Best moments and highlights from Alabama vs. Texas

1:00 PM ET

For the first time since the 2009 BCS National Championship, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas Longhorns face off. For two of the bluest bloods in college football, they don’t play often. This is their first meeting in the regular season since 1922.

When they played 12 years ago, the Tide won 37-21 and Nick Saban won his first national title at Alabama. The game turned in the second series when Longhorns QB Colt McCoy, a Heisman finalist, was injured and exited the game. Texas turned to a true freshman QB and made it a close game, but in the fourth quarter, the Tide pulled away. The McCoy injury hangs over the game as one of the biggest “what-ifs” in a sport full of them.

The teams’ fortunes diverged from there. Alabama became the most dominant force in the sport, winning five more titles. Texas has had four head coaches since and has struggled to find a QB as dominant as McCoy.

This year, Alabama is coming off an SEC title and a loss to Georgia to the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Texas went 5-7 last season, its first with Steve Sarkisian as coach. Alabama seems every bit the CFP favorite with Bryce Young at QB. Meanwhile, Texas might have answered its frustratingly long QB question. Transfer QB Quinn Ewers, a former five-star recruit, had two TDs in his burnt orange debut.

The Tide enter as 20-point favorites, according to Caesars. It’s the longest odds the Horns have faced at home since 1978.

Here are the best moments and plays from the game:

Alabama gets the first TD, Texas answers

TO THE 🏠 @thekidjase
📺: @CFBonFOX pic.twitter.com/6HdRxKHnEF
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) September 10, 2022

The Longhorns answered on the next drive with an amazing deep ball from Ewers to Xavier Worthy. Texas would score a few plays later with a short TD run by Bijan Robinson. However, the big news of the drive was Ewers going down with an injury. He was hit on a pass attempt and driven into the ground. He went to the locker room and Hudson Card took over.

An absolute DOT from Quinn Ewers 🎯
(via @CFBONFOX) pic.twitter.com/R3Vw64Ci4k
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 10, 2022

A STROLL IN THE ENDZONE @Bijan5Robinson 😎@TexasFootball ties it up once more! pic.twitter.com/tVzWPJC6hu
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 10, 2022