Texas Football: Ranking the difficulty of every opponent in 2018
Oklahoma second-year head coach Lincoln Riley was a lot more confident about his 2018 team than Herman was about Texas’ in his second year at the helm. This neutral site game will take place at the usual location at the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fairgrounds to figure out the 2018 victor in the Red River Shootout.
To say that Riley has a roster as talented or better than the Sooners had in 2017 would just be foolish without some in-game proof this fall. Yet, the good news for the Sooners is that can happen with early-season out-of-conference tests against the now Chip Kelly-coached UCLA Bruins, Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic Owls, and a quality program out of the AAC in the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Sooners are without the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and clutch quarterback Baker Mayfield. Since Mayfield is now with the Cleveland Browns as the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Oklahoma is now forced to turn to either the 2018 MLB Draft pick Kyler Murray or the former highly-touted recruit Austin Kendall.
Next. Six bold predictions for Texas football in 2018. dark
Up to the announced transfer of Murray from the Texas A&M Aggies, Kendall looked like the future for OU at quarterback. He’s got good size and a big arm. But, Murray has a lot of the same factors working for him that Mayfield did in his time in Norman. We also shouldn’t doubt Riley’s ability to coach another high-flying Oklahoma offense this fall.