AUSTIN, Texas—Jordan Shipley set a Texas record with 273 yards receiving, including an 88-yard touchdown, and the No. 2 Longhorns shook off a slow start for a 35-3 win over Central Florida on Saturday.
The sixth-year senior broke the Texas mark of 198 yards set in 1979 by Johnny “Lam” Jones. The touchdown came early in the fourth quarter on a drive that started at the 1.
Colt McCoy passed for 470 yards with two touchdowns. He was just shy of current Texas running backs coach Major Applewhite’s school-record 473 yards in the 2001 Holiday Bowl.
Texas (9-0) led 14-3 at halftime on two touchdown runs by Cody Johnson. McCoy hit James Kirkendoll with a 14-yard TD pass in the third before the big strike to Shipley.
Central Florida (5-4) managed just 151 total yards.
Texas established the McCoy-to-Shipley connection as one of the country’s best long ago, but seldom have the two been as in sync as Saturday.
Long passes to Shipley kept Texas’ two scoring drives moving in the first half. And when pinned on the Texas goal line early in the fourth, a pass to John Chiles got the ball to the 12 before Shipley made a double move to slip behind coverage and snared the ball from McCoy in stride.
Those two had to keep connecting on a day the Longhorns seemed to struggle on offense.
After three big wins over Oklahoma, Missouri and Oklahoma State, the Longhorns were ripe for a letdown. Coach Mack Brown tried to keep his players sharp by talking about the Big 12 and national title goals in front of them.
But the home crowd was late showing up for the 11 a.m. kickoff and the Longhorns’ offense was slow waking up. Early miscues included a rare missed field goal by Hunter Lawrence and a bobbled pitch by McCoy on a flea flicker. Catch the ball and he had Chiles wide open behind the defense for an easy score.
The defense kept things in control until McCoy and Shipley could get rolling. The Longhorns held an opponent under 200 yards for the third time this season.
Central Florida started reserve Rob Calabrese at quarterback and was without leading rusher Brynn Harvey. Calabrese, who started the first two games of the season before being replaced by Brett Hodges, was 10 of 19 for 76 yards and was sacked six times.
McCoy was 33 of 42 with one interception and threw to nine receivers. Shipley caught 11 passes, pushing him to 75 for 1,050 yards and six touchdowns on the season.
After the game, when the Longhorns gathered in the end zone to sing the “Eyes of Texas” with the band, a group of fans gathered in the end zone chanted “Jor-dan, Jor-dan!” He stepped away to give a “Hook’em Horns” salute to the crowd.
