Red River Rewind: Remembering the best performances in recent Texas - OU history

We’ve finally made it to arguably the most fun week of the Texas Football season: The Red River Rivalry.

[Order THE LONGHORN ALPHABET: Get your little Longhorns ready for Red River!]

The path to this year’s matchup has been shaky for the Longhorns, but that doesn’t mean this game means any less for either program. In fact, this may be the most important Red River game of the Sarkisian-Venables era.

Leading up to this game always reminds us of the great matchups and plays of the past: Dicker’s kick, the Stone Cold Stop and the 1963 win stick out as some of the biggest moments in the history of the competition

Something about this game brings out the best in these players. For many, they grew up on one side of this rivalry and finally get their shot to play in it. When the games mean the most, the best of the best make the biggest plays.

Anthony Hill Jr.

The Dallas native has always shown up at the Cotton Bowl. Hill broke out immediately in the rivalry, notching 8 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack as a true freshman in one of the most back-and-forth Red Rivers in recent memory.

While his 2023 game was good, it’s hard to argue that Hill has played a better game of college football than his terrorizing of Michael Hawkins last year. With the backup QB in, Hill’s athleticism took over, notching 11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks in Texas’ trouncing of Oklahoma, 34-3.

Statistically, this was one of Hill’s two best games as a Longhorn, and the true introduction of his star power to the rest of the CFB world.

Xavier Worthy

While Worthy was just 1/3 as a Longhorn in the Cotton Bowl, he’s been Texas’s most impressive receiver in these games.

Worthy eclipsed 100 yards in that 2023 loss, but his true calling card was his explosive 261-yard and 2 TD performance in 2021.

Just a true freshman, Worthy began his eventual first-round WR career with a bang, taking the first play of the game 75 yards for a touchdown. Most of us will never forget that.

Worthy finished his Red River career with just under 400 yards and three touchdowns in three games.

Sam Ehlinger

Ehlinger was just 1-3 in the regular season with a loss in the B12 Championship game against Oklahoma, but it was not because of poor QB play.

Ehlinger had his struggles as a natural dropback passer, but Texas fans will never forget his performance in 2018.

Facing an eventual CFP appearing Sooners team, one of the best of the 2010s, Ehlinger threw for 312 yards, ran for another 72, and scored five total touchdowns on the way to a 48-45 win against future Heisman winner Kyler Murray.

Ehlinger also had his two highest rushing yardage games of his career against the Sooners, most notably scoring six total touchdowns in a 53-45 4OT loss in 2020.

D’Onta Foreman

One of the most underrated Longhorns of all time, the Doak Walker winner had a number of great games against the Sooners.

Still a relative unknown to the Longhorn world in 2015, Foreman ran for 112 yards against TCU in his 11th career game, 65 yards than his previous high. Just one week later, Foreman would take just nine carries for 117 yards, joining Jerrod Heard on a lethal ground attack for the 24-17 win.

While Foreman and Texas couldn’t take home the win in 2016, Foreman still ran for 159 of Texas’ 180 rushing yards in a thrilling 45-40 loss. Foreman is one of many Texas backs, such as Robinson, Brown and Gray, who had magnificent performances in Red River losses.

Bijan Robinson, Quinn Ewers, Malik Jefferson, Jackson Jeffcoat the RB duo of Malcolm Brown and Jonathon Gray are all responsible for some of Texas’ biggest moments since 2010, as well, and deserve their own forms of shoutouts.