AUSTIN, Texas — Texas coach Mack Brown likes to talk about Colt McCoy's 81 percent completion rate, noting that it would be hard to do against air, let alone a college defense.

McCoy might have had a tougher time against air than he did against Missouri.

"Phenomenal," Brown said after McCoy's latest brilliance in a 56-31 rout of No. 11 Missouri on Saturday night. The junior completed 29 of 32 passes for 337 yards and two TDs and broke his own school record with 17 consecutive completions.

McCoy and Texas (7-0, 3-0 Big 12) were so good early that the Longhorns led 35-0 by the second quarter. Even if much of the prime-time national television audience turned the game off at that point, McCoy had done enough to set himself up as the clear front runner for the Heisman Trophy.

"He just needs to continue to be who he is. I don't know if we need him to play any better," Brown said. "He's showing fantastic leadership, he's poised and he's not into all of the hype.

"He's really having a good time. I've never seen him this settled, comfortable and this confident before," Brown said.

With four TDs rushing and passing Saturday night, McCoy now has accounted for 82 in his career, breaking the school mark of 81 set by Vince Young, who led the Longhorns to the 2005 national title but didn't win the Heisman.

The Longhorns scored touchdowns on all five of their first half possessions against the Tigers. McCoy was a perfect 9-of-9 on three scoring drives in the second quarter — including the wacky fumble and throw to Quan Cosby.

"We're supposed to yell at him for not falling on the ball, by why yell at him when he made another first down?" Brown said.

McCoy's season completion percentage is well above the NCAA season record of 73.6 percent set by Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper in 1998. And in four games at home, he's completing 86 percent with 12 touchdowns against just 14 incompletions with no interceptions.

Missouri QB Chase Daniel was in the group of Heisman favorites until the Tigers posted back-to-back losses. Daniel finished with 318 yards passing Saturday night but most of it came after the Longhorns had buried Missouri by halftime.

Daniel and McCoy were friends as high school stars in Texas and hugged at midfield after the game.

"It's great to play against my great buddy Colt," Daniel said. "They came out and proved they're the No. 1 team in the nation."

Against Missouri, three of the Longhorns< scoring drives in the first half covered 94, 82 and 92 yards. For the game, Texas converted 10 of 12 third-down attempts.

"Colt McCoy, his execution was as good to me as I've ever seen. We've got play better defense ... but I'm telling you, there's not way I'm going to devalue what he did. That's not fair to him," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said.

"Give credit to the offensive line tonight, they played tremendous, and I was able to sit back there and deliver, especially on third downs," McCoy said.

Once again, McCoy's favorite targets were Jordan Shipley (eight catches for 89 yards) and Quan Cosby (seven for 74) and Chris Ogbonnaya (six for 68). The Longhorns may have also found two new weapons in sophomore Brandon Collins and freshman Malcolm Williams.

Collins caught six balls for 76 yards and the Williams made Texas' most acrobatic TD catch of the season in the second quarter when he jumped over Missouri senior safeties Justin Garrett and Williams Moore for a 21-0 lead. It was the one pass McCoy threw that looked like it could be intercepted until the 6-foot-4 Williams made the tough catch.

"A lot of the young guys stepped up and made plays," Shipley said. "If we can do that, we're going to be pretty tough to stop."