When everything is said and done, Texas’ season may have been decided by one play on a Saturday afternoon in Austin.
On fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line in overtime — with Kansas State going for the win, not the tie — Texas prevented Wildcats quarterback Will Howard from getting off a substantive pass, helping the Longhorns escape with a 33-30 win at Royal-Memorial Stadium. The victory kept No. 6 Texas in control of its destiny in the chase for the Big 12 championship and possible College Football Playoff bid.
The Longhorns and Wildcats entered the day locked in a five-way tie for first place in the conference standings. Saturday’s game booted Kansas State from that logjam while Texas awaited the results from Saturday’s other Big 12 matchups involving Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and Kansas-Iowa State.
“Versatility, resilience, perseverance … those are all qualities championship teams have,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “They can make plays at critical moments.”
Texas led by as many as 20 points in the second half on Saturday, but a scoring spurt by Kansas State quickly closed the gap. After Kansas State scored its third touchdown of that 143-second span but botched the extra-point attempt, a 27-27 tie existed with 12:37 left in the fourth quarter.
Texas has three games left against TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech. If the Longhorns win out, they will reach the Big 12 championship game.
Texas eventually retook the lead with a 34-yard field goal before Kansas State got two chances to again tie the game. The Wildcats missed a 27-yard field goal with 1:45 left, but they made a 45-yard kick with one second remaining in regulation to force overtime.
In the extra period, Texas got the football first and Bert Auburn kicked a 42-yard field goal to make it 33-30.
On its overtime possession, Kansas State quickly reached the Texas 6. After a short run and two incomplete passes, the Wildcats were left with a fourth-down decision and Wildcats coach Chris Klieman opted to go for the win.
Following a Texas timeout, Kansas State stuck with its decision. The Wildcats called for a pass play on that fourth-down attempt from the Texas 4, but a pass rush led by Barryn Sorrell pressured Howard, who flung a high, awkward pass that was eventually batted down by defensive lineman T’Vondre Sweat.
“Our kids always believe we have a shot,” Klieman said. “I’m upset that we lost, but watching what our guys were able to do in the second half was pretty special.”
With that stop, Texas secured its first-ever overtime win under Sarkisian, who is now 21-13 with the Longhorns. Texas had previously fallen in overtime to Kansas in 2021 and Texas Tech in 2022.
Texas opened the game with the ball and the Longhorns promptly drove to the Kansas State 38. On a third-and-10 attempt, Maalik Murphy overthrew a deep ball to Xavier Worthy and Texas was forced to punt.
Despite that miss, Texas did not shy away from the deep ball. To begin its next drive, Texas ran it twice before Murphy aired it out again. This time around, the pass dropped into the hands of Adonai Mitchell and Texas had itself a 37-yard touchdown and an early 7-0 lead. That touchdown was the third thrown by Murphy to Mitchell in the quarterback’s two weeks as a starter.
Texas scored on its next two possessions and built a 17-0 lead by the 11:34 mark of the second quarter. Texas got three of those points on a 32-yard field goal by Bert Auburn. CJ Baxter also scored on a 54-yard run.
On Baxter’s touchdown, Texas opted to keep its offense on the field for a fourth-and-1 attempt in its own territory. That decision came a week after the Longhorns missed on two fourth-down tries against BYU. Entering the game, Texas was 13-for-21 on fourth down, a .619 success rate that ranked 34th nationally.
On this attempt, Texas lined up in a bunch formation that hinted at a quarterback sneak for the 6-foot-5, 238-pound Murphy. Instead, Murphy pitched the ball to Baxter. The freshman slipped an attempted tackle and sprinted into the end zone.
So the conversation about Texas and its fourth-down play-calling is over, right? Maybe not. Later in the half, Texas decided to go for it on a fourth-and-2 from the Kansas State 12 and failed.
A short field goal would have given Texas a 20-0 lead, and the Longhorns obviously were missing those three points later in the game. Texas instead maintained a 17-point advantage that Kansas State cut into with 54 seconds left in the first half on a Howard touchdown pass. The first scoring drive of Kansas State’s day was set up by a blocked punt.
Any momentum that Kansas State entered halftime with was quickly snuffed out in the second half. Kansas State turned the ball over on two of its first five plays of the third quarter as Michael Taaffe snagged a highlight-reel interception and Ethan Burke stripped Howard on a sack. Texas turned that fumble into a 5-yard touchdown run for Jonathon Brooks that lifted the Longhorns to a 24-7 lead with 9:21 left in the third quarter. Five minutes later, Auburn gave Texas its 20-point lead with a 49-yard field goal.
Murphy finished with 248 passing yards, but the redshirt freshman turned the ball over twice. Brooks ran for 112 yards on 22 carries, and he became the school’s 26th 1,000-yard rusher during the game.