DALLAS — This certainly looked like the type of football team that Texas was expected to be as the preseason national No. 1 before two early losses sent the Longhorns plummeting all the way out of the AP Top 25.
In the same way that punt returner Ryan Niblett bounced off a teammate on the way to the decisive touchdown in another win over sixth-ranked Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, the Longhorns — preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Arch Manning included — may have their season headed in the right direction again.
The 23-6 victory over the previously undefeated Sooners on Saturday saved the season for Texas. At least for now.
“Every single game is a national championship game is how we’re looking at it,” said DeAndre Moore, who caught Manning’s 12-yard touchdown pass on the first drive of the second half that put Texas ahead to stay. “So every week needs our most and our best.”
Moore’s response to being asked if that was just because of being Texas or already having two losses: “Both.”
Texas (4-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) retained the Golden Hat trophy and should be back in the next AP poll Sunday. More importantly, the Longhorns avoided a loss that likely would have ended any realistic chance at a third straight College Football Playoff after back-to-back semifinal appearances.
“We learned how to fight today,” Texas fifth-year head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We saw the true character of the men in that locker room today, their connectivity, their love for one another. … Because it’s easy to succumb to the outside noise. And there was a lot of (expletive) getting talked about our team and about these guys, and I think they responded.”
On his 75-yard punt return, Niblett worked up the sideline in front of the Texas bench, and after making a cut inside near midfield, he bounced off teammate Marshall Landwehr and continued his sprint to the end zone for a 20-6 lead with 9:59 left in the annual showdown at Cotton Bowl Stadium amid the State Fair of Texas.
“I feel like he really helped me,” Niblett said. “Because I feel like if I would have went inside, I probably would have gotten tackled.”
The same way the Longhorns would be have been pretty much taken out of championship contention with a loss.
“It was very much needed,” Niblett said of the win.
A 29-21 loss at Florida a week earlier knocked the Longhorns out of the AP poll. That ended their three-game winning streak that followed a season-opening 28-14 loss at Ohio State when the Big Ten’s Buckeyes were No. 3 and the Longhorns were No. 1. It was a rematch of last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal at AT&T Stadium — the home of the Dallas Cowboys — where Ohio State won on the way to the program’s ninth national championship.
Sarkisian said dropping the SEC opener to the Gators in the Swamp was “a gut-check moment” and led to a challenging for his players amid outside criticism and questions about where their season was headed. The coach also had a reminder for everyone.
“We’re 1-1 in the SEC. I said this last week, I don’t think people wanted to hear me, but I said we were 0-1 in the SEC last week,” he said. “We won the conference a year ago in the regular season by going 7-1 in conference play. If we can play the way we played today, we’re plenty good enough to compete with any team in our conference. But we’ve got to play that way.”
Texas won the Big 12 title game in 2023 to reach the final four-team edition of the CFP and lost the SEC title game to Georgia in overtime last December.
Manning, the redshirt sophomore who was hyped well before taking over as the full-time starter entering this season, completed 21 of 27 passes for 166 yards against Oklahoma.
Quintrevion Wisner was a workhorse for the Longhorns, running 22 times for 94 yards and catching five passes for 34 yards. Texas gained only 20 yards on 14 plays its first three possessions of the game, but the Longhorns opened the second half with scoring drives of 75 and 65 yards. Those included seven consecutive third-down conversions, one from their own 8 when Manning was scrambling sideways on the goal line before throwing a 21-yard pass to Parker Livingstone along the sideline.
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer was 20-of-38 with three interceptions in his return to the lineup for the Sooners (5-1, 1-1) only 17 days after surgery on his throwing (right) hand. He said his hand was fine.
“I just didn’t play good enough,” Mateer said.
After Niblett’s touchdown, the Sooners gained 38 yards on three plays to the Texas 27 before Mateer threw an incomplete pass, got sacked on consecutive plays, then had another incompletion on fourth-and-22. Oklahoma finished with only 258 total yards.
The Sooners have now lost back-to-back games against their biggest rival for the first time since 2008-09. Before a 34-3 loss last year — the first season for both in the SEC — the Sooners had won five of six against the Longhorns, including the 2018 Big 12 championship game.
“Today was a bad day, but we still have a good football team,” Sooners fourth-year head coach Brent Venables said. “Couldn’t get any rhythm in the second half. They flipped the script. … This one hurts for all the reasons we had opportunities.”
Mason Shipley kicked field goals of 22, 48 and 39 yards for the Longhorns. He had two long misses — a 55-yard attempt that ricocheted off the right upright, and later a 56-yard attempt that was short.
Tate Sandell kicked a 42-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive for the Sooners. He made it 6-0 with a 41-yarder in the second quarter, but they didn’t score again.
Malik Muhammad had two of the interceptions for the Texas defense, including one in the end zone at the end of the first half that Sarkisian called “a momentum-changing play” because it kept Oklahoma from having another chance to score and because the Longhorns knew the Sooners would be kicking off to them to start the second half.