The Oklahoma Sooners aren’t being given much of a shot heading into the Red River Showdown. It’s understandable. The Sooners have a lot to improve on offense heading into the Cotton Bowl. They’ve undergone a quarterback change and needed a lot to go right in the fourth quarter against [autotag]Auburn[/autotag].
A week off gave true freshman quarterback [autotag]Michael Hawkins Jr[/autotag]. more work with the first-team offense and the Sooners more time to get healthy. With a matchup with the No. 1 Texas Longhorns, could the Sooners keep the chaos we witnessed in Week 6 rolling?
OU and Texas play in the biggest rivalry in the sport. It’s one that the Longhorns lead in the all-time series, but a matchup that Oklahoma has dominated for much of the last 25 years.
Yes, the Longhorns look like the better team on paper. They’re the No. 1 team in the nation for a reason. At the same time, what happened in Week 6 provides hope that the Sooners could pull off an upset, much like they did last year when Texas was a top-five team in the nation.
Vanderbilt beat the No. 1 team in the AP Poll for the first time in program history. Arkansas, who dropped a game to Texas A&M the week before, beat what looked like a national title contender in the Tennessee Volunteers. Missouri, which many thought was a national title contender, was dominated by Texas A&M. In week five, an unranked Kentucky team went into Oxford, Mississippi, and knocked off the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels.
Through six weeks of the 2024 college football season, the only thing that seems certain is uncertainty. And the SEC may be as wide open as ever.
People are claiming Texas is an elite team. They very well may be.
Well, Saturday before Alabama-Vanderbilt kicked off, those same people were saying the same thing about Alabama. I know I was. But how quickly opinions change.
Texas is a really good football team. They dominated Michigan in Ann Arbor earlier in the season. Although the Wolverines don’t have a passing game, the Longhorns completely shut down their impressive rushing attack. At the same time, that Michigan team just lost by 10 to an unranked Washington squad.
Despite their spot at the top of the national rankings, we still don’t know exactly how good the Longhorns are just yet. Again, they’re a really good team, but how good?
The same can be said for the Oklahoma Sooners. They’ve yet to play their best football in 2024.
Oklahoma has a defense that looks ready to roll into the Cotton Bowl. They have one of the best front sevens in the nation and a secondary that has played good ball despite a few big plays allowed against Auburn and Tennessee.
Offensively, the Sooners had some good moments in the fourth quarter against Tennessee and in the win over Auburn. Hawkins is protecting the football and showing off his ability to create big plays with his arm and his legs. The offensive line is the healthiest it has been all season, which could create an opportunity to find a better running game and improved protection for the Sooners true freshman quarterback.
This week, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who picks the Oklahoma Sooners in this big-time rivalry matchup. But as we’ve seen this season in the SEC, there are few guarantees. And in a rivalry game as big as OU-Texas, there’s no telling which way next Saturday could go.
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