Texas caps long goodbye to Big 12 by routing Oklahoma State, 49-21, for title

Bryan Fischer

College Football Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas — In the world of sports, it’s incredibly difficult to say goodbye on your own terms. The merciless nature of competition, especially at a high level, means that exiting with your head held high and a fist raised in celebration of victory is rare to the point of it being more in line with a fairy tale than reality.

John Elway winning the Super Bowl en route to retirement or a team closing out a stadium with an emphatic victory are exceptions, not the rule.

In the case of No. 7 Texas’ long goodbye to the conference it helped found 27 years ago — and will soon depart — the experience of capping off its college football tenure in the Big 12 could hardly have gone better. The Longhorns not only walked off the field at AT&T Stadium on Saturday surrounded by falling orange and white confetti as the emphatic 49-21 winners over No. 18 Oklahoma State, but they might have done just enough to start dreaming of a day when the program finally realizes its massive potential by making the College Football Playoff for the first time.

Roughly 20 miles south of the opulent hotel where the CFP Selection Committee is sequestered to take in championship weekend and eventually determine the four teams in this year’s semifinals, it surely will not be through lack of effort on Texas’ behalf after a game that felt over by the end of the first quarter and was mostly a long celebratory sendoff for those in attendance as the clock wound down.

“They deserve consideration for a spot in the [College Football] Playoff, no question about it,” commissioner Brett Yormark said in his news conference just before kickoff. “We will strongly support them in any way we can.”

The Longhorns let their play on the field do the convincing needed to stamp their case to be considered one of the four best teams in the country.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian was certainly on point, dialing up one explosive play after another as his team scored on five of its first six drives to put things out of reach early. By halftime, Texas had more plays over 10 yards (13) than the Cowboys had first downs (eight), as the traffic to the end zone was pretty firmly pointed in one direction despite a handful — and it was just a handful — of quality drives strung together by Mike Gundy’s overmatched side resulting in points.

No matter where you looked on the stat sheet or around the field, this was a game that Texas had to win convincingly — and no doubt did.

Quarterback Quinn Ewers was particularly magnificent on the big stage, looking very much like the player who was the No. 1 overall recruit coming out of nearby Southlake Carroll High School, which is located a few miles northwest of the stadium. The redshirt sophomore, who is reportedly leaning toward staying in school for another season, might have to give that some thought after having his best game as a collegian in going 35-46 for a Big 12 title game record 452 yards and four touchdowns (one interception).

That said, about the only thing that seemed to end up on the wrong side of the ledger for the Longhorns came right at the end of the first half when a delay-of-game penalty on fourth down led to an even longer field-goal attempt for kicker Bert Auburn. The junior from up the road in Flower Mound had established a conference and school record with 19 made field goals in a row, but he hooked the attempt to the left in a rare blemish for both him and the Longhorns.

Sarkisian later claimed a mea culpa for the sequence leading up to the miss, but it was quickly forgotten by those celebrating along the sideline and in the stands, which had thinned to include only those in burnt orange by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.

The bigger challenge for the Texas head coach might be turning into the kind of politician needed to stump the team’s case for the College Football Playoff moving forward. No team ranked lower than sixth entering conference championship weekend has wound up making the CFP, a stat that the Longhorns did their best to render irrelevant with such a convincing and dominant victory in the Big 12 title game.

Here are some quick takeaways from AT&T Stadium:

Play of the game

It’s not commonplace for a defensive tackle to be a team’s best and most marketable player, especially at a place like Texas, but it underscores just how much of an aberration (in a good way) this year’s Longhorns are that big man T’Vondre Sweat is nearly universally recognized as the top guy on the field and the apple of many NFL teams eye by the time the draft rolls around next spring.

The Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, Sweat has at times carried Texas this season with his ability to shut down rushing attacks and that appeared to be the case once again in Arlington as he helped limit Oklahoma State star running back Ollie Gordon II to just 2.6 yards per carry and made him generally a non-factor.

Yet, Sweat’s most memorable contribution in helping deliver a conference title to the 40 Acres came early in the first quarter — on offense, with the Outland Trophy finalist lining up at tight end in a jumbo formation on the goal line. While you’d think a 362-pounder would be unmistakable with his hand on the turf, that wasn’t the case at all, as he released into the end zone nearly untouched. No Cowboys defenders were aware of what he was doing, and he eventually got open enough to make an effortless 2-yard touchdown reception.

As impressive as the big man’s soft hands were on the play, the fact that he tucked the ball away and did the Heisman stiff arm pose before being mobbed by teammates was even more extraordinary in a game in which everything was going the Longhorns’ way. Sweat is unlikely to make it to New York for the ceremony surrounding college football’s most outstanding player, but he sure stated his case well by proving to be so adept on both sides of the ball in a dominant win.

Turning point

After taking an initial lead barely 90 seconds into the first quarter on an Adonai Mitchell touchdown reception, Texas proceeded to put its stamp on the affair early on and give everybody — from the College Football Playoff selection committee to those in attendance at Jerry World to the handful of fans watching the game being broadcast in New York’s Times Square — an indication as to just how things would transpire the rest of the afternoon by leaving no doubt that the side pining for the CFP would be going for as many style points as possible in its Big 12 finale.

Following the defense forcing a quick punt by Oklahoma State, Sarkisian added onto an impressive opening script by putting together another four-play touchdown drive to go up double-digits on the back of two big plays. The first came via the electric Xavier Worthy taking a short flare out in the flat 53 yards into the red zone before a Cowboys defender was able to bring him down.

The second was somehow even more delightful for the decidedly pro-Longhorn crowd on hand as Ewers caught a flea-flicker, proceeded to roll to his right and lofted a perfectly placed ball to an awaiting Ja’Tavion Sanders. The tight end found himself wide open without a defender in sight as he ran his wheel route right into the end zone for a 24-yard momentum-cementing score.

Key stat

Ewers started the game 12-of-12 for 175 yards and three touchdowns, while his offense as a whole averaged just shy of 12 yards per play in the first quarter. There’s jumping out to an early lead and there’s what Texas did to start the game off to capture its fourth and final Big 12 championship.

What’s next for Texas?

As much as the Longhorns can revel in a championship and soak up their Big 12 exit in style, the program will be spending the next 24 hours in a state of paralysis as it awaits its fate around the College Football Playoff.

The team is likely to be back in Austin before the end of the ACC Championship Game, which will prove to be key in its bid to potentially wind up in the Sugar Bowl as the No. 4 seed. Though it remains possible that Texas could still ascend into the CFP from its current No. 7 ranking even if Florida State was to have a less-than-impressive victory Saturday, those in burnt orange are nearly universally rooting for the far easier path to New Orleans by virtue of a Louisville win.

Should that not transpire, then a New Year’s Six bowl will be the consolation prize for the Longhorns in either the Fiesta Bowl or right back at AT&T Stadium for the Cotton Bowl — potentially against future SEC foe Missouri.

What’s next for Oklahoma State?

Despite an impressive, overachieving run to the conference championship game, the Cowboys will not be dreaming of the CFP but rather pondering if they’ll be making a return trip to the Lone Star State for the Alamo Bowl or ticketed for a late December date somewhere in Florida for the Pop Tarts Bowl.

While the postseason destination will come into clearer focus on Selection Sunday, a more pressing task awaits Gundy’s coaching staff with the transfer portal set to open early next week and a busy recruiting season on hand leading into National Signing Day.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com, among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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