In 70 games as a head coach, Charlie Strong had never seen one of his teams rush for 300 yards in a game. Not at Louisville. Not at Texas. He sure liked what he saw this past weekend.
“Anytime you can run the ball for 300 yards,” Strong said Monday, “you feel like you have a little toughness to you.”
How Texas got its toughness back in a stunning upset of Oklahoma isn’t all that complicated. The more physical team tends to win these Red River brawls. The more physical team rushed for 313 yards this year with a simple yet comprehensive plan for punishing the Sooners, one perfectly tailored for redshirt freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard and superbly executed by his supporting cast.
In all, 52 of Texas’ 70 plays on offense were designed runs that helped the Horns control both the point of attack and the clock. Oklahoma knew it was coming all day long and only managed to stop four runs behind the line of scrimmage.
That’s because Texas had the Sooners running all over the place. Throughout the day, receiver Marcus Johnson was sent in motion pre-snap to set up fake reverse sweeps, dive plays and a critical fly sweep for the game’s first score. His constant movement helped create confusion and forced OU defenders to relocate.
The key, playcaller Jay Norvell said, was finding ways to get Heard to the perimeter to do some damage. The fakes to Johnson helped get the speedy freshman dashing downhill, and Heard picked up 82 yards on his 12 outside runs.
“It’s like playing Wildcat all day with the quarterback,” Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. “Any time the quarterback has his hands on the ball, you have an extra blocker and we had to make adjustments to compensate.”
When Heard wasn’t dancing outside, Johnathan Gray and D’Onta Foreman were pounding the heart of the OU defense with inside runs on 18 of their 31 totes. Nothing memorable – just tough, short gains – until the end of the third quarter, when Foreman rumbled 81 yards on a sprint draw.
“We just wanted to gas them, to just run at them,” Foreman said. “I told the coaches let’s just keep running at them, keep running at them.”
Running backup QB Tyrone Swoopes in short-yardage power packages once again paid off big, both in a rushing touchdown and a game-clinching TD toss. While Norvell unveiled that wrinkle two weeks ago, OU defenders still couldn’t quite account for it.
By the end of the day, Heard had thrown only one pass that traveled more than 10 yards. Yep, just one. Didn’t complete it, either. When the offensive line is paving run lanes like that, he said, you just go with it.
“Our run game was something crazy,” Heard said.
It was the kind of attack that Norvell knew worked, because he was on the other end of it in 2013. Texas beat the then-No. 12 Sooners by mauling up front and pounding the run with two 100-yard backs. The show of force was as surprising then as it was Saturday.
After that 2013 game, then-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite was asked to define Texas’ new offensive identity. His answer: “Playing your ass off. Bottom line.”
So why not stick with what’s worked before?
“We used a similar formula, to be honest with you,” Norvell said.
And now Texas has a bye week to build on it. With a little more toughness and a potent play-action passing game, Norvell’s one-game surprise just might evolve into a season-long solution.