The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma
Football to meet Oklahoma Saturday in AT&T Red River Showdown
10.06.2014 | Football
Texas-Oklahoma to meet in Cotton Bowl at 11 a.m.; Game will air nationally on ABC
Longhorns Gameweek | Texas-Oklahoma Game Notes (PDF) | Tickets
The Football team and No. 11/9 Oklahoma will meet up Saturday in Dallas for the AT&T Red River Showdown which is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central at the Cotton Bowl. Both teams are coming off losses, with Texas falling 28-7 at home to No. 7/6 Baylor and Oklahoma upended, 37-33, at No. 25/25 TCU. The game will air nationally on ABC. Longhorn Network airs a pregame show beginning at 9 a.m. The Longhorn IMG Radio Network broadcast, including flagship KVET (1300 AM/98.1 FM) in Austin, begins at 10 a.m. The game can also be heard online at TexasSports.com.
Defense Stout, but Horns Fall to Baylor: Texas held Baylor's high-powered offense in check for much of the game Saturday, but the Bears used two key special teams plays and a big second half to propel their way to a 28-7 win over the Longhorns. Texas totaled 334 yards of offense as Johnathan Gray rushed for 79 yards and Tyrone Swoopes completed 16 of 34 passes for 144 yards. Turnovers were costly, however, with Swoopes throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble at Baylor's 1-yard line. Baylor QB Bryce Petty was stymied by Texas' defense as the senior completed just 7 of 22 passes for 111 yards, though he connected on a pair of touchdown passes. The Bears were held without an offensive TD for the first 38 minutes of the game.
109TH AT&T Red River Showdown: A classic matchup is once again in place as one of the nation's oldest and most-unique rivalries — the Texas/Oklahoma series — is set for its 109th renewal on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The rivalry, which pits the two Big 12 Conference foes on a neutral field with the crowd split evenly, is in its ninth year of sponsorship with AT&T and is officially tagged the AT&T Red River Showdown. The two teams alternate as hosts of the game and the Sooners are the home team this year. Texas will wear white jerseys and be seated on the visitor bench (east/opposite press box side).
Big-Time Rivalry: There is no rivalry quite like the Texas/Oklahoma series, which is being played for the 109th time. The series, which began in 1900, has been played in Dallas since 1912 and at the Cotton Bowl since 1929. Dallas' Cotton Bowl is located an equal distance from Austin and Norman, Okla. The stadium is split evenly among Longhorn and Sooner fans at the 50-yard line. It is the second-oldest UT series and tied for the 19th most-played rivalry in NCAA history. Only Texas A&M has met Texas on more occasions (117 times). Since 1900, the only years Texas and Oklahoma have not met were 1918, '20, '21 and 1924-28. The series resumed in 1929 at the State Fair of Texas and has remained a fixture since. This is the 92nd meeting in Dallas between the teams.
The Texas-OU Series: Texas and Oklahoma first met in 1900 in Austin with the Longhorns registering a 28-2 victory. Texas holds a 60-43-5 series lead, including a 48-39-4 edge in Dallas. The teams have split the last 10 meetings. UT is the only Big 12 Conference team that holds an all-time series lead against the Sooners. As for records by decade, Oklahoma led 6-4 in the 2000s, while the Horns led 7-2-1 in the 1990s. That comes after the Sooners held a 5-4-1 advantage in the 1980s. The rest of the series records by decade saw UT lead 9-2-1 in the 1900s; OU lead 6-3 in the 1910s; UT lead 3-0 in the 1920s; UT lead 6-3-1 in the 1930s; UT lead 8-2 in the 1940s; OU lead 7-3 in the 1950s; UT lead 9-1 in the 1960s; and OU lead 6-3-1 in the 1970s.
First-and-Goal:
• The Horns rank No. 21 nationally in scoring defense (19.2 points per game), 29th in total defense (333.6 yards per game) and No. 6 in yards allowed per play (4.24). The passing efficiency defense checks in at No. 6 in the FBS with a 89.95 rating. The Horns held Kansas QB Montell Cozart to a rating of just 50.84 and Baylor's Bryce Petty to a career-low rating of 104.20. Petty entered last week's game with a passing efficiency rating of 162.2. His previous low rating was 107.64 vs. TCU last season.
• The Longhorns have combined for 20 sacks over the first five games and rank tied for third in the FBS (4.0 per game). Twelve players have been involved in a sack this season. DT Malcom Brown and LB Steve Edmond share the team lead with 3.5 sacks apiece. Brown and Edmond rank tied for 47th in the FBS (0.70 per game), and Ridgeway is tied for 72nd (0.60 pg). Baylor entered last week's game as one of only two teams in the nation not to allow a sack (also New Mexico State) and the Longhorns took down Petty three times. The Bears had no sacks in their first 163 pass attempts of the season.
• QB Tyrone Swoopes has directed the offense the last four games, completing 79 of 133 passes (59.4 percent) for 734 yards. He committed just two turnovers in his first three starts, though was picked off twice and fumbled once vs. Baylor. Swoopes had his streak of consecutive passes without an interception snapped at 77 vs. Baylor. The streak ranks No. 10 on the UT all-time list.
• Jaxon Shipley (29) and John Harris (26) are leading the team in receptions. They rank tied for sixth and ninth, respectively, in the Big 12 in catches. Johnathan Gray (301) and Malcolm Brown (246) are the top rushers. The Longhorns rushed for a season-high 190 yards and averaged season-best 4.8 yards per carry vs. a Baylor defense which ranked No. 6 in the nation in rushing defense (80.0 ypg). Three players had 40 or more rushing yards – Johnathan Gray (79), Malcolm Brown (55) and Tyrone Swoopes (40). The Sooners are ranked No. 22 nationally in rushing defense (109.6 ypg).
• Leading up to the Kansas game, Texas announced a pair of personnel updates. QB David Ash decided to retire from football due to his injury history and DT Desmond Jackson had surgery on his injured foot (vs. UCLA) and is out for the season.
Holding Baylor's High-Powered Offense in Check: Baylor entered last week's game ranked No. 1 in the FBS in scoring (56.8 points per game), first in total offense (641.0 ypg) and fourth in passing offense (401.3 ypg) and the UT defense held the Bears well below those averages as they produced 389 yards of total offense, including 111 passing yards. It marked just the second time in the last 45 games that Baylor posted less than 400 yards of total offense (370 vs. TCU in 2013) and it was the lowest passing yards output by the Bears since the final game of the 2008 season (91 vs. Texas Tech). UT held Baylor's explosive plays to a minimum. The Bears had five runs of 12-plus yards and only three pass plays of 16 or more yards.
Streaks, Trends and Milestones:
• John Harris had one TD reception in each of the first four games, becoming just the second player in school history to accomplish that feat. Jordan Shipley had at least one TD catch in the first eight games of 2008. Harris' TD streak, snapped vs. Baylor, ranks tied for fifth in UT history.
• Texas has nine interceptions already this season after posting 10 all of 2013. That is the most for the UT in the first five games since posting nine in 1994. The Horns rank tied for fourth nationally in interceptions and tied for 32nd in turnovers gained (11). Oklahoma has turned the ball over just seven times on the season (two fumbles/five interceptions) and ranks tied for sixth nationally in turnover margin (+1.40 pg).
• Duke Thomas had a career-high two interceptions in the win over Kansas. He was the first Longhorn with two picks in a game since Quandre Diggs vs. Ole Miss (Sept. 15, 2012).
• Hicks, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for his 15-tackle, one interception performance vs. Kansas, has a team-high 69 stops. He has averaged 15.3 tackles over the last four games, including a career-best 18 vs. UCLA. Steve Edmond is second with 65 stops, including a career-best 19 vs. Baylor. He is averaging 15.0 tackles over the last four contests.
• Safety Jason Hall made his first career start in the Kansas game and was credited with a career-high seven tackles. He became the first true freshman to start a game since Blake Gideon in 2008. Gideon started all 13 games at safety that season.
• Dominic Espinosa, who fractured an ankle in the season opener vs. North Texas, had his team-best 40 consecutive-game starting streak snapped vs. BYU. DE Cedric Reed, who has started 23 straight games, now has the team lead. TE Geoff Swaim has the most consecutive starts on offense with nine.
• For just the 14th time on UT record, the Longhorns held an opponent to under 100 yards of total offense when they limited North Texas to just 94 (79 rushing, 15 passing). The 94 yards yielded rank No. 13 on the UT single-game list and it marked the first time since Oct. 29, 2011 that the Longhorns held an opponent under 100 yards. Texas was one of just three schools in the FBS to allow that few yards in week one (also Pittsburgh, 57, and Louisiana-Monroe, 94). The 15 passing yards surrendered to UNT rank No. 9 on the UT single-game list.
• The Texas defense forced North Texas into four interceptions, the most since the 2009 Oklahoma State game (Oct. 31). Dylan Haines, Jordan Hicks, Adrian Colbert and Demarco Cobbs each recorded his first career interception. Cobbs returned his pick it 28 yards for a touchdown. DT Chris Whaley had UT's last interception return for a score (31 yards) in the 2013 Oklahoma game. The Horns followed that up with four more interceptions vs. Kansas.
Traditional Powers: Texas and Oklahoma are two of the seven winningest programs in NCAA history based on total wins and winning percentage. The Longhorns rank seventh in all-time winning percentage (.714), while Oklahoma is fourth (.720). Texas currently ranks third in all-time wins (see chart below) and Oklahoma stands sixth. Texas has played in 52 bowl games and Oklahoma has made 47 bowl appearances.
Sold Out: This year's game is expected to be the 69th consecutive sellout at the Cotton Bowl (92,100).
Conference Foes: Texas and Oklahoma met as conference opponents in 1996 for the first time in 77 years. The Longhorns and Sooners first met as league foes when the Sooners were a member of the Southwest Conference from 1915-19 and now have conference bragging rights on the line for the 18th year as members of the Big 12. Oklahoma leads 10-8 in Big 12 games and holds a 13-9 lead in all-time conference games against the Longhorns.
Last Time vs. Oklahoma (Oct. 12, 2013): Case McCoy threw for 190 yards and two touchdowns, Johnathan Gray and Malcolm Brown both topped 100 rushing yards, and Texas never trailed in a 36-20 victory over No. 12/10 Oklahoma. Four different Longhorns scored touchdowns as Texas defeated the Sooners for the first time since 2009. UT scored two non-offensive touchdowns in one game for the first time since 2009 - one on a 31-yard interception return from Chris Whaley and another on an 85-yard punt return from Daje Johnson. The Longhorns totaled 445 yards of offense, including 255 on the ground, and held on to the ball for 35:15, while limiting Oklahoma to 263 total yards, its lowest output in the series since 2005.
Lights, Camera, Action: ABC is broadcasting this year's game, which marks the 62nd time the Texas/Oklahoma matchup will be televised. ABC will be carrying the game for the 23rd time in the past 24 years. FOX Sports Southwest's telecast of the 1998 game snapped a string of seven consecutive contests carried by ABC. Forty-three UT/OU games have been network telecasts. The first-ever television appearance came in 1948 when a Fort Worth station carried the game live. Excluding OU television probation years (1974-75 and '89), the game is being televised for the 38th year in a row.
Off to the Fair: The Texas/Oklahoma game is once again a part of a state festival with the State Fair of Texas surrounding the event. That continues a tradition which began in 1929. That year, the game was played in an old wooden structure called Fair Park Stadium, which was located on what is now a parking lot at Fair Park. A new stadium, also named Fair Park Stadium, was built in 1930 and renamed in 1936 as the Cotton Bowl. The name change came about because, at the time, Dallas was the largest interior spot cotton market in the world.
The Battle Line: One of the unique characteristics of the Texas/OU rivalry is the colors. With the tickets divided equally, burnt orange and crimson split down the middle. OU claims the south horseshoe from the 50-yard line and UT the horseshoe north of midfield. As the visiting team, the Longhorns will wear white jerseys and occupy the east bench area (opposite the press box side) with that role reversing next season.
The Golden Hat: To the victor goes the Golden Hat, a rotating trophy representing the winner of the Texas/Oklahoma contest. It's a gold cowboy hat mounted on a large block of wood and it has been a part of the series since the State Fair of Texas donated it in 1941. The only change has been the actual color. When it first arrived, it was known as the "Bronze Hat" and actually was bronze. When that hat was reworked in the 1970s, it came out gold, hence it is now officially known as the Golden Hat.
Governor's Cup: The Governor's Cup is exchanged by the Governors of Texas and Oklahoma following the AT&T Red River Showdown. The tradition started when Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe donated the trophy, and each year it is transported from the office of the previous year's winning Governor to Dallas. It is displayed in the Hall of State on game day and then transported to the office of that year's winning Governor after it has received its engraving.
UT/OU Torchlight Parade: The annual Torchlight Parade is set for 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Main Mall on the UT campus. Head coach Charlie Strong and the team will be on hand at approximately 8:30 p.m.
