T'Vondre Sweat lines up on offense, catches touchdown pass in Big 12 Championship

Steve Sarkisian was in his bag in the first half of Saturday’s Big 12 Championship. First, the Texas head coach dialed up a flea flicker that turned into a touchdown, and he then ran a play that called for T’Vondre Sweat to play offense.

He proceeded to catch a touchdown.

Sweat — the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year — lined up like he was going to block, but he found his way to the end zone on a corner route, where he caught a pass from Quinn Ewers. To top it off, he channeled his inner Desmond Howard and struck the Heisman pose after putting Texas ahead 21-7 with 1:41 to play in the first quarter.

I love big boy TDs pic.twitter.com/JJS0g0kKbx

— Megan (@MeganMakinMoney) December 2, 2023

Texas got out to a lightning-fast start after forcing an Oklahoma State three-and-out on the opening drive. Ewers led a four-play, 39-yard drive to put the Longhorns up 7-0 before again orchestrating a four-play, 84-yard drive to make it a 14-0 lead. That touchdown came by way of a trick play, which saw a double-reverse turn into a touchdown pass from Ewers to Ja’Tavion Sanders.

Oklahoma State answered back, though, by cutting the lead to 14-7 when Alan Bowman connected with Brennan Presley for a touchdown. Texas didn’t back down with T’Vondre Sweat’s touchdown coming on the ensuing drive and adding another score when CJ Baxter ran in a 10-yard touchdown to go up 28-7.

In addition to a Big 12 title, Texas is also trying to make its case for a spot in the College Football Playoff. The Longhorns could present an intriguing conversation for the committee ahead of Selection Sunday, but Sarkisian said he’s not focusing on that.

Once the game ends, though, that’s when Sarkisian will start thinking about the postseason.

“When the games done, we’ll shift our focus to that,” Sarkisian said on College GameDay. “But I really believe in our resume. I believe in our team. I think — the versatility of our team, we can matchup with anybody in the country at the line of scrimmage, or at the skill positions. I value the win at Alabama. I know that meant a lot to our team and gave us a lot of confidence.

“But I think we’re also finding out the quality of team that Alabama is. Going on the road helped us, getting that win. We’ve been kind of able to kind of run the table here in the Big 12. A challenging task, when you’re getting everybody’s best shot. Now we’ve got to try to finish the deal here today against Oklahoma State.”