What Oklahoma fans want to see from the Sooners in the 2025 Red River Rivalry

Oklahoma is 2-2 against Texas in the four seasons the Longhorns have been under head coach Steve Sarkisian. And the two losses frankly have been very ugly (49-0 in 2022 and 34-3 last season). Could this be the year that the Sooners hand the Texas coach a losing record against their hated rivals while squaring Brent Venables' record against the Longhorns at two wins and two losses?

All of that will be determined on Saturday in the 121st edition of the classic Red River Rivalry, one of the biggest and most highly anticipated games every college football season.

As every season, Cotton Bowl Season will be filled to capacity and literally divided in half with 46,005 Texas fans between the 50-yard lines at the north end of the stadium and 46,005 vocal Oklahoma fans filling up the south end of the stadium. It's an atmosphere like no other in college football, all while the State Fair of Texas is going on outside the stadium.

As is the case practically every year in this historic border war rivalry, there are plenty of storylines on both sides: OU quarterback John Mateer's availability coming back from a hand injury, Texas starting the season as the preseason No. 1 in the country but having lost two of its first five games, Oklahoma coming into the game with the nation's No. 1 defense and highly touted Texas quarterback Arch Manning's struggles along with the Texas offense this season, just to point out a few.

So what are Oklahoma fans wanting to see from their beloved Sooners in this game that prior to the season was projected to be another contest likely dominated by Texas? More on that in a moment.

The betting line early in the week had Texas as much as a 3-point favorite. As the week went on, the line dropped to 1.5 in favor of the Longhorns, but when the news came out on Thursday that Mateer had been upgraded to probable for Saturday's game, the line completely flipped sides, establishing the Sooners as 1.5-point favorites. That's the kind of crazy week it's been, much in line with the unpredictability that has been a huge part of OU-Texas week and the Red River Rivalry throughout the modern era of college football.

Outside of winning the game, here are some of the things OU fans will be looking for from the Sooners on Saturday:

John Mateer not just being able to play, but play effectively

At the beginning of the week, it looked doubtful that Mateer would be able to play in the game. Now, it looks like he likely will. Mateer's presence definitely puts the Sooners in the best position to win, but the big unknown is what version of Mateer the Sooners going to get and how effective will he be throwing the ball? Probably even at 80%, OU's chances are better than without him, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Oklahoma defense applying constant pressure on Arch Manning

The Oklahoma front seven has been a beast against opponents this season, in typical Brent Venables defensive style. The Sooner defense recorded nine sacks and 13 tackles for loss against Auburn. The Texas offensive line is an all-new group this year. If OU is able to have the kind of heyday it had against Auburn, Manning is going to have one of the worst days in his college career. If the Sooners are able to contain Manning in the pocket and force him to hurry his throws while also stopping the run, I'm not sure where the Texas points will come from.

Jaydn Ott having a breakout game both running and catching the football

The bulk of the Oklahoma sluggish rushing production this season has come from true freshman Tory Blaylock with 257 yards and 4.5 per-carry average, and Mateer with 190 yards and 4.4 average. Transfer Jaydn Ott was rated the top running back in the portal, but has been a virtual no show in an Oklahoma uniform until gaining 49 yards on the ground last weekend against a not very good Kent State team. He had just 23 rushing yards in three games before that.

Ott had a 1,300-yard season running the football while at California and also was a threat catching passes out of the backfield. The Sooners need to find other ways to utilize Ott in the offense. Could Texas be the game we see a different version of the former Cal running back? If not, Ott's audition time may have run out.

Getting third-down stops and keeping the Texas offense on the sidelines

Oklahoma leads the nation in third-down conversion defense, holding its first five 2025 opponents to just a 17 percent success rate on third down. If they are as successful in stopping Texas on third down and keeping Arch Manning off the field, it will go a long way toward ensuring an Oklahoma victory.

A couple of touchdowns by OU wide receiver/returner Isaiah Sategna

Arkansas transfer Isaiah Sategna is Oklahoma's leading receiver this season with 26 catches for 359 yards and three touchdowns. He is also the Sooners' prime punt returner. Sategna and Mateer have established a strong chemistry, and he will be a prime receiving receiving target on Saturday. All of Sategna's touchdown catches have come in the past two games. He is one of the fastest players on the Oklahoma team, and in one of these games he is going to break a punt return for a touchdown. Why not against Texas?

The booming leg of punter Grayson Miller flipping the field in OU's favor

OU punter Grayson Miller, who began the season as the backup punter, ranks first in the SEC and No. 2 in the country, averaging 49.8 yards per game, including five punts of 50 yards or more. The Sooners will need his big leg on Saturday to force Texas to go the length of the field to score.

Win the turnover battle and turn the takeaways into points

Takeaways have been hard to come by for the Sooners this season. They have just two with an interception and a fumble recovery a week ago against Kent State. They can't afford to lose the turnover battle against Texas on Saturday, needing to protect the ball and play a clean game while forcing and recovering a couple of Longhorn turnovers. And when those turnovers come, the Sooners need to turn them into points.