• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Texas preps for Oklahoma, rolls over Sam Houston State

Oct 1, 2006 - 2:57 AM AUSTIN, Texas (Ticker) -- Colt McCoy appears to be in fine shape entering his first Oklahoma game.

A redshirt freshman, McCoy completed 13-of-15 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns as Texas manhandled Division I-AA Sam Houston State, 56-3.

McCoy and true freshman backup Jevan Snead, who went 7-of-8 for 122 yards and a touchdown, led the Longhorns to six first-half TDs in their final preparation before their annual "Red River Rivalry" game with Big 12 Conference rival Oklahoma next week in Dallas.

"Ohio State really helps us with the OU (Oklahoma) week because there was so much national attention for that game," Texas coach Mack Brown said, alluding to his team's 24-7 loss to the top-ranked Buckeyes three weeks ago. "Colt has already been through all the national media that you can get. There was probably more at that game than there will be at this one because it was No. 1 vs. No. 2."

McCoy set a Texas freshman record for completion percentage in a game with 15 or more pass attempts (86.7). He bested James Brown's 81.5 percent clip (22-of-27) against Houston in 1994.

"Offensively, I think we came out and did a really good job," McCoy said. "Their defense did a good job of stopping us on our zone reads, but we were able to come out and take it to them just like we planned."

Texas (4-1) scored 21 points in each of the first two quarters to build a 42-0 halftime lead.

"I know that we were clicking and it was another high-percentage game," McCoy said. "The offensive line did a great job with protection again. They gave Jevan a lot of protection, so offensively we did a good job. Now our focus is on Oklahoma."

Texas' 53-point margin of victory was its largest of the season. It marks the fifth time in the last two years the team has won by more than 50 points.

"I am really pleased with our coaches and players this week," Brown said. "It was a week that a lot of teams in America might not have had the focus that we had tonight. We were able to force a lot of turnovers and not have any. We were able to have very few penalties, get the explosives that we needed."

Henry Melton ran for a pair of scores, including a one-yard run that put the Longhorns up 35-0 with 6:27 to play in the half. He has scored on TD runs in four of Texas' five games this season.

Linebacker Robert Killebrew started the rout when he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone 3:33 into the first quarter.

Brett Hicks went 16-of-26 for 105 yards and two interceptions for the Bearkats (2-2), who were limited to 192 yards of total offense.

Sam Houston State became the 17th straight school from the state of Texas to lose to the Longhorns.