In one of the greatest rivalries in college football, the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns are heading down to Dallas, Texas this weekend for the Red River Shootout at the Cotton Bowl.
Unlike the past few years, this OU vs. Texas weekend will be different than what we have seen recently. With both Oklahoma and Texas coming off of a loss going into the game and neither team looking up to par with how they typically would this time of year, it is hard to say what will go down in the Cotton Bowl this weekend.
The Big 12 as a whole has been so different this year with the conference about to drop off of the College Football Playoff radar completely in just Week 6. Whoever wins this weekend between the Sooners and the Longhorns will be setting the tone for how the rest of their season is going to go.
Looking at both teams and their performances in the last few games, it has become clear the Longhorn offense is seriously struggling and the Sooner defense as always, is as well. In simple terms, this game will probably come down to who plays worse; OU’s defense or UT’s offense.
Fresh off back-to-back losses, Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is looking for redemption and a huge step up for his defense. With the OU defense struggling even more than it usually does, Grinch alluded to ‘personnel changes’ potentially coming to help resuscitate his flat-lining defense.
“We’re always looking for better options…I’ve got to coach them better, but no, you’re certainly always looking at rotating more. We’d like to. I think we’re getting to the point where we can,” Grinch said during his press conference this week.
Grinch also mentioned he knows his boys can perform at the level he is wanting them to. They just haven’t done it in the past few weeks.
As for the Longhorn offense, it seems QB1 Sam Ehlinger isn’t getting the job done as we have seen in years past. With not even a 50% completion rate last game and barely losing to Texas Tech having to beat the Red Raiders in overtime, it seems like Ehlinger is struggling to get his offense down the field this season.
Going into the Oklahoma vs. Texas weekend, I don’t think anyone has an idea of what will go down. At the end of the day, especially in such a prominent rivalry game, anything can happen. Both Oklahoma football and the Longhorns are going to have to come and play exponentially better than they have their last few games. The 2020 Red River Rivalry will be a battle of the Sooner defense and the Longhorn offense.
