- Longhorns Daily News: Texas’ Quinn Ewers on mission to improve, admits he ‘let most of the fans down’ last se… Burnt Orange Nation
- Freshman Arch Manning performs like a freshman in his first Texas spring game NBC Sports
- Golden: Texas’ offense sells tickets, but the Longhorns won’t win without a pass rush Austin American-Statesman
- Texas Football: Six standouts from the Orange-White spring game Longhorns Wire
- College football spring game takeaways: Texas, Georgia find clarity in QB competition 247Sports
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Tag Archives: Longhorns
Texas Longhorns Won’t Wear Alternate Football Uniforms Under Athletic Director Chris Del Conte – SportsLogos.Net News
- Texas Longhorns Won’t Wear Alternate Football Uniforms Under Athletic Director Chris Del Conte SportsLogos.Net News
- Texas AD Shuts Down Idea For Longhorns’ Alternate Football Uniforms OutKick
- Longhorns Daily News: Alternate uniforms aren’t coming under Del Conte’s reign, Texas AD says Burnt Orange Nation
- Texas AD Chris Del Conte Reveals Fate of Longhorn Network After SEC Move Sports Illustrated
- Morning Brew: Del Conte sounds off on alternate uniforms and much more during his Town Hall meeting 247Sports
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Texas vs. TCU score, takeaways: No. 4 Horned Frogs stifle No. 18 Longhorns, clinch spot in Big 12 title game
No. 4 TCU used a strong defensive performance to push past No. 18 Texas 17-10 to reach 10 wins for the first time since 2017 and clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 3. The matchup between the two offensive powerhouses surprisingly turned into a defensive battle, but in the end, TCU remains in the thick of the College Football Playoff conversation.
Texas posted 11 tackles for loss in the first half to keep TCU behind the chains, but running back Kendre Miller took over the game in the second half while overshadowing his more ballyhooed contemporary, Bijan Robinson. Miller broke off a 75-yard touchdown run for the game’s first touchdown and cleared 130 yards rushing. Robinson was held to just 29 yards, snapping a streak of seven straight 100-yard performances.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers completed just 17 of 39 passes for 171 yards and an interception in another poor effort following his breakout performance against Oklahoma in October. The Longhorns, astonishingly, have not scored an offensive touchdown in the second half since their win over Iowa State on Oct. 15. Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders caught seven passes for 61 yards and Jordan Whittington posted 78 yards, but neither got into the end zone.
TCU moves to 10-0 and has earned the chance to play for a conference title in coach Sonny Dykes’ first season. The Horned Frogs have regular-season games remaining against Baylor and Iowa State before making their first Big 12 Championship Game appearance since 2017.
Frogs step up on defense
TCU has been criticized for winning shootouts, but the defense took center stage in a big way against the Longhorns. The Horned Frogs picked off Ewers and held Robinson to 29 yards after the All-American running back post 614 yards rushing in his previous four games.
Horned Frogs linebacker Johnny Hodges flew around the field with 11 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Four other defenders posted a tackle for loss, and defensive end Dylan Horton came away with a sack. It was a total team effort as the Frogs once again went on a strong second-half run to choke out their opponent.
Passing game woes for Horns
While TCU did a good job of making Ewers uncomfortable, Texas’ passing game also collapsed on its own. Ewers missed his first seven passes and whiffed on six of his final seven attempts. When Ewers was on target, Texas had several drops or uncontested passes. Xavier Worthy specifically was targeted 12 times and came up with just four catches.
The Longhorns receiving game was heavily hyped coming into the season with Ewers behind center, but the receivers have underperformed. With only two regular-season games remaining, no receiver has cleared 600 yards. Sanders has proven to be a major weapon, but no other receivers has been able to consistently create mismatches.
TCU’s playoff case
TCU has consistently overpowered teams with its offense, but the Horned Frogs flipped the script with an attack focused on rushing and defense. With any luck, TCU hopes that the College Football Playoff selection committee will notice its ability to win in different ways. For example: Though star receiver Quentin Johnston did have a touchdown catch and 66 yards receiving, he was not the focal point of the evening.
Winning so dominantly against one of college football’s most explosive offenses should earn TCU some much-needed street cred as the committee goes into its final deliberations. With the victory, TCU now has strong wins against No. 18 Texas, No. 19 Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and a number of other potential bowl teams. Each involved overcoming a different kind of adversity — yet, the Frogs are still undefeated.
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Texas vs. TCU score, takeaways: No. 4 Horned Frogs stifle No. 18 Longhorns, clinch spot in Big 12 title game
No. 4 TCU used a strong defensive performance to push past No. 18 Texas 17-10 to reach 10 wins for the first time since 2017 and clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 3. The matchup between the two offensive powerhouses surprisingly turned into a defensive battle, but in the end, TCU remains in the thick of the College Football Playoff conversation.
Texas posted 11 tackles for loss in the first half to keep TCU behind the chains, but running back Kendre Miller took over the game in the second half while overshadowing his more ballyhooed contemporary Bijan Robinson. Miller broke off a 75-yard touchdown run for the game’s first touchdown and cleared 130 yards rushing. Robinson was held to just 29 yards, snapping a streak of seven straight 100-yard performances.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers completed just 17 of 39 passes for 171 yards and an interception in another poor effort since his breakout performance against Oklahoma. The Longhorns have not scored an offensive touchdown since their win over Iowa State on Oct. 15. Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders caught seven passes for 61 yards and Xavier Worthy posted 78 yards, but neither got into the end zone.
TCU moves to 10-0 and has earned the chance to play for a conference title in the first season under coach Sonny Dykes. The Horned Frogs have regular-season games remaining against Baylor and Iowa State before making their first Big 12 Championship Game appearance since 2017.
CBS Sports will update this story shortly with takeaways.
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Texas Longhorns’ Quinn Ewers knocked out of game vs. No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in first quarter
Texas’ Quinn Ewers will not return to Saturday’s game against No. 1 Alabama after the freshman quarterback left with an apparent left shoulder injury after being driven into the ground by the Crimson Tide’s Dallas Turner.
Ewers was taken to the locker room for an X-ray after the injury in the first quarter, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. He was wearing street clothes when he returned to the sideline in the second half.
Turner was flagged for roughing the passer after landing on Ewers on the first-quarter play, with the official saying it was because he drove Ewers into the turf.
Ewers immediately grabbed his left shoulder after the hit and stayed down on the field while special assistant to the head coach Gary Patterson and trainers attended to him. After going to the sideline, Ewers went to the medical tent before then heading to the locker room with a towel over his head.
He had kept Alabama on its heels, going 9-of-12 for 134 yards, and had just completed a 46-yard pass to Xavier Worthy to the Alabama 1-yard line on the previous play.
Hudson Card relieved Ewers, and Bijan Robinson scored two plays later to tie the score at 10-10 on the first play of the second quarter.
Ewers, a highly touted transfer from Ohio State, made his first collegiate start last week against Louisiana-Monroe, going 16-of-24 for 225 yards and two touchdowns and one interception in a 52-10 win.
Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian says Alabama’s Nick Saban ‘saved my career’
AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian hasn’t forgotten, and he won’t forget.
There’s no way he could, especially not this week with Nick Saban and the No. 1 Crimson Tide coming to town.
To most in the college football world, Saban is the guy who has led Alabama to a staggering six national championships, the guy who has transcended college football in myriad different ways and the guy who has built a dynasty the likes of which the sport may not see again any time soon.
But for Sarkisian, Saban is, simply, the guy who “saved my career.”
As big a game as it will be for Texas when Alabama visits DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday — and as big a game as it is for Sarkisian to show that the Longhorns are on the right trajectory after suffering through a losing season in his first year at the helm — he says he will forever be indebted to his old boss.
“I’ve said this numerous times, but I would not be the head coach at Texas if it weren’t for Nick Saban,” Sarkisian told ESPN. “He gave me a chance when I had a hard time getting an interview, never mind a job. There were days that I thought, ‘Man, I’m never going to be a head coach again. I’m never going to be an offensive coordinator again. I’m never going to get another job.’
“But Coach Saban took a chance on me when I needed somebody to believe in me again.”
Sarkisian’s issues with alcohol have been well chronicled and led to his firing at USC five games into the 2015 season when then-athletic director Pat Haden said Sarkisian’s “conduct did not meet USC’s standards” and that Sarkisian was “not healthy.” Sarkisian has talked openly about his alcoholism and says he hasn’t held anything back from his players at Texas.
“I’m really transparent with my players. I’m really open. I’m really honest,” Sarkisian said. “I share my story about where I was in my career at 33 or 34 years old as head coach at the University of Washington, then being fired publicly on national television at USC and then going to a treatment facility for 30 days.”
Sarkisian needed a chance to rebuild his career, and there was no better place to do that than at Alabama under Saban, who has helped to resurrect more than a few coaches’ prospects.
“Sark is the one who did the work,” Saban told ESPN. “We supported him and made sure there were the right resources and people in place to help him, as we have with many others. But, listen, he saved his own career by doing a great job for us and rehabbing himself professionally, and I’m not just talking about personally, but professionally in a really, really positive way that impacted our program greatly and helped us be successful here.”
Saban actually took two chances on Sarkisian, whose Longhorns opened the season with a 52-10 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. The first came when Saban hired Sarkisian as an offensive analyst just before the start of the 2016 season, which was a complete surprise to Sarkisian. In fact, he had already committed to being a part of Fox’s broadcast team that season and had no plans (or opportunities) to coach.
He was on Alabama’s campus that summer as part of his own mini-tour where he spent time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons on the NFL side and Florida and Alabama on the college side.
Tuscaloosa just happened to be his final stop.
“I was spending three to five days at every spot, just trying to tap into where my friends were coaching and try to stay connected to the game,” Sarkisian said. “I’d never had an August where I wasn’t in training camp.” One of the main reasons he went to Alabama at all was to reconnect with old pal Lane Kiffin, the Tide’s offensive coordinator. They were together at USC as co-offensive coordinators under Pete Carroll and have remained close.
During Sarkisian’s visit to Alabama, Saban had Sarkisian watching tape and drawing up plays on the whiteboard.
“Every day, it was like, ‘Watch this, watch that and tell me what you think of this, what you think of that,'” Sarkisian recounted. “Coach Saban doesn’t miss anything. He’s always picking your brain.”
Ultimately, Sarkisian said it was Kiffin who was “kind of the champion behind a lot of it” and tossed out the idea of joining Alabama’s staff as an analyst. Sure enough, Saban offered him a position, but Sarkisian was unsure if he wanted to take it.
“I went back and forth and back and forth and agreed to take the job at Alabama, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Sarkisian said.
Little did he know that he would be calling plays in the national championship game later that season after Saban parted ways with Kiffin following a 24-7 win over Washington in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Kiffin had planned to stay on for the championship game after agreeing to take the Florida Atlantic head job, but Saban had other ideas after seeing the Tide struggle on offense in the win over the Huskies.
“Definitely one of the more unique experiences of my career,” Sarkisian said of the 35-31 national championship game loss to Clemson.
Sarkisian had already been hired as Kiffin’s successor, but his first stint as Alabama’s offensive coordinator lasted less than two months. He left Feb. 7 to be the Falcons’ offensive coordinator, replacing Kyle Shanahan, who was named the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach. But after two years with Atlanta, Sarkisian was fired as part of a shakeup on the Falcons’ staff.
Saban admittedly wasn’t pleased Sarkisian bolted so quickly, but took a second chance on him after Mike Locksley left to take the Maryland head-coaching job following the 2018 season and then Dan Enos left abruptly to be Miami’s offensive coordinator. Sarkisian was all set to stay in the NFL and take a job as the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator when Saban called again.
“In my mind, I was staying in the NFL, but had to take a step back and look at myself and say, ‘You know what? Here’s a man that offered me a job when no one even wanted to interview me,'” Sarkisian said. “‘Here’s a man that entrusted me to call a national championship game when I had been an analyst all year long. Here’s a man that hired me as offensive coordinator and I left a few months later … and he’s still calling me to come back?’
“I felt like at that time I owed him. He extended me an olive branch, and I don’t know how much I really appreciated that and how much I acknowledged that.”
Under Sarkisian’s tutelage, Alabama’s offense put up record-setting numbers. The Tide averaged 47.2 points per game in 2019, second only to national champion LSU.
After that season, Sarkisian turned down head-coaching opportunities at Colorado and Mississippi State to stay at Alabama.
“I thought to myself, ‘You know, I think there’s a better job out there for me, and I’ve got unfinished business,'” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t win a national championship. We were good enough. We were talented enough. I didn’t do a good enough job. It was the right thing for me, for the program and for Coach Saban to stay another year.”
Sarkisian became an even hotter commodity in 2020 as the Crimson Tide rolled through the season unbeaten on their way to a national championship, and did so while playing an all-SEC schedule during the COVID-impacted regular season. The Tide again finished second nationally in scoring offense (48.5 points per game) with first-year full-time quarterback Mac Jones playing his way into being an NFL first-round draft pick and receiver DeVonta Smith winning the Heisman Trophy. They scored more than 40 points in 10 straight games.
As the College Football Playoff approached, Sarkisian turned down an opportunity to interview for the Auburn head-coaching job.
“There were a couple of opportunities, but they weren’t the right ones for me,” Sarkisian said. “But then Texas came … very late.”
And very quickly.
Texas announced Sarkisian’s hiring Jan. 2, 2021, about five hours after announcing that Tom Herman was out as coach.
“Then, it felt right,” Sarkisian said. “We were going to play for a national title, and I felt like I fulfilled what I owed to Coach Saban. Plus, it was Texas.”
Saban’s Alabama program has been something of a haven for coaches looking for second chances, whether they were fired at their previous stops for not winning enough or for other reasons. Saban said the ones who have received second chances all had one thing in common.
They were committed to helping themselves.
“I’ve given several people chances, and they’ve all done really, really well, whether it was Lane, who had lots of baggage, or Mike Locksley, who had a negative past, and then Sark,” Saban said. “I think people learn a lot sometimes when things go badly, and it makes them aware that there are some changes that need to be made.
“It wasn’t because I told them. They did it themselves, did a great job here and earned their opportunities.”
Texas will have to earn its way back to national relevance after going 12 straight years without as much as a conference championship. The Longhorns have had almost as many head coaches (four) as they’ve had winning seasons (six) over the last decade. Sarkisian knows what the pinnacle of college football looks like. He’s seen it up close.
“It’s been Alabama for the last decade and a half,” Sarkisian said. “And at the end of day, we should also be one of those teams at the pinnacle, and that’s what we’re striving to do.”
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian not concerned whether Alabama showdown defines Longhorns program
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian knows the college football world is focused on the Longhorns facing No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, with two of the sport’s biggest brand names facing off for just the 10th time in history.
But Sarkisian also is cautioning his team not to get too distracted by all the attention.
The Longhorns are 19-point underdogs at Caesars Sportsbook and are likely to close with their longest odds to win at home since the 1978 FBS/FCS split, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Still, it’s a huge opportunity to see how Sarkisian’s progress stacks up against his old boss Nick Saban.
“It’s one game, you know?” Sarkisian said Monday. “It’s a chance for us to do what we love to do. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is [thinking] this is going to be the game that’s going to define our program.
“It might, it might not. I’m not that concerned about it. I’m more concerned about just the way we play the game.”
Sarkisian said that his goal is to play for a Big 12 championship. While the Crimson Tide will be a future SEC opponent, Saturday’s matchup is a nonconference game for now, and Sarkisian said he’s focused on what he can control.
“All along, my goal is to be in Dallas on December 3,” he said. “This game has no impact on that. … I want to play really well. I want to make sure that our guys play our style of football, our brand of football and do it the way I know we’re capable of doing it.”
Sarkisian, who spent three seasons as an assistant at Alabama, was asked how Saturday’s game against Saban compares to facing another former boss in Pete Carroll in 2009, when Sarkisian’s Washington team upset then-No. 3 USC 16-13.
“Very similar scenario,” Sarkisian said. “I worked for Pete Carroll for seven years and had a great respect for what he did and what we were able to do in our time there. I think it was buying into the idea of what the game plan was, and where we needed to be from a psyche standpoint.”
Sarkisian knows the psyche he needs against a dominant Alabama program, and laughed remembering how intense working for Saban was, although he recalled Lane Kiffin getting the brunt of it.
“Lane used to get it pretty good. I don’t mind saying that,” Sarkisian laughed. “Lane’s been a good friend of mine. There’s a couple I vividly remember. I was kind of in the press box looking down and there was a lot of [wild gestures] going on.
“I got it too. I think that shaped us. But part of it is, if [Saban] is yelling at you, you probably didn’t reach an expectation or a standard of what he was expecting of you. And if you’re a guy like me, that’s what drives you ultimately.”
Texas will be facing Alabama for the first time since the 2010 national championship game after the 2009 season. This will be their first regular-season matchup since 1922, and Texas is 7-1-1 all-time against the Tide, which is the best winning percentage (.833) among teams that have played them at least five times.
Sarkisian said he wasn’t sure where he was during that 2010 championship game, but he echoed a frequent refrain from Longhorn fans — one that will be analyzed quite a bit this week: what might have been if former Texas quarterback Colt McCoy had not been hurt on the fifth snap of a 37-21 loss.
“I think we all wish, if Colt was in the game, what would have happened?” he said.
Quinn Ewers named starting quarterback for Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns have named Quinn Ewers, the heralded recruit who began his college career early at Ohio State to capitalize on name, image and likeness opportunities before transferring back to his home state, as their starting quarterback.
Ewers, who is from Southlake, Texas, had been competing for the job with Hudson Card, who opened the 2021 season as Texas’ starter but mostly played behind Casey Thompson.
The Longhorns open the season against Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 3 before hosting preseason No. 1 Alabama on Sept. 10.
The 6-foot-2, 206-pound Ewers initially committed to play for the Longhorns in the class of 2022, but reclassified to the 2021 class and signed with Ohio State after the state of Texas had prohibited high school athletes from earning money from their name, image and likeness. Ewers took just two snaps and did not attempt a pass for the Buckeyes last season.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told ESPN earlier this week that he had “an idea” of who would be the team’s starting quarterback, and would tell the team soon. Ewers, in a tweet earlier this week, hinted an announcement was coming Friday.
Sarkisian said he does not want to rotate quarterbacks, like the team did with Card and Thompson in 2021.
“I think it’s hard for a quarterback to get into rhythm that way, and I think you play differently knowing, ‘Hey, I don’t know how many throws I’m going to get,’ and you take too many chances,” Sarkisian said. “I just don’t think the decision-making is very good.”
Texas is set to add to its quarterback room in 2023. Arch Manning, the No. 2 overall player in the ESPN 300, has committed to play for Sarkisian and the Longhorns.
Texas A&M Aggies cruise, ‘use that energy from the crowd’ to eliminate rival Texas Longhorns at Men’s College World Series
OMAHA, Neb. — In the maddening wait before Micah Dallas took the mound in Sunday’s rivalry showdown against Texas, the Texas A&M right-hander deeply contemplated one piece of advice: It’s just another game.
But it was the Men’s College World Series, and Dallas couldn’t help himself. He charged onto the field after the Aggies’ 10-2 rout and flashed a double Horns down sign.
“It’s kinda something that’s just like breathing: death, taxes and Horns down,” Dallas said. “I mean, there’s no hate toward them at all. They’re a great ballclub.
“If you looked at social media before the game, you’d think it’s life or death. And the fans were just incredible today. Both sides made it fun. You can either let it affect you in a positive or negative way. The older you get and the more experience you have, you can use that energy from the crowd.”
Texas and Texas A&M have been playing baseball against each other since 1904, but the stakes had never been higher than on Saturday. It was the first time they’d faced each other in the CWS, and the loser would go home.
Texas was the team with the bluer blood; it has six national championships and is the winningest Division I baseball program of all time, while the Aggies hadn’t won a CWS game in 29 years.
Until Sunday.
Dallas, who grew up in Aubrey, Texas — nicknamed Horse Country, USA — was unflappable. In heat indexes that reached triple digits, he appeared to labor in the first two innings, throwing 51 pitches and surrendering two runs.
Dallas said A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle chatted with him after the first inning. “Just keep doing you,” Schlossnagle told him. It gave him confidence, Dallas said. He proceeded to stymie the Longhorns until the top of the sixth, and by then, the Aggies had built an 8-2 lead. Texas staged one last rally in the sixth, when Silas Ardoin and Dylan Campbell singled with no out.
That’s when the Aggies called on Jacob Palisch. The graduate transfer from Stanford struck out the next two batters then walked Mitchell Daly, who yelled, “Let’s go!” into the UT dugout. It loaded the bases for Longhorns slugger Ivan Melendez, who led the nation in home runs and RBIs.
Melendez connected on an opposite-field drive that sailed foul. Fans in burnt orange and maroon and white rose to their feet. Melendez struck out looking on an inside fastball at the knees.
Palisch pumped his fist. Melendez reared his body back in disbelief.
After the game, Texas coach David Pierce said he felt “numb.”
“I mean, I thought we had momentum early in the game,” he said. “We grabbed one in the first, I think one in the second. You just — overcoming big innings has been the story of the last three months. And that popped us today. And I think it just has worn on the position players and feel like at that point just constantly playing uphill. Maybe it just caught up to us, that feeling. We spent a lot of time standing on the field today.”
The Aggies (43-19) appeared to be the looser team on Saturday. They fed catcher Troy Claunch a Pringles chip when he scored in the second inning to tie the score at 2-2. The Pringles routine, or whatever you want to call it, started in March, when the Aggies lost to Houston. Schlossnagle told the team that winning needed to be like Pringles: You can’t just eat one.
Now when they score runs or come up with a big play, they eat Pringles.
A&M fans showed up at the team hotel Sunday morning to send the Aggies off to the team bus. Seth Martin, a College Station resident who sits in Section 203 during home baseball games, fist-bumped the players and headed for the stadium with his own survival kit: a maroon A&M koozie, a vial of bubbles to blow after every score, and, of course, a can of Pringles.
“Everyone hates TU,” Martin said, reversing the team’s initials.
“Can you tell how excited we are? We’re pumped.”
The Texas-Texas A&M rivalry lost a bit of its luster in 2012, when the Aggies moved from the Big 12 to the SEC. For three years, the teams did not play each other. In 2015, they agreed to an annual Tuesday game. Among the major sports, the baseball teams are the only ones that play each other.
But that will change in 2025, when Texas joins the SEC.
Dallas wasn’t thinking about any of that late Sunday. He said he had “conversations” with Texas during the recruiting process but went to Texas Tech. He transferred to College Station after last season, and now, while the Longhorns are headed home, Dallas’ unbelievable season continues.
“When you’re a little kid, you think about playing against your biggest rival on the biggest stage,” he said, “and that’s what happened today.”
OU Sooners beat Texas Longhorns, win sixth NCAA softball WCWS title
Sooners talk WCWS home runs, comfortability on big stages
Oklahoma beat Texas 16-1 in the first game of the Women’s College World Series championship. The Sooners are one win away from claiming the title.
NCAA, Oklahoman
Come at the Queens, you best not miss.
Texas had its chances early to derail the coronation of OU, looking to win the Women’s College World Series for the second consecutive season and the sixth time in the program’s history.
But the Longhorns early shot — two first-inning runs — was nothing more than a minor annoyance to the Sooners, who eventually came out swinging and there was little Texas could do to slow the inevitable.
OU blasted the Longhorns 10-5 to sweep the WCWS championship series on Thursday night at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Sooners finished the season 59-3, one of the most dominating seasons in NCAA softball history.
For three innings, it looked like Texas might just force a Game 3.
Carlson: How Patty Gasso built a softball powerhouse, changed OU athletics 50 years after Title IX
They were giving OU starter Jordy Bahl fits at the plate and despite a string of leadoff hitters reaching base for the Sooners, OU’s powerful bats couldn’t find a way to string anything more together on Longhorns’ starter Estelle Czech.
After Wednesday’s 16-1 drubbing by OU, Texas coach Mike White said holding the Sooners’ offense in check was a virtual impossibility.
“We’ve got to score runs to beat them,” White said. “They’re going to put up some numbers, four or five, we got to find a way to score seven. That’s the way it is, you know.”
The Longhorns looked up to the challenge early, smacking the ball around the park when Bahl wasn’t walking Texas hitters.
Janae Jefferson led off the bottom of the first with a hard hit up the middle before Mia Scott followed with one to left.
After a walk, Alyssa Washington nearly drove the ball out of the park but instead wound up with a sacrifice fly.
Mary Iakopo put a charge into one herself, driving one to the furthest reaches of center field before Jayda Coleman leapt and hauled it in for the second out on another sacrifice fly that put the Longhorns up 2-0.
Courtney Day, one of the stars of the WCWS for the Longhorns, then got into one even more, this time to the left side of center.
But Coleman tracked it down as well, leaping even higher and robbing Day of a home run that would’ve put the Longhorns up 5-0.
Instead, the OU deficit was just two.
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Bahl allowed two runners in the second and one in the third — erased on a double play that began with Sooners’ shortstop Grace Lyons’ diving snap — before she settled in.
It took OU a little longer to get much going offensively.
The Sooners put the leadoff hitter on in each of the first three innings but couldn’t get anything going on Texas’ Estelle Czech.
But then the floodgates opened.
OU tied it up in the fourth after Alyssa Brito started off with a double before an error allowed Brito to come around to score. Taylon Snow then tied it with an RBI single.
In the fifth, it was the bottom of OU’s order getting it done once against after Tiare Jennings singled and Lyons was hit by a pitch.
Brito gave the Sooners their first lead with an RBI double and Kinzie Hansen followed with a three-run homer to put OU up 6-2.
The Sooners then erased all chances of a Friday game with four more in the sixth, the big blow a three-run homer by Lyons.
Then it was just a matter of counting the outs.
Bahl made it through the first four innings, allowing just two hits after the first two batters touched her up.
Then Nicole May came on to bring the game into the seventh, allowing just one hit.
‘It’s choreographed chaos’: Why USA Softball maintenance crew is an unsung hero at WCWS
The bottom of the seventh inning was all about the senior sendoffs. Designated player Jocelyn Alo — the all-time career home run hitter in NCAA history — was out in left field and made the first two outs of the innings, catching pop flies. She was lifted with two outs and hugged teammates on her way off the field.
An out earlier, Sooners coach Patty Gasso brought on Hope Trautwein to finish it off in the circle.
Trautwein, who grew up a Texas fan in an Austin suburb, is the long senior among OU’s three primary pitchers and had emerged as one of the stars of the WCWS.
Trautwein was touched up by Scott for a three-run home run, but that just delayed the inevitable.
Fans around the park held up their phones with every two-out pitch to capture the celebration.
It eventually came, after a walk, when Washington grounded softly to Jennings at second. By the time Jennings’ throw hit Snow’s glove, the celebration was getting kicked off around the field.
In the sweep of the best-of-three championship series, OU outscored Texas 26-6.
In six games in the WCWS, the Sooners outscored opponents 64-17.
No team had ever scored more than 49 runs in the WCWS. No team other than OU’s championship team last season had ever scored more than 47.
Carlson: OU football coach Brent Venables blown away by Jocelyn Alo, Sooners. ‘Like a nuclear bomb.’
WCWS championship series schedule
Best-of-three series between OU and Texas:
Game 1: Oklahoma 16, Texas 1
Game 2: Oklahoma 10, Texas 5
Previous NCAA softball champions
2021: Oklahoma (56-4)
2020: Canceled due to pandemic
2019: UCLA (56-6)
2018: Florida State (58-12)
2017: Oklahoma (61-9)
2016: Oklahoma (57-8)
2015: Florida (60-7)
2014: Florida (55-12)
2013: Oklahoma (57-4)
2012: Alabama (60-8)
2011: Arizona State (60-6)
2010: UCLA (50-14-1)
2009: Washington (51-12)
2008: Arizona State (66-5)
2007: Arizona (50-14-1)
2006: Arizona (54-11)
2005: Michigan (65-7)
2004: UCLA (47-9)
2003: UCLA (54-7)
2002: California (56-19)
2001: Arizona (65-4)
2000: Oklahoma (66-8)
1999: UCLA (63-6)
1998: Fresno State (52-11)
1997: Arizona State (61-5)
1996: Arizona (58-9)
1995: UCLA (50-6)
1994: Arizona (64-3)
1993: Arizona (44-8)
1992: UCLA (54-2)
1991: Arizona (56-16)
1990: UCLA (62-7)
1989: UCLA (48-4)
1988: UCLA (53-8)
1987: Texas A&M (56-8)
1986: Cal State Fullerton (57-9-1)
1985: UCLA (41-9)
1984: UCLA (45-6-1)
1983: Texas A&M (41-11)
1982: UCLA (33-7-2)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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NCAA softball tournament scoreboard
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