QB intrigue in play as No. 18 Oklahoma, No. 1 Texas renew rivalry

The annual showdown between Oklahoma and Texas doesn’t need much in the way of extra juice.

“I think it’s just in the dirt,” Oklahoma linebacker Kobie McKinzie said of why point spreads don’t matter in the Red River Rivalry. “Whatever happened there over these hundreds of years is just there. Like, you just hit the field, it feels like it’s hard to breathe. There’s nowhere to go.”

There will be plenty on the line Saturday when the top-ranked Longhorns take on the No. 18 Sooners in Dallas in one of the most unique rivalry games in the sport.

The game is played in the middle of the State Fair of Texas with the crowd split 50-50 down the 50-yard line.

It hasn’t quite been played for “hundreds” of years, like McKinzie said, but it has been held for nearly a century at its current home.

The Longhorns (5-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) come into the game as heavy favorites, though even wide point spreads haven’t kept the contest from being competitive.

In the past 10 regular-season meetings, only one — Texas’ 49-0 win in 2022 — was decided by more than eight points.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We’re favored or we’re not, it doesn’t matter. Records and things don’t matter in games like this.”

The Longhorns expect to have starting quarterback Quinn Ewers back for the first time since he sustained an abdominal injury against UTSA on Sept. 14.

Arch Manning started the past two games for Texas.

“We’re going to monitor (Ewers) daily just to kind of see how he continues to progress, but I feel good about how he was (Monday),” Sarkisian said. “I feel good about him going into Saturday, but that remains to be seen.”

Ewers is 1-1 against the Sooners, throwing for 289 yards and four touchdowns with one interception in the Longhorns’ 2022 rout, and then passing for 346 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions in Oklahoma’s 34-30 win last season.

The Sooners (4-1, 1-1) come into the game as one of the top teams in the nation in forcing turnovers with 13 — eight fumble recoveries and five interceptions. Texas turned the ball over seven times (three lost fumbles, four interceptions).

While the Longhorns are looking to get their quarterback back against the Sooners, Oklahoma is hoping their freshman starter can get more settled in after taking over in the SEC opener for a struggling Jackson Arnold.

Michael Hawkins Jr. is in line to become the first true freshman quarterback to start for the Sooners against the Longhorns.

Hawkins was 10 of 15 for 161 yards and no interceptions and he rushed for 69 yards and a score in his first career start, Sept. 28 at Auburn in Oklahoma’s 27-21 win.

McKinzie was impressed with how Hawkins has handled the challenge, adding that the quarterback’s demeanor figures to serve him well in the showdown with Texas.

“If you see any other quarterback on Sundays and Saturdays, if they make a mistake, it literally looks like their world just ended,” McKinzie said. “And like, he just, ‘OK, next play. OK, I messed up, next play.’ That’s serious. He literally looks the same every series.”

–Field Level Media