The Red River Rivalry lacks a little bit of intensity this season. The Oklahoma Sooners are undefeated while the Texas Longhorns are 1-4 and facing questions about the future of the team. Regardless of records, both teams always come to play against one another. The Longhorns must play their absolute best football to keep from suffering their fourth straight loss.
The way to beat the Sooners is to get them to make mistakes. The team ranks third in penalty yards per game as they average 9.5 penalties per game. According to head coach Bob Stoops, he has been focusing on getting the team to play smarter football which they hope demonstrate against a Longhorns team struggling to do much of anything. While the Sooners make mistakes, they have one of the most effective offenses as they average 521.8 yards per game and 42.0 points per game. That might not be an issue to repeat against Texas, but it will be tested against teams like TCU and Baylor. Quarterback Baker Mayfield is thriving in the offense right now. He has 13 touchdowns in four games for the Sooners. He also averages 10.24 yards per pass. This will be his first Red River experience.
The Longhorns need a win if they want to avoid the fire coming to the program. The team is off to their worst start in 60 years as questions surround Charlie Strong's future. Texas is coming off a 50-7 blowout loss to TCU as things could get ugly before they get better. The Longhorns are a young team. They have 13 freshmen starting against TCU including quarterback Jerrod Heard. While Heard might be the man of the future, the Longhorns are doing nothing to get short-term success. The defense is giving up 507.2 yards per game while ranking 119th nationally. One more loss and things could be bad for several people.
The Longhorns will try and duplicate the success they had against Oklahoma State despite the loss. Jonathan Gray rushed for 55 yards while Heard had another 48. The dual threat of the run game might be able to work against the Sooners. The Longhorns are in real danger of getting to the point of potentially firing Strong if this does not go well.
