UT’s Williams, Mitchell double trouble for KU

By Andrew Hartsock     Nov 12, 2000

All week, Kansas University’s football team talked about all the weapons Texas had at its disposal.

As it turns out, the Longhorns just needed two.

True freshman wide receiver Roy Williams caught four passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and ran for a 35-yard end-around TD in the third quarter, and Hodges Mitchell rushed for a career-best 264 yards and three TDs in the Longhorns’ 51-16 rout of the Jayhawks on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

“We had trouble with the pass, then we had trouble with the run,” KU senior defensive end Chaz Murphy said. “We knew they could get big gains, but we didn’t expect it to be like that. We had a feeling we could beat Texas. We knew we could play with them. It just came down to who made the most mistakes.”

Texas gained 637 total yards, the most against KU this season, the most against KU in coach Terry Allen’s four-year tenure and 10th most against KU all-time.

Mitchell’s 264 rushing yards rank sixth by a KU opponent all-time and third against an Allen-coached Kansas team.

And Williams’ 180 receiving yards were the second most during the Allen era and third most in school history.

Truth be told, Williams did the most damage. His ability to beat KU one-on-one paired with KU cornerback Andrew Davison forced Kansas to change its defense, which opened the door for Mitchell.

“We took one defender out of the box,” Allen said, “and he took advantage of it.”

Allen had high praise for Williams, a 6-foot-5 true freshman.

“He’s got great size, great speed and great eye-hand coordination,” Allen said. “He’s a true freshman. You’ll see him a long time I’m not sure at what level.”

Tony Coker, a freshman offensive lineman from Hoisington who was spending the season as a red shirt, has quit the team. There was no immediate word on Coker’s destination. Coker was a Class 3A all-stater last season at Hoisington High.

The teams played a crazy first quarter. Kansas scored 14 points in five minutes and tacked on two more points when Carl Nesmith returned a Chris Simms two-point conversion pass 100 yards for a safety.

UT received favorable field possession early in the second quarter when Kansas was tacked up for unsportsmanlike conduct and a personal foul on the same punt. Joey Pelfanio punted from the KU 43 to the Texas 27, but Carl Shazor and Matt Jordan were flagged for a pushing match. Thirty yards in penalties gave Texas first-and-10 on the Kansas 43, the original line of scrimmage. But Texas was flagged for holding and Nate Dwyer sacked Chris Simms to back the Longhorns up, and they eventually punted into the end zone.

Kansas missed a chance to pull within 23-19 when Joe Garcia came up short on a 44-yard field goal into a light breeze late in the second quarter. It capped a drive where KU finally earned a first down after four straight three-and-out possessions.

At halftime, the Longhorns had 381 total yards to KU’s 131. Of the six first-half scoring drives, just one lasted longer than 1 minute, 15 seconds. UT had an 11-play, 66-yard drive that lasted 5:21.

Game time temperature was 32 degrees with a 10 mph wind out of the southeast.

After broadcasting the Kansas-St. John’s men’s basketball game Friday night at the Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic in New York, the Jayhawk Radio Network talent of Bob Davis and Max Falkenstien hopped on the university jet along with KU athletics director Bob Frederick and associate AD Richard Konzem at 1 a.m. Saturday and made it to Lawrence by 5 a.m., eight hours before kickoff.

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