Steve Sarkisian Has to Find a Fix Fast After Texas’s Costly Loss to Oklahoma

For all the talent and money invested in their roster, the Longhorns looked nothing like a national title contender against their biggest rival who was facing questions of its own.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian reacts during the first half against Oklahoma. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

DALLAS — There are many lessons one can learn when you take a trip to the State Fair of  Texas whether it’s your first time or your 50th. 

For all the familiarity he might have with Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl as the Texas head coach, however, Steve Sarkisian learned the most valuable lesson Saturday: Anything can happen once kickoff arrives in the Red River Rivalry.

How else to explain what transpired in the 122nd edition of this great classic, which oscillated from a rock fight into an absurd shootout during the fourth quarter. The 27–24 come-from-behind upset by Oklahoma delivered the Sooners their first-ever win over a No. 1-ranked Texas team and ensured Dallas-area native John Mateer and coach Brent Venables donning the famous golden hat amid a raucous celebration on the field would be far from the only image from this latest chapter etched firmly into more than a century’s worth of lore between the two historic bluebloods.

Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer celebrates after the Sooners beat Texas in the Red River Rivalry. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Heading into Saturday, it was the Sooners whose head coach was under fire by his fan base and the Oklahoma quarterback who was under the microscope for not living up to expectations. The Sooners were seriously underperforming relative to the amount of money being spent on the roster following losses to Michigan and Georgia in which few things went right.

Now that kind of anxiety-ridden burden is firmly on the Longhorns, who must now have far less of a margin for error after giving a game away to an unranked foe that still faces a tough battle to do more than make a bowl game.

The Longhorns are by no means ruled out as a viable College Football Playoff contender by virtue of the bracket’s expansion to 12 teams that allows for a slipup or two on the way to the postseason. They can, maybe, remain a threat to win the SEC given the potential tiebreakers that may align in their favor for a potential return to Atlanta.

Yet none of that will be true should their first loss not lead to significant changes in execution and scheme on both sides of the ball.

“They hung around and made the plays that they needed to make it in some critical moments to get the victory,” Sarkisian said. “You give people chances to hang around in games and they took advantage of it.”

What is more damning is the Longhorns and their coach straight up let the Sooners, giving life to a program which felt otherwise dead coming in and seemed on the doorstep of having their grave danced on.

Texas had the ball at the 9-yard line with 58 seconds to go in the first half and could have delivered the kill shot with a touchdown. Instead, the Longhorns settled for a short field goal after letting time run down and allowed the Sooners to seize the momentum back after halftime and never let go.

Just as bad, Texas defender Rasheem Biles was flagged for a roughing-the-passer call on Isaiah Sategna III late in the third quarter, turning a trick play that was picked off into a fresh set of downs during an eventual touchdown drive. There was the punting unit allowing Danny Okoye to come nearly untouched up the middle early in the second quarter to block a kick, which turned into seven points for the Sooners when Dakoda Fields recovered in the end zone.

There’s also highly touted signal-caller Arch Manning coming up short on the big stage in what could be his final Red River game as a player. Manning tossed a 42-yard pick-six to Peyton Bowen with 10 minutes to play, then threw a second interception in the final minute that allowed Oklahoma’s game-winning drive. 

Throw in a nonexistent run game (3.8 yards per carry) plus a defense which failed to get a late stop, and Texas showed all the hallmarks of a team which has simply coasted on one good quarter against Ohio State. This is not the group which hosts one of the most expensive rosters in the sport or has enough talent to draw nearly 30 NFL scouts to the field. 

This was supposed to be a true national title contender, one their résumé suggested they were a few weeks ago. Any additional performances like the one against Oklahoma, and that memorable effort against the Buckeyes will look like a one-off that masked an underachieving program that had everything it needed to make a run to Las Vegas in January.

“There’s a level of frustration, a level of disappointment, but also a level of optimism knowing we can get these things fixed. We’ve got a long season to go,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a good football team. We’re not dead. We’re going to be O.K. We’ll get back up off the mat.”

Sarkisian added there was “not a chance” he would give up play-calling duties despite the team leading the SEC in three and outs this season, a curt answer showcasing the force of his belief in himself to get things fixed. Against the Sooners, the Longhorns allowed two sacks and number of quarterback pressures, part of the reason why Texas went 3 of 14 on third down and mustered only a single drive of more than 10 plays.

It’s understandable for the coach and offensive coordinator to be so defiant, but if such issues continue to haunt the team, it will be beyond the point where Sarkisian needs to separate the latter from the former.

Perhaps even more than the damning effort Texas used to close out the game was how remarkable it was that Oklahoma overcame all of the inauspicious signs in order to even have a shot for kicker Tate Sandell to nail his 47-yard field goal as time expired—the first walk-off in the series since Cameron Dicker’s memorable boot in 2018 for Texas.

The Sooners ran out pregame beneath a twisted banner obscuring its “Play Like a Champion” message then began the game with five three and outs on offense in the first quarter. 

The start of the game was delayed several minutes for a lack of pylons in the back of the end zone bearing Oklahoma’s name, ominous considering it took the Sooners 11 quarters and 1,098 days to find it offensively against their biggest rival before Lloyd Avant plowed in on a two-yard scoring run to tie the game at 17 in the fourth quarter. 

.@BryanDFischer reflects on another Red River Rivalry classic in the books 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ml7FSI4IwN

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 11, 2026

No matter, that’s just the kind of pixie dust this game tends to sprinkle on top of a far from normal football game. The 92,100 on hand easily lapped it all up, with the perfect split of fans along the 50-yard line between burnt orange and crimson each alternating with amazement and horror. 

“This game, it hits real deep. I came back [after hand surgery last year] and wanted to play in it and it turns out it’s not Hollywood,” said Mateer, who finished 18 of 26 for 155 yards in what was actually a massive improvement for the team offensively after posting a five-turnover affair against Texas last time out. “I thought about this game every day, 365 days, some people can say that but it’s the truth. I did. There’s real power in that and I knew that.”

“It takes a great deal of mental toughness, and physical toughness, too, to keep showing up,” Venables added. “All three phases were a huge part of winning.”

That was true for one side and, as is often the case in this incredible rivalry, the exact opposite for the other.

Add that lesson to the top of the heap of the ones Texas learned on its latest trip to the state fair, where the only thing they really took back to Austin was a whole lot more pressure instead of the satisfaction of a win like any other.

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