The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Longhorns defeat Sam Houston State
09.30.2006 | Football
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Henry Melton ran for two touchdowns, Colt McCoy passed for two more and No. 7 Texas emptied its bench and still piled up the points on Division I-AA Sam Houston State in a 56-3 win Saturday night.
Melton, a 270-pound tailback normally used in short-yardage and mop-up situations, got the start and ran for 63 yards as the Longhorns (4-1) sat Jamaal Charles and Selvin Young against the overmatched Bearkats (2-2).
The Longhorns' first game against a I-AA opponent since 1992 was every bit as one-sided as expected.
Texas scored more than 50 points for the third time this season in what amounted to little more than a scrimmage the week before the annual showdown with Big 12 rival Oklahoma. McCoy was 13-of-15 passing for 178 yards as Texas rolled up a 42-0 halftime lead.
Freshman Jevan Snead, who lost the preseason battle with McCoy to start, ran for a second-quarter touchdown and threw a 56-yard scoring strike to Jordan Shipley on the second play of the third.
After that, Texas used a steady diet of runs up the middle to use up the game clock.
Texas blocked the Bearkats' first punt for a touchdown and led 21-0 after the first quarter. Melton scored on a 2-yard run and McCoy fired an 8-yard TD to Nate Jones.
McCoy completed his first nine passes and sat out a series when Snead directed the Longhorns to their fourth TD. Snead hit Jermichael Finley for 29 yards up the middle before finishing the drive with an 8-yard run that made it 28-0.
Melton scored again from the 1 before McCoy and Limas Sweed connected for their fifth touchdown this season, this time on an acrobatic catch by Sweed that covered 42 yards for the final score of the half.
The teams had barely come out of the locker room when Shipley, one of Texas' top recruits in 2004 before knee and hamstring injuries forced him to miss the last two seasons, blew past the deep coverage in the middle of the field to haul in a perfect spiral from Snead for the score.
Sam Houston State avoided the shutout with Taylor Wilkins' 36-yard field goal in the third. Texas scored its last TD in the fourth on a 55-yard punt return by Quan Cosby.
By then, many in Royal-Memorial Stadium had already left, perhaps to get an early start on the party before the matchup with the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The Longhorns snapped a five-game losing streak to the Sooners last season in their run to the national championship.
