It’s Red River time! As the commercials have been telling us all week, these two teams really hate each other! Boy do Texas and Oklahoma just not get along. Boy oh boy they just hate each other so so so much. That’s why they’re going to the SEC together! HATRED.
In the SEC, OU and Texas can hate each other all they want and poor old OSU-ISU-TCU-Tech etc. WON’T EVEN BE ABLE TO WATCH. (Actually they will be able to watch.)
Though I reached out to the athletic departments at both schools for comment, I received no word on whether whether or not athletic directors Chris del Conte and Joe Castiglione plan to meet up in a stall (or maybe a portapotty—no, I bet they meet up under Big Tex) in order, y’know, to pick some cotton together.
Last week: 4-1 (.800)
Overall: 32-7 (.820)
No. 6 Oklahoma 35, No. 21 Texas 41. Usually I would write a lot about this game, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do so (this is not an SEC blog!), other than to say I’m leaning Texas mostly because of Bijan Robinson, who is a really tough hombre, the kind of player who can keep Lincoln Riley’s offense off the field for long stretches if OU doesn’t figure something out. That, in my opinion, may give the Sooners fits in the second half.
West Virginia 21, Baylor 24. After taking OU to the wire, then losing last week at home to Texas Tech, I no longer have any idea what to make of WVU. None at all. On the other hand, I think Baylor will rebound after last week’s loss to OSU, but Dave Aranda’s offensive play-calling against the Pokes was so utterly abysmal that I’m not very confident in that assertion. Neither is Vegas, which only has the recently ranked Bears at -2.5.
TCU 27, Texas Tech 35. Total coin-flip here in the 64th Battle for the Saddle, the coolest trophy in college football. Deciding factors: (A) the Jones at night (B) the emergence of Henry Columbi and (C) Gary Patterson, as many other commenters have observed, seems like he’s run out of ideas. Tech owns the all-time advantage in this series 32-28-3.