In a matchup with heavy Big 12 title implications, both Texas and Iowa State have plenty to fight for - The Dallas Morning News

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In a Texas career full of memorable moments, the one that may stay with people about senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger was a particular proclamation.

After leading Texas over Georgia in the 2019 Sugar Bowl as a sophomore, Ehlinger uttered four viral words into a microphone after the game: “Longhorn Nation, we’re baaaaack!”

Asked about the moment this week with his final home game looming Friday against Iowa State, Ehlinger offered perspective and context guided by maturity.

“It’s one of those things that I’ll look back and be like, that was pretty funny,” Ehlinger said. “I was still a teenager, so you can expect something like that from a teenager. It was a great learning moment for me.

“I definitely don’t have any regret about it. Now, would I do it again? Probably not.”

As appropriate as it seemed at the time, Texas still isn’t … yeah, you know.

But CFP No. 17 Texas (5-2, 4-2 Big 12) can take a step toward a return to prominence with a win over No. 15 Iowa State (6-2, 6-1).

For now, the Longhorns control their own destiny in the Big 12. A victory on Friday preserves hopes of a Big 12 championship, which would end a school-worst 11-year drought. And it would give coach Tom Herman another example of progress as the Urban Meyer speculation builds.

It would also provide a nice Royal-Memorial Stadium farewell to the senior class, a group that provided the transition between Charlie Strong and Herman and arrived with little hype. Unlike other Herman classes, this one didn’t get a flashy hashtag nickname, so players have adopted their own self-deprecating PG version.

“I think it’s really important for me and for this senior class, with all the ups and downs that we’ve been on. Something that we always talked about before stepping on campus was to leave this football program better than how we found it,” senior defensive lineman Ta’Quon Graham said.

“What we mean by that is, we want to ride out on top [as] Big 12 champions. We have to take this week by week. We’ll meet our destination if we take care of business.”

Sixteen players will be recognized before the game.

“This senior class is extremely special to me and to our program,” Herman said.

Iowa State, ranked No. 13, is fresh from a 45-0 dissection of K-State in Farmageddon. The Cyclones have the nation’s leading rusher in Doak Walker candidate Breece Hall and a defense that is allowing just 104 rushing yards a game while forcing 12 turnovers.

If Texas’ senior class is trying to change the way the program is viewed, it’s nothing compared to what Iowa State and Matt Campbell are trying to do.

The Cyclones last won in Austin in 2010, and that prompted Mack Brown to suggest he didn’t trust his players or coaches.

There’s more, lots more. Iowa State has never before been 6-1 in the Big 12. The Cyclones last won a conference title in the Missouri Valley in 1912. As the Des Moines Register noted, that was a couple months after Titanic made its first and last voyage.

“This is going to be maybe one of the great challenges that I’ve had and we’ve had as a program since we’ve been here,” Campbell told reporters this week. “This is going to be really hard, and yet I feel like that’s what you want this time of year.”

Texas is more concerned with the current version of Iowa State than decades of history. Herman suggested that the Cyclones had Texas’ attention even before the K-State game.

Not a whole lot more needs to be said, Herman indicated.

“They know that every game from this point forward is the biggest game of the year for us,” Herman said. “We’re one of the few teams in America left that still controls their own destiny in terms of the ability to reach their conference championship.

“But we know that you can’t win them all until you win the first one, and that’s priority No. 1.”

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In a matchup with heavy Big 12 title implications, both Texas and Iowa State have plenty to fight for - The Dallas Morning News
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