No. 1 Texas buries hype, then Missouri

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometime during the week, the top-ranked Texas Longhorns dug a hole in a secret spot and buried the game ball from their big win over Oklahoma.

Then, with the hype symbolically disposed of, the Longhorns went out and buried No. 11 Missouri.

Using a stunning first half, Texas raced to a 35-point lead before cruising to a 56-31 Big 12 Conference victory Saturday night that left little doubt these Longhorns plan to be No. 1 for a while.

Colt McCoy passed for 337 yards and two touchdowns, ran for two more and set a school record with 17 straight completions in the kind of nearly flawless performance that he’s starting to make look routine.

“Colt was phenomenal,” Texas Coach Mack Brown said. “He’s showing leadership, he’s poised. He’s really having a good time.”

McCoy and the Longhorns had earned Texas’ first regular-season No. 1 ranking since 1984 a week earlier by knocking off Oklahoma in Dallas, leading some to wonder how the Longhorns would handle the top spot.

Missouri was supposed to be a battle between two national-title contenders and Heisman Trophy-caliber quarterbacks in McCoy and Missouri’s Chase Daniel. The Tigers had been within one victory of playing for the national title last season and were ranked as high as No. 3 only a week ago.

It wasn’t close. Not even for a little while.

Dominating both sides of the ball, the Longhorns (7-0, 3-0) scored touchdowns on all five possessions of the first half in front of a feverish record home crowd of 98,383.

“We buried the Oklahoma game. We threw No. 1 out the window and went back to work,” Texas defensive end Brian Orakpo said.

McCoy did his part, picking apart the Tigers at will. He stiff-armed defenders when he ran, and one time when he was nearly sacked and he fumbled, he picked up the ball and fired a 23-yard completion.

“We came out strong,” McCoy said. “Every time we had the ball, we went down and scored. That’s our standard.”

Missouri (5-2, 1-2) didn’t score until Jeff Wolfert kicked a 33-yard field goal on the last play of the half. By that time, the crowd had been taunting the Tigers with chants of “Over-rated!” for nearly 20 minutes. The Tigers tacked on two late touchdowns when the game was well out of reach.

“I think I played as loose as possible. I was upbeat, trying to get my teammates going,” said Daniel, who finished with 318 yards passing two touchdowns. “[McCoy] can’t play any better. It’s the reason why he’s the front-runner for the Heisman. It’s the reason why Texas is playing so well.”