7:00 PM ET, August 30, 2008
Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, AUSTIN, TX
Owls out-tough's Longhorns, pulls off shocker.
AUSTIN, Texas - Talk about tough.
Ask the Texas Longhorns now if they think Florida Atlantic can deliver a few hits?
On a rainy night when Texas retired the No. 10 jersey of Vince Young, the Owls spoiled the celebrations with a 24-17 upset victory over the #10 ranked Longhorns. Behind Franz Joseph's two interceptions, the second of which was a seventy-six yard return for a score, the Florida Atlantic defense shut down Texas, sacking Colt McCoy 5 times and forcing the Heisman hopeful into throwing four interceptions, the last of which ended any shot at a comeback after the Longhorns had cut the lead to 24-17.
"I got hit hard a lot of times," McCoy said. "I compete really hard, so when I got hit, I didn't really know what's going on, I just wanted to go to the next play ... I guess Vince was right there, he was probably wishing I could run like him."
Despite being sacked five times by Florida Atlantic, McCoy never wavered even as Texas fell behind. He 259 passing yards and two touchdowns kept the game close, but in the end, his four interceptions were too much for Texas to overcome.
Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger had rankled Texas with comments suggesting the Longhorns weren't tough and could be intimidated if hit hard enough. When the Longhorns walked into the stadium about two hours before kickoff, defensive tackle Roy Miller pulled off his shirt on the field and appeared to be yelling at his teammates to get them fired up as several Owls players stood nearby.
Schnellenberger was all smiles about it after the game.
"I know one thing, they're a really tough team," he said. "I didn't know if my remarks were taken as an insult, if they did, then I apologize to their team."
While Schnellenberger had said he wanted to get "three hats" on Texas ball carriers, Florida Atlantic appeared to have twelve on Texas the entire first half.
Wang Chang, the highly coveted defensive lineman recruit and the jewel of Schnellenberger's recruiting class, set the tone early, dominating the line of scrimmage and making sure McCoy could never set his feet. Despite finishing the game with only three tackles (all sacks on McCoy), Chang battered McCoy throughout the game, making sure that McCoy was never comfortable in the pocket.
As a result, The Longhorn offense wasn't able to move the ball well at all, as their only touchdowns came on big plays.
The Texas defense still has plenty to work out, but got better as the game wore on.
The secondary that ranked No. 109 against the pass last season started two freshmen at safety and the inexperience showed as Owls quarterback Rusty Smith threw for two touchdowns
Smith, last season's Sun Belt Conference player of the year, finished with 228 yards passing and touchdown passes to Jamari Grant and Jason Harmon. However, the Owls only points in the second half came off of a short field goal and linebacker Frantz Joseph's interception.
"I thought our whole defense played well after the young secondary got settled down at halftime," Brown said. "They listened and they got better and better."
But they weren't as good as a stifling Florida Atlantic defense that ended a trend of opening day performances by Texas in recent years.
Texas had scored at least 50 points in a season opener four of the last five years. This year, facing a tougher than expected Florida Atlantic team, things were different. The Longhorns only gained 247 total yards.
"We played a pretty terrible opener," Brown said.
