get its first lead until early in the fourth quarter when McCoy threw a 28-yard touchdown to Quan Cosby to make it 35-31.

Tech (5-4, 2-3) had chances in the final 6:14. Twice the Red Raiders failed on fourth downs inside Texas 35. Both plays -- a completion to Joel Filani and a quarterback sneak by Graham Harrell -- came up just short and were reviewed by replay, but the officials' spots were upheld.

The second opportunity came after Jamaal Charles fumbled for a second time, this one coming at his own 24, and Tech's Jake Ratliff recovered. But Tech failed to take advantage of the turnover.

Though Tech coach Mike Leach didn't mention specifics, he said there were "some things" that happened in the second that he was "not able to comment on," possibly referring to the officials' two spots.

"But I thought they were very detrimental to our effort," said Leach, who added it was his team's best game this season.

Harrell completed 42-of-62 passes for 519 yards and three touchdowns. He threw one interception, his first since throwing five in games against Missouri and Colorado. The most passing yards Texas has ever given up was 533 yards against Houston in 1992.

Texas coach Mack Brown said he was proud of his team's confidence and perseverance

"That's the thing that separates teams," he said. "We played hard; we didn't play that well. And Texas Tech played as well as I've ever seen them play. Harrell was as hot as I've ever seen."

Texas put more pressure on Harrell in the second half, enabling the Longhorns to hold the Red Raiders scoreless. Harrell had been nearly perfect in the first half. He got the Red Raiders inside the Texas' 20-yard line only twice in the second half.

"Every ball (Harrell) threw seemed to be on the money," said defensive back Aaron Ross, who broke up three passes. "Everything he did was right. The right throw, the right receiver, the right route."

Jarrett Hicks had his best game of the season with nine catches for 156 yards for Texas Tech.

McCoy, who completed 21-of-31 and threw one interception, has thrown 24 touchdown passes this season, leaving him two shy of school season record shared by Chris Simms and Vince Young.

Texas had lost in Lubbock in 1994, '98 and 2002. Turnovers nearly doomed Texas this time. The Longhorns fumbled five times and lost three.

Tech jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, helped along by a fumble recovery by Blake Collier on Charles' first fumble. He was hit at the Red Raiders' 25.

Harrell went to work quickly. He completed passes of 32, 23 and 12 yards before hitting Eric Morris for a 3-yard score to put Tech up 14-0 midway through the period.

It got worse for the Longhorns. Deep in his own territory, McCoy threw an interception -- only his fourth this season -- right into the arms of Fletcher Session, who lumbered 19 yards to give the Red Raiders a three-touchdown lead.

The Longhorns went to their running game and scored on their next two possessions and caught a break when Scott Derry forced a fumble after Joel Filani caught a 15-yard pass. A penalty gave Texas the ball at the Tech 45 and on the first play McCoy threw a touchdown pass to Limas Sweed to cut the deficit to 24-21.

In the first half Texas gave up 10 plays of 16 yards or longer, the longest a 40-yard pass from Harrell to Hicks on a drive that ended with a field goal by Tech.

The Longhorns' pass defense looked feeble as it gave up more yards in the first half (364) than it had in any game this season.