For the first time in a long time, Texas players gathered in the end zone of Royal-Memorial Stadium and sang "The Eyes of Texas" with smiles on their faces after beating a Big 12 team at home.
The losing streak is finally over.
Freshmen tailbacks Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron racked up 255 yards rushing and four touchdowns as Texas ended a five-game home losing streak in the Big 12 with a 43-0 romp over Kansas on Saturday night.
"We got back on track ... It's been a while since we were singing in the locker room," Texas senior safety Blake Gideon said. "That was huge. There's a certain amount of pride in that, in protecting your home stadium."
Texas rushed for 441 yards as a team against the worst defense in the country. Brown reached the 100-yard mark by halftime and his 635 yards this season already are the most by a Texas player since 2007.
Freshman quarterback David Ash got his second consecutive start for Texas (5-2, 2-2 Big 12), which ended a two-game losing skid and got its first home Big 12 win since beating Kansas on Nov. 21, 2009.
"It's probably as physical as we've been around here in a long time," Texas coach Mack Brown said.
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Kansas (2-6, 0-5) has lost six in a row, putting more pressure on second-year coach Turner Gill, who is 5-15 with the Jayhawks, who had just three first downs and 46 total yards.
Kansas quarterback Jordan Webb was 7 of 16 passing for 48 yards and one interception.
"Tough ball game all the way around," Gill said. "Tough on our offense. I wasn't expecting us to be totally shut down as far as moving the ball."
The Texas defense turned in one of its most dominant performances in years, getting its first shutout since 2005 and holding Kansas to minus-2 yards rushing. Kansas averaged just 1.3 yards per play.
Brown and Bergeron ran wild over the beleagued Kansas defense that came in giving up an average of 50 points per game. It was the first time in Texas history two freshman have rushed for 100 yards in a game.
"Our plan was to wear them down," said senior tailback Fozzy Whittaker, who added 68 yards. "As you saw at the end, the holes were just getting bigger and bigger."
Ash was an efficient 14 of 18 for 145 yards with one interception. He clearly has ended the pretense that Texas is open to reverting back to the rotation of Ash and Case McCoy that the Longhorns used earlier this season.
McCoy was 2-1 as a starter but Ash started and played the entire game in a loss to No. 3 Oklahoma State. After that game, Texas coach Mack Brown said last week the position was still up for grabs and suggested the rotation could return.
However, Ash took every snap while leading Texas to a 33-0 lead before McCoy took over late in the third quarter.
The Longhorns desperately needed the home win. Texas was just 2-5 in Royal-Memorial Stadium in last season's 5-7 finish as the Longhorns were routinely punched around their own field.
Texas' last home Big 12 win had come in former quarterback Colt McCoy's final game in a season the Longhorns played for the national championship. Few things had gone right for Texas at home since.
Behind Malcom Brown, Texas had little trouble pushing around the woeful Kansas defense.
The Longhorns marched 65 yards to their first touchdown, a 6-yard run by Brown where he lost a shoe breaking a tackle at the 1. They went 90 yards for the second score when Ash capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run off a scramble.
Ash and Brown had Texas cruising to another score before Kansas stuffed a quarterback sneak on fourth down at the goal line. Kansas could not capitalize and was penalized for a personal foul in the end zone on the next play, costing the Jayhawks two points on a safety.
Ash finally made a mistake on Texas' next drive, throwing into triple coverage for an easy interception in the end zone. Ash has six turnovers in Texas' last three games.
Brown's second touchdown, a 1-yard run, made it 23-0 before Texas' Justin Tucker ended the half with a career-long 52-yard field goal. Kansas ran only 13 offensive plays in the half to 58 for Texas.
"We were worried about substituting some of our guys at halftime because they were so tired," Mack Brown said.
Conditions did not improve for Kansas. On the first play of the third quarter, quarterback Jordan Webb was sacked for an eight-yard loss, nearly wiping out the Jayhawks' entire offensive production to that point.
"We played complete defense tonight," Texas linebacker Keenan Robinson said. "We were just physical and aggressive and that's how you win games."
