Texas Football: Iowa State’s OU loss was worse than the Longhorns

The Iowa State Cyclones host Texas football on Nov. 16 in Ames, and they’re coming off a tragic one-point loss against the Oklahoma Sooners last weekend.

The Red River Rivalry game didn’t bring with it the desired result for the Texas football program this season. While Texas did hang with the Oklahoma Sooners on the scoreboard, the pace of play on the field at the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fairgrounds was controlled by the men in crimson and white for almost the entire game.

However, the Texas Longhorns football program underwent a good amount of turmoil after that Red River loss to Oklahoma. Head Texas football coach Tom Herman had pressure on his shoulders in the two following games, and with good reason. Falling short against the TCU Horned Frogs on the road and nearly undergoing a massive upset at home against head coach Les Miles and the Kansas Jayhawks were pretty inexcusable.

But the Longhorns were able to pull it all back together last weekend with a Nov. 9 home victory over the previously No. 16 ranked Kansas State Wildcats by the final score of 27-24. That allowed the Longhorns to get back among the AP Top 25 rankings and should slot them well inside the College Football Playoff rankings too.

The opposition on tap for the Longhorns in Week 12 won’t get much easier, though. Texas gets the stingy Iowa State Cyclones on the road in Ames at Jack Trice Stadium on Nov. 16. Iowa State is coming off a heartbreaking defeat of their own on Nov. 9, after falling short against head coach Lincoln Riley and the Sooners by the final score of 42-41.

Iowa State came up short against the Sooners in similar fashion to how they lost to their in-state rival Iowa Hawkeyes earlier in the season. This will surely be a motivated Iowa State team behind upstart head coach Matt Campbell when they host the Longhorns in what figures to be frigid temperatures in Ames on Saturday night.

Texas could be looking at a game with sub-freezing temperatures this weekend. It is below 20 degrees in Ames at the moment, and it won’t get a whole lot warmer heading into the weekend.

The combination of the motivation that the Cyclones will be coming out with this weekend along with facing Texas in a primetime slot will make this a very difficult game for Herman to come out with a win. But it is a good thing that Herman is 2-0 in his career on the Forty Acres against Iowa State.

Last season, the Longhorns came out on top at home in Austin by the final score of 24-10. That was a much needed victory for star quarterback Sam Ehlinger and the Longhorns to push them one step closer to a Sugar Bowl appearance and for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Campbell and Herman will be squaring off in a battle for the men in burnt orange to stay alive in the race to claim a Big 12 Title. But they do have one big opponent in common this season, with Iowa State’s loss to the Sooners looking much more agonizing than Texas’ was back on Oct. 12 in the Red River Rivalry game.