Texas football’s next two Saturdays are set for ABC, and the one that has everyone’s attention is coming in prime time.
After last weekend’s Red River Rivalry loss to Oklahoma, the Longhorns are sitting at No. 7, and ESPN has now locked in Texas’ showdown with No. 9 Ole Miss for 6:30 p.m.
CT in Austin. The game will air on ABC as a national primetime broadcast, with streaming available on ESPN+, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV.
The matchup at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is shaping up as a top-10 battle, and it lands one week after Texas opens the ABC slate against Florida at 11 a.m. CT in Week 7. Ole Miss, meanwhile, is coming off a convincing 52-17 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville.
Week 7 still has to play out before this one really takes shape. Texas gets Florida, while Ole Miss faces No.
13 Missouri. The Gators have dropped two straight, but that doesn’t make the trip any easier for the Longhorns in SEC play.
The Rebels, for their part, have a Missouri team to handle first, and the Tigers’ offense is led by Ole Miss transfer quarterback Austin Simmons.
That gives Simmons a chance to face his former home crowd and match up with Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, the player who took over his job last season and never gave it back.
What happens this weekend could completely change the feel of Texas-Ole Miss in Week 8. If both teams take care of business, the winner in Austin could climb back into the top five. A loss wouldn’t knock either team out of the CFP picture, but if one slips in Week 7, then this matchup starts to look like a true eliminator.
And in the 12-team CFP era, the warning sign is already clear: a three-loss team has never made the field.
For now, the setup is simple. Texas and Ole Miss are headed for a heavyweight October meeting, and the stakes could get even bigger depending on what happens in Week 7.
In Other News...
Florida Just Got A Needed Recruiting Boost After That Ugly Loss
Floridas Week 6 loss to South Carolina stung on the field, but the Gators needed something positive quickly and got it on the recruiting trail. Five-star wide receiver Easton Royal, the No. 1 receiver in the 2027 class, flipped his commitment from Texas to Florida shortly after the defeat, giving the program a jolt at a time when the margin for good news felt pretty thin.
Royals decision matters beyond the headline because he is one of the most coveted prospects in the country and is expected to wrap up his recruitment soon. For Texas, it is a notable miss in a class that had been building momentum, while Florida gets a major boost as it tries to steady itself after slipping to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Has A Discipline Problem Sarkisian Can't Ignore
The loss to Oklahoma brought Texas back to a familiar and frustrating theme: the Longhorns again hurt themselves with flags at the worst possible moments. They were penalized eight times for 61 yards, and the numbers fit the broader concern Steve Sarkisian has been trying to push to the front of the conversation. Even with a modest dip in penalties per game from last season, the Longhorns have not shaken the kind of mistakes that can swing a tight rivalry game.
Sarkisian has already pointed to penalties as the biggest issue the staff has to clean up, and he described the problem as a mix of effort-based plays and mental miscues. That makes the fix harder than simply preaching discipline in practice, because the issue is not coming from one place or one player group. Texas can outplay an opponent in stretches and still leave the door open if it keeps layering avoidable mistakes on top of itself. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Must Fix One Frustrating Problem After Red River Loss
The Red River loss left Texas with more than a blemish in the rivalry column. It also put a spotlight on the kind of offensive inconsistency that has followed the Longhorns at times this season, even with plenty of individual talent on the roster. Senior offensive lineman Trevor Goosby and coach Steve Sarkisian both pointed to the same basic task afterward: put the disappointment behind them and get the unit executing better.
Sarkisian also owned the responsibility for the offenses struggles, a notable admission from a coach who knows the standard in Austin does not leave much room for uneven Saturdays. The Longhorns have shown enough ability to suggest the ceiling is still there, but the next stretch will be about turning that talent into steadier production. For Texas, the frustration is not just the loss itself, but the feeling that the offense still has to prove it can hold up when the stage gets biggest. [Read more 🡒]