Colt McCoy stands in the pocket and (as seen below) delivers a strike.     Photo: Brax - VPC

The Texas Longhorns came into town for the much hyped UTEP-Texas football game in the Sun Bowl stadium and stampeded the Miners for a 42-13 victory. And, El Paso as well as UTEP had all the national, or at least regional, attention that they could handle. But, the huge football party turned out to be a devastating loss for Miner fans.

Virtual Tour of Longhorn-Miner bash... Texas-UTEP Week including, Minerpaloosa, tailgating, game, fans, cheerleaders & parties.

Although, many Miners fans were for some reason expecting an upset... UTEP fans wore special edition T-shirts branded with "New Brand of Texas Football" and "09-06-08: Where will you be?" The fantasy only lasted until the first few minutes of the first quarter. Then the reality set in.

UTEP had lost 7 in a row since the 2007 season, and although UTEP was one of the youngest teams in the NCAA last year... the reality of who the Texas Longhorns were became apparent in the first quarter. But, not before the Miners gave the record sellout crowd of 53,415 plenty to cheer about.

As we indicated in our Op/Ed piece of September 1, 2008, UTEP Coach Mike Price probably had some tricks up his sleeve for this game with hopes of keeping the crowd into the game and maybe pulling off an upset. Using an option alignment, Vittatoe kept the Longhorn defense guessing as to whether he would run, pass or hand off.

Coach Mack Brown, probably aware of Price’s capabilities, made sure that the Vittatoe did not beat the ‘Horns on the big play. Texas chose to buffer their young secondary with basically a 4-7 defense; and the Miners took advantage of this formation to get out of the chute early for big rushing gains against the Longhorns four man rush.

T. Jackson scampers into secondary.     Photo: Brax - VPC

The Miners moved the ball between the 20’s on two consecutive series but then the buffer became less apparent in the red zone as the Longhorn bend-not-break defensive strategy took over and UTEP was forced to kick two field goals of 30 and 49 yards which Jose Martinez did with ease.

The first Miner drive gave the Miner hopeful plenty to cheer about as it went for 67-yards on 13 plays. After the second Martinez field goal Miners were up 6-0. The Sun Bowl stadium was a sea of orange... Miner orange & Longhorn orange. The Burnt Orange Longhorn fans quiet and uneasy but, the bright orange Miner fans were delirious.

But, you are not going to stuff one of the best offenses in the country and now it was the Longhorns turn to get their offense in gear.

And high-gear-it they did. The Longhorns kept the offensive pressure on throughout the first half with Heismann hopeful QB Colt McCoy putting on a dazzling passing display. McCoy was almost perfect in the first half, completing 14 of 16 passes and three TD’s. McCoy’s first TD pass was for 16-yards to Quam Cosby then he hit Dan Buckner for 12-yard and with 3:59 left in the first half hit Blaine Irby for 23 -yd.

McCoy completes pass as Miners defenders are blocked.     Photo: Brax - VPC

The Miners were not able to pull off a big play. But, with the Longhorn lead only 14-6, Price decided to have Martinez try a 64-yard field goal that fell a few yards short. The Longhorns turned that failed attempt into their big play as Cosby bolted out of the end zone after acting like he was going to toss the ball to the referee and raced down the Longhorn sideline for 74-yards down to the Miner 35-yard line.

With just a couple of minutes to play, Price maneuvered the Miners quickly down the field as the Longhorns played prevent. Then with a beautiful, reverse motion play-action pass; Vittatoe rolled right and threw across the field to an open Miner Tufick Shadrawy who was able to get into the end zone for a 12-yard TD pass to cut the Longhorn lead to 28-13. With only a 15-point lead and the Miners having scored last; the record crowd stayed in their seats and didn’t leave early.

Longhorn Cheerleaders with winning smiles.     Photo: Brax - VPC

McCoy had a great game and showed the nation that he has matured into a full-spectrum QB in the mold of Tim Tebow. McCoy showed his accuracy and leadership passing for 282 yards and four touchdowns.

McCoy was the consummate QB and except for his first interception of the year McCoy did everything but run for a score in the victory. With Texas driving early in the second half for a 35-13 lead, Miner CB C. Brown, pushed off the Longhorn receiver heading into the left quarter of the end zone and was all alone to catch the interception in the end zone without a penalty being called. McCoy was seen giving his young receiver a tongue lashing as they walked back to the sidelines.

The Miners put on an admirable effort and put up substantial numbers... even more than Texas in some areas. Vittatoe put up great numbers against a revolving Texas defense; but the key number was the Miners only scored one touchdown.

The Longhorns were still using a large number of players, many of them freshmen and sophomores. Redshirt Freshman Foswhitt "Fozzy" Whittacker, seen at top photo, started for the first game and was the Longhorn's leading rusher. Coach Brown treating this game as a growing experience for many of his young players before he has to use his first-string when Big 12 conference play starts.

Texas was favored to win by 29 points and won by 29 with many Miner fans in despair when Martinez missed his final field goal attempt of 52-yard in the fourth quarter.

Texas moved to 2-0 for the year and the Miners fell to 0-2.

Prepared by WestsideReader staff.

(Photos: Brax- Valley Publishing Company)