UH quarterback Clayton Tune goes airborne to convert what proved to be the game-winning two point conversion in triple overtime of the Cougars’ victory over UTSA. | Courtesy of UH athletics
SAN ANTONIO — Two years ago, being down 14 entering the fourth quarter would have been an insurmountable deficit for UH to overcome. But the 2022 Cougars are a different football team and it was on full display on Saturday afternoon.
“They had that look in their eye like this game ain’t over,” said UH head coach Dana Holgorsen.
Even when the game seemed out of reach, the moment never got too big for UH.
Doubt was nonexistent on the UH sideline because the Cougars never felt like they were out of the game.
“If we’re down, we don’t panic,” said junior receiver Nathaniel Dell. “One stop and one touchdown and we’re back in it. We kept that mindset and we just kept fighting.”
This belief started with the UH quarterback.
Clayton Tune’s message was to clear to his offense, despite their struggles through three quarters.
“Look, don’t panic,” Tune said he told his teammates when the Cougars found themselves down double-digits against UTSA. “If we go three-and-out or if we don’t score for two or three possessions in a row, don’t worry about it. Just keep hammering away. The floodgates are going to open at some point.”
The Cougars’ offense listened to their quarterback. Soon enough, things started to click.
17 unanswered fourth quarter points later, a game that seemed out of reach for UH was headed to overtime.
“It’s just if there’s a will, there’s a way,” Tune said. “I just wanted to win more than they did. I was going to do anything possible to make it happen.”
After both teams kicked field goals in the first overtime possession, UH set up from the UTSA 25 to begin double overtime.
It was all about Tune from there. There was no scenario in which Tune was going to let his team lose.
On third-and-4, Tune took off towards the sticks on the UH sideline. UH athletic director Chris Pezman came as a casualty of that run, as Tune took him out on the sidelines, but the first down was picked up and that was all that mattered.
Plays later on third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Tune used his legs once again, waltzing into the end zone for the touchdown.
Having to go for two under the rules of double overtime, a busted play didn’t stop Tune from putting the ball right on the money for Tank Dell to pick up the two-point conversion.
Tune refused to let a false start in triple overtime, where each team has one attempt at a two-point conversion, to derail him.
Flushed from the pocket, Tune scrambled to his left. At the 3-yard line, he noticed a UTSA defender standing at the goal line waiting for him.
He knew he couldn’t go through the UTSA defender so only one option remained — taking a leap of faith, literally.
Tune went airborne, jumping over the UTSA defender and flipping into the end zone for what proved to be the game-winning score.
CLAYTON TUNE FOR THE W!!!#GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/elbTh68HXd
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) September 3, 2022
“I knew he was going to hurdle,” Holgorsen said. “If he’s put in a situation where the game’s on the line, he’ll do whatever he’s got to do … At the end of the day, when it comes down to what do you got to do win, he’s going to do it.”
Tune, who has had plenty of doubters ever since he took over the starting quarterback position in 2019, showed that the big moments that fazed him a couple years back or even early last season are now an afterthought.
In fact, Tune lives for the ball to be in his hands when the game is on the line.
“He’s built for it,” Dell said of his quarterback.
