Steve Sarkisian isn’t buying the idea that Texas can stroll into the Red River Rivalry and treat Oklahoma like an afterthought.
The Longhorns are coming in at No. 1 after that statement win over Ohio State, while Oklahoma’s early season has gone the opposite direction. The Sooners have already taken two losses, both against the toughest teams they’ve seen so far in Michigan and Georgia, and they’ll head to Dallas unranked through four games.
On paper, it looks lopsided. Sarkisian knows better than to trust the paper.
“I can promise you nobody’s overlooking anybody in this game,” Sarkisian said to the media on Monday. “Our guys watched [college football] Saturday.
They know what it’s about. The guys that have been part of this game know what it’s about.”
That warning comes with a little memory attached. Sarkisian has already lived through a version of this exact setup, and it’s shaping how Texas is approaching Saturday.
“We were in the same situation a year ago. We were just coming off of losing to Florida.
We were a two-loss team. We were a desperate football team and found a way to win and played a really good second half.
So we know what it is.”
Texas was staring at plenty of pressure entering the Cotton Bowl last season. A 29-21 loss to Florida had dropped the Longhorns to 3-2, and another stumble against Oklahoma would have slammed the door on their College Football Playoff hopes. They had been preseason No. 1, then slid completely out of the top 25 before the matchup with the Sooners.
And yet Texas flipped the script. Oklahoma came in 5-0 and, at least on paper, looked like the stronger side. Texas answered with a 23-6 win, and that result became the launch point for a late-season surge back into the playoff conversation.
The Longhorns ripped off four straight wins after that, including two victories over ranked opponents, before eventually falling to Georgia in Athens.
That Oklahoma win didn’t carry playoff consequences the way this year’s matchup might, since the Sooners made the field and Texas did not. But it did give the Longhorns a route into November with something still at stake.
Texas got the message last year in Gainesville and again in Dallas: a desperate team can change the whole script. Now the Longhorns are trying to carry that lesson into another Red River Rivalry meeting.
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