The Red River Shootout is one of the greatest rivalries in all of college football – if not the greatest.
It’s half the crowd in burnt orange, half the crowd in red (they call it crimson). The boos from Sooners fans as Texas exits the tunnel into the stadium, only to switch to cheers at the 50-yard line. The game being played every October in the midst of the Texas State Fair.
Who doesn’t love saying hi to Big Tex, walking the Midway and grabbing a corny dog and a beer before the game?
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, to be honest,” said Brent Venables when asked if he was a Fletcher’s Corny Dog fan. “I have never eaten anything at the Fair, other than what they bring me on the bus afterwards.”
Now before you start booing and hissing this man for the travesty of never having enjoyed a corny dog – or Duper Dog as they used to call them in Coleman, Texas – you should know, your very own Steve Sarkisian is a corn dog novice as well.
“I have not enjoyed, I think you said a ‘corny dog,’” the Texas head coach said with a chuckle. “I have not had a chance to really partake in the State Fair, but I know it’s a great time.”
Both Sarkisian and Venables said they may have to finally indulge in the fried delicacy that is so famous at the fair if their team wins on Saturday.
As if the stakes for Saturday’s game weren’t already big enough, now they’ve got a corn dog on the line as well.
In addition to their lack of refined culinary tastes, Sarkisian and Venables also share a big amount of respect for each other.
“Ton of respect for Coach Venables. He's been a great defensive coach for a long, long time, multiple stops,” Sarkisian said Wednesday.
“I think Steve’s an excellent offensive-minded coach who knows what he’s doing,” Venables said about his counterpart during his weekly press conference. “When you have that, along with really good, experienced, explosive, talented players, it’s a recipe for success.”
This will be the fourth time Sarkisian and Venables will square off against each other as either the playcaller or head coach of their programs. When you look back at the previous matchups, you can start to see a pattern and figure out how Sark is likely to attack the Venables defense on Saturday.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHUPS:
2016 SEASON NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
Clemson: 35
Alabama: 31
Steve Sarkisian took over as offensive coordinator for this one game after Lane Kiffin left to become the head coach at Florida Atlantic University.
Venables, as Clemson's defensive coordinator, got the upper hand in shutting down Bama’s passing game. Jalen Hurts was 13 of 31 for 131 yards passing (a decent 4.2 average … if we were talking about a running game).
The only bit of success the Tide had throwing the ball was in the intermediate routes with Bama tight end O.J. Howard pulling in four catches for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Calvin Ridley was limited to 5 catches for 36 yards.
Bama did most of its damage on the ground rushing for 221 yards on 34 carries (6.5 ypc).
But in the end, it was Clemson’s offense that won the day with Deshaun Watson throwing for 420 yards and three touchdowns.
2022 RED RIVER RIVALRY:
Texas: 49
OU: 0
This was Venables’ first year and he was having to overcome the defensive deficit he inherited from Lincoln Riley.
Texas amassed 585 yards of offense on 81 plays – an average of 7.2 yards per play.
Quinn Ewers had perhaps his best game of the season, completing 21 of 31 passes for 289 yards with four touchdowns and one interception.
Ewers and Sark attacked the defense with intermediate-range passes. Jordan Whittington was the game’s leading receiver catching 5 passes for 97 yards. Ja’Tavion Sanders was right behind him with 5 catches for 71 yards and two touchdowns.
Sark ran the ball 50 times that game, which makes sense considering the lopsided nature of the score. In all, seven players are credited with carries in that game and six of them average more than five yards per carry.
| PLAYER | CARRIES | YARDS | YARDS PER CARRY |
| Bijan Robinson | 22 | 130 | 5.9 |
| Roschon Johnson | 9 | 57 | 6.3 |
| Jonathon Brooks | 7 | 39 | 5.6 |
| Keilan Robinson | 4 | 32 | 8 |
| Quinn Ewers | 2 | 17 | 8.5 |
| Jaydon Blue | 5 | 14 | 2.8 |
| Xavier Worthy | 1 | 7 | 7 |
2023 RED RIVER RIVALRY:
OU: 34
Texas: 30
The Horns outgained OU 527 yards to 486. Texas averaged 6.75 yards per play.
Quinn Ewers had a disastrous first quarter throwing an interception on the second play of the game, gifting OU with a short-field touchdown drive (22 yards), to put the Sooners up 7-0 less than two minutes into the game. Nine plays later, he threw another interception, this one in the red zone, costing Texas points.
But Ewers was on fire from that point on and finished the game 31 of 37 for 346 yards and a touchdown.
It should be noted, Ewers added a fumble in the third quarter. You think he’s not jacked to get back on the field and make up for last year?
Once again, it was the intermediate routes that really burned the Sooner defense. Jordan Whittington was again the leading receiver pulling in 10 catches for 115 yards. Gunnar Helm had one of his better games last year against the Sooners adding four catches for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Two of Helms’ catches, including the touchdown, came on fourth down plays, showing Sark is willing to gamble in this game. Of course that gamble did not pay off in the 4th quarter when Sark went for it from the one-yard line and OU stuffed Xavier Worthy short of the goal line after a quick out pass.
The run game wasn’t quite as prolific as the year before but Jonathon Brooks still had an outstanding 129 yards rushing on 22 carries (5.9 ypc) with a touchdown.
TAKEAWAYS:
Sark has never been held under 30 points when facing a Venables-led defense. He’s succeeded by attacking the intermediate areas of the field, often favoring the tight end in his game plans.
That bodes well for a possible big game from Gunnar Helm. But you can’t discount the Texas receivers working the crossing routes either.
OU will try to get to Ewers before he can get the ball out. The Sooners are ninth in the country with 18 sacks so far.
“They can create a lot of havoc,” Sarkisian said about OU’s defense. “I think that all is a byproduct of his (Venables’) style of defense and the way he calls it. It’s very aggressive in nature.”
All of that QB pressure also leads to turnovers. OU is third in the nation in turnover margin – including a game-winning pick-six two weeks ago to beat Auburn.
Of course, none of the teams they have faced so far this year have anywhere near the quality of offensive line that Texas has.
“The way they’re playing up front, the chemistry, the physicality that they’re playing with, they kind of lead the way from an offensive standpoint,” Venables said about the Texas offensive line.
Texas has another weapon to defend against sacks that it didn’t have last year … Ewers’ improved pocket awareness.
Ewers spent the spring and summer working on moving up in the pocket in order to avoid pass rushes. All of that hard work was noticeable in Ann Arbor, Michigan when the Wolverines' pass rush closed in on him and Ewers stepped up and found Gunnar Helm for the touchdown.
If the Longhorn o-line gives Ewers time to find his receivers, then the Venables defense can be had.
The Sooners may be highly ranked at getting sacks and turnovers, but their pass defense leaves a lot to be desired.
OU is currently 76th in the country giving up more than 218 yards per game.
The damage against them is being done against the cornerbacks.
Tennessee hit multiple big plays against OU … and Nico Iamaleava is no Quinn Ewers. Iamaleava is a freshman still learning the game. Ewers is an old hand at this game now and he has seen it before.
History tells us this game will be close.
Las Vegas tells us it won’t be.
Right now, I’m siding with Vegas.
However, instead of betting on the game, I’ll use that money to buy myself a corn dog and a beer. The food of champions.
OU’S OFFENSE
For the record, I only focused this column on the Texas O vs. the OU D because that is the strength-on-strength matchup.
Oklahoma’s offense is awful. Just awful.
OU is currently 118th in the country in the passing game, averaging an anemic 169 yards per game through the air.
Their rushing offense isn’t much better … they’re ranked 100th in the country averaging 128 yards per game on the ground.
Yes, new Sooner quarterback Michael Hawkins should help them with their ground game. He did pull off a 48-yard touchdown run to put them up 7-0 early against Auburn. But he also only compiled 21 yards the rest of the game on 13 carries.
Unless Hawkins is able to string together the game of his life, I just don’t see any way that OU can string together enough points to make this game interesting, much less a victory.
As I said, Venables has never held a Sark-led offense under 30 points … and his lowest output was with Jalen Hurts only completing 13 of 31 pass attempts. Is there any world in which you can imagine that either Ewers or Arch only completes 13 of 31 pass attempts on Saturday? Is there any world in which you can imagine OU putting up more than 30 points of their own Saturday?
The OB staff will be predicting the score of the game on Friday … but spoiler alert: I don’t live in those worlds, I live in this one and Texas wins – easily.
AROUND THE SEC:
All eyes will obviously be on the fairgrounds this week but there are some pretty good games elsewhere in the SEC.
Ole Miss takes on LSU and I think this is the week that the Tigers get exposed.
LSU is 93rd in the country in pass defense and Ole Miss happens to be pretty good chucking the ball around (2nd in the country averaging 372 yards per game).
Florida/Tennessee is another game I am very much looking forward to. This used to be a pretty big rivalry back in the 90's and the fans of both teams will be pretty keyed up. Can Tennessee bounce back from their loss to Arkansas? Are the Gators getting better? We should get answers to both questions on Saturday night.
No matter what happens with Vanderbilt the rest of the way, they will always have the Alabama game. Their season is already a success. Kentucky's defense may, believe it or not, put up a better fight against Diego Pavia and the Commodore offense. But then you have to wonder how many points Kentucky can put up on their own.
Speaking of Bama, it shouldn't shock anyone if they make it two in a row this week. They're still a damn good team and I don't expect them to lose to South Carolina, but the Gamecocks have looked like world-beaters one week and then crapped the bed the next. We'll see which team shows up this week. I'd be a lot more optimistic about South Carolina's chances if quarterback LaNorris Sellers brought back the rec-specs.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
Will we see more Sooner tears on Saturday? Maybe so. Of course, I hope nobody messages smack talk to a 12-year-old kid if that does happen. I mean, I fully expect that to happen if it does, but that’s just sad.
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Damn right it just means more this year!
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My man @NashTalksTexas knows just how bad OU’s offense is. And he’s better at digging up the numbers than I am. Me more word guy.
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Looking ahead to another rival.
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Looking ahead to future rivals – part 2?
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If I had a Heisman vote that mattered … both of these guys would – at a minimum - be going to New York for the ceremony.
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Having lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico and attended NMSU at one point in my life (chasing a chick) – I have watched more Diego Pavia than probably anybody on this board. He is fun as hell to watch play football and I hope he gets paid.
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These are actually alternative uniforms that I can get behind. Not only do they look slick, but they have an actual tie to the school they represent. West Virginia should have probably been wearing coal black uniforms from the beginning.
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Finally, my heart breaks for former Longhorn fullback Alex De La Torre and his family after his father, Aaron, the defensive coordinator at Denton Ryan High School, died suddenly.
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