AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Early in the Big 12 championship game, Texas defensive tackle T’Vonde Sweat was on offense, lined up in a goal line formation to deliver a what everyone expected to be a crushing block for someone else seeking a touchdown.
At 6-foot-4, 362 pounds, Sweat is a masher. But he barely brushed against an Oklahoma State defender before tip-toeing toward the back of the end zone for a soft pass, a cradled catch and a TD. A big man TD, followed by a Heisman pose.
Sweat's touchdown launched the Longhorns to a 49-21 rout that secured the program's first Big 12 title since 2009 and put them in the College Football Playoff for the first time. And it put the exclamation mark on a regular season in which Sweat could arguably be considered Texas' most valuable player.
All of it is why Sweat, a fifth-year senior and the Outland Trophy winner as the nation's top interior lineman, chose to return to Texas this season. He is the fourth Longhorn to win the Outland but the first since 1977.
“(Coach Steve Sarkisian) told me, ‘Buy in one last time and everything could go perfect.' You know what I mean?" Sweat said. "Right now, it’s the truth.”
Sweat has been an immovable force, teaming with 310-pound Byron Murphy II to create a tandem and a dominant Texas run defense that has held opponents under 100 yards rushing in six of the last seven games. Four were held to 31 yards or less. National rushing leader Ollie Gordon of Oklahoma State managed only 34 yards against Texas.
“I believe they are the best tandem in the nation,” Sarkisian said. “They work so well with one another.”
Like Sweat, Murphy also caught a touchdown (in the third game against Wyoming). Sweat had to wait a long time for his turn.
“Murphy, he's an explosive guy," Sweat said. "Me, I'm just like a big ol' tank. It's kind of hard to move me.”
Washington will have to try when the Longhorns (12-1) and Huskies (13-0) meet Jan. 1 in the playoff seminal in the Sugar Bowl. Sweat and Murphy have combined for seven sacks, while Sweat is more often getting the push that collapses the pocket around opposing quarterbacks.
Sweat said he models his game after Ndamukong Suh, the former Nebraska All-American wrecking ball who went on to an all-pro career in the NFL. Texas fans might shudder at that comparison. Suh nearly wrecked the Longhorns all by himself in the 2009 Big 12 championship game.
It is quite a a comparison for a three-star recruit out of Huntsville, Texas, who barely weighed 250 pounds when he arrived on campus in 2019.
“I was a little small guy,” Sweat said. “Once you come to UT, they’ve got all the food you can eat. I took advantage.”
Texas was a program on the rise, or so Sweat thought, when he signed. Texas had played in the Big 12 title game in 2018 and beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to end that season.
“We're baaaack!” then-quarterback Sam Ehlinger proclaimed after the Georgia win.
The Longhorns went backward instead. Coach Tom Herman was fired after the 2020 pandemic-shortened season. The low point was a 5-7 finish in Sarkisian's first season in 2021.
Texas went 8-5 in 2022, which included an Alamo Bowl loss to the Washington team the Longhorns play Monday night. Sweat considered a jump to the NFL. Instead, he saw the potential in himself and the team to return.
Sweat has earned All-America honors and was named Big 12 defensive player of the year. And he calls this season “100 percent” a contract year for his NFL draft hopes next spring. Sweat has enjoyed every minute of his final season, adopting a “Make'Em Sweat” brand slogan he often wears in oversized necklaces and chains.
“To me, it ain't no surprise, you know what I mean?” Sweat said. “I feel like this is why I came back ... to showcase I can be that guy and now people can see it.”