A Texas-sized victory
Williams rushes for 215 yards, 6 TDs as Brown wins debut
Posted: Sunday September 06, 1998 12:15 AM
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Now the hard part begins for Texas.
With a lot of help from Ricky Williams, who carried 36 times for 215 yards and a school-record six touchdowns, Mack Brown was a success in his debut as coach of the Longhorns with a 66-36 victory over New Mexico State Saturday night.
Next week, the Longhorns will find out how good they really are.
The scene will be the Rose Bowl and a rematch with UCLA, which stuck Texas with its worst home loss ever last year, a 66-3 blowout now known as "Rout 66."
Texas surrendered 483 yards to New Mexico State, most after the Longhorns took a 31-3 lead at halftime, prompting Brown to say, "I'm sure UCLA saw a lot of things that they feel like they can expose with our defense. We need to work hard this week."
New Mexico State coach Tony Samuel said he was proud of his team's ability to score 33 points in the second half.
"At first, I thought we were too jacked up and we tried too hard, but we settled down," Samuel said. "I think we kept them off balance all night."
But there was reason for celebration by the Longhorns.
Williams, who needs 75 yards to surpass Earl Campbell's school career rushing record of 4,443 yards, scored on runs of 4, 4, 3, 13, 4 and 7 yards. He piled up his yardage without a run longer than 20 yards and sat out most of the fourth quarter.
Williams broke his own school record of five rushing TDs set last year in a 38-31 victory over Rice.
"People know we are going to run the ball, and we are going to run it down their throat," Williams said. "It's a good start for the Heisman race. Two hundred and 15 yards are some good numbers."
Richard Walton, taking over at quarterback for Texas as a fifth-year senior, completed 15-of-21 passes for 282 yards without an interception in helping the Longhorns pile up 580 yards. He had a 21-yard TD toss to Derek Lewis in the second quarter.
"If there was a highlight for tonight, it was Richard Walton for me," Brown said. "He played like a starter, and I'm pleased with the way he responded."
Walton repeatedly showed excellent touch on deep passes, hitting Bryan White with a 29-yard pass that set up Williams' first TD run, hitting Lewis for Texas' second score, hitting Kwame Cavil on passes of 22 and 12 yards to set up Williams' second TD run and again hitting Cavil on a 41-yard strike to set up Williams' third TD run and a 28-3 lead with 1:51 left in the half.
"It's a great confidence booster any time you can get over 500 yards total offense," Walton said.
Kris Stockton had a 52-yard field goal as time expired, giving Texas a 31-3 lead at intermission.
Brown did what his predecessors John Mackovic and David McWilliams couldn't by winning his first game at Texas.
Of course, Mackovic, who opened with a 28-10 loss to then 21st-ranked Mississippi State in 1992, and McWilliams both played ranked opponents. McWilliams had to go on the road against then No. 5 Auburn in a 31-3 loss in 1987.
Brown happily kicked off his tenure as Texas' 28th coach by claiming victory over a New Mexico State team that went 2-9 last year and had just four returning starters on defense.
The Texas defense, which ranked 104th of 112 teams last year against the run after yielding nearly 245 yards per game on the ground, gave up just 67 yards rushing and 142 overall in the decisive first half.
The Longhorns were often beaten on pass routes and gave up several big plays in the second half.
New Mexico State scored on pass plays of 22 and 5 yards from Ty Houghtaling to David Patterson in the third quarter and a 4-yard run by Denvis Manns early in the fourth.
"We have a lot of film to study before we talk about moral victories," Samuel said. "We have a lot to improve on, but we did get a lot of bugs out."
Robert Garth caught a 10-yard TD pass from Houghtaling, who was 14-of-27 for 211 yards with one interception, and Timothy Nelson scored on a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Texas got two fourth-quarter touchdowns from Hodges Mitchell on runs of 9 and 19 yards.
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