South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Sooners state case in Big 12 title game
ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyler Murray threw for 379 yards and three touchdowns as No. 5 Oklahoma beat No. 14 Texas 39-27 in the Big 12 championship game Saturday, with the Sooners avenging their only loss and making their case for a return to the College Football Playoff.
Murray, the Heisman Trophy-contending dualthreat quarterback who was 25-of-34 passing, threw two of his TDs to Grant Calcaterra. That included an impressive onehanded grab for an 18-yard score on a third-and-10 play with two minutes left as the Sooners (12-1) won their seventh consecutive game.
“That catch will live on in Oklahoma history forever,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “What a play.”
Oklahoma is the first Power Five team to win four consecutive outright conference titles since Florida in the SEC in the mid-1990s.
“We’re thrilled by the victory. It’s been a challenging year, which they all are,” Riley said. “But to sit here now as four-time defending Big 12 champion, man, that sounds good.”
Sam Ehlinger was 23of-36 passing for 349 yards with two touchdowns, and he also ran for two scores for Texas (9-4), but his final pass was picked off by Tre Norwood at the 1 in the final minute.
The Sooners went ahead to stay on Austin Seibert’s third field goal, a 31-yarder with 12:37 left that was good after ricocheting off the top of the left upright to make it 30-27.
Two plays after Oklahoma’s only turnover, when receiver CeeDee Lamb fumbled inside the 10 after a 54-yard catchand-run with nine minutes left, the Sooners got points anyway. Cornerback Tre Brown blitzed and sacked Ehlinger in the end zone for a safety.
“Our defense did a great job getting the ball back to us, offensively we didn’t take care of our part of the bargain,” Ehlinger said. “That’s on us, that’s on me. I will make it my mission to never let this team or this school feel this disappointment again.”
It was a huge play for a much-maligned Sooners defense that had allowed at least 40 points in each of the previous four games — three of those OU wins by a combined nine points.
Lamb finished with six catches for 167 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown in the first half.
The 114th meeting between the Red River rivals was their first in a championship game — and the first time since 1903 they had played twice in the same season. Every game since 1929 had been played about 20 miles away at the State Fair of Texas, where the Longhorns beat Oklahoma 48-45 eight weeks ago.