Texas seizes the moment in winning time versus Kansas State, something that past Longhorn teams have not accomplished

Kansas State decided to attempt to win the game over the Longhorns on fourth-and-goal in the first overtime period. Little did they know that Texas was, too.

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It’s a small distinction, trying to win the game instead of playing not to lose. But players like Jahdae Barron, T’Vondre Sweat, Byron Murphy, and Jaylan Ford are on the Texas defense, and those players approached the ill-fated play with the mindset that they were going to win the crazy contest.

Ford was asked in recent years if the Longhorns lacked those players.

“Absolutely,” Ford said.

But now, those players are in burnt orange, and though circumstances like starters Christian Jones, Kitan Crawford, and Quinn Ewers missing the game, costly mistakes from Maalik Murphy, and surrendering a 20 point lead did occur, Texas had a chance to seal a ranked win in overtime.

Thanks to pressure from Murphy and Barryn Sorrell, plus a pass break-up from Sweat, the Longhorns grabbed victory in a situation where previous teams would typically let it slip away.

“I think we were really ready for that moment in overtime,” Ford said. “They got the deep first play, then we stopped them four plays after that. Just grit and determination from everybody to hold down, get off the field, and end up with the win.”

Credit is due to the Wildcats for mounting their comeback. Texas went up 27-7 with 4:13 left in the third quarter. The Longhorns then surrendered 20 points to KSU, with 13 coming off of a Murphy interception and Jonathon Brooks fumble. KSU made the plays available to them, but those opportunities existed because the Longhorns played a large part in setting them up.

That led to an overtime that saw Bert Auburn nail a 42-yarder to put Texas up 33-30. Kansas State took possession and moved into goal-to-go territory on the first play.

It became winning time, and on Saturday it was winning time for the Longhorns.

“These are the moments you live for,” Barron said. “Everybody wants to be that person to make the play. When the clock stopped and we stopped them, it was excitement and joy being out there with those guys and taking that win.”

Contests with K-State in recent years have been close, despite them all going Texas’ way. In 2021, Roschon Johnson led the Longhorns to an end of the year victory to snap a six-game losing streak. In 2022, Johnson and stablemate Bijan Robinson ran over the Wildcats in Manhattan to take a win from the eventual Big 12 champions.

The 2023 contest was more of the same. While Texas continued the winning streak over K-State to the tune of seven straight contests, it displayed a grit and determination it has often lacked in recent seasons and maintained a winning edge even when everything wasn’t going its way.

That edge came from perceived disrespect from opponents, according to Ford. He said they were “absolutely” pissed off entering the showdown.

“Outside of this organization, I feel like we don’t get the respect we deserve all the time,” Ford said. “My message to everybody on the team was that we’ve got to go take it. If they don’t want to give it to us, go out there and leave no doubt. At the end of the game, they should be saying this is a good team, a great team win, they’ve got heart, they play with physicality, all those types of things.”

That combination has Texas off to its best start since 2009 and with a win in the all-important month of November. The victory keeps Texas at the top of the Big 12 and goes a long way toward earning a spot in Arlington for the Big 12 championship game.

And it earned the victory not by playing not to lose, but rather playing to win even when it appeared that was the opponent’s strategy.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a broken record when I talk about versatility, resilience, perseverance,” Sarkisian said. “Those are qualities that championship teams have because they find a way to win different ways, and they find a way to win games at critical moments and can make plays at critical moments. For our guys today, it just felt like another example of that.”

A backup quarterback, a starting O-lineman and safety missing, and losing Kelvin Banks and Brooks for short stretches is a lot of adversity to have to battle through, not to mention the turnovers and other miscues. Other Texas teams in years past have not been able to battle through and have not gone into moments like the game-ender of Saturday’s affair with the confidence to win.

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This Texas team did that on Saturday, and walked away with a huge win displaying traits its recent predecessors could not.

“Could we have played better? Could we have found a way to play better at some key moments? Sure,” Sarkisian said. “But we played well enough at the most critical moment when the ball is on your own four- or five-yard line there for four straight snaps and our defense was able there to get the stop.”