On October 7, 1989, #12 Houston destroyed Baylor 66-10. Andre Ware threw for 514 yards, six scores, and broke the SWC record for career TDs. All-American Manny Hazard had 218 yards and caught five touchdowns, while superback Chuck Weatherspoon had 150 yards on seven catches.
The Bears had given up 204 yards passing yards in three games and were #1 in the NCAA in pass defense.
“I guess we probably knocked them out of first place in the pass defense statistics,” Jack Pardee said.
Ware tied the SWC record on a dump-off pass to Hazard, who then raced 46 yards for the score. Two minutes later, he broke the record with a 41-yard throw to Hazard.
“They talked a lot in the paper this week and said we hadn’t played anybody,” Ware said. “We took that kind of personal.
“We never said that we were going out and score 100 points or gain 1,000 yards against anybody,” Ware said, foreshadowing the SMU game two weeks later.
Hazard’s five TDs were an SWC record and tied for the most in history for a player against Baylor. His 218 yards were 4th-most in SWC history.
“Manny, he was great today,” Ware said of his #1 target. “Just a matter of getting the ball in his hands and watching him work.”
UH’s Cornelius Price intercepted three passes, and Craig Veasey recovered two fumbles. Baylor quarterback Brad Goebel credited UH for his struggles.
“Houston has the best defense I’ve faced since I’ve been at Baylor,” Goebel said. The QB was responsible for six of Baylor’s seven turnovers.
“I thought we went into the thing with a good game plan,” Grant Teaff said. “In the later stages of the second quarter, things got out of hand.”
Houston scored on its final six possessions in the second quarter. UH’s 33 second-quarter points were the most ever given up by Baylor in a quarter (a record broken in 2000), even though UH left at least nine points on the field, settling for two Roman Anderson field goals and missing on a two-point conversion. Anderson kicked four field goals in the game (47, 46, 51, 36).
Baylor’s 56-point defeat was the largest in a conference game in school history (until 1999). The 66 points were the most given up by the Bears since 1913.
The next day, UH would move to #8 in the country, the school’s highest ranking in a decade.
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