Texas, with eye on CFP, rolls to Big 12 title

Dave Wilson, ESPN Personnel WriterNov 25, 2023, 02:07 AM ET

Close

Dave Wilson is an editor for ESPN.com because 2010. He previously operated at The Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Sun.AUSTIN, Texas– All year long

, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has actually implored his players to lean into the target that the Longhorns had on their back in their final Huge 12 season before they head to the SEC next year.On Friday night, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Arena developed into one huge farewell party as the Longhorns(11-1, 8-1 in conference)clinched a look in next Saturday’s Big 12 national championship with a 57-7 destruction of Texas Tech, a group that beat Texas a year ago in Lubbock. In doing so, the Longhorns marked their first 50-point win in a Big 12 game considering that 2007, and claimed their second-largest win over the Red Raiders in 73 meetings.The No. 7 Longhorns placed on a dominating defensive efficiency, holding Texas Tech to 198 overall backyards and scoring on defense and unique teams. Every bounce went Texas’method, including a ball bouncing off Red Raiders running back Tahj Brooks ‘foot into the arms of linebacker Jett Bush, who returned it 43 lawns for a touchdown.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated According to ESPN Statistics & Information research study, Texas ended up being the very first Big 12 team with an obstructed

punt, a kick return goal and a defensive touchdown in the very same game over the last 20 seasons.” I do not understand from a College Football Playoff viewpoint what that appears like,” Sarkisian stated when asked what he thought Friday night’s success indicated.

“What I do understand is we have one more game to attempt to go win a Big 12 Champion, and I know I have actually got a locker space full of guys that wish to try to finish that element of the mission next week. And after that what they decide to do, they decide to do.”Sarkisian repeated that the Longhorns made their most emphatic statement in Week 2, when they beat Alabama 34-24.”I won’t withdraw the fact that I think we have the very best win in the country this year,”Sarkisian said.”I believe entering into Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and beating them by double digits– I have actually said this before and I understand we’re entering into that league next year– if it were that simple, then other teams in the SEC would have done it the other 53 games that they went 52-1. So I take pride in our guys for what we have actually accomplished up to this indicate the season. We’ll see how the dust settles next week, but we have actually got to handle our business.” This was a game that had drawn a little extra attention considering that last year, when Texas Tech beat the Longhorns 37-34 in Lubbock, and the Red Raiders published a video on social media of coach Joey McGuire stating,”I

informed you they were gon na break, and they did. The country’s gon na discover: Whatever runs through Lubbock! “That was followed by Huge 12 commissioner Brett Yormark speaking with a fan group in Lubbock in the preseason, urging McGuire to close out Texas’Big 12 period with another loss.”

Coach [McGuire], I’m not going to put any pressure on you, however I’m gon na remain in Austin for Thanksgiving, OK?”Yormark said then.”And you ‘d much better take care of business like you

did right here in Lubbock last year. “Late in Friday night’s win, Texas played Yormark’s discuss the video board in the arena, much to the pleasure of fans.”I got a chance to see Brett before the game and like I said, I appreciated him pertaining to our game tonight,”Sarkisian stated.” But guy, we’ll take anything we can get to fire our guys up, and so I kind of thanked him for the video.

… So to show that video to the arena and to all of our fans, I believe was just type of all part of the event of everything. I know he’ll exist once again next week. So hopefully we can put on one more good show for him. “As part of the event, extremely recruited freshman Arch Manning made his first appearance in a game for Texas, coming in late in the third quarter and playing the whole fourth quarter. Sarkisian stated backup Maalik Murphy suffered an injury when he got struck on the sideline throughout a kickoff return previously in the game, so Manning was next up. When he went into the game, the crowd went wild. And again on his 3rd play, after 2 handoffs, when he scrambled for 5 lawns.”I have actually never ever seen a quarterback go into the game as a backup … when Arch went in, I suggest the crowd was buzzing,”Sarkisian stated.”We needed to attempt to peaceful the crowd. “Manning, having fun with the second-team offense, ended up 2-of-5 passing for 30 backyards and revealed his athleticism with a 12-yard run. Sarkisian said there were some”things for him to build on moving forward, but [I was] delighted he was able to get in the game.”

5 of Texas’past 6 games were chosen by 10 points or less, so Friday night, the dominant performance seemed like a cumulative exhale as the Longhorns clinched their first look in the Huge 12 title game considering that 2018 and won 11 games for the very first time considering that 2009. “I believe everybody simply seemed like lastly, you understand, lastly we’ve gotten to a point to where we’re not all biting our nails right until the end, so it was a great event that method,”Sarkisian said.”We’re going to deal with a truly great group next week, and it’s going to take a truly excellent efficiency by our guys and execution and discipline and durability to go win that game, so we’ve got to repair some things from tonight. However in the end, it was very cool to see them play probably among their better games this year. “