Longhorns Shut Down Jayhawks in Lawrence, 23-0
It wasn’t pretty, but it’ll do.
Texas defeated Kansas 23-0 on Saturday afternoon behind the Longhorns’ stellar defensive effort and a coaching mismatch in UT’s favor. It was ugly enough on Kansas’ side to warrant the Sunday-morning firing of head coach Charlie Weis. It’s another blow in a long string of recent failures for the former Notre Dame coach.
Duke Thomas had a pair of picks, Jordan Hicks nabbed his second of the season, and Quandre Diggs stole one of his own and recorded a sack on a corner blitz. Special teams had a mixed-bag type of day, though mostly positive: Jaxon Shipley had a nice 41-yard punt return; William Russ averaged 42 yards per punt, with three falling inside the Kansas 20; and Nick Rose hit the longest field goal of his career, a 42-yarder. That likely saved him some ire on the part of his coach, Charlie Strong, as Rose badly shanked his first extra-point attempt and had a second FG attempt blocked.
Missed opportunities on the offensive side of the ball kept the game closer than it should have been. That blocked field goal came on the heels of a 48-yard bomb from Tyrone Swoopes to Shipley in the second quarter. Before that drive stalled, it looked as if the Horns were a lock to come away with points. Texas also fumbled from the Kansas 3, squandering that chance. On the bright side, Swoopes looks more confident with each game. He was 19-34 for 218 yards and a pair of TDs. He also took one in himself, scrambling from seven yards out. Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray had trouble getting anything going on the ground.
Though Kansas is decidedly a bad football team, Vance Bedford’s defense pitched a shutout, the offense clicked, Texas is now 1-0 in Big 12 play, and no one got hurt. It was also Texas’ first road shutout since 2005, a 62-0 drumming of Baylor in Waco. We all know what happened at the end of that season. Baylor comes to Austin next Saturday.
Duke Thomas picks up 24 yards after his first interception of the day.
Photo courtesy UT Athletics.
