Texas came into 2023 looking to claim its first Big 12 Championship since 2009.\u00a0 Sarkisian brought the hardware back to Austin just as the Longhorns are departing the conference.\u00a0 That must be the sweetest part of the deal for Sark, although he might never admit to it.\u00a0 He kept the Longhorns focused on their goals and through the loss to rival Oklahoma, ending the season with a seven-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Ewers All Day<\/h3>\n
Quinn Ewers<\/a> wasted no time getting warmed up.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to forget he\u2019s a sophomore.\u00a0 When he\u2019s on, Texas is unbeatable.\u00a0 He has played plenty of football for the Longhorns and it was clear he was ready to go from the start.\u00a0 Hitting 6-of-6 for 121 yards and two touchdowns staked Texas to a 14-0 lead before the Cowboys knew what hit them.<\/p>\n Ewers bombed away for 452 yards and four touchdowns on 35-of-46 passing.\u00a0 He gave a master class on running an offense loaded with weapons.\u00a0 Adonai Mitchell<\/a> and Ja\u2019Tavion Sanders<\/a> were his favorite targets when it mattered most.\u00a0 Mitchell solidified his name as one of the best receivers in the nation after making six catches for 109 yards and a score.\u00a0 He caught the first touchdown of the game and from there, the pilot was lit for Ewers, who came back from injury earlier this season.<\/p>\n Oklahoma State was not about to let the game get ridiculous without responding.\u00a0 Alan Bowman<\/a>\u2019s 5-yard toss to Brennan Presley<\/a> capped an 8-play, 75-yard drive.\u00a0 Bowan connected with Rashod Owens<\/a> and Pressley against a Texas defense ranked among the best in the nation. He trimmed the score to 14-7 and Cowboys fans had their hopes renewed of keeping up with Texas.<\/p>\n Nickolas Martin<\/strong> brought those hopes alive again with an interception that led to another Cowboys score.\u00a0 Bowman found Owens for a seven-yard score that kept it within 28-14.\u00a0 At that point, Oklahoma State was barely hanging in there.\u00a0 It turned out to be just about all the Cowboys had left.\u00a0 The Longhorns scored touchdowns on their first four possessions.\u00a0 On defense, Texas limited Ollie Gordon<\/strong> to 34 yards on 13 carries.\u00a0 Bowman did his best to pick up the slack, throwing for 250 yards and three touchdowns on 22-of-38 passing.\u00a0 Texas forced the game into Bowman\u2019s hands and Oklahoma State became one-dimensional, which Cowboys Head Coach Mike Gundy had on his mind coming into the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texas had come too far to come only this far.\u00a0 The Longhorns had seen this type of scenario throughout the season and ended up in a slew of close games.\u00a0 To become Big 12 champs, they managed to suffocate Oklahoma State for a 35-14 halftime lead. \u00a0Ewers threw his fourth touchdown of the first half with an 8-yarder to Jaydon Blue<\/a> with 2:11 remaining.\u00a0 Texas was clearly putting the final touches on its end-of-year resume for the committee to consider.\u00a0 Any hopes of an Oklahoma State comeback would rely on Gordon returning to form.<\/p>\n Texas took the air out of the game at the start of the second half.\u00a0 Gordon\u2019s biggest play of the second half was a 22-yard catch.\u00a0 The Longhorns took him out of the equation.\u00a0 Defensive Coordinators Pete Kwiatkowski<\/strong> and Jeff Choate<\/strong> had that side of the ball locked down.\u00a0 True freshman Anthony Hill Jr.<\/strong> had a team-high six tackles and a sack.\u00a0 The young linebacker was part of a defensive unit that limited Oklahoma State to 31 yards rushing.<\/p>\n Keilan Robinson<\/a> came into this season having played 24 games for Texas since transferring from Alabama two years ago.\u00a0 He became the latest Longhorn to fill in for injured running back Jonathon Brooks<\/a>.\u00a0 Robinson ran for two scores in the second half to put the game away.\u00a0 He joined the Texas platoon of revolving-door running backs that filled in for Brooks the past few games.\u00a0 His 57-yard touchdown run sent Texas ahead 42-14 and iced the game, bringing the Big 12 trophy back to Austin.<\/p>\n Sanders was part of the Texas offensive outburst.\u00a0 He caught eight passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, joining Mitchell as the Longhorns\u2019 1-2 punch through the air.\u00a0 Ewers had a range of targets, finding Xavier Worthy<\/a> six times for 86 yards.\u00a0 Jordan Whittington<\/a> hauled in four catches for 48 yards.\u00a0 It became an embarrassment of riches as the Longhorns became Big 12 champs and rumbled their way to a huge margin of victory.<\/p>\n This question comes up every week.\u00a0 In this case, Texas left it all out on the field.\u00a0 It finished its time in the Big 12 in the biggest way possible.\u00a0 What comes after that will be for the CFP Committee to decide.<\/p>\n If bounced out of the CFP playoffs, Texas would likely be headed to the Cotton Bowl<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Longhorns have not played in that game since the 2002 season.\u00a0 Newly crowned 2023 Big 12 champs, they overcame a list of injuries right up to the title game.\u00a0 The Cotton Bowl would be a fitting final sendoff for the 12-1 Longhorns.\u00a0 Texas is living its best-case scenario having checked off its preseason goals.\u00a0 They put the hammer down to finish as Big 12 champs and can now start looking forward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Texas Longhorns stomped their way into history as Big 12 champs with a 49-21 thumping of Oklahoma State.\u00a0 That was the goal from day one heading into the 2023 season. \u00a0Along the course of the season, the Longhorns finessed their way into contention for the College Football Playoff.\u00a0 The Big 12 title was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4486,"featured_media":55711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,35576],"tags":[10545,10711,600,32700,32818,32725,32699,5095,204],"class_list":["post-55707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","category-texas-longhorns","tag-2023-big-12-football","tag-anthony-hill-jr","tag-cotton-bowl","tag-jeff-choate","tag-nikolas-martin","tag-ollie-gordon","tag-pete-kwiatkowski","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79457,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55707\/revisions\/79457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cowboys Clap Back<\/h3>\n
Longhorns Find Their Mojo<\/h3>\n
Everybody Eats<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s Next?<\/h3>\n
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