The week leading up to Texas’ trip back to Los Angeles to play USC has been filled with highlights galore of the Longhorns’ triumph over the Trojans in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game. While the stars of that memorable college football game were out in force at the Coliseum for the rematch on Saturday -- Vince Young, Matt Leinart and even Matthew McConaughey included -- this year’s edition paid homage to that classic... by laying an egg in the first half.
Third and fourth down stops thanks to bad play designs? You got it. Turnovers? Check. Lackluster run games? Definitely. Mental mistakes? Tons.
As a result, No. 4 USC didn’t quite look like the College Football Playoff contender they were seven days ago after a sloppy 14-7 first half that saw them up just a touchdown on Texas at the midway point.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that the Horns’ defense showed up in a way that Stanford could not in the same situation last week. The Longhorns stout front four were active for the first two quarters and helped clog USC’s running lanes, limiting star tailback Ronald Jones to just 33 yards on 13 carries. Heisman favorite Sam Darnold had to shoulder the load for the most part and put up solid numbers (173 yards passing on 12 completions and the only two scores on a pair of nifty touchdown throws) but was not helped by his young receivers dropping passes on nearly every drive.
Opposite number Sam Ehlinger, making his first road start under center as just a true freshman, was fairly uneven on the night. He threw an ill-advised interception from his own end zone and was on the run for most of the first two quarters of action when he dropped back to pass. Had it not been for the impressive defensive effort though, including a pick-six with 19 seconds left by DeShon Elliott to knot things up on the scoreboard, things could have been a lot worse for Tom Herman coming out of the locker room as a big underdog.
What will the second half have in store? Hopefully less of what we saw Saturday evening and more of that magic from a decade ago in the Rose Bowl. Perhaps the pair of touchdowns in the final 20 seconds will be a sign of things to come from the Coliseum.
