In what could easily be a preview of the 2025 College Football Playoff championship game, No. 1 Texas suffered a 14-7 disheartening loss to defending national champion Ohio State in the season opener for both teams on Saturday.
Other than fans of the home-team Buckeyes, no college football fan base was more delighted by the outcome of this game than Oklahoma fans, whose two favorite teams in the entire sport are the Sooners and every opponent of the Texas Longhorns. Oklahoma and Texas will meet in their annual Red River Rivalry on Oct. 11.
Texas will have extra motivation vs. Sooners in Week 7
So while Oklahoma football fans enjoy nothing more than to see Texas lose and struggle in the process, especially as the No. 1 team in the country, I would caution the faithful in the Sooner Nation to be careful in this case what you wish for.
Texas' stay at the top of the two major national polls to begin the season was a short one, placing a blemish on the Longhorns' first-ever preseason No. 1 ranking in the 89-year history of the Associated Press Top 25 Poll.
With one loss already on the resume - albeit a good loss in terms of strength of schedule and on the road against the country's No. 3 team -- the Longhorns can't afford more than one or two more to remain in prime contention for a second SEC title in as many seasons, let alone the College Football Playoff.
Now that the confidence level of the Texas team undoubtedly has been shaken a little, you can expect it will approach the other big games on the schedule, which of course includes the Red River Rivalry, with a chip on its shoulder and a little extra motivation.
The Longhorns have absolutely owned the Sooners in two of the last three seasons, and the season-opening loss to Ohio State will only motivate Texas more to go out and unleash its offensive and defensive might again when Oklahoma and Texas meet in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Oct. 11.
Over the last three seasons, all during Brent Venables' time as Oklahoma's head coach, Texas has outscored the Sooners 113-37.
While we would expect the Longhorns to get stronger as the season goes along, the same could also be said for Oklahoma.
The marquee game of the Week 1 official start to the 2025 college football season proved to be more of a defensive battle than most experts anticipated as both offenses struggled to advance the ball consistently. From an offensive perspective, the much-anticipated matchup lacked a lot of luster. Fourteen of the combined 21 points were scored in the fourth quarter.
All eyes were on Texas redshirt sophomore quarterback and Heisman favorite Arch Manning making just his third college start and never in a more pressure-packed road environment than the place they call The Horseshoe at Ohio State.
The highly touted Longhorn quarterback had an underwhelming performance against the Buckeyes, completing just 17 of 30 passes for a mere 170 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception and several under-thrown balls that fell at the feet of intended receivers.
The Longhorns failed to come up with the big play on offense when they needed to against a swarming and physically tough Ohio State defense. Texas was just 5 of 14 in third-down conversion and 1 for 5 in fourth-down tries, including a failed 4th and 1 from the Texas one-yard line.
Texas will no doubt learn from the defeat and, barring any unforeseen injuries to key personnel, will be more focused and battle tested by the time the Sooners roll around on the difficult OU schedule. The Longhorns will get a bit of a reprieve with three consecutive home nonconference opponents against teams that should pose nary a problem for the far superior Texas team.
The Longhorns will have a bye week before traveling to Gainesville, Florida, to take on the Florida Gators on Oct. 4 ahead of the traditional rivalry showdown against Oklahoma. This year's Red River Rivalry won't be a clash of top-25 unbeatens as once projected, but it is still a possibility for the Sooners to go into the game undefeated with a five-game win streak to open the season.
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