Texas exits Big 12 with title, makes case for CFP
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas ended its Big 12 tenure the way it began in 1996: with a conference championship.
The No. 7 Longhorns ended a 13-year conference title drought — the longest in the program’s history — with a 49-21 win over Oklahoma State behind the right arm of Quinn Ewers on Saturday. The sophomore quarterback completed his first 12 passes en route to setting the Big 12 championship game record for most yards (452, also third-most in a game all-time at Texas) and tying the mark for touchdown passes (4). In the first half, he threw for the most yards (346) by any player in a half in any conference championship game in the past 20 years, putting on a show for the College Football Playoff committee watching 20 miles away in Grapevine. Ewers exited the game in the fourth quarter, giving way to Maalik Murphy — and later, Arch Manning — after completing 35 of 46 passes.
“I thought Quinn was lights out today, man,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said, later saying it was part of their game plan to be aggressive on offense. Texas had six plays for 20 or more yards, including two for a touchdown.
“We wanted to come out and start fast,” he said. “We really wanted to come out and throw our best punches. This was not a game that we wanted to throw jabs and feel it out. We wanted to go for it.”
The Longhorns’ title-clincher was the culmination of a breakthrough season for Sarkisian, who won five and eight games in his first two seasons in Austin before going 12-1 this year, eclipsing 10 wins for the first time in his decade as a head coach and putting Texas in contention for a CFP berth.
“Hopefully when people kind of look at the totality of the body of work, it’s not just about the record, it’s about the quality of the team,” Sarkisian said. “I think that’s the intent of the College Football Playoff is putting the four best teams in that playoff. Do we think we’re one of those? For sure we do. But this isn’t this isn’t a vote. We don’t want to get to the election booth and vote, so it’s in their hands.”
From the beginning of the season, Sarkisian told the Longhorns to “embrace the hate” on the way out the door before heading to the SEC next season. His team responded, beating every team they’re leaving behind but suffering the one loss at the hands of SEC-bound Oklahoma, which drove 75 yards in 1:17 to beat Texas 34-30 on Oct. 7.
In three of the next four weeks, the Longhorns survived tight games at Houston (31-24), home against Kansas State (33-30) and at TCU (29-26) before a 10-point win on the road over Iowa State. But last week, Texas demolished Texas Tech 57-7, and followed it up with a dominant win over the Cowboys.
“We’ve been talking about being champions since this summer,” Sarkisian said. “We haven’t backed off of it and I challenged them. I made it very known publicly that’s what the season was about. … We probably played our best football in the last two weeks and we played two really good complete games.”
The Longhorns led from wire to wire, rolling up 662 yards of offense and holding Oklahoma State to 281 yards, including holding Ollie Gordon II, the nation’s leading rusher who came into the game with 1,580 yards and 20 TDs, to just 34 yards on 13 carries, an average of 2.6 yards per carry.
Two different receivers — Ja’Tavion Sanders (8 catches, 105 yards and a TD) and Adonai Mitchell (6-109-1) — went over the 100-yard mark. Texas star Xavier Worthy added six catches for 86 yards, but he went out with an injury in the second half and came back on the field on crutches and in a walking boot.
Sarkisian said after the game that Worthy’s X-rays were negative and he feels good about the time he has to recover before Texas plays another game.
The Longhorns even through a touchdown to 6-4, 362-pound defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat who celebrated with a Heisman pose.
“We did it Thursday, and coach told me that it was gonna be our first play we call when we get in goal line,” Sweat said. “And he wasn’t lying, he did it. It was amazing.”
Sweat had been openly lobbying his coaches this season for a chance at a touchdown, and Sarkisian said it was always part of the plan. But there was one small concern.
“He bobbled it yesterday in practice. I said, ‘Man, do not mess with me,” Sarkisian said. “Then I said don’t get a penalty. Get your behind to the sideline and celebrate to the sideline. Very cool moment.”
At the end of the game, Sarkisian put Jonathon Brooks, who suffered a season-ending injury in Texas’ Nov. 11 win over TCU after running for 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns this year, in at running back with a large brace on his knee. After Manning kneeled down for the final play, he turned around and handed the ball to Brooks.
While the final seconds ticked away, Texas fans at AT&T Stadium chanted “SEC!” But for today, the Longhorns claimed their fourth Big 12 title, second to Oklahoma’s 14, to end an era for the league.
As Sarkisian and his players awaited the trophy presentation, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was drowned out by boos and chants from the Texas fans as Sarkisian tried to quiet the crowd. Amid the booing, Yormark told the crowd that he thought Texas had proven it was worthy of being in the CFP field.
Sarkisian said regardless of if they get in or not, this season has been a success.
“I didn’t want this win and I didn’t want this championship to be about the College Football Playoff,” Sarkisian said. “This is this is an accomplishment in and of itself, us winning a championship.”
But he still said, however, that his team will “play anybody in the country… If we get into this tournament, we’ll play anybody and we’ll find out if we’re good enough or not.”
But first, he has to wait on the committee.
“Hopefully we put in their minds, man, what would it look like if Texas was in a four-team playoff?” Sarkisian said. “I think it would look pretty good. We’ll see what they think.”
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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