AUSTIN – The brown-haired boy donned a shabby UTEP T-shirt and both a white skull facemask and a face shield that shook atop his head as he bounced toward Royal-Memorial Stadium.
His parents trailed close behind, keeping a vigilant eye on four young ones crazed for football. They all wore masks, too, and used the uncharacteristically open streets surrounding DKR to avoid other group clusters all funneling into the same space.
This is what the first Texas football game played in the COVD-19 Era looked like on Saturday night. A relative sparsity of fans, silent tailgate lots, no carnival games or street vendors, no Longhorn band, a stadium limited to 25 percent capacity.
But the 14th-ranked Longhorns would’ve played in a vacant parking lot if that’s what it took, coach Tom Herman asserted earlier this week – the atmosphere didn’t matter. What mattered was taking care of business, exactly what Texas (1-0) did during a 59-3 beatdown of UTEP (1-1) with 15,337 in attendance.
“We’ve won some games around here, we’ve all won games in the past, but this one is special,” Herman said Saturday night. “To do it the way we did it, to overcome the things we overcame in the last six months – we had zero COVID issues leading up to this game. Really proud of the way that our team handled their business leading up to the game and then the way they came out, exerted their will and played really, really well, especially to start the game.”
After “The Eyes of Texas” played over stadium speakers, UT sprinted onto the field. It received the opening kickoff and immediately gave those who took the risk to attend something to roar about.
On the first play call of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s tenure, senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger faked a handoff to sophomore tailback Roschon Johnson, shook off his first option, then rifled a pass to third-year wideout Josh Moore. He cut up midfield, dusted a couple of UTEP defensive backs and cruised into the end zone for the 78-yard catch-and-run score.
That was a welcome sight for everyone in burnt orange. Moore served a season-long suspension last year following a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon, but there had been considerable hype building around the former Yoakum All-American all offseason.
“He loves the game,” Ehlinger said of Moore. “Very, very good receiver. I'm really excited to have him back. It's nice to have guys like Josh on the field.”
Texas looked every bit the part of a 44.5-point favorite for the remainder of the game, steamrolling a hapless Miners group that last week barely fended off FCS foe Stephen F. Austin.
Senior tight end Cade Brewer broke free for a 20-yard touchdown reception to cap UT’s second drive, on a play in which Ehlinger had three or four viable scoring options. On the next drive, Johnson capped an eight-play, 70-yard drive by busting through UTEP’s leaky line for a 1-yard touchdown plunge to put UT ahead 21-0 with five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Ehlinger finished the game with a career-high 426 passing yards and five passing touchdowns, each to a different receiver. Overall, Texas out-gained UTEP 689-233.
“The game plan was to come in and throw it around a little bit to establish some confidence and some rhythm with our inexperienced wide receivers,” Herman said. “I thought our tempo was really, really good on offense. I think Mike did a good job keeping the defense on its heels.”
And UTEP couldn’t do a thing against the Texas defense, now overseen by coordinator Chris Ash. The secondary was patient, the run defense was stout and through three quarters the Miners were averaging just 3.3 yards per play.
Junior JACK Joseph Ossai wreaked havoc from his new position, helping the pass rush make UTEP redshirt sophomore quarterback Gavin Hardison uncomfortable all night. Redshirt junior safety Josh Thompson soared to pick off a Hardison pass near midfield, setting up Ehlinger’s fourth touchdown pass of the evening, a 5-yard strike to graduate transfer wideout Tarik Black. And just about every UTEP run looked dead on arrival.
This wasn’t remotely like stopping Oklahoma, but it was a fine confidence booster heading into Big 12 play.
“This is brand new for our defense and to have new coaches and a new scheme, no spring ball and no real offseason, guys playing in different positions, and to go out there and be as dominant as they were, tackle as well as they did, to play the ball for the most part in the air, I was really pleased,” Herman said.
This sort of vicious rout would normally spark a stadium that typically holds around 100,000 fans. At times in the past you could feel DKR shake and sway, almost like it was trying to uproot, when the Longhorns really got rolling.
And those in attendance, which included at least 969 students who all had to take a rapid COVID-19 test before claiming a ticket, gave a genuine effort from the socially-distanced stands. But the wattage behind all that noise and movement was lower than it’s ever been.
Not that the unusual nature of the night deterred Texas from the task at hand.
With 5 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter and Texas ahead 45-3, Thompson came on in relief of Ehlinger. His night done, the face of Texas Football put on a face mask and watched his teammates close out the first game of the strangest season any of us has ever witnessed.
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Texas pummels UTEP in front of sparse crowd at Royal-Memorial Stadium - Houston Chronicle
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