Texas is National Team of the Week

October 9, 2018 by Courtesy FWAA

The Texas Longhorns scored a series-high 48 points against No. 7 Oklahoma and hit a game-winning field goal in the waning seconds to come away with one of their biggest Red River Showdown wins in school history, 48-45 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. For staying atop the Big 12 Conference standings and beating their arch-rival, Texas (5-1) is the National Team of the Week for games played the weekend of October 4/6.

The award is sponsored this season by Reveal Suits.

This is the third time for Texas to earn the honor, which dates to the 2002 season, and its first since 2015. All three have come as a result of wins against Oklahoma.

Freshman kicker Cameron Dicker hit the 40-yard game-winner for Texas, which responded with a scoring drive following a furious 21-point fourth quarter comeback by the Sooners. It was the first game-winner of Dicker's career, and he made a 44-yarder earlier in the game. Quarterback Sam Ehlinger was 24-of-35 for 314 yards – the second 300-yard game of his career – and broke Texas' school record with 163 consecutive passes without an interception during the game. Texas wide receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey had a career game in receptions (nine) and yardage (133) and caught a touchdown pass and also threw his first career touchdown pass on Texas' opening drive, a two-yard toss to Collin Johnson.

Trailing 45-24 with 10:28 left in the game, Oklahoma mounted three touchdown drives in a span of eight minutes to tie the score 45-45 with 2:38 left. Ehlinger then led Texas down the field to set up Dicker's game-winner with nine seconds left.

"We had done a two-minute drill to start every Tuesday practice for the past three weeks needing a field goal. Every time, our offense has gone down and put our kicker in a position to kick it, and he’s made it every time," Texas coach Tom Herman said. "As Sam (Ehlinger) said in the locker room, when you practice something, it shows up in games. I’m just tremendously proud of the way our guys prepared and handled the ebbs and flows of this game. We’re excited to celebrate tonight. This one, on the stat sheet, means a lot to our seniors and to our university."

exas is 5-1 overall for the first time since 2009 when it started 6-0, and the 'Horns are 3-0 in Big 12 Conference play for the first time since 2013.

The other National Team of the Week nominees for the weekend of October 4/6 were:

Florida (5-1): Lamical Perine scored twice on short runs, and Brad Stewarts 25-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter sealed Florida's 27-19 home win over No. 5 LSU. One week after beating Mississippi State with a double pass, Feleipe Franks handed off to seldom-used tight end Lucas Krull and slipped around the right end mostly unnoticed and caught a 15-yard pass from Krull that set up Perine's second score.

Mississippi State (4-2): Nick Fitzgerald ran for 195 yards and two touchdowns and the Bulldogs' top-10 defense did the rest as MSU got its first SEC win. The Bulldogs have now won four of their last six games against top-10 opponents at Davis Wade Stadium dating back to the 2014 season, and the win was MSU's first over Auburn since a 17-9 win at Auburn in 2015.

San Diego State (4-2): Missing its starting quarterback and leading rusher, the Aztecs went to Boise State and upset the No. 24 Broncos, 19-13. SDSU held Boise State to 229 total yards, its lowest output in a home game since 1998 and its lowest overall since 2012. The Aztecs are 2-1 at Boise since 2000 under coach Rocky Long while the rest of the country is 6-108 in that stretch.