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The end of the Mack Brown era came tonight in San Antonio, a moment bittersweet for some, and long overdue for others. When it was all said and done, the failures of his final four seasons were on full display, perfectly summarized in Case McCoy’s second pass of the night, one intercepted by the Ducks Avery Patterson and returned 37 yards for a touchdown. Â Things never got much better in 10th ranked Oregon’s 30-7 win over the Longhorns.
In a first half where Case McCoy went 5-12 for 31 yards and a the pick six, the only offensive bright spot was RB Malcolm Brown, who put Texas on his back and ran like the NFL back he will one day be. The Longhorns defense was gashed by Oregon QB Marcus Mariota on runs like BYU’s Taysom Hill used to end the career of Manny Diaz, but held Oregon to field goals with some help from Oregon mistakes.
The Longhorns were still within striking distance with about three minutes left when Mariota drove the Ducks 88 yards in 1:24 to put Oregon up 20-7 and effectively end the game. Mariota ran for 33 yards and passed for 43, including a 16 yard touchdown strike to Josh Huff.
The second half was not much better, with McCoy being temporarily benched for Tyrone Swoopes, who threw a beautiful deep ball dropped by Mike Davis. McCoy was reinserted, and finished off his career with another interception returned for a touchdown, this one by Derrick Malone for 38 yards to put Oregon up by 23.
Tyrone Swoopes came back in and led a good drive against the Ducks starting defense, but the drive ended on 4th down inside the Oregon 15 yard line. From there, Oregon ran out the clock on big win in the Alamodome.
With the game over, and the recap done as painless as I could make it for all who bleed burnt orange, lets take stock of where we are tonight, and where we are headed. This was the end of the line for an era which saw Texas football resurrected by Brown, taken to heights not seen since DKR, and inevitably taken back down the path from where it came in 1998. Now, the next man comes in with a mess to clean up and it will start at the quarterback position.
