Texas loses QB McCoy, then national title hopes at K-State

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Touchdown, Colt McCoy. Texas, 7-0. Let the rout of Kansas State begin.

Not so fast. The Longhorns' star quarterback injured his right shoulder on the play and was done for the night.

And now so are Texas' chances of repeating as national champions.

GAME OF THE WEEK
ESPN Classic will air Texas at Kansas State on Sunday at 9 a.m. ET as the ESPN College Football Game of the Week.

Josh Freeman threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score to lead the Wildcats to a 45-42 victory over No. 4 Texas on Saturday night.

"One thing about Texas," coach Mack Brown said, "there's never a good time to lose."

Texas, fifth in last week's BCS standings, had hoped to move up when No. 15 Rutgers stunned No. 3 Louisville 28-25 on Thursday. And when McCoy went in from a yard out on Texas' first possession the Longhorns appeared on their way to doing just that.

But McCoy, whose 27 touchdown passes this season are a school record, got pinned under the pile on his 1-yard TD run in the first quarter.

He left the game and was replaced by freshman Jevan Snead.

It was the first action of the year for Snead, who had pushed McCoy for the starter's job this summer. He was 13-for-30 for 130 yards and one score and was sacked five times.

Before he got hurt, McCoy completed all four of his attempts for 51 yards.

"I give credit to their defense," Snead said. "I could have handled it a lot better, but they have a really good defense.

"There were a lot of plays that I could have made but I didn't."

Kansas State (7-4, 4-3) made its share of mistakes, too. The Wildcats won despite two disastrous plays by their punt team, which allowed Texas to start two touchdown drives at or inside the 5-yard line.

But nobody was in a mood to gripe about that.

"There's always things that we're going to have to clean up, but we've obviously shown that we can play with any team in the country," linebacker Brandon Archer said.

The Longhorns (9-2, 6-1 Big 12) got within a field goal on Chris Ogbonnaya's 1-yard touchdown run with 1:36 to go. But Jordy Nelson recovered the ensuing onside kick and then caught a 6-yard pass for a first down that sealed the Wildcats' biggest win in years.

"I didn't feel good about this one until the very end," said Prince, who has Kansas State back on a winning track after losing records in Bill Snyder's final two seasons as coach. "We were coaching our brains out down there at the very end to make this thing go the way we wanted it to go."

Freeman took a knee, and purple-clad fans streamed onto the field to celebrate.

Freeman threw for 263 yards and Kansas State scored three touchdowns over a 3:06 span in the third quarter on its way to breaking a six-game losing streak against ranked opponents.

The Wildcats also won their third straight and guaranteed their first winning record since they won the Big 12 championship in 2003.

"Our plan was to be the best team in November," Freeman said. "That's the equivalent of playoff football -- be the best in November -- and we're on our way to do that."

Yamon Figurs caught two touchdown passes for Kansas State and Leon Patton ran for a touchdown and threw to Cedric Wilson for another. Ian Campbell recovered two fumbles, both of which led to touchdown drives.

Snead's 33-yard TD pass to Limas Sweed got the Longhorns within 42-35 with just under 13 minutes left, but Jeff Snodgrass hit a 51-yard field goal with 3:19 left to give the Wildcats some room.

Jamaal Charles ran for 87 yards and two scores for Texas, and Selvin Young ran for another TD. But each also lost a costly fumble in the third quarter, when Kansas State went on its 21-point tear.

Young's 5-yard run early in the period, one play after Michael Griffin blocked Tim Reyer's punt and Tyrell Gatewood recovered, tied the score at 21. But on the Longhorns' next drive, Charles fumbled at Kansas State's 20.

Campbell recovered, and it led to Patton's 18-yard halfback pass to Wilson for a 28-21 lead.

Young fumbled on the second play of the Longhorns' next possession, and Campbell recovered again. Freeman's 30-yard pass to Figurs then put the Wildcats up 35-21.

After Snead threw three incompletions on Texas' next drive, John McCardle blocked Greg Johnson's punt and Daniel Gonzalez recovered at the 23. That led to Freeman's 1-yard TD run to make it 42-21 lead.

"It took a life of its own with the two touchdowns after the trick plays, and the blocked punt," Brown said. "I am really proud of our staff and our coaches, that they hung in there and came back and still gave us a chance to win."

Charles started Texas' comeback bid with an 18-yard scoring run later in the third, cutting Kansas State's lead to 42-28.

Patton's TD run with just over six minutes left in the second gave Kansas State a 21-14 halftime lead.