Jerry Scarbrough's True Orange
The Internet Newsletter For The True Texas Longhorn Faithful

Volume 10, No. 23, September 18, 2000

Late, Great Rally Comes Up Short at Stanford;
Texas Falls From No. 5 to No. 15 After Loss

The Longhorns couldn't run, couldn't protect the quarterback, got a punt
blocked for a Stanford touchdown, and still almost won the game against the
defending Pac 10 champion Cardinals.
But they didn't. Stanford won a 27-24 verdict with a late touchdown that
negated a 15-point fourth-quarter Texas rally.
Coach Mack Brown praised the Longhorns' fight, and they did fight, and he
said the team can build on the loss because it showed the young players they
have a chance to win tough games on the road.
"We tried," he said. "This one was tough because of the mistakes we made. We
came back and had a chance to win it with those two big fourth quarter
drives. We just came up a little short."
Brown said the team has to work hard to improve. He didn't single out the
offensive line as a unit that needs to improve, but, while the receivers
dropped some ball, the quarterbacks missed some open receivers and the
defense bent more than it should, the one constant negative this year has
been an inability to run the football.
After playing two teams who are not very good at stopping the run, the
Longhorns are last in the Big 12 and No. 112 of 114 Division I football teams
in average rushing yardage per game at 50. In two games, they have 100 net
rushing yards.
The Longhorns actually ran the ball better against Stanford than they did
against a weak Louisiana-Lafayette team in their opening 52-10 win, but the
Cardinal defenders had five sacks to cut into the net figure.
I have been predicting a very good season, and Brown has been saying the team
has some problems and must get better to accomplish its goals. He's right and
I'm wrong. Let's just hope he and his assistant coaches can work out the
problems in the offense in time to let the team accomplish its goals.
The victory gave Stanford, a 14-point underdog, a 2-1 record, while the
Longhorns fell to 1-1.
Here, briefly, is how the game went:
FIRST QUARTER
Stanford won the toss and took the ball. After an exchange of punts, Stanford
drove to midfield, but backup DE Maurice Gordon sacked QB Randy Fasani and
Fasani suffered an injured ankle and had to leave the game. He was replaced
by sophomore Chris Lewis. A face-mask penalty on a bad Stanford punt negated
that punt and gave Stanford a first down at the 47 and the Cardinal took
advantage of that Longhorn miscue, scoring in four plays with Lewis hitting
WR Luke Powell behind Quentin Jammer for the final 37 yards to put Stanford
ahead, 6-0, with 6:06 left in the quarter. DE Cory Redding blocked the extra
point. Ivan Williams ran the kickoff back to the 22. Texas drove to the
Stanford 43 before stalling. Kris Stockton got off a great punt that kicked
out of bounds at the Stanford 2. A fumbled snap pushed Stanford inside the 2,
then Redding and DT Casey Hampton led a surge that trapped FB Casey Moore in
the end zone for a safety with 1:14 left, leaving Stanford on top, 6-2. Chris
Simms came in at QB for Texas and the Horns were at midfield as the period
ended.
SECOND QUARTER
Simms hit freshman WR Roy Williams down the middle for a 37-yard touchdown
strike on the third play of the quarter. Williams broke an attempted tackle
by CB Ryan Fernandez at the 21 and strolled in for the score. Stockton's kick
put Texas on top, 9-6, with 13:59 left. Applewhite relieved Simms midway
through the period. Neither team threatened again until Stanford drove 67
yards, primarily on two big pass plays, to take a 13-9 left with 4:49 left.
Neither team threatened again before intermission.
THIRD QUARTER
Texas got the ball first, but failed to make a first down and had to punt. A
horde of Stanford defenders poured through and blocked it and backup FB Emory
Brock covered it in the end zone for a touchdown, putting Stanford up, 20-9,
just one minute deep into the second half. The rest of the quarter was a
defensive struggle, with each team making only one first down.
FOURTH QUARTER
Applewhite hit WR Montrell Flowers for 19 yards on the second play of the
fourth quarter to revive the long dormant UT offense and get the Horns
started on a drive that enabled them to get into Stanford territory for the
first time in the second half, but a holding penalty and then a sack pushed
the Horns back and killed the drive. With 9:39 left and Longhorn fans
everywhere beginning to despair, Texas, starting from its own 29, got back in
the game on one huge play. Applewhite found freshman WR B. J. Johnson behind
all the defenders and hit him for a 71-yard scoring strike. The Horns decided
to go for a 2-point conversion and, after a pass interference penaty put the
ball on the 1, Mitchell went over the top to get the two-pointer and cut the
Stanford lead to 20-17 with 9:29 left. The Texas defense, again forced
Stanford to punt quickly. Mitchell returned the punt to the Texas 41.
Applewhite hit TE Mike Jones for 25 yards to the Stanford 34, but, under a
big blitz, he was intercepted at the Stanford 4 with 7:46 left. Stanford
punted with 6:42 left, and Mitchell made a great punt return, dashing 48
yards to the Cardinal 18, but a holding penalty on the return pushed the
Horns back to the 38. Backup TB Victor Ike was stopped for no gain and
Applewhite threw an incomplete pass and to bring up third-and-10. Ike raced
down the left sideline and caught Applewhite's long throw just behind a
Stanford defender and sprinted in for the TD, putting Texas ahead, 24-20,
with 5:44 left. Stanford got a good kickoff return to the Cardinal 46, but
couldn't move and had to punt, giving Texas a chance to run the clock out
with 5:44 left. A couple of first downs would have done it, but two
false-start penalties left the Horns in a hole. They made 19 yards in three
plays, but faced a fourth-and-1 at their own 29 and had to punt. Stanford,
held in check throughout the second half by the Longhorn defense, started its
drive with 1:55 left. The Cardinal scored in five plays, with Lewis hitting
WR DeRonnie Phipps for 30 yards to the Texas 29. The Longhorns were called
for roughing the passer and a penalty to the 15 was tacked on. After an
incompletion, Lewis found Pitts again and he barreled over for the winning TD
with 1:12 left. Texas had enough time to come back, but the Stanford defense,
which already had three sacks, got two more in that final minute to finish
off the Longhorns.
Notes . .
* The Longhorns haven't rushed for 100 net yards in their last five games.
They are 1-4 in those games, with the lone victory being the season opener
against Louisiana-Lafayette.
* The Texas' defense allowed Stanford only one first down in the third
quarter and only two in the fourth quarter, until the Cardinal's winning
drive in the final two minutes.
* Texas had 18 possessions. Three of them resulted in touchdown, two ended
with pass interceptions, 12 ended with punts and the one at the end of the
game ended on downs after Applewhite was sacked twice.
* Texas' three touchdown plays accounted for 149 of the Longhorns 343 total
net yards. It was a feast-or-famine kind of game for the UT offense, which
only three other plays that gained more than 12 yards.

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Coach's Corner

Coach Mack Brown was tired Sunday afternoon for his weekly post-game news
conference. The team plane left Palo Alto at 3 a.m. Texas time and got back
to Austin around 7 a.m.
But he was fairly upbeat. "You always hate to lose," he said, "but if you
have to lose, you ought to lose early. If you're going to lose, it ought to
be out of conference."
He said the only thing the lose really costs the Longhorns is a chance at
going undefeated, "and we're not a national championship caliber team, in my
opinion."
He said the Horns can still accomplish a lot. "Look at Stanford last year,"
he said. "You never want to lose a game, but Stanford wins the Pac 10 last
year after they leave here with an embarrassing loss."
Brown said nothing went the Longhorns' way in Palo Alto. "It was a night that
nothing worked for us, but the positive thing is that we still had a chance
to win."
No one asked him about his starting quarterback because he says he has two
starters, but it appears Major Applewhite is back in the saddle. He started
Saturday night and was the quarterback on 14 of UT's 18 possessions.
Sophomore Phil Simms got the other four possessions.
He can't comment on officiating without getting in trouble with the Big 12
office, but there were a lot of penalties against the Longhorns that came at
crucial times, like the flagrant face-mask call that negated Stanford's punt
on a fourth-and-25 and gave the Cardinal an automatic first down en route to
their first touchdown. The Longhorns also had two false start penalties when
they were trying to run out the clock with a 24-20 lead. They gained 19 yards
on their three plays that stood up, but that left a yard short and they had
to run.Then there was a roughing-the-passer penalty on Stanford's winning
drive in the final two minutes.
While Brown couldn't comment after the game, he had several animated
discussions with the officials during the action.
Without commenting on the officiating, he said, "They got a holding call on
an incomplete pass on third down on one touchdown. The face mask penalty led
to a score. There was a late hit call on the quarterback on their last
(scoring) drive. Those things just abolutely kill because just about every
one led to points for them."
Brown said the Longhorns didn't use their shotgun formation with four
wideouts more because "we weren't throwing the ball and catching it very
well. That's something we would have done more if we had done better at it."
"We didn't have a good night throwing the ball overall," he said. "We had
some drops, we had some passes that missed and we had some young receivers
who were playing on the road for the first time. Montrell Flowers was the guy
who played the best among the wide receivers, and he's the most experienced.
It was a combination of errors on our passing game. We were just not smooth."
Brown was asked about the team's performance in specific area that have
caused problems in the past and have gotten special attention, like the
offensive line and the special teams.
He said, "After looking at the tape, the offensive line played better than we
thought. The blitzes were our big problem. It looked worse than it was. I
feel like we've made some progress with our offensive line. We've got to keep
working on that. I think the special teams have improved a lot. We had some
kickoff returns and Hodges (Mitchell) had the good punt return, but we had a
blocked punt for a touchdown. We had to punt a lot, but that blocked punt
really bothers me. We can't have one, no matter how many times we have to
punt. That's the part they have to focus on."
He said Texas has to bounce back quickly from the long, tiring road trip,
coupled with the loss.
"Our guys are totally exhausted. We got back at 7 a.m. (Sunday). That's why
we didn't go to Hawaii ) because we knew it would be a hard game and a long
trip."
"Our team played really hard. This was tough because we played so hard, but
had too many mistakes. But our kids fought all the way. That's what we have
to build on. We've got another game Saturday."
"Houston is not going to care about our loss," he said. "It'll probably
excite them. We can sit around and mope or we can get ready to play again.
This was a little eye opener for us to get better and move forward."
He said players and coaches can't get as up or down as fans because they know
they have to get ready to play another game and can't dwell on a win or a
loss until the season is over.
"That's the least of my worries," he said. "They really tried. When you
really try and you can come back on the road and have a chance to win, that's
something that's a positive to build on."
He said this game will help the team later on because it was a game the Horns
could have won on the road against a good team.
"We just made too many mistakes," he said. "That's something we can correct.
If we had a team that didn't care, that it didn't both to lose, that's the
worst thing that can happen to you as a coach, but that's not the problem."
After the game Saturday night, Brown said most of the players were so upset
they were crying.
"We can build on this," he said. "We have a really young football team. We'll
come back and get better. We can correct the mistakes."
"We took a big step in these big games by just hanging in there and hanging
in there. As long as they'll fight, you can coach them, and they fought all
the way. It was mistakes that cost them, not their effort, and that can be
fixed. We made three or four mistakes that probably cost us the game."
Brown said the bottom line is "we're a young team and we will get better."
INJURY UPDATE: Brown said safety Lee Jackson has a strained hamstring and
linebacker Marcus Wilkins has a sore groin. He said those appeared to be the
only injuries sustained in the Stanford game and both players are expected to
be back at practice by the middle of the week.

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Game Quotes . .

"We have a very young football team. There are four or five key games this
year, and this was one of them. As long as they'll fight, you can coach them.
We had a great effort and we played with a lot of heart. We can build on
that."
) UT head coach Mack Brown
* * * *
"You would like to have more success running the football, but when you
don't, you have to be good enough to win with the passing game."
) Longhorn offensive coordinator Greg Davis
* * * *
"We tried to battle them all night. We shut them down most of the time, but
we just had too many penalties and mistakes. They have a good team, but we'll
be okay. We'll fix the things that went wrong."
) UT defensive tackle Shaun Rogers
* * * *
"We just have to keep fighting. A loss like this really hurts, but we have to
bounce back and win the rest of them."
) Longhorn linebacker De'Andre Lewis
* * * *
"I won't know for sure what happened until we look at the tape. We got some
confidence and some momentum in the fourth quarter, but we made too many
mistakes early in the game. Stanford has a good team and we just made too
many mistakes to win."
) Texas quarterback Major Applewhite
* * * *
"When we give our quarterbacks time, they can complete passes, but we had
some breakdowns tonight. We'll get better. We have to work to eliminate our
mistakes and we can still have a great season if we can improve and eliminate
some of the mistakes."
) UT tailback Hodges Mitchell
* * * *
"This was the biggest win we've had. Texas has a very good team and we were
coming off a tough loss."
) Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham
* * * *
"You just have to go out and do it. We had to buckle down. It was now or
never. There was no real pressure. It's what we practice every day. You just
have to execute and that's what we did."
) Stanford quarterback Chris Lewis, who threw three touchdown passes in
relief of  injured starter Randy Fasani, on the game-winning drive
* * * *
"It's a great feeling. It's so much better than last week (a loss to San Jose
State). I get to wipe that bad taste out of my mouth. It's also great to win
this one at home after what happened to us last year in Austin (a 69-17
loss). Texas has a very good team, so this was a big one to win for us."
) Cardinal linebacker Riall Johnson

Texas-Stanford Statistics

Scoring Summary
Texas             2         7          0       15   )    24
Stanford          6         7          7        7   )    27

Stan - Powell 37 pass from Lewis (kick blocked) 6:06 1Q (77 yds 12 plays)
UT - safety 1:14 1Q
UT - Williams 38 pass from Simms (Stockton kick) 13:59 2Q (64 yds,5 plays)
Stan - Pitts 17 pass from Lewis (Biselli kick) 4:49 2Q (67 yds, 6 plays)
Stan - Brock 22 blocked punt return (Biselli kick) 14:00 3Q
UT - Johnson 71 pass from Applewhite (Mitchell run) 9:29 4Q (71yds, 1 play)
UT - Ike 38 pass from Applewhite (Stockton kick) 5:44 4Q (38 yds, 3 plays)
Stan - Pitts 15 pass from Lewis (Biselli kick) 1:P12 4Q (59 yds, 4 plays)

Official Attendance: 43,970

Team Statistics

Texas          Stanford
First Downs                     16           18
Rushing                             3              4
Passing                         12           10
Penalty                             1              4
Rushing Attempts, Net Yards          28-13          37-60
Net Yards Passing                   330        255
Passes Comp., Att., Int.                 21-46-2        15-37-0
Total Plays, Offense                    74-343       74-315
Avg. Gain per Play                          4.6        4.3
Fumbles Lost                            0 of  0      0 of 2
Penalties, Yards                        10-81         5-31
Punts, Avg.                         12-32.2     11-40.5
Time of Possession              29:47         30:13
Third-Down Conversions               5 of 18         4 of 17
Fourth-Down Conversions         0 of 1       0 of 0
Sacks by Team, Yds Lost         1-15          5-36

Individual Statistics

Texas

Rushing -  Mitchell 19-52; Ike 3-4; Johnson 1-minus 7; Applewhite 5-minus 36.
Passing -  Applewhite 18-40, 274 yds, 2 TDs, 2 Int.; Simms 3-6, 56 yds, 1 TD,
0 Int.
Receiving - Flowers 6-74; Johnson 1-71, 1 TD; Ike 2-51, 1 TD; Williams 2-38,
1 TD; M. Jones 3-36; Healy 2-31; Mitchell 5-29.

Stanford

Rushing -  Carter 17-71; B. Allen 11-8; C. Moore 5-0; Lewis 3-minus 4; Fasani
1-minus 15.
Passing - Lewis 12-33 214 yds, 3 TDs, 0 Int.;Fasani 3-4, 41 yds, 0 TD, 0 Int.
Receiving - Stewart 3-82; Pitts 3-62, 2 TDs; Powell 2-52, 1 TD; Wells 3-20;
C. Moore 2-20; McCullum 2-19.

Tackles by Texas Players, Unasst., Asst., Total

Jackson 6-1-7; Rawls 5-1-6; D. Lewis 3-3-6; Redding 2-4-6; Jammer 5-0-5; G.
Brown 5-0-5; Hampton 3-2-5; Babers 3-2-5; Geiggar 1-2-3; Rogers 2-0-2; Gordon
1-1-2; McClintock 0-2-2; Pittman 0-2-2; Ungar 1-0-1; T. Jones 1-0-1; Flowers
1-0-1; Thornton 1-0-1; J. Anderson 0-1-1; Trissel 0-1-1; Pearson 0-1-1.

Tackles for Losses: Redding 3-minus 6; Jackson 2-minus 5; Hampton 2-minus 4;
Rogers 2-minus 3; D. Ldewis 1-minus 2.

Sacks: Gordon 1-minus 15.