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| This will be the scene in Austin Saturday afternoon as Texas and Oklahoma play the Red River Showdown (Dallas Morning News) |
There isn't much on paper that says Texas should be able to hang with Oklahoma in this Saturday's Red River Showdown, but, as a wise man once said, games aren't played on paper.
The Longhorns would seem to have the mental edge, coming in off of a confidence-building overtime victory against Kansas State while the Sooners felt the sting of losing at home to Iowa State -- a team which had beaten Oklahoma only five times previously.
Even if Texas is sitting on cloud nine, the Longhorns players know one thing.
"[Oklahoma] is going to come out with a chip on their shoulder," leading receiver Collin Johnson said.
After a shocking home opening loss to Maryland, Texas has improved -- by leaps and bounds in some areas, incrementally in others. Bottom line, the Longhorns right now look more like the team that lost a three-point game to USC than like the team that appeared clueless against the Terrapins.
The Longhorns scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of last year's game, but it wasn't enough as Oklahoma won 45-40.
Given the history of the rivalry, 12th-ranked Oklahoma knows that it cannot merely assume that it will win just because it is perceived to be the better team.
"They're a good football team," Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said of Texas.
Oklahoma (4-1, 1-1) enters the game with the nation's top offense, averaging 587 yards per game, and is sixth in scoring (44.6). It all begins with quarterback Baker Mayfield, who leads the nation in passing and has yet to throw an interception through five contests.
A Texas native, Mayfield knows how important this game is to fans of both schools, and to the teams as well. He threw for 390 yards and three scores a year ago in this contest. He knows what needs to be done to get his team focused.
"Unfortunately, it's not something to be proud of, but I have two years of experience being a leader in this time period," Mayfield said. "I've been in this situation before, but that means I know what to do and how to handle it. It's the most disappointing thing, you know this team didn't need that loss (against Iowa State) to put our backs against the wall and go to work. ...
"Like we've handled it the past two years, it's back to business."
Texas (3-2, 2-0) has improved in large part because a young team has matured, has stopped making silly mistakes, and has gained confidence.
The Longhorns know that if you can stop Mayfield, your chances of winning increase.
Texas coach Tom Herman believes that one key to keeping the Heisman candidate relatively in check is to limit the amount of time he spends outside of the pocket. Like Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, Mayfield is an assassin when he rolls out or when pressure forces him to move.
"We're going to do our best to contain and not him get outside of the pocket and keep plays alive," Herman said. "
The teams have alternated victories the past five meetings, with the last three contests all decided by one score. Oklahoma has won six of the last 10 games.
The best advice either coach can give to his team is to play all out, and to expect the unexpected.
"Not a whole lot has changed," said Herman, who was a Texas graduate assistant in 1999 and 2000. "I know it's one of, if not the greatest, rivalries in college football. It would be silly to not recognize the place this rivalry has in college football lore. We recognize that this is a historic game every year, and it's a very heated rivalry."
Texas will likely send Sam Ehlinger out at quarterback, and though he is a true freshman, he is one of the maturing players that appears to be hitting stride.
Ehlinger threw for 380 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Kansas State, and carried the ball 20 times for 107 yards. That dual threat option is what Herman wants his team to have, so he is encouraged by what Ehlinger showed last week.
Johnson had seven catches for 92 yards last week, and presents a big target -- 6-6, 220 -- in the passing game.
Oklahoma has not lost consecutive regular season games since falling to Notre Dame and Texas in 1999, on the way to a 7-5 campaign. Riley believes that his bunch will be ready for Texas, whether or not the Longhorns are ranked, and that they learned a lesson last week.
"Our expectations can't be relative to the team we are playing," Riley said. "That translates into not letting up against lesser teams."
"I am very confident in how this group will respond," Riley said.
The Red River Showdown kicks off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Texas leads the all-time series 61-45-5, and its last two victories over the Sooners were as an unranked team.
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