AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -Sputtering, stuttering and staggering, Colt McCoy and the No. 2 Texas Longhorns have had trouble getting started this season.
The first half of the last two games have been especially rough on the Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback. The Longhorns kicked three field goals and scored only one offensive touchdown in wins over Wyoming and Texas Tech.
Texas coach Mack Brown would love to crank things up early Saturday against Texas El-Paso (1-2), a game the Longhorns are favored to win by 36 points.
“Colt needs to start better,” Brown said, noting he spreads the blame across the offense. “The quarterback gets blamed for it, but it’s all over the map.”
McCoy’s first-half numbers mirror the team’s standing-still starts.
d just one interception on a tipped pass.
“Pretty poor,” is how McCoy described Texas’ first-half offense the last two weeks. “(But) we’re coming back and finishing strong.”
The season didn’t begin this way.
Texas (3-0) roared to 38 points in the first half of a 59-20 win over Louisiana-Monroe in the first game. But even then, McCoy was slightly off target with several throws.
The miscues were enough to cause Brown to talk with McCoy about settling down and finding the fun in his game again. Then McCoy got sick with the flu and missed some practice last week before the game against Texas Tech.
McCoy said he was still feeling the effects of the flu early against the Red Raiders. It wasn’t until he munched on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and quaffed a children’s hydration drink at halftime that he got the boost of energy he needed.
He was 15 of 18 passing in the second half and Texas scored touchdowns on the first two drives in the third quarter.
McCoy wasn’t sick a week earlier against Wyoming when Texas trailed 10-6 late in the second half before ripping off 35 unanswered points.
The slow starts haven’t hurt yet because the Longhorns have dominated early on defense.
Texas has given up just one first-half touchdown this season and held the Red Raiders, one of the most prolific passing offenses in the country, to a single field goal.
ftime we said, “Hey, look, we need to give the defense something to play for,” McCoy said. “They held Tech to three points in the first half. That’s unbelievable.”
Texas El-Paso gave Texas fits on the road to start the game last season. A whipped-up home crowd inspired the Miners to a 6-0 lead before Texas answered with four touchdowns by halftime.
“I thought they played better than us,” Brown said. “They played more physical than us.”
Texas-El Paso coach Mike Price will try to tap into that quick start again with hopes of keeping it going. The Miners are making their first trip to Austin since 1933 when UTEP was still known as the College of the Mines.
“We have TVs all around our locker room. So we’ll cut out the good stuff from last year’s game and show it to them,” Price said. “When they’re sitting there getting ready for practice, they’ll be able to look at the screen and see the TV copy of themselves playing well against Texas, just to remind them that we can play well against this team.”
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