Texas captain goofs on coin toss, UCLA receives ball to start both halves

The coin toss for a college football game is a fairly simple thing. A captain from the visiting team calls heads or tails and ordinarily, if he wins the toss, he gets to choose whether his team will receive the kickoff to start the game or he can defer that choice to the second half.

Apparently one of Texas’ team captains had trouble understanding this against UCLA on Saturday.

The Bruins won the toss and elected to defer their choice to the second half. At that juncture, Texas was given the opportunity to choose whether to receive the opening kickoff or go on defense. When this happens, 99.9 percent of the time, a team will choose to receive the ball to start the game since it will not have the opportunity in the second half, but inexplicably, Texas chose to kick.

Texas coach Charlie Strong wasn't pleased.

Fortunately for Strong, his defense was able to stop the Bruins to start the game, but the Bruins opened the second half up with a touchdown.

After the Longhorns took a 17-13 lead with 4:00 to go on a Tyrone Swoopes touchdown pass, the Bruins, led by backup quarterback Jerry Neuheisel, responded with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Payton. Neuheisel was filling in for star Brett Hundley and his connection with Payton won the game for the Bruins, 20-17.

For more Texas news, visit Orangebloods.com.

For more UCLA news, visit BruinSportsReport.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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