AUSTIN – This time, it was Texas Tech that broke. 

Texas declared before the season that they’d “embrace the hate” during the farewell tour of the Big 12. That tour turned into one of revenge. Texas (11-1) lost four regular season games last season – all by one possession. The Longhorns avenged the Alabama loss with a 10-point win in Week 2. They knocked off TCU by three points two weeks ago. Texas Tech (6-6) was paid back on Friday night, and the hope is that an Oklahoma State squad that bested Texas by seven points in 2022 will be waiting in the Big 12 championship game next week in Arlington. 

Texas dominated the final conference meeting between the Longhorns and Red Raiders, 57-7, to clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game. The Texas defense held Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton to 88 yards passing and forced two interceptions while completing fewer than 50 percent of his passes. It was the second-largest win in a series with Texas Tech that the Longhorns lead all-time 55-18 without a next game in sight. Results around the Big 12 on Saturday will determine the Longhorns’ opponent in the conference title game.

The win felt like a coronation for a new Texas team that is assuredly back. The Longhorns won double-digit regular season wins for the first time since 2009 – the last time they won a conference championship. They also played for a national championship that season. This team entered Week 13 ranked seventh in the College Football Playoff rankings. 

The fans sensed the moment and hung around longer than an Austin crowd normally would for a game that was 50-7 in the third quarter on Black Friday. The introduction of Arch Manning with a couple minutes left in the fourth quarter kept the stands mostly full for what felt like an afterparty. After all, Bob Schneider tore down Texas City Limits before the game even kicked off. 

Steve Sarkisian inherited a program without enough scholarship offensive linemen to conduct a typical spring game in his first offseason. His team blew lead after lead in his first two seasons in charge, struggling through quarterback injuries and inconsistent defenses to register a 13-12 record through his first two seasons on the 40 Acres. The defense gave up 31.1 points per game in a 5-7 2021. That number is under 18 in 2023. 

Texas now possesses plenty of large humans. Beef is no longer in short supply. The Longhorn defensive line is amongst the best in the nation. The interior duo of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy is the best tandem in America. Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks entered the game ranked third in the FBS in rushing yards per game with 122.55 and the Longhorns held the Red Raiders to 70 rushing yards on 18 first-half attempts to build a big enough lead to render the running game moot.  Offensively, Jaydon Blue erupted for over 100 yards a carry as the Longhorns averaged more than seven yards a tote. 

Texas Tech’s head coach Joey McGuire shot a promo after his Red Raiders beat Texas in overtime last year with a punch line of “I told you they’d break, and they did.” Iowa State offensive lineman Jarrod Hufford challenged the Longhorns’ perceived elitism by stating about Texas that, “they’re just people that have such a high ego that needs to be checked” because “they get all the big five-star recruits, they have all the nicest stuff in the world, and they just think their shit don’t stink.” 

Maybe that was true of Texas teams between 2010 and 2022. Even the 2018 team that won a Sugar Bowl against Georgia started the season with a loss to Maryland and suffered regular season conference losses to Oklahoma State and West Virginia. The Longhorns were a combined 2-10 in one possession games during the first two seasons of the Sarkisian era. They’re 3-1 this season and proved capable of putting a bowl eligible team away after a few weeks of playing with their food in the second half. 

The soft narrative no longer applies. Anyone who thinks it does is free to tell that to Sweat or Murphy or Kelvin Banks or DJ Campbell. Texas is back in the Big 12 championship game and one win away from being called champions for the first time since 2009. The Longhorns rode out of the Southwest Conference with a title in 1996. A repeat of that farewell would taste sweet and might even punch a ticket to a national semifinal in the Rose or Sugar Bowl.