Texas 33, Iowa State 7
AUSTIN, Texas -- Just two weeks after he was removed in the fourth quarter against Kansas for underperforming, Texas quarterback David Ash looks like a different player.
Ash completed 15 of his first 16 pass attempts and threw for 364 yards and two touchdowns Saturday as the Longhorns defeated Iowa State 33-7 at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
Ash's impressive game began on the Longhorns' first play. Texas lined up in the wishbone to honor the late Darrell K. Royal and used the formation to open the game with a little trickery. Ash flipped the ball to Jaxon Shipley, who threw a backward pass to Ash, who connected with Greg Daniels on a 37-yard play.
Ash continued throwing strikes throughout the first quarter, including a beautiful 61-yard pass to Mike Davis that gave Texas a 14-0 lead with 3:23 left.
The Longhorns (8-2, 5-2 Big 12) build the lead to 20-0 when Ash connected with Barrett Matthews on a 3-yard touchdown pass.
Using a hurry-up offense, Iowa State drove down the field at the end of half and pulled within 20-7 on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Steele Jantz to Quenton Bundrage.
That was all Iowa State (5-5) could manage against a defense that was much improved thanks to two facets: pressure on the quarterback and tackling.
Texas didn't get a lot of sacks. The Longhorns didn't force a lot of turnovers (two). But they had plenty of third-down stops. The Cyclones weren't ever able to sustain drives.
The Longhorns blitzed Jantz for most of the day, forcing the senior to throw before he wanted to. When Jantz did complete passes, the Longhorns were right there to make tackles. Alex Okafor led the defense with nine stops.
The Cyclones finished with 276 yards.
That passing success from the Longhorns opened up holes for running backs Joe Bergeron and Johnathan Gray.
Bergeron had 12 carries for 86 yards, and Gray had 14 carries for 74 yards and two touchdowns, including a 5-yard score in the first quarter to give Texas a 7-0 lead.
Texas finished with 607 yards on offense, including 219 on the ground.
NOTES: Texas honored Royal, who died Wednesday at age 88. Royal is the school's winningest coach. He compiled a 167-45-5 record while winning three national championships. ... Texas kicker Nick Jordan kicked a 37-yard field goal in the third quarter after he replaced Anthony Fera, who had a field goal blocked and missed an extra point earlier in the game. ... Ash has thrown for 3,431 yards in his career and is now No. 10 on Texas' career list.
