Byron Murphy, T'Vondre Sweat defend Texas' culture, end zone in 26-16 win
Texas is a motivated program. It doesn’t need extra help from outside voices to get up for games. But Iowa State O-lineman Jarrod Hufford provided Texas with a significant amount of bulletin board material earlier this week.
[Join Inside Texas and get ONE MONTH of Longhorn intel for just $1!]
And on Saturday in Ames with Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat leading the way, the Longhorns used Hufford’s comments as fuel to the competitive fire on their way to eliminating the Cyclones’ run game during Texas’ 26-16 win.
Pregame captains are chosen by Steve Sarkisian, and the Longhorns head coach sent his starting defensive tackles to midfield with a purpose after their assignment in Hufford talked a big game earlier in the week.
“I wanted them to walk to the middle of the field so they could see them,” Sarkisian said. “I wanted them to look at 90 and 93.”
Iowa State felt Murphy and Sweat all night. The Cyclones tallied nine rushing yards and 16 points versus Texas in the Longhorn win. Statistics from Murphy and Sweat undersold their accomplishments, which neutralized several aspects of the Cyclone offense.
Murphy walked back the Cyclone center on a decisive late-game sack, part of his 1.5 QB takedowns on the day. Sweat recorded just one tackle but was a menace to the Iowa State O-line all night. He also made an impact on special teams with a blocked PAT returned by Austin Jordan for two points.
Murphy and Sweat played inspired. Though self-motivated, they had some help from the Cyclone side of things via Hufford’s comments.
“We just came here to play ball,” Sweat said.
Added Murphy, “In my mind, I already knew what I had to do. I knew what I had to come out here and get done.”
Thanks to those two, the rushing aspect of the Cyclone offense was non-existent. Matt Campbell’s offense had to abandon the ground game because the O-line anchored by a left guard in Hufford who talked the talk couldn’t walk the walk.
The limiting of the Iowa State offense wasn’t brought about by the callout of Texas, nor the indirect callout of Murphy and Sweat. But Sarkisian wanted Murphy, Sweat, and the rest of the team to take Hufford’s words to heart as an attack on the Texas culture. All Murphy and Sweat did was provide their defense.
“I don’t know why you’d ever call them out,” Sarkisian said. “That’d be the last thing I would do if I was getting ready to play us. That was their choice to call them out and to call out our culture, quite frankly. That’s how we took it.”
Postgame social media posts by Longhorns like Jaylan Ford, Xavier Worthy, and Jahdae Barron reveal that it wasn’t just Murphy and Sweat who took the words to heart. But those two Texas defensive tackles played an inspired game for the Horns during their 10th 2023 win.
“We preach on stopping the run,” Murphy said. “That’s the key thing. That’s the first thing when it comes to the D-line. When it comes to Coach Bo (Davis) and the D-line, we’re stopping the run. We’re killing the run no matter what.”
Nine yards? That’s killing the run. And those numbers were well-received by Sweat after the game.
“That’s wonderful,” Sweat said.
The Longhorns entered Saturday’s contest allowing 90.1 yards per game on the ground, good for No. 8 in the country. They topped that average on Saturday night, and inched closer to a berth in the Big 12 Championship game in the process.
“Our front did it again,” Sarkisian said.
