Oklahoma Turns Page on bye Week to Turn Focus on Top-Ranked Texas

NORMAN — With the bye week in the rearview mirror, it’s time for Oklahoma to turn the page.

The unranked Sooners, coming off a trio of lifeless offensive performances, get their biggest test of the season when they take on top-ranked Texas in the annual Red River Shootout at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl.

Oklahoma is looking to snap a two-game losing streak in the series and give Brent Venables just his second win over the Longhorns as a head coach.

The Sooners have lost five consecutive games against No. 1 opponents, with the most recent being their 34-3 loss to the Longhorns in 2024.

Oklahoma’s last win over a top-ranked opponent came over Missouri in the 2007 Big 12 Championship Game.

Last season, it was Texas which came into the matchup with the then sixth-ranked Sooners unranked after two losses in the first five games.

The Longhorns upset Oklahoma 23-6 to start a 7-1 stretch that extended the rest of the season.

Linebacker Kip Lewis said there’s a path for the Sooners to pull off a similar upset — and to engineer a similar turnaround to Texas’ last season, and the one OU made last November to make a run to the College Football Playoff.

“Communication, grit, physicality behind our pads and just working together,” Lewis said of what the Sooners needed to do to pull off a win over the Longhorns.

Oklahoma has won seven games over No. 1 opponents during its history but is looking for its first-ever such win as an unranked team.

The Sooners tried to tamp down the importance of OU-Texas during the bye week, focusing on internal improvement instead of looking past the week toward the Longhorns.

“I try not to jump the gun on excitement and emotions and stuff, but yes, I mean, it gets pretty exciting,” Lewis said last week about the emotions of facing Texas.

Lewis has played in the game before. He has 14 career tackles combined in the last four Red River Shootouts.

It will be the first OU-Texas game for plenty of other Sooners.

Those include tight end Rocky Beers, whose previous biggest rivalry matchups were during his time at Air Force when the Falcons took on Army and Navy.

He transferred to Florida International for the 2023-24 seasons before spending last season playing at Colorado State.

“I’m pumped, man,” Beers said. “I’ve had this date circled on my calendar. The whole atmosphere around it, I’m just really excited to be in that atmosphere, see if I can compete with the big boys.

“That’s why you come to schools like Oklahoma from CSU. You want to see if you can play with the big boys, and I want a shot, so I’m excited.”

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