Bigger than the Big House: Texas shows it’s a contender once again with beatdown of defending champion Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Outside of the world of college athletics, the colors maize and burnt orange don’t exist much; garish without proper context.

Have Texas visit Michigan, though, for a football game and it somehow makes sense for 110,000 people to be clad in one or the other, looking to spend a crisp September afternoon watching a heavyweight matchup.

Only one of the teams, however, is a legit contender this year and it sure isn’t the reigning national champion Wolverines, who would have to labor to find the Mr. Brightside in this one.

Texas 31, Michigan 12.

It wasn’t that close.

The fourth quarter might as well have been played in the calm and quiet of the Law Quad here as maize slowly drifted off to tailgates and traffic jams while the burnt orange crowded to the lower rows and whooped it up in Texas-sized joy with Matthew McConaughey, the program’s “Minister of Culture,” leading the way.

After the beatdown, the Texas players amassed in the southeast corner of voluminous Michigan Stadium to sing the “Eyes of Texas” and celebrate with the fans, who roared in approval at all of it — the team, the score, the possibilities. Linebacker David Gbenda then tried to plant the Longhorn flag into the 50-yard line.

“To see the amount of burnt orange in the stands was special,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I took it in. I love that kind of stuff.”

Whether the Longhorns can duplicate Michigan’s charge to the national title — which would be Texas’ first since Vince Young’s run of 2005 — remains to be seen. It’s a long season, there’s an expanded playoff and making it through the SEC with a running back corps depleted by injury might not be fun.

Texas sure looked capable on Saturday, though. Steve Sarkisian’s team is deep and talented and terrifying. It blocks. It tackles. It has speed and size. For all the potential pyrotechnics of a Quinn Ewers-led offense, this was won with blunt-force trauma, a domination of the lines.

The Longhorns racked up 389 yards in total offense, 4.5 yards per rush and forced three turnovers. They beat Michigan at Michigan’s game.

It was a cadre of running backs — Quintrevion Wisner, Jerrick Gibson and Jaydon Blue — grinding out yards (143 of them) here. It was Gunnar Helm snagging passes (seven of them) there. It was linebackers David Gbenda and Anthony Hill Jr. bringing some defensive violence.

Mostly, it was the big fellas coming to Big Ten country and showing out.

“We take pride in our physicality,” Hill Jr. said. “We work out physical. We practice physical. And it showed out on the football field.”

The Longhorns came here to take over everything — from the flags flapping outside the Graduate hotel here in Ann Arbor, to bars and restaurants in nearby downtown Detroit, to the trenches where games are truly won.

It was an unblemished success, a show of force that might make all those old “Texas is back” jokes no longer all that funny for everyone else.

“This is who we are now,” said fifth-year offensive lineman Jake Majors. “This is the standard we set everyday.”

Michigan fans have spent three years seeing up close what a contender and then a champion looks like. They know they don’t have it in 2024. Texas fans have seen the climb to playoff team and have to recognize that this team offers even more potential than that.

Michigan doesn’t have one guy who can play quarterback at an elite level — Texas not only had Ewers throw 24 of 36 for 246 yards and three touchdowns, but his backup is no less than Arch Manning, heir to the family quarterbacking empire.

Michigan had 13 players drafted into the NFL last spring and saw its coach, Jim Harbaugh, and numerous assistants follow along to the Los Angeles Chargers. Some elite talent remains — tight end Colston Loveland had eight receptions — but the holes are obvious and everywhere.

The Wolverines desperately needed to hit the transfer portal for a quarterback last year, but the December timing of that coupled with the uncertainty of Harbaugh’s status, the playoff run and the chaos of the Connor Stalions advanced scouting scandal likely got in the way.

The result: It’s a transitional year for the team as it searches for an adequate signal caller. The Wolverines played hard until the end, even scoring with 1:54 remaining. As for new head coach Sherrone Moore, better days are likely ahead, but he might want to sign his contract. Pronto.

At Texas it’s a potentially historic season, a team building and growing off a semifinal appearance a year ago now with expectations of at least that much this time.

And one glorious burnt orange-filled Saturday in Ann Arbor as a step along the way.