texas

 After a week off to enjoy the Auburn win, it's back to business in the biggest of ways. The Red River Rivalry is once again renewed as the Sooners make the drive down to Dallas to meet texas once again. While I am a fan of tradition and historical matchups between teams, when OU left for the SEC I wasn't particularly heartbroken that we won't play KState every year. That game was just another team on the schedule. Even OSU, though I really hate Mike Gundy for innumerable reasons and loved beating him, doesn't really matter to me that much. But texas? That's a big one. John Blake survived two full seasons on the back of beating texas his first year in one of the rivalries bigger upsets. So all the to say, I'm thankful that the rivalry is continued even with the conference shift. 

Now, while I'm glad to be playing texas, I'm not terribly optimistic about this year's matchup. texas comes in as the #1 team in the country. I read that this is the 10th such meeting in the historic rivalry where one of the two teams is #1. Of those, the top team has prevailed 7 times, and one tie. The most recent upset of said #1 was our Sooners losing (what a shock) in 2008, 45-35. Now would be a wonderful time to update that most recent #1 loss. It will be an enormous test. I'm hopeful our Defense (who would've thought??) will be able to keep us in it. Quinn Ewers is back and texas can score with the best of them. While they don't run the ball extremely well, their passing game is borderline unstoppable. Our offense is banged up, and the offensive line is just, well, shitty. Points will be hard to come by. But, we've had two weeks to get ready, hopefully heal up a little and put together a gameplan to slow them down and hopefully score some points ourselves. 

Offense

Michael Hawkins has been solid. He mostly takes care of the ball which is huge. He does however struggle to move the chains. Auburn ate him up but he still managed to put enough together late to salvage a win. But, I think that game was a good one to get under his belt in terms of playing a big game on the road against a tough crowd. But, I think if OU is to hang around today, ball control will be essential and as such I think the offense will attempt to lean on the run game. I'm going with Gavin Sawchuck today. He's not been great so far, I think he breaks out today and has a James Allen-esque (I'm old) performance on the biggest rivalry stage.

Defense

I'm a staunch Danny Stutsman believer. Dude is great, and when our defense was struggling I refused to move away from him. I don't think I've picked a different defender in the past two seasons. But I finally see other guys stepping up. And in the interest of shaking up the mojo today I'm going with R Mason Thomas. He's been a wrecking ball and we will need him to plant Ewers, Manning or whomever is back there and force some turnovers with pressure and sacks. 

Score

texas is favored by 14.5 or 15 depending on your timing. Either way, more than two touchdowns. That's the vegas oddsmakers laughing at OU's prospects. A rivalry game of this nature with that large of spread should be lighting a fire under our guys. texas has all of the pressure, we have nothing to lose and the "nobody-is-giving-us-a-chance" gris-gris (look it up) on our side. OU stuns texas in one of the rivalries biggest upsets, 31-30.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner