Everything Texas Players Said After Red River Beatdown of Oklahoma

After a slow first quarter, Texas football (6-0, 2-0) put the beatdown on Oklahoma (4-2, 1-2) to reclaim the Golden Hat. The 34-3 win is tied for the third-largest margin of victory for the Longhorns over the Sooners since 1971.

Texas trailed for the first time in the season early in this game, but a 14-point burst in the final 2:21 of the first half allowed the Horns to take a 21-3 lead into the break.

Coach Sarkisian relied on an elite effort from Pete Kwiatkowski's defense in the second half to cruise to victory. The Texas defense allowed only 237 yards, including 2.3 yards per rush. The unit finished with five sacks and 11 tackles for loss, making true freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. incredibly uncomfortable all afternoon.

Texas will take the Golden Hat any way they can get it, but this was far from a clean victory for the Horns.

Ewers struggled early, throwing a bad interception on the first drive and missing what would have been an Isaiah Bond walk-in touchdown on the second drive. The offense struggled in the red zone, giving Texas fans flashbacks from a season ago.

Despite a few sloppy mistakes, Texas fully dominated their rival from up north. Longhorn players celebrated as such.

Here is everything Texas players said after their beatdown of Oklahoma:

Quinn Ewers:

"Definitely good to be back. Grew up not too far from here, so it's always nice to get back into the Dallas air."

"It's good to finally get back on the field with my guys. I missed two games, and I didn't fully play the way I wanted to, but I think overall the way we played football ... that's what gives us chances to win games."

"It was a rough start, but I think we did a good job of when adversity struck, we overcame it."

"I'm not going to tell you it was rust because I practiced the last two weeks."

"Adversity is going to strike, and at the end of the day it's how you come back, how you respond. It's 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react."

"We're going to enjoy this one on the ride back. Have 12 hours or so and then it's onto the next. Where we want to be at the end of the season we're going to have continue to get better. That's what championship teams do."

“It’s been fun these past three years and I’m glad to be 2-1."

Anthony Hill Jr.:

“I made it my mission that I wasn’t going to lose to these guys. I’m going to make some of these older guys proud.”

"I just feel like [my postgame celebration] was the right thing for me to do. I saw all the stuff they posted last year so I feel like it was right for me to just get a little touch of something on them."

Liona Lefau:

"We always say, no matter who's on the field ... it's part of our pride, we just don't want anyone to get in our endzone. We don't want anyone scoring on our defense."

Silas Bolden:

“I mean, I just play with heart. Man, I’m not the biggest out there, but I just play with a ton of heart.”

Tre Wisner:

"That's just who Silas is. For him to come in an correct one of my mistakes, I'm very grateful for that."

Michael Taaffe:

"Our best ball is yet to come."

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