'There aren’t words:' Texas fans celebrate at State Fair after shutout against Oklahoma

After the first initial touchdowns by the Longhorns, some Texas fans were still holding their breath.

They’d seen Texas football run up the score by several touchdowns in the beginning of the Red River Showdown, only to watch it slip away — again and again — by the end of the game. But it quickly became obvious that Saturday would be different.

There was no last minute comeback by OU in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Or a win in quadruple overtime. Or any points scored at all by the team from Norman from the first second of the game to the final whistle. Instead, the Longhorns just kept scoring touchdown after touchdown, erasing any doubt that they would win the game.

For the first time in four years, University of Texas fans felt absolute jubilee after the Longhorns blew out the Sooners in a 49-0 defeat. It was the first time Texas had shut out Oklahoma since 1965, and the largest win ever by Texas in the 118-year history of the series.

While thousands of OU fans started filing out of the stands before the fourth quarter began, the Texas section of fans remained essentially full when the game ended, maintaining a constant stream of energy with repeated chants of “OU sucks” to a thinned out crowd of Sooners.

Red River rollover: Our takeaways from Texas' win over Oklahoma

Skyler Messina, a Longhorn fan who has been to almost every Texas-OU game since 1996, said she has never seen the losing team leave until at least towards the end of the fourth quarter, but it was “amazing” to see the OU side half full this year. She said she’s “psyched” about the win, especially after the results of the previous few games.

“As a Texas fan, you always have to be nervous, and the teams of the last couple of years, it’s like we all need counseling because they made us believe and then we would get so close. We would go up in the score and then lose last minute,” Messina said. “To win this year was cathartic.”

Cathy Rider has seen the Longhorns shutout the Sooners twice — once as a UT junior in the Longhorn Band in 1965 and again this year. She said she thought Oklahoma would put up a stronger fight on the field, but it was “great” to get to experience the Longhorns repeating the shutout again.

In the past few years, John Lundberg and his brother David — both UT alumni — have immediately left the stadium after the end of the Red River Showdown, with no reason to stick around and celebrate after a Texas loss. This year, however, they got to celebrate the win with a satisfying corn dog from Fletcher's Original Corny Dogs.

“It’s fantastic. I’ve been to 21 straight of these games, and this is just incredible. it’s fantastic. There’s nothing like it. Texas exorcized a lot of demons against OU,” John said. “There aren’t words for how happy beating Oklahoma makes me.”

– Megan Menchaca

Replay: Texas shuts out Oklahoma in their annual Big 12 football rivalry game

UT fan Tim Anderson said this win was “very long coming.”“UT fans showed up,” Anderson said. “I always abide that motto: ‘Show early, stay late.’ We did that. We prevailed, we overcame. We took Oklahoma. We got the golden hat. One more year.”

Elle Ehlert said she comes to the Red River game every year. “It was so loud and just every one was so into it,” Ehlert said. “It was amazing. So fun.”

This year was Allison Powell’s first time at the Red River game. She said it was “everything and more” than she expected it to be.“I think it was a very good game, definitely the outcome that we wanted,” Powell said. “So, got to be grateful for that.”

“Being here last year for the game where we’re up 28-7 in the first quarter and just all that emotion, all that excitement, and it goes away, and being here this year and being up 28-0 at halftime and seeing us finish and seeing this team just be incredible," Steven Negati said. "I mean, it’s one of the best environments you can be in in college football outright, and being here 49-0 against OU is unbelievable.”

– Hannah Ortega

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas fans celebrate Longhorns' win over Oklahoma at Cotton Bowl