From ULM to OU, ranking every touchdown Texas football has scored this season

The Texas Longhorns (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) are averaging 36.7 points a game, which has them tied for the 26th-most productive scoring offense in the country. They have scored 32 touchdowns through seven games, adding three more to their season total in the 24-21 win over Iowa State last week: a pair of Xavier Worthy touchdown catches and Jordan Whittington's first score of the season.

Are all touchdowns the same? No. Here, we rank all 32 scores by order of importance, game situation and, well, in the case of some of them, simple wow factor. And this week there's a new No. 1:

No. 32: Punching it in vs. West Virginia

Bijan Robinson's 1-yard touchdown run against the Mountaineers put the Longhorns up 21-0 with 11:54 left in the second quarter. It was Robinson's ninth score of the season.

No. 31: Jonathon Brooks’ second career score

Brooks’ 19-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run was the Longhorns’ final score of the night in their 52-10 season-opening win over Louisiana-Monroe. It was the second score of the sophomore’s career.

No. 30: Worthy gets things going against WVU

Xavier Worthy's 15-yard touchdown catch from Hudson Card got Texas off to a 7-0 lead with 6:08 left in the first quarter against West Virginia. It was the result of a really nice move on his defender to get open, too. Before the night was through, Worthy's impact would be all over the 38-20 win with a 100-yard game, a pair of TD catches and even his first-ever touchdown throw. (More on that later.)

No. 29: Ewers' fourth touchdown throw against OU

Quinn Ewers’ fourth and final touchdown pass in the 49-0 win over Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl went to Ja’Tavion Sanders, who hauled in the 18-yard score for what was his fifth touchdown catch of the season, most on the team after six games. Ewers, who grew up in nearby Southlake, finished with 289 yards, four touchdowns and one interception in his very first Red River rivalry game. "To finally play in this game is really exciting for me," he said afterward. "Growing up a fan, I always wanted to play in this one, so it's pretty special."

No. 28: Bijan Robinson’s hands-off touchdown

Robinson score from 11 yards out with five minutes left in the third quarter against Oklahoma put Texas up 35-0. He scored off the left side and wasn’t touched on his way in.

No. 27: Sanders scores on the Mountaineers — again

Ja'Tavion Sanders' 13-yard touchdown pass from Hudson Card put Texas up 28-0 in the closing minutes of the first half against West Virginia. It was his second scoring catch of the day, something a Longhorns tight end hadn't done since D.J. Grant hauled in a pair of touchdowns against UCLA in 2011. Ironically, one of Grant's two TDs also was thrown by a wide receiver, a 5-yard pass from Jaxon Shipley.

No. 26: Jordan Whittington snags his first touchdown since October (2021)

Bijan Robinson starred on the nine-play, 80-yard drive that put Texas up 14-7 over Iowa State at halftime, starting the series with a 25-yard run up the middle that was his longest of the day, and then setting up Whittington's touchdown with a brilliant snag of a Quinn Ewers pass for 26 yards to the Cyclones' 5-yard line with 17 seconds left. Ewers hit Whittington on the very next play. It was Whittington's first touchdown catch since Oct. 2, 2021 against TCU.

No. 25: Roschon Johnson’s catch vs. UTSA

The 11-yard touchdown put Texas up on the Roadrunners 7-3 early, and it also came from Hudson Card, who answered some questions on the play about his injured ankle that he'd suffered the week before against Alabama. Card improved to 2-1 as a starter in the 41-20 win, getting the nod in relief of Quinn Ewers, who'd been injured the week before.

No. 24: Brooks burns the Sooners

The Longhorns had already put Oklahoma away by the time Jonathon Brooks took over running duties in the fourth quarter; his weaving 18-yard touchdown scamper through the heart of the Sooners' defense closed the day’s scoring in the 49-0 win. It was his third career touchdown.

No. 23: Keilan Robinson starts things off against Tech

Texas’ opening touchdown drive in Lubbock had Robinson’s footprints all over it — he took the opening kickoff 30 yards, had a 5-yard run and then scored on a 35-yard pass down the left side from Hudson Card for the early 7-0 lead.

No. 22: Worthy gets Texas on the board against Iowa State

Xavier Worthy's fifth touchdown of the season came at a good time: it tied the Iowa State game 7-7 with 5:48 to go in the second quarter. It also work up the Longhorns, who had meandered through the first quarter and a half on offense. And it made good a big interception from Jaylan Ford in the end zone that prevented a 14-0 hole, spoiled a promising Cyclones scoring drive and set Texas up for the nine-play, 80-yard drive.

No. 21: Bijan Robinson stops the bleeding

Things were tense in the third game of the season when UTSA took a 17-7 second quarter lead in the third game, but Robinson’s 3-yard touchdown run cut the lead to 17-14 with four minutes left in the first half. Texas would go on to add a field goal to tie it at the break, then outscore the Roadrunners 24-3 over the final two quarters.

No. 20: Robinson pads Texas' lead in Lubbock

Up only 17-14 heading toward halftime, the Horns took over at their own 18 with 4:35 left in the second quarter and rattled off a 12-play, 82-yard drive that included a successful fourth-and-1 conversion and ended with Bijan Robinson’s 8-yard touchdown run up the middle with 24 seconds left. It gave Texas a 24-14 lead at the break.

No. 19: Robinson puts the cherry on top against UTSA

Bijan Robinson’s 41-yard scamper was his 20th and final carry of the night in the 41-20 win over the Roadrunners. He finished with 183 yards, which tied for the second-best game of his career.

No. 18: Ja’Tavion Sanders keeps on rolling

Sanders caught Quinn Ewers’ deftly placed pass between three nearby Oklahoma defenders for a 24-yard score, the first of Sanders' two touchdown catches at the Cotton Bowl. Ewers hit Sanders in stride to put Texas up 42-0 late in the third quarter; the tight end enjoyed his second straight two-touchdown game.

No. 17: Bijan Robinson’s first score of the season

One play after Quinn Ewers missed Jordan Whittington in the end zone, Whittington’s nice lead block paved the way for Robinson’s first score of the season, a soft toss out of the backfield for 16 yards to the right side early in the third quarter of the season-opening win over Louisiana-Monroe.

No. 16: Robinson puts Tech away (or so we thought)

Bijan Robinson exploded for a 40-yard touchdown to put Texas up by two touchdowns over Texas Tech, a 31-17 lead with 4:27 left in the third quarter. At the time, it felt like it had placed the Longhorns in control of the game. But it didn’t. Tech responded with 17 unanswered points and ended up winning in overtime 37-34. Robinson finished with 103 yards and two scores on 16 carries.

No. 15: Just a 1-yard touchdown run — against Bama

Bijan Robinson’s score from one yard out against Alabama was significant for four reasons: it tied the game 10-10 and was an important answer for a Crimson Tide 81-yard scoring run in the previous drive; Robinson set a school record on the play as it was his 12th straight game with a touchdown; and, as it turned out, it was the only touchdown of the day for the Longhorns, who took the No. 1 team in the country to the very end in a 20-19 loss.

No. 14: Bijan Robinson doing what he does best

It went down as a 9-yard touchdown run, but Bijan Robinson’s first scoring run of the season encapsulated much of what makes the junior running back so good. Midway through the third quarter in the season opener, he slipped out of the grasp of an initial ULM tackler, then got out of a potential stop at the line of scrimmage with a quick cut, then slipped in for the score to put Texas up 38-3.

No. 13: Roschon Johnson’s 16-yard run vs. ULM

It was Johnson’s first touchdown of the season, and it came courtesy of a nice block from left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., the five-star freshman who was making his first start in his first game. Johnson, still breathing heavy, then dutifully lined up for kickoff coverage duty.

No. 12: That time the blocks overshadowed the score

Keilan Robinson continued to show his playmaking versatility on a 15-yard touchdown catch out of the backfield against Oklahoma, adding to his blocked punt return score vs. ULM and his touchdown run in Lubbock. But it was the excellent lead blocks from Texas’ top two receivers — first from Xavier Worthy, who helped spring Robinson after he made the catch, and then from Jordan Whittington, who occupied a would-be tackler as Robinson headed into the end zone — that were still being talked about the next week. It had Steve Sarkisian crowing about complementary football the next week. "That tells me we're playing really good team football, complementary football, and we're buying into all aspects of what we're asking of them."

No. 11: Robinson’s 2-yard run was literally all Texas needed

Bijan Robinson’s 2-yard plunge with 6:48 to go in the first quarter was the first score of the game in the Longhorns’ 49-0 rout of Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl — and it turned out to be all the Longhorns needed that day. It was a physical run for Robinson, who bounced off two tacklers to get in.

No. 10: Quinn Ewers throws a TD — 28 days later

Xavier Worthy’s 10-yard scoring catch from Ewers early in the second quarter against Oklahoma was Ewers’ first touchdown pass since the season opener four weeks prior, a nicely zipped throw that was Worthy’s fourth scoring catch of the season. There certainly have been more exciting scoring plays, but this one that put Texas up 14-0 helped everyone breathe just a little easier about Ewers, in his first action since getting hurt early against Alabama.

No. 9: One down, 12 to go for Worthy?

It took Xavier Worthy — the 2021 Big 12 freshman of the year after catching 12 touchdown passes — four games to grab his first touchdown catch of 2022, a 39-yarder from Hudson Card that came at a good time: Texas Tech was leading 14-10 with six minutes left in the second quarter. The Horns would go on to build a 24-14 lead by halftime.

No. 8: Ewers’ — and Sanders' — first-ever touchdown

New quarterback Quinn Ewers and new tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders have connected four times for touchdowns, but this was the first one, coming from 19 yards out with 1:47 left in the first quarter of the season opener against ULM. It came two plays after Ewers and Sanders had connected to convert a fourth-and-4 play, too. But the touchdown also served as Ewers' first-ever scoring pass and Sanders' first-ever touchdown catch as well, and the two look likely to connect again and again and again before they're through. “When I was running out of the tunnel, I took a couple of glances at the crowd, just to see what it was like,” Ewers said after the game. “Sark said to just kind of experience it because it’s all going to be over soon. It’s over in a blink of an eye. So just take it in.”

No. 7: Texas' very first touchdown scored by Robinson — no, not that one

The Longhorns' very first touchdown of the season came on a punt play, of all things, and not on a long return but from Keilan Robinson's 12-yard scoop-and-score off D'Shawn Jamison's block early in the season-opening win over Louisiana-Monroe. Jamison, who has spent his UT career returning punts, charged in from the middle of the line to get the block.

No. 6: Jahdae Barron’s pick-six vs. UTSA

No. 21 Texas found itself in a real tangle at home in the third game of the season, an unexpected struggle with UTSA only one week after looking so impressive against Alabama. A 17-17 game at halftime was only a 24-20 Longhorns lead in the closing minutes of the third quarter when Barron found himself in the right place at the right time. He picked off a high UTSA pass and returned it 44 yards for a game-turning touchdown that gave Texas a 31-20 cushion — and much-needed momentum — heading into the fourth quarter. "When I caught it, I looked back, and it was a tight end (trailing me). I'm like, 'It's over with; that's a touchdown," Barron said after the game. "I didn't even know what celebration to do — that's how happy I was."

No. 5: Ja'Tavion Sanders catches a Worthy touchdown pass

Up 7-0 over West Virginia in the closing seconds of the first quarter, Steve Sarkisian called for some first-down trickery at the Mountaineers' 33-yard line — a double pass from Hudson Card to Xavier Worthy, who snagged it at the line of scrimmage and then found a wide-open Sanders streaking past defenders who had taken the bait.

No. 4: D'Shawn Jamison's season-opening pick-six

The 52-10 season-opening win over ULM was a strong opening performance for the veteran cornerback, who adjusted to a tipped pass and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown to put Texas up 35-3 midway through the third quarter. With the score, Jamison became the first Longhorn ever to record touchdowns on a kick return, a punt return and an interception return in his career.

No. 3: A tip drill touchdown for Xavier Worthy

Worthy has already had some nice moments as a sophomore. His 44-yard touchdown catch in the 38-20 win over West Virginia, though, was one of his nicest scoring plays as a Longhorn — so far. Hudson Card faked a handoff to Roschon Johnson, then was forced to his left before uncorking a long pass from the 50 over the middle toward Worthy, who had two defenders on him in the end zone. Mountaineers safety Aubrey Brooks tipped it the pass at the front of the end zone and Worthy kept his concentration to snag the ball as he was going down in the back of the end zone. It put Texas up 35-7 early in the third quarter. "It is caught! It is touchdown! It is Worthy!" shouted Fox Sports 1 announcer Tim Brando.

No. 2: Bijan Robinson’s longest run as a Longhorn

That Robinson's 78-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter against UTSA was his longest run ever at Texas could warrant consideration for the top spot just for that. But also consider that (1) it gave Robinson his first 100-yard game of the season; (2) it helped him finish tied for his second-best game ever; and, oh yeah, (3) it came at an absolutely critical time in the game, breaking a tenuous 17-17 third quarter tie and giving the listless Longhorns a real jolt that night. It sparked a 24-3 second half.

No. 1: A Worthy game winner

It wasn't Xavier Worthy's prettiest catch of the season, or his best route (though it was up there), but his 3-yard catch from Quinn Ewers on fourth-and-goal put Texas up 24-21 with 4:43 left and became the game winner. It came one play after Bijan Robinson was stuffed on third-and-goal from inside the 1 for a two-yard loss. The touchdown was Worthy's second of the game and his team-leading sixth scoring catch of the season. It was a nifty route that faked his defender into biting to the inside, then Worthy sharply cut the other way. It was a similar route to one he scored a touchdown on the week before against Oklahoma. "We practice that play a lot and Sark just ended up calling it," Worthy said. "We work it a lot in practice and it just worked exactly the same."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ranking all 32 Texas touchdowns this season, through Iowa State