Anthony Hill Jr, Ethan Burke earn SEC Weekly Defensive Honors
Texas placed a pair of defensive standouts on the SEC Football Players of the Week list after standout performances in the Horns comeback, overtime win over Mississippi State in Starkville on Monday.
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DEFENSE
Anthony Hill Jr., LB
- Hill led the Longhorns with career highs of 2.5 sacks and four pressures, and his second-highest total of 3.5 tackles for loss, to go along with a forced fumble and a double-digit tackle total of 10 in Texas’ 45-38 overtime win on the road at Mississippi State.
- Opened the game with a tackle for loss on the first play leading to a three-and-out, but his biggest plays came in the fourth quarter, including a sack for three yards that was key in a three-and-out with the Longhorns trailing by 38-28 with nine minutes left in regulation.
- After Texas tied the game with under two minutes to go and Mississippi State advanced to the UT 46 with one minute to go, a Hill pressure forced an incompletion, and two plays later on third down, he created a sack-fumble for a loss of eight yards that for all purposes sent the game into overtime with a forced punt.
- For the second straight week, Hill and the Texas defense held an opponent scoreless in overtime, this time ending the game without the Bulldogs gaining a yard in overtime, and in fact moving backwards to their own 34-yard line on the final play of the game.
- The Longhorns twice were down by 17 points, including with 26 seconds left in the third quarter and 12:29 to go in the fourth quarter, tying for the seventh-largest comeback win in program history.
- The defense was instrumental in the comeback, holding MSU to 14 combined points in the second half and overtime. For the season, Hill leads the team 59 tackles and three forced fumbles, is tied for first with a fumble recovery, and ranks second in sacks (2.5), tackles for loss (4.5), pressures (5), interceptions (1). His forced fumbles lead the SEC and rank seventh nationally.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Ethan Burke, EDGE
- Burke matched his career high with 2.0 tackles for loss as part of seven total tackles, registered his second career blocked field goal and second career forced fumble and created a walk-off sack-fumble for a loss of 31 yards on the final play of the game in Texas’ 45-38 overtime win on the road at Mississippi State.
- Burke’s blocked field goal was his first this season and prevented the first potential points of the game for the Bulldogs midway through the first quarter with Texas leading, 7-0. Later in the third quarter, he came up with a two-yard tackle for loss on second-and-goal from the 2.
- His next tackle would be critical and come for no gain on third-and-1, forcing the Bulldogs to punt with just over two minutes to go and the Longhorns trailing 38-31. That punt would be returned for a touchdown to tie the game with 1:47 left on the way to overtime and in the win.
- In overtime, Burke put the exclamation mark on the win by producing a sack-fumble on fourth-and-20 to end the game. The fumble was recovered by Texas all the way back at the MSU 34-yard line.
- The Longhorns twice were down by 17 points, including with 26 seconds left in the third quarter and 12:29 to go in the fourth quarter, tying for the seventh-largest comeback win in program history. The defense was instrumental in the comeback, holding MSU to 14 combined points in the second half and overtime.
- Burke is now tied for third on the team with 3.5 tackles for loss this season
Texas faces No. 9 Vanderbilt on Saturday, November 1st from DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.
