DALLAS — For opposing fanbases, memories have a way of bifurcating.
For Oklahoma Sooners fans, the 75-yard punt return touchdown by Texas Longhorns redshirt sophomore wide receiver Ryan Niblett will always be remembered for uncalled blocks in the back.
For the burnt orange and faithful, the punt return will live in Red River Rivalry lore as the moment the Longhorns put away the Sooners for their third Cotton Bowl win in the last four years.
Five minutes into the fourth quarter, the game still hung in the balance
with Texas leading 13-6, and that’s where the bifurcation comes into play again. For Oklahoma fans, a tie game and a chance to win were only a touchdown away. For Texas fans, the Longhorns were in firm control, dominating the time of possession offensively and suffocating a limited Sooners offense as quarterback John Mateer tried to play 17 days after thumb surgery on his throwing hand.
Niblett ended any doubt about the outcome, fielding the 48-yard punt by Miller Grayson and racing up the sideline for the first special teams touchdown of his career.
It had been a tough game for Niblett — his season-long aversion to fielding punts in traffic had resulted in a 59-yard punt by Oklahoma in the third quarter magnified by a penalty that put the Texas offense in the shadow of its goal line.
“During the game, it was hard,” Niblett said after the win. “I just felt like dang, this is not a good game for me.”
On the sideline, freshman running back James Simon picked up his older teammate, pointing out that one good punt return could put the game away.
Niblett needed some more help from a teammate to make it happen on the field — not just some blocks of extremely questionable legality, but a bump from redshirt senior linebacker Marshall Landwehr during the middle of Niblett’s return.
The 5’10, 187-pounder was ready to cut his return back inside. Instead, Niblett bounced off of his bigger teammate and kept his return down the sideline and into the end zone on the Texas side of the Cotton Bowl, eliciting the loudest roar of the game from Longhorns fans.
“I feel like if I would have went inside, I probably would have gotten tackled. So just him being able to hit me back outside to display my speed, it just felt great,” Niblett said.
The Texas return man hit 20.8 miles per hour on the play, the eighth-fasted speed in college football last week.
It truly was a cathartic moment for Niblett, who has played wide receiver, running back, and nickel back over the last year and considered transferring after spending the spring playing defense.
Injuries forced Niblett to fill in at running back last year, reducing his repetitions at wide receiver and ensuring that he wasn’t in the rotation at either position. When the staff experimented with Niblett on defense during the spring, the Aldine Eisenhower product fully fit the profile of someone set to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
But Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t want to let Niblett walk away from the program.
“I credit him because there were moments when he was thinking about leaving this place, and shoot, I didn’t let him leave — I fought to keep him here,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
Sarkisian wanted to keep Niblett in the program because of his game-breaking speed and because of his contributions to the program culture.
“I think he’s a glue guy when it comes to our culture. As I tell you, culture wins. As much as talented people matter, culture matters more and he’s one of those guys that is true to our culture, and for him to have some of the success he’s having this year is really cool to see for him,” Sarkisian said.
The positive attitude that Niblett brings makes an impact on his younger teammates.
“Some of these young freshmen were talking about that — it’s not always about, are you a frontline starter on offense or defense? Can you find a way and find a role on special teams and then grow into that role? No different than Tre Wisner a couple years ago, what he was doing on special teams, and I can name a bunch of guys like that, but I think he’s a great model to younger players of just sticking and staying the course and working and you’ll find a role on this team,” Sarkisian said.
Finding a niche as a Keilan Robinsin-type hybrid player on offense hasn’t happened for Niblett yet, but he has become a core special teams player, including taking over the kickoff return role in addition to returning punts.
“He’s an elite special teams player on kickoff coverage. He’s probably the best kickoff coverage guy we have,” Sarkisian said.
Niblett also serves as a gunner on punt coverage, making him a key piece of four special teams units, the role that Sarkisian and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks fought to have him fill and one that makes him a key contributor to the Longhorns as Niblett looks increasingly dangerous as a return man, breaking through with his touchdown after recording 49-yard returns against the Miners and Bearkats.
“I was saying this a few weeks ago — I felt like our punt return unit had a chance to be really explosive, and Ryan had some long returns and hadn’t scored,” Sarkisian said.
Now he has, and the one thing that unites the two rival fanbases is that neither side will ever forget about it as Niblett rewarded the confidence his head coach placed in him.
“One thing I can say is Sark believed in me from day one, just my work ethic, everything he saw me,” Niblett said. “He just believed me. He didn’t want me to go. It’s been a journey. It definitely has been a journey.”
