Texas Longhorns Football

Texas running back Bijan Robinson's fantastic college football season continued on Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Although his No. 20 Longhorns lost 41-34 to the host No. 11 Oklahoma State Cowboys, Robinson dominated to the tune of 140 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries in addition to a 41-yard touchdown catch.

Robinson continuously fought off defenders for yards after contact and cruised through the defense when he had room to run.

Robinson now has 1,200 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns in eight games, all of which have featured him gaining 100 or more yards from scrimmage. He's rushed for 100 or more yards in his last six contests.

Robinson's 42-yard touchdown run gave Texas an early 6-3 lead.

Robinson didn't encounter any resistance on an easy 41-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.

He did most of his damage in the first half, which featured Texas dropping 31 points en route to a touchdown lead at the halftime break.

However, Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders (391 yards, two touchdowns) went off, and the Cowboys defense held the Longhorns to just three second-half points thanks in part to interceptions on each of Texas' final two possessions.

Still, Robinson's work did not go unnoticed, and Twitter praised his efforts again.

Robinson and the 5-3 Longhorns now have a bye week before visiting Kansas State on Nov. 5.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers is expected to start in Saturday's game against Oklahoma after returning from his shoulder injury, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Ewers suffered a left clavicle sprain in the the first quarter of the Longhorns' 20-19 loss against No. 1 Alabama on Sept. 10 and has missed the last three games.

Sophomore Hudson Card has been the team's starter over the last three weeks, totaling six touchdown passes with one interception while the squad went 2-1.

Ewers is now set to return, with Thamel reporting the quarterback has been "practicing without limitations this week."

A highly touted transfer from Ohio State, Ewers beat out Card for the starting job coming into the season. In his first career start against Louisiana-Monroe to open the 2022 season, Ewers completed 16 of 24 passes for 225 yards, two touchdowns and an interception to help lead Texas to a 52-10 win.

A native of Southlake, Texas, Ewers was the No. 1 overall recruit coming out of high school, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

He had originally committed to the Longhorns as a member of the class of 2022, but he reclassified to the 2021 class and signed with Ohio State after the state of Texas prohibited high school athletes from earning money from their name, image and likeness. Ewers didn't attempt a pass in his lone season with the Buckeyes.

Ewers is now ready to show what he can do after returning to the field, trying to help the Longhorns get back on track after a 3-2 start.

Oklahoma has lost its last two after starting 3-0, including 0-2 in conference play, but the Red River Rivalry should be as intense as ever.

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is reportedly expected to miss Saturday's game against West Virginia but hopes to return from a shoulder injury for next week's rivalry clash with Oklahoma.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Ewers was able to practice on a limited basis throughout the week but isn't quite ready to retake the reins of the Longhorns' offense.

The redshirt freshman suffered the injury during a Sept. 10 loss to Alabama and reportedly received a four-to-six-week recovery timetable, which lines up with a possible return against the Sooners next Saturday.

Ewers transferred to Texas in December after spending his first college season at Ohio State, making just one appearance. It was highly unlikely he'd overtake Heisman Trophy contender C.J. Stroud on the Buckeyes' depth chart, leading to the move.

The San Antonio native put together a solid debut for UT. He completed 16 of his 24 throws for 225 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in a Week 1 blowout win over UL Monroe. He went 9-of-12 for 134 yards before getting hurt against Alabama.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday that Ewers, the consensus top-ranked prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, has been pushing to play every week.

"I think there's no doubt Quinn wants to play," Sarkisian told reporters. "He's wanted to play since he first got injured against Alabama. He wanted to go back in that game. Mentally, he's a highly competitive young man. He's worked at trying to get himself healthy. He's been throwing now for about two, two and a half weeks and has gradually improved."

The Longhorns are a sizable favorite against West Virginia (-7.5, per DraftKings Sportsbook). Backup Hudson Card has also played well since stepping into the lineup, completing 66.3 percent of his attempts with three touchdowns and one interception.

So it makes sense for UT to give Ewers another week of recovery time to get as close to full strength as possible ahead of the Red River Showdown.

Texas is coming off a 37-34 overtime loss to another rival, Texas Tech, last week that dropped its record to 2-2.

The Horns still have a chance to make an impact on the season with four games left against currently ranked opponents and Kansas, one of the year's surprise teams at 4-0, has a chance to join that group in the coming weeks.

Texas running back Bijan Robinson continued his phenomenal 2022 season by amassing 123 total yards and two touchdowns against Texas Tech on Saturday.

Unfortunately, Robinson lost a fumble in overtime, and Texas Tech responded with a field goal for the 37-34 win.

The late turnover proved to be the difference, but Texas wouldn't have been in position to win without another great game from Robinson.

The potential future NFL star has gained over 100 total yards in each of his four regular-season matchups thus far, and he was coming off a 202-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 41-20 win over UTSA.

He kept rolling Saturday, gaining 101 rushing yards on just 16 carries. He's now rushed 67 times for 412 yards and seven scores in addition to eight receptions for 154 receiving yards and one touchdown.

Needless to say, many people on college football Twitter were impressed with his efforts.

Some fans were even clamoring for him to get Heisman hype.

However, the game ended disastrously for Robinson and the Longhorns because of the fumble, which is a very rare occurrence.

Still, Robinson certainly has his backers despite the turnover.

Robinson and the Longhorns will look to bounce back Saturday against West Virginia.

Mike Leach is casting doubts on reports of Texas spending $280,000 on a recruiting trip highlighted by quarterback Arch Manning.

“Have you ever been to or heard of rooms that can eat up that much of $280,000? I haven’t,” Leach said Thursday on his weekly radio show, per Stefan Krajisnik of the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “Let’s make them really expensive. There’s eight recruits, hypothetically. Let’s make those rooms $3,000 a piece. Right there you still haven’t even dented it.”

“I think this is embellished. … But I would be curious if someone managed to be creative enough to find a way to spend that much money in that period of time on that number of people. I’d be curious exactly how it was done and what they did. I have some serious, serious, serious doubts about this.”

Leach said he read the article in The Athletic that highlighted the expensive recruiting visit, which featured eight high-level prospects and their families.

If Leach read the article, however, it's hard to see why he would have trouble believing the amount spent. Texas did not send out a press release bragging about spending over a quarter-million dollars on the trip; reporter Sam Khan Jr. obtained receipts and invoices via a public records request.

The amount spent would be verified by those receipts.

The report also details exactly how the money was spent, including comments from parents of the recruits who were on the trip. Texas laid out a 5-star red carpet for top recruits, and all parties took full advantage of the open checkbook.

This all seems like a pretty cut-and-dried situation.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian announced Thursday quarterback Quinn Ewers will travel with the Longhorns for Saturday's road game against rival Texas Tech.

Sarkisian confirmed Ewers is on track to suit up as he nears a return from a shoulder injury but wouldn't say whether he'll start the Week 4 contest.

Ewers suffered the injury during the Horns' 20-19 loss to top-ranked Alabama in Week 2.

The quarterback, who transferred to Texas from Ohio State last December, warmed up before last week's victory over UTSA but didn't play in the game.

He's completed 25 of his 36 throws (69.4 percent) for 359 yards with two touchdowns and one interception across five quarters this season.

Hudson Card has filled the void admirably, nearly leading Texas to the upset of Alabama before a lopsided 41-20 win over UTSA. He's thrown just one touchdown in 50 attempts, however, so it's unlikely he's a threat to Ewers' job once the starter is cleared.

Ewers, a Texas native, was 247Sports' No. 1 prospect in the 2021 recruiting class when he selected Ohio State, but he was unable to secure the Buckeyes' starting job given the presence of Heisman Trophy contender C.J. Stroud before leaving to join the Longhorns.

"This has, obviously, been a dream for me," he told reporters before the season. "Growing up, I was a huge Longhorn fan. I'm just excited to have the opportunity. God blessed me and I'm just super humbled and excited."

Getting Ewers back for the start of the Big 12 portion of the schedule would be a big boost for UT, which has the talent to compete with Oklahoma and Baylor atop the conference.

If he's kept out of the lineup Saturday despite suiting up, his next chance to return would come Oct. 1 when the Longhorns host West Virginia.

All signs point to Ewers leading the Texas offense against the Red Raiders, though.

Texas may not be able to pay Arch Manning to play for the Longhorns, but the university reportedly opened up the vault for the top recruit to make him feel like the king of Austin.

Sam Khan Jr. of The Athletic reported Texas spent nearly $280,000 during Manning's two-day official visit in June. The visit included eight other prospects, but there was no question the school was rolling out a Benjamin Franklin-printed carpet for Manning.

The lavish weekend included a stay at a luxury hotel, two dinners averaging over $30,000 and a pair of open-bar parent socials that totaled five figures.

While it's standard for recruits to visit the campus and receive elevator pitches from coaches, this was a first-class wine-and-dine experience designed to impress parents just as much as the players.

The weekend was, from a recruiting standpoint, an unmitigated success. Manning announced his commitment to Texas days after the visit, and he'll be joined by 3-star high school teammate Will Randle, who was also on the trip.

The exorbitant tab for the weekend may open eyes across the country, but it's merely the cost of doing high-level business in college football.

Manning will arrive at Texas as one of the most touted prospects in program history, equipped with every tool necessary to be a star and the pedigree of his last name as the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning. We'll have to wait until next year to see whether he lives up to the massive investment.

Recruit ratings via 247Sports.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian borrowed a line from Nick Saban after his team nearly upset Alabama on Saturday, losing 20-19 on the Crimson Tide's game-winning field goal with just 10 seconds remaining.

"First of all, to quote my old boss, we've got to be careful of the rat poison of people telling us how good we are, which is important," Sarkisian told reporters.

"A week ago, everyone told us how bad we were. Now this week, everyone wants to tell us how good we are. We've got to be careful to quiet the noise outside of our building and focus on us."

Back in 2017, Saban categorized positive media coverage of his team as "rat poison."

"I'm trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys," he told reporters. "All that stuff you write about how good we are, and all that stuff they hear on ESPN, it's like poison. It's like taking poison ... like rat poison. So, I'm asking them, 'Are you going to listen to me, or are you going to listen to these guys about how good you are?'"

Texas, which has started the season 1-1, will next face a tough UTSA team that went 12-2 last season and finished as Conference USA champions. The Roadrunners are not an opponent the Longhorns can afford to look past.

"I definitely wanted to address it because, you know, I'm getting the text messages too," Sarkisian said. "I'm getting the phone calls. 'Hey, you guys are great, man. You look great,' this and that. Thanks, but you know, we got more work to do."

Sarkisian, 48, is trying to reverse years of mediocrity at Texas. Since Mack Brown's final season in 2013, the Longhorns have had four losing seasons—including 5-7 last year in Sarkisian's debut—and just one year reaching 10 wins.

Charlie Strong was just 16-21 in his three seasons. Tom Herman improved on that, going 32-18, but didn't manage to win a Big-12 title in his four years on the job. For a proud Texas program, the past decade—combined with Oklahoma's dominance—has been a tough pill to swallow.

The supposed "rat poison" of praise might go down a bit easier initially for this Texas team, but as Saban once warned and now Sarkisian has echoed, the long-term effects could be toxic.

NFL teams have soured on taking running backs early in drafts, but Texas star Bijan Robinson could change that trend.

ESPN's Jordan Reid reported Robinson is "getting top-15 buzz" as one of the top prospects in years at the position.

"Many scouts believe that Robinson is the best overall running back prospect since Saquon Barkley," Reid reported.

Barkley was the last running back taken among the first 15 picks, going No. 2 overall in 2018 out of Penn State. The New York Giants star made an immediate impact with 15 touchdowns and an NFL-best 2,028 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, although injuries have slowed him down since.

The league has changed its approach in recent years. Only four running backs have been taken in Round 1 in the last four drafts, none inside the top 20.

Robinson could force teams to pull the trigger earlier thanks to his game-changing ability as both a runner and receiver. The 6'0", 215-pound runner tallied 1,127 rushing yards and 295 receiving yards last year with 15 total touchdowns, averaging 5.8 yards per carry.

In Saturday's tough matchup against Alabama, Robinson had 130 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown, including a 42-yard reception.

If this continues, he won't have to wait long to hear his name called on draft day.