Texas Football: 3 takeaways from Longhorns’ stifling win vs. BYU

No. 7 Texas football found a way to get the job done on Oct. 28 at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin against the BYU Cougars and head coach Kalani Sitake. Texas came up with a decisive 35-6 win over BYU, where the team found multiple ways to stop the Cougars and get in the end zone.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns relied on defense and a steady dose of the ground game to get the decisive 29-point win over the Cougars this weekend. Texas rushed for 184 yards and averaged nearly six yards per play to get a solid offensive output, with redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy getting his first career start.

Despite BYU having the ball for over 33 minutes in this game, the Longhorns scored four offensive touchdowns and controlled the game the entire way. BYU averaging under five yards per play and converting just 2-of-13 on third down played a big role in the Longhorns winning decisively.

Here are three takeaways from the Longhorns’ stifling 29-point win over BYU in Week 9.

Maalik Murphy shows composure as the game progresses

Murphy faced a decent BYU defense that is capable of generating many turnovers in his first career start. BYU leads the Big 12 in forced turnovers (nearly 2.5 per game). And the Cougars got on Murphy and the Longhorns for a couple of early turnovers in the first half.

After a tough start with two turnovers, Murphy was in a good rhythm for the Longhorns. He completed 16-of-25 passing attempts for 170 passing yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Both of Murphy’s touchdown passes were to junior wide receiver Adonai Mitchell.

Murphy was effective in spreading the ball around to the different weapons Texas has in the receiving corps. While the offensive gameplan was limited for Murphy’s first career start, and rightly so in this spot, he completed at least three passes to four top targets for the Longhorns in the passing game.

Redshirt sophomore running back Jonathon Brooks, junior tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders, junior wide receiver Xavier Worthy, and Mitchell all had three catches for at least 25 yards in this game against the Cougars.

Murphy passed the first test of his collegiate career as a starter. He will be tested by an even better team next weekend when Texas hosts the Kansas State Wildcats at DKR on Nov. 4.