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McCoy fuels Texas past UTEP

Sep 7, 2008 - 7:18 AM EL PASO, Texas (Ticker) -- Colt McCoy threw for 282 yards and four touchdowns as ninth-ranked Texas trampled UTEP, 42-13, on Saturday.

UTEP (0-2) led 6-0 lead in the first quarter before McCoy and the Longhorns got untracked.

McCoy found Quan Cosby for a 16-yard scoring strike in the first quarter. In the second quarter, he sandwiched TD passes to Dan Buckner and Blaine Irby around a 1-yard TD run by Coby Johnson as Texas upped the advantage to 28-6.

"The defense really stepped up in the third quarter, and Colt was really accurate," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We handled their blitzes well and took advantage of some [man-to-man] coverage situations."

The Miners, who have lost eight straight over two seasons, cut the gap in the final minute of the first half when Tufick Shadrawy caught a 12-yard TD pass from Trevor Vittatoe.

Vittatoe was 21-of-38 for 249 yards. Terrell Jackson added 93 yards on the ground for the Miners, with a long run of 21 yards.

"I'm really proud of our team. I hope the fans are proud," UTEP coach Mike Price said. "We played hard and we came out ready to play. Everybody in the stadium came out ready to play. I would have liked to seen two touchdowns instead of two field goals [in the first half]. We gave a great effort against a fantastic football team."

After a scoreless third quarter, Texas (2-0) iced the game with two touchdowns as McCoy, who was 20-for-29 passing, found Jordan Shipley from 15 yards and Roddrick Muckelroy returned a fumble 25 yards for a score.

"Colt McCoy is a fantastic quarterback," Price said. "He can really lay it in there."

The Longhorns' offense struck quickly: of the five offensive TD drives, the longest in duration was two minutes and 37 seconds.

Cosby was McCoy's favorite target, snaring eight passes for 154 yards and the TD. McCoy found seven different receivers in the game.

"You can do a lot of things with Quan when they try to cover him man-to-man," McCoy said. "I doubt that we'll get to see that a lot more this year."

UTEP fell to 3-44 all-time versus Top 25 opponents. It was the first meeting of the schools since 1933, when UTEP was known as the College of the Mines.