– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WACO, TEXAS — It was 5,006 days ago when the University of Texas football team came into a game ranked as high as it was going into tonight’s contest on the shadows of the Brazos. The performance the Longhorns put on Saturday night was another step toward reaching the same contest that the Longhorns of yesteryear were preparing for all those days ago: the national championship game.
Quinn Ewers threw for a touchdown and ran for another, an efficient performance in leading third-ranked Texas to a 38-6 victory over Baylor inside McLane Stadium on Saturday evening. Jonathon Brooks ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns while the defense did not allow a touchdown as Texas began its last tour of conference play in the Big 12 Conference in dominating style. (The Longhorns will become members of the Southeastern Conference in 2024.)
Texas’ last road game before tonight was an impressive 34-24 victory at then No. 3 Alabama, and, two weeks later, the Longhorns found themselves ranked third in the nation, the highest it has been ranked since playing in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game against the Crimson Tide. Now with the victory over Alabama in its pocket in 2023, Texas now has its eyes set of running roughshod through the Big 12 one more time, and it impressed mightily tonight.
Brooks’ 40-yard touchdown run opened the scoring midway through the first quarter before the Bears drove inside of the Longhorns’ 5-yard line before settling for a field goal to cut their deficit to 7-3 with 1:12 remanning
Texas broke the game open with 21 unanswered points in the second quarter, starting with Ewers’ scramble that ended with him scoring on a 29-yard jaunt down the sideline.
“I wasn’t thinking I was going to score,” Ewers said. “It was all a blur.”
CJ Baxter ran for a 7-yard touchdown at the 7:10 mark of the second for a 21-3 lead before Brooks’ second touchdown of the game, a 2-yard run, put Texas up 28-3. Another Baylor drive that went into the red zone stalled at the end of the half, and Isaiah Hankins’ second field goal of the game, from 36 yards, provided Baylor its final points of the game while going into the break down 28-6.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday evening’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 42 pictures in total.
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