Heart of Texas
Despite being down early, Longhorns don’t give up and rally back to shock Oregon State
SAN ANTONIO—David Ash threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, the last a 36-yard strike to Marquise Goodwin with 2:24 left, to give Texas a 3127 comeback victory over No. 15 Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night.
The Longhorns (9-4) never led before Goodwin scored his second touchdown on a deep post pattern, just a down after Texas converted a fourth-and-1 play to keep its chances alive.
Storm Woods ran for 118 yards and scored two touchdowns for Oregon State (9-4). The Beavers left stunned after looking as though they would wrap up their first 10win season since 2006.
Down 20-10 at halftime, Texas
coach Mack Brown said he told his players they would win.
“I told them this it wasn’t going to be easy, but I told them this game was ours and we would win it,” Brown said. “This one is really special.”
The victory was a dose of muchneeded good news for Texas after coming into the game under a cloud of questions following the suspensions of backup quarterback Chase McCoy and injured linebacker Jordan Hicks.
Ash, whose been pulled at times for McCoy this season, was 21 of 33 for 241 yards. Ash sputtered until the fourth quarter, when he went 9 for 11 for 146 yards. Texas had no choice but to stick with the only backups two redshirt freshmen who haven’t taken a snap all season.
Brown announced the suspensions Friday but wouldn’t reveal which players were sent home. A person with knowledge of the suspensions told The Associated Press the players were McCoy and Hicks, speaking on condition of anonymity because Texas wasn’t releasing the names.
Brown addressed the suspensions during a previously schedule news conference and referred to a local TV report that police were investigating two unidentified Texas players in an alleged sexual assault at a San Antonio hotel. Police released a heavily redacted incident report that only identifies the suspects as two students, one 20 and the other 21.
Authorities are still investigating and no charges have been filed.
Brown said he would not address the suspensions further.
Oregon State quarterback Cody Vaz was 15 of 28 for 194 yards. The Beavers had negative 4 yards in the fourth quarter as they were muffled by the Longhorns defense that was led by Alex Okafor, who finished with 4 1/2 sacks.