'I miss that hat': Texas' 2018 class looking for second win over OU in six tries
Members of Texas’ 2018 class were just freshmen the last time the Longhorns defeated the Oklahoma Sooners. Led by veteran players Sam Ehlinger, Charles Omenihu, Chris Nelson, and Lil’Jordan Humphrey, UT topped Kyler Murray and the Sooners thanks to a walk-off field goal by Cameron Dicker, the lowest rated member of the 2018 class.
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The Sooners got the best of the Longhorns later in the season in a rematch at the Big 12 Championship game, but UT retained the Golden Hat, the rivalry’s trophy, until the 2019 contest. OU took back the gilded head covering in 2019, and kept it thanks to thrilling victories in 2020 and 2021.
That’s all to say, members of Texas’ top-three #revolUTion18 class are 1-4 against the Sooners.
Seven players from the original 27-man group remain on the roster. Many transferred, while others found spots in the NFL. But for DeMarvion Overshown, Anthony Cook, Keondre Coburn, D’Shawn Jamison, Christian Jones, and the injured Junior Angilau, this weekend’s Red River Shootout is likely their last shot at wearing the Golden Hat.
Or in Moro Ojomo’s case, the first time.
“I didn’t wear it because I didn’t feel like I won it,” Ojomo said Monday. ”I need to wear it.”
His teammates took a different approach. On Monday, Jamison called wearing the hat a “great experience.” Jones also put on the hat, and recorded the memory on his phone. It’s a picture he still has to this day.
“It was awesome,” Jones said Monday. ”I just remember I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Those memories are now almost four years old. Defeat in the last four meetings is more recent in the minds of those players. For Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, he knows that will draw their attention. However, he doesn’t want to overemphasize those previous defeats in Dallas and make them the primary motivating factor.
“We can’t harbor our past,” Sarkisian said Monday. “We’ve got to learn from our past, and we’ve got to move forward. We’ve got to take the necessary steps.”
Sarkisian isn’t excluded from that advice. His first experience in the Red River Shootout last year didn’t go as planned. The Longhorns surrendered an early three-touchdown lead to lose on a walk-off rushing touchdown.
Sarkisian isn’t gunning for revenge for 2021. Rather, he wants victory over Oklahoma in 2022.
A lack of focus on revenge makes sense. Oklahoma has a new head coach in Brent Venables. The quarterback that terrorized Texas, Caleb Williams, followed former Sooner head coach Lincoln Riley to USC, as did many other players. As coaches like to say, that was last year’s team and not this year’s team.
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But the drive for the Longhorns to defeat their primary rival is there. Even with Oklahoma’s struggles in recent weeks versus Kansas State and TCU, the Texas head coach downplayed the idea his team might overlook a Sooner team in search of its footing and with questions at multiple positions.
“Last time I checked this morning when I walked in our building, the Golden Hat wasn’t in there,” Sarkisian said. ”We’ve got plenty to get ourselves prepared to go for.”
Sarkisian, a self-described college football fan, repeatedly mentions how much he enjoys the pageantry associated with the Red River Shootout. He said Monday he had goosebumps thinking about the idea of running out of the tunnel.
That anticipation was echoed by other players, many who may be surrounded by the split burnt orange and crimson crowd for the final time in their careers.
“There’s nothing like that Texas-OU rivalry,” Ojomo said.
Said Jamison: ”I’m looking forward to this week.”
Jones thought similar. ”It’s a big week,” he said.
When they take the field against Oklahoma, there will be one goal in mind. Texas’ fifth-year seniors want to regain the trophy that has eluded the program since 2018.
“I miss that hat,” Ojomo said.
