Despite botching the coin toss and giving up 217 yards rushing (after giving up just 35 rush yards on 18 carries in the first half), Texas had a 17-13 lead and the ball against No. 12 UCLA with 4:17 left to play. And then a chance for Charlie Strong and Texas to have a signature outcome completely got away.
#1 … Great effort by Texas. Good enough to win. But it ends the way Texas lost the BYU game – with faulty special teams and no offense.
#2 … First, after Texas takes a 17-13 lead with 5:13 left, Nick Rose kicked off out of bounds, giving UCLA the ball at the 35. Then, UT gave up a 30-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage. Just like that UCLA had the ball at the Texas 35.
But Steve Edmond forced a fumble, and DT Paul Boyette, who replaced an injured Desmond Jackson, recovered it with 4:17 left.
#3 … But the Texas offense, after looking so good on its previous drive, ran for 5 yards on first down with Malcolm Brown, then lost five with Malcolm on second down and threw incomplete on third down.
That was 3 plays for minus-5 yards (there was a false start flag on Josh Turner on the punt) and ate up only 1:11.
#4 … Then, a 58-yard punt by William Russ is brought back 45 yards by UCLA’s Ishmael Adams to the Texas 33, and Jerry Neuheisel gets Duke Thomas to bite on the pump of a pump-and-go, and Jordan Payton gets behind Thomas for a 33-yard TD pass.
That 1-play drive took :06 and put UCLA up 20-17 with 3:00 to play.
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