AUSTIN, Texas _ It took four quarterbacks, four hours, two overtimes and two blocked kicks to reach a conclusion Sunday night at Darrell K. Royal Stadium.
And while Tyrone Swoopes didn't start under center for the Texas Longhorns, he finished there _ and in the end zone after a 6-yard run _ to end a wild 50-47 victory against Notre Dame in front of a stadium-record crowd of 102,315.
"A year ago we probably would have lost that game," Texas coach Charlie Strong said.
Shaun Crawford turned what would have been a three-point Irish deficit into a 37-37 tie when he returned a point-after attempt blocked by Jarron Jones 98 yards with 3 minutes, 29 seconds left in regulation.
Crawford also returned an interception 22 yards to Texas' 6 in the third quarter to set up a touchdown that pulled the Irish within three in what turned out to be a losing effort.
The good news for Notre Dame, though: It may have found a solution to a quarterback competition that spilled into the regular season.
Irish coach Brian Kelly couldn't decide on a starter between DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire during camp, so Kizer seemingly decided for him.
"It will be more by feel," Kelly said when asked how he planned to use the QBs.
Notre Dame's first drive culminated with Kizer's 13-yard touchdown pass to Equanimeous St. Brown six plays and 78 yards from where it began.
Its second-to-last drive of the first half finished much the same way: Kizer finding St. Brown, this time for an acrobatic 30-yard score during which St. Brown somersaulted and tied the game14-14.
In between, Kizer, who finished 15-for-24 for 215 yards and five touchdowns passing and 77 yards and a touchdown rushing, spent every other series on the sideline in the first half while the Irish employed a two-quarterback system.
Zaire, who finished 2-for-5 for 23 yards, started the second half but wasn't heard from again after Kizer ran 29 yards for a touchdown with 7:39 left in the third. Kizer found Torii Hunter Jr. for a 5-yard scoring pass a little over two minutes later to pull the Irish within 31-28, on the heels of Crawford's interception.
Kizer, a veteran of the dramatic, proved his mettle again with a big 17-yard touchdown pass to Josh Adams with 10:57 left in the fourth for a 35-31 lead.
But there was some bad news for the Irish: Its defense allowed four touchdown drives of at least 75 yards against a no-huddle, sometimes-two-quarterback system used by Texas.
The Longhorns had as many touchdowns (three) in the first half as they scored points in last season's opener in South Bend. Two plays and 31 seconds into the second half, the drubbing continued when Texas freshman quarterback Shane Buechele embarrassed the back of the Irish defense with a 72-yard touchdown pass to John Burt to double its advantage to 28-14. A field goal pushed Texas' lead to 17.
Buechele was 16-for-26 for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Swoopes attempted just one pass but ran for 53 yards and three scores.
In even more bad news for Notre Dame, Hunter left the game with 30 seconds left in the third quarter after catching what would have been the go-ahead touchdown pass from Kizer before a jarring hit by Texas' DeShon Elliott knocked the ball loose.
Justin Yoon's subsequent field-goal attempt was blocked, preserving Texas' 31-28 advantage.
Kizer was diplomatic about the two-quarterback arrangement, at least publicly. But he was wrong in one regard _ the decision not being the quarterbacks'.
"We know that ... is out of our hands and we have to go out there and do what we do," Kizer said. "We want to win games; that's one thing we can agree on. However Coach Kelly wants to get to that point, that's how we'll go about it."
From this point forward, it looks all signs point toward Kizer.
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