Feel-Good Victory for Texas : Nonconference: Backup quarterback James Brown is star of Longhorns’ 17-10 triumph over Oklahoma.

Redshirt freshman quarterback James Brown, starting his first college game because of an injury to Shea Morenz, ran for a touchdown and passed for one and 343-pound noseguard Stonie Clark made a vital fourth-down tackle near the goal line in the final minute to preserve No. 15 Texas’ 17-10 victory over No. 16 Oklahoma on Saturday.

Clark tackled Oklahoma’s James Allen on a reverse at the one with less than a minute to play to preserve the victory for Texas (4-1).

“You can either be the hero or the goat,” Allen said. “I guess I’m the goat because I didn’t score.”

Clark made the stop after linebacker Robert Reed slowed Allen down.

“Reed did a great job staying at home,” Clark said. “He was able to turn the guy back inside and that’s when I got a hit on him. It’s the biggest play I’ve made in my career.”

Oklahoma Coach Gary Gibbs, whose team fell to 3-2, said, “Brown was the key to the game for Texas. He made some big plays and kept their offense moving. We couldn’t get the ball away from Texas in the third quarter.”

Texas Coach John Mackovic, explaining that the Longhorns couldn’t risk further injury to Morenz’s bad knee, said, “James showed exceptional poise. He allowed us to do the things we needed to do on offense. We used our regular offense and didn’t hold anything back.”

Brown said, “I just tried to stay calm. I made one bad mistake when I threw an interception, but for the most part I did all right.”

Brown completed 17 of 22 passes for 148 yards and ran nine times for 51 yards.

Oklahoma worked the ball from its own 20 to the Texas three, where Allen failed to elude Clark, who had missed practice this week because of the death of a friend. The Sooners started the desperation drive after Phil Dawson, who had earlier hit a 22-yard field goal, missed from 48 yards.

Brown ran for one touchdown and hit freshman tight end Ryan Fitzgerald with a two-yard pass for another as Texas overcame a 7-0 halftime deficit.

Bryant Westbrook’s interception of Allen’s pass positioned Texas for Brown’s touchdown pass to Fitzgerald, putting Texas ahead, 17-7, with 13:05 to play.

Morenz, who passed for 270 yards and three touchdowns against Colorado in a 34-31 loss last week, was held out of action because of strained ligaments in his left knee.