Raw, Rugged and Deadly Serious

Red River is in unfamiliar territory for both Texas and Oklahoma, but the rivalry's high stakes remain.

“If Yale v. Harvard can best be described today as an intellectual rivalry, the Texas-Oklahoma game is just the opposite. It is raw, rugged and deadly serious.” Dan Jenkins

Red River finds itself in unfamiliar territory in 2022. In the past, the grudge match at the Cotton Bowl has so often had serious national title implications, but it now hosts two unranked teams for the first time since 1998. Though the rivalry’s Golden Hat will be the biggest prize of all the Big 12 matchups on Saturday, it will be the only game not featuring a ranked team. Meanwhile, College Gameday ignored The State Fair of Texas and is heading to Lawrence Kansas (for the first time) as the undefeated Jayhawks host the undefeated TCU Horned Frogs. A reeling Oklahoma is coming off back-to-back conference losses for only the second time this century. Additionally, Las Vegas favors the Longhorns for only the first time since 2009. Though the narratives around the game are new, the stakes are as high as ever. Oklahoma is in turmoil in Brent Venables’ first season at the helm and the Sooners fragile locker room needs a jolt of hope as they deal with injuries, humiliating losses and the fallout from Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams divorcing them to move to Los Angeles. On the south side of the Red River, Texas and Steve Sarkisian have two frustrating losses by a combined four points this season and are trying to build a program, even if it sometimes seems as if they’re doing it with a take a step forward, take a step back approach. To take a Marquise Goodwin long jump forward, they’ll need to exorcise demons in Dallas and wear the Golden Hat for the first time since 2018. The game often makes or breaks the season for the Longhorns and Sooners, but this time the winner could break their rival’s will. Here are five thoughts on the 2022 Red River Rivalry (alliteration is dumb) Showdown (better, but lacking intensity) Shootout.

1) The Sooners are choking on the Big 12’s Purple Haze, losing in consecutive weeks to Kansas State and TCU. In both games, the Sooner defense was embarrassed, showing that Brent Venables’ defensive acumen has a long way to go before it can raise the collective IQ of his defense in Norman. Sooner fans spent the past nine months convincing themselves that Venables was an upgrade over the treacherous Lincoln Riley and that Venables would bring toughness, culture and togetherness back to a crimson and cream program that had gone soft and snake-like under Riley. It reminds me of me when I talked myself into why Charlie Strong was going to be an upgrade over Mack Brown. It wouldn’t be fair to carve Venables’ headstone yet, and Texas fans have long predicted the demise of Sooner football only to see it never come, but it is fair to say that OU is up against the ropes in a way that they’ve never been. I’m not so sure they’re equipped to escape.

Oklahoma has long prided itself on being the most stable program in college football, along with Ohio State. Even when they have suffered brief periods of turmoil like the 1990’s and John Blake era, those have been more like accidental wrong turns that are easily corrected. In contrast, other bluebloods like Texas, Michigan, USC and even Alabama have gotten full-on lost in the forest (several times throughout history), forgotten their compass, accidentally set fire to their map, and then resorted to cannibalism.

Meanwhile, the Sooners are also one of the only blueblood with three legendary coaches in Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops.¹ Their hiring practices have been far different than most of their counterparts as well. Where most football programs simply promote the next hot name to a bigger job (see Texas and Charlie Strong/Tom Herman), Oklahoma has made unconventional choices that have turned out spectacularly by promoting from within. Wilkinson was an assistant before getting the head coaching job, while Switzer was promoted when he was just 36. Oklahoma thought they’d done it again when they pushed Stoops aside for the 34-year-old Riley back in 2017.

Riley’s resume’ at OU had his face on the path to occupy the fourth spot in the Sooners’ own coaching Mount Rushmore. In his five seasons in Norman, he lost only 10 games, developed two Heisman-winning quarterbacks who became number one overall picks and won four Big 12 Championships. And the one time he lost to the Longhorns, he avenged the defeat that same year in the 2018 Big 12 Championship. Oh, and he had young quarterback Caleb Williams on his Oklahoma roster with a slew of five-star talent committed to join him in Norman. Riley is a darling of the media, analytics and coaching world and it seemed like a love story for Sooners fans or the culmination of years of building up what they call OUDNA, but in reality, it was a John Steinbeck tragedy waiting to be written.

Like the Joads fleeing the Dust Bowl, Riley escaped the plains of Oklahoma for sunny California, taking Caleb Williams, several other starters and key assistants with him to rebuild USC. It was the new era of college football on full display, a coach leaving a roster in the dead of night while luring its best players to a new school with NIL money. Oklahoma was hurt, backstabbed and betrayed by someone they thought was one of their own. It was a reality check for Oklahoma, as Riley justified leaving by shedding light on Oklahoma’s playoff failures during his time in Norman, mentioning how in all of his trips to the playoffs, the Sooners never had better than the third most talented roster. Riley clearly believed Oklahoma would never take him to the heights he wanted to reach in the coaching world.

Instead of looking far and wide, the Sooners brass, led by Athletic Director Joe Castiglione and Coach Emeritus Bob Stoops, seemed determined not to let Riley’s treason happen again and they turned to a familiar face in Brent Venables. Venables was Stoops’ long-time defensive coordinator before Stoops fired him, a fact that has been whited out in all official Oklahoman records. Venables achieved his greatest heights at Clemson, winning two national championships as Dabo Swinney’s DC. Oklahoma made Wilkinson, Switzer, Stoops, Riley and now Venables all first-time head coaches. But, with Venables it seemed as if they were making a hire based on an over-correction to what had just happened to them. They had been spurned by someone they thought they knew, so they bunkered down and turned even further inward towards a 51-year-old first time head coach who was inheriting a program stripped of its production and parts. Would Venables have been a smart peace-time hire? Probably so, and therein lies the way in which he’s so different from the past coaches. Both Switzer and Riley were young first-time head coaches who were handed keys to Ferraris and told not to crash it off the highways, but Venables has inherited a Ferrari that has been t-boned and has cinderblocks where the tires should be. His inheritance will remind recent Longhorn coaches of what their predecessors have left them in their wills once they’ve passed on from Moncrief.

Oklahoma returns just nine starters from a team that lost two conference games last season and won a lot of one score games WITH Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler and a bunch of NFL draft picks on defense.  Now they’re trotting out a much worse roster and are surprised at the results. Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is on his own for the first time without his in-laws (The Briles) or Lane Kiffin and he’s lacking adequate talent on offense besides Dillon Gabriel and Marvin Mims.

Their response to Riley leaving reminded me of Stalin’s paranoid purge of his own military before World War II. Stalin, believing that many of his officers were “puppets of the (Nazi) army,” sentenced almost 37,000 of his officers to death or the gulag. Stalin surrounded himself with parrots who said and did whatever he did, not allowing new ideas, innovation or thought and it almost cost him the war. With the impending move to the SEC, Oklahoma is on the verge of war and their experience with Riley caused them to believe they had to purge Norman and hire someone who would restore them to the Oklahoma they remember. Like a scorned spouse, they threw everything that reminded them of Riley out into the front yard and screamed “I never loved you anyway” and slammed the door.²

2) Not only have the Sooners lost in consecutive weeks, but they’re also dealing with a slew of injuries. Starting quarterback Gabriel is questionable after a scary concussion against TCU and almost all their position groups are dealing with injuries and starters out. Oklahoma hasn’t been in this level of crisis mode in almost 25 years.  Now it’s up to Sarkisian and Texas to make them smash the panic button. In 2020, Oklahoma opened up Big 12 play with two straight losses to Iowa State and Kansas State, but Tom Herman and Texas couldn’t make the Sooners pay. Oklahoma survived a surge of Sam Ehlinger’s will and a Spencer Rattler benching in front of a socially distanced crowd and they went onto win the Big 12 Championship. But, that was a better Oklahoma team. Texas can’t afford to let them slither away this time.

Understanding that this game is a fight is one of the biggest learning curves for most coaches. Sarkisian seemed to understand this last year, as he jumped out to a 28-7 lead before the Longhorns eventually collapsed after Caleb Williams and Riley fought back, but Sark still approached the game trying to land a haymaker. Earlier this week, Brent Venables said that it is the “wrong state of mind” to be more excited about the Red River Shootout than any other game on the schedule. That could be coach-speak nonsense to the media and he could be telling his locker room otherwise, but he’s also trying to keep his team together without letting the season go off the rails by emphasizing one game too much. But, misunderstanding what the game is often leads to defeat, just ask Mack Brown.

When you look at the timeline of this series, you see that it’s either all orange or all crimson for extended periods of time. It hasn’t had many periods where a team trades off wins back and forth. Usually, a coach will take over one of the programs and understand the affair is “raw, rugged and deadly serious,” and that coach will own the golden hat for some time. The coach who doesn’t will either be replaced or forced to course-correct his methods if he gets the chance. The rivalry became a two-sided affair when Bud Wilkinson took over Oklahoma in 1947 and over the next ten years, he surrendered the hat only twice. Then, Darrell Royal (a Wilkinson disciple) took over for Texas and won 11 of the next 12. Switzer ended Royal’s dominance by renting the hat for the first part of the 1970’s. The 1990’s were uncertain times for both programs until Bob Stoops took over and owned Mack Brown until 2005. In 2005, Mack Brown allowed his players to snap a long losing streak by giving the game its proper weight and allowing his team to let loose behind Vince Young. Brown was able to have his own period of dominance over Oklahoma once he went into it with unique game-plans and deeper intensity.

The game demands that you go into it ready for a four-hour long boxing match and for the past 10 years or so, both teams have come out at least physically or mentally ready, as evidenced by the fact that there hasn’t been a RRS decided by more than two scores since 2013 (not counting the 2018 Big 12 Championship at Jerry World). At Monday’s press conference, Sarkisian was asked what the team needed to do to avoid getting overconfident after OU’s struggles, and his response was the last time he checked the trophy case, the golden hat “wasn’t in there.” After last season’s collapse, Texas should know what they’re getting themselves involved in, but the question remains if Venables does.

3) Texas showed massive improvement in their dominating 38-20 win over West Virginia. It was an impressive bounce back after the heartbreaker in Lubbock, which hindsight shows that there was improvement from last season in that game, too, even if some scary familiar trends were present. Against the Mountaineers, the defense got to the quarterback, made plays on the ball and got off the field on third and fourth downs. The offense built a gameplan around Hudson Card’s strengths and got the football in the hands of J’Tavion Sanders and Xavier Worthy. Now, the team gets the chance to go back to the place where the bitter taste around the Sarkisian era started and wash it clean.

Last year’s collapse damaged the psyche of the team and the fanbase. I didn’t write after the game last year. When I attend in person nowadays, I never let myself get a corndog unless the Horns win and trust me, it’s not a fun feeling to leave the fairground heartbroken and hungry. I hate shuffling out of the Cotton Bowl stands while I watch the OU fans still in their seats watching their team wear the hat. You’ll always leave sunburned, but you want to leave with a burnt face, full heart, and full stomach.

Back to 28-7, just one last time…a worse Texas team still built a huge lead on a much better Oklahoma team and that should mean something. The big lead at the start of the game proved to be a ruse, since Oklahoma had a Superman on its bench just waiting to save the day in Caleb Williams, whereas this year they’re a team full of Clark Kents. Now, Texas is the much more talented team and Saturday will be players like Roschon Johnson, Bijan Robinson and Jordan Whittington’s last chance to finally wear the golden hat. But, it’s Quinn Ewers and the talented freshman class’s opportunity to usher in a new era for the Longhorns.

4) Quinn Ewers is expected back this week and this will be the first time in a long time that the matchup has featured no quarterbacks who played in the previous year’s showdown. Hudson Card was at least on the sideline in last year’s loss, but Dillon Gabriel was at UCF and potential stand-in Davis Beville was the third string at Pitt. Ewers will get his chance to build off the promise he showed in the first quarter against Alabama and his skillset allows the Sarkisian playbook to open up like it was a Cheesecake Factory menu. If the moment becomes too big for Ewers or injury strikes again, Texas will have a much-improved Hudson Card waiting. Oklahoma’s defense looked lost against TCU, letting the Frogs run and pass for multiple long scores. With Ewers, Sarkisian will be able to try and knock Oklahoma out of the game early if the defense is able to attack a weary Gabriel or a wide-eyed Beville, or further down the depth chart. Expect the highest blitz percentage that you’ve seen from Pete Kwiatkowski all season and Texas’ veteran interior defensive line behind Keondre Coburn and T’Vondre Sweat should feast so much they might not have room for a victory corndog.

5) Despite all my confidence, I should know better, as this game has made me regret charity work more than any other event in my life. In 2015, I signed up to lead a crew that was building a tiny house for a homeless community here in Austin and it just so happened to be the same day as Texas/OU. Texas had lost four games to start the year and had been beaten 50-7 by TCU in the previous week in a game where Texas players were tweeting at halftime that they wished they’d gone to A&M. As the build was wrapping up, one of the volunteers commented on my Texas shirt and asked if I wasn’t planning on watching the game, to which I replied, “probably not, I think they’re gonna get killed.” The guy then showed me his phone and that Texas was leading 17-3. “Lord, help my unbelief” I cried to the heavens. I didn’t do the site’s cleanup justice and I rushed to make it to a friend’s watch party for the fourth quarter, where I saw a Charlie Strong-led Texas team quarterbacked by Jerrod Heard beat a Stoops team with Baker Mayfield as quarterback and Riley as offensive coordinator.³ That group of Longhorns looked very similar to this Sooner bunch and they still won.

Texas was in shambles and yet somehow rushed for 313 yards and bullied an Oklahoma team that went to the College Football Playoff later that season. It didn’t matter what Oklahoma would go on to do though, because on that Saturday the fans in burnt orange who showed up with anxiety and dread left with the biggest shit-eating grins that victory can provide, and that smile lasts for a whole year. So, no matter how dire the circumstances are going into Saturday, anything can happen, which is why it’s the best game in sports, despite all the potential heartbreak and guaranteed sunburn.

1. Every other blue blood besides Oklahoma and Notre Dame just has two legendary coaches, ala DKR and Mack Brown.

2. Venables has serious step-dad energy.

3. Unlikely quarterbacks have won this game several times in addition to the Heard game. In 2013, Case McCoy played the game of his life to defeat the Sooners in Mack Brown’s last RRS. In 1994, freshman James Brown replaced the highly touted Shea Morenz and gave the Horns an improbable upset victory. In 1977, third stringer Randy McEachern wasn’t even in the media guide yet led the Longhorns to a victory. Let’s hope that Beville or even worse, General Booty don’t write their own names into Red River lore.